Hot Rod Power Tour will cruise near Cape Girardeau

When it comes to car enthusiasts, everyone has a story to tell.

That's part of what staff writers for Hot Rod Magazine love most about the Hot Rod Power Tour, which will pass through McClure, Illinois, near Cape Girardeau, next month.

The Hot Rod Power Tour is hosted by Hot Rod, which is run by parent company The Enthusiast Network, according to Hot Rod staff writer Elana Scherr.

According to a news release from The Enthusiast Network, more than 5,800 participants travel with the tour, and about 100,000 people attend the shows.

"It's one of the largest, if not the largest, of the enthusiast car magazines, and it's all about getting people to go out and drive," Scherr said as she and other Hot Rod staffers visited downtown Cape Girardeau on Sunday. "The Hot Rod car tour is basically like a traveling car show."

Brandan Gillogly and Elana Scherr, editors with Hot Rod Magazine pose Sunday next to a 2015 Chevrolet Camaro while in Cape Girardeau during a promotional visit for the Hot Rod Power Tour. (Glenn Landberg)

Scherr said what makes this show different is participants stay in the town where the show was hosted that night and continue with the tour the next morning, traveling across the country.

"It's kind of all the fantasies that you've ever had about the great American road trip," Scherr said. "That's what we do, we try to make it sort of easy and accessible for people to have an adventure."

For the 21st annual Power Tour, car enthusiasts will travel from Madison, Wisconsin, to Baton Rouge, Louisiana, for a seven-day excursion. The tour also is broken down into mini-tours where drivers can participate for just one leg of the tour.

The tour will go through McClure, Illinois, on June 9 before ending the day near Memphis, Tennessee. Spectators are welcome to sit along the route on Illinois Highway 3 and watch the cars pass, or they can register to travel with the tour.

"It's just crazy to feel that we represent something that's so much bigger then we are. Hot Rod really means something to people who like cars, and that's really exciting to me," Scherr said.

Brandan Gillogly, also a Hot Rod staff writer, said visiting old towns along the route is one of his favorite parts of the journey.

"I like the small main streets, which we don't have in California at all, partly because California is all about rebuilding stuff and tearing stuff down," he said, "... So It's just awesome to see '60s cars in a town where it looks like it's 1966. I just love that."

Scherr agreed. She also said she loves hearing the stories people share.

"... People who care about cars -- it's not just a mechanical thing -- it represents something that's important to them," she said. "It represents family, whether they got this from their dad or it just represents all the hard work that they put into it or a chance to escape from your normal life. I think that's what's really interesting when you start talking to people about their cars, and this road trip gives everyone the chance to do that."

For more information about the tour or registering, visit hotrod.com/events/power-tour/.

smaue@semissourian.com

388-3644

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Hot Rod Power Tour dates

June 6 *-- Alliant Energy Center, Madison, Wisconsin

June 7 *-- Parkland College, Champaign, Illinois

June 8 *-- Gateway Motorsports Park, Madison, Illinois (St. Louis)

June 9 *-- Memphis International Raceway, Memphis, Tennessee

June 10 *-- Hoover Metropolitan Stadium, Hoover / Birmingham, Alabama

June 11 - Centennial Plaza, Gulfport, Mississippi

June 12 *-- Lamar Dixon Expo Center, Baton Rouge, Louisiana