Weather is blistering, but so are the hot rods at June Cruise

By CHRIS HARRIS, CJ Staff Writer Commonwealth Journal

Somerset — Somernites Cruise visitors are seeing to seeing plenty of hot rods in downtown Somerset, but on Saturday, the weather was the hottest thing in town.A call to BB&T Bank’s time-and-temperature hotline shortly after 3 p.m. was greeted with the report of scorching numbers: an intimidating 99 degrees. Of course, the temperature was surely raised a little bit by so many visitors traveling the Somerset streets — man and machine alike — but the point stands: It was mighty hot out there.

Folks cooled down the best they could, finding a seat in the shade to watch the cars go by, or maybe letting the cool spray of the fountain on the square hit them as they walked by. Others hit “vendor alley,” as it’s known, and picked up a frosty Hawaiian shaved ice treat, as is a monthly custom at the Cruise.Keith Floyd, of the Somernites Cruise management team, said brutally hot weather has much the same effect as rain: It tends to discourage folks from coming out. Many, he noted, may wait until later in the day, when the sun is a little less oppressive, or might simply head out to U.S. 27 to watch the classic and custom cars make their regular journey down the strip.

Yet, downtown Somerset stayed plenty busy throughout the afternoon. By 3:30 p.m., only a couple of hours into the Cruise, numbers were already as high as 770 registered visitors. Floyd said that’s a very typical number for a day with blazing temperatures, and by 6:30, the car count was up to 955 (from about 15 different state), with 144 first-time visitors (10 different state, 77 of them from Kentucky).The heat didn’t faze Terry Gilchrist, odds-on favorite to claim his second Somernites “Long Distance” winner title, as the car enthusiast who drove his four-wheeled baby the farthest to get here. Gilchrist is from Fort Myers, Fla., which he said is way hotter than Somerset, even in this enduring heat wave.

“You couldn’t stand hot (like we have in Florida) here,” he said, noting that Florida has been riding hotter temperatures than this for a while now. “It’s been like living in a dog’s mouth.”Maybe that’s why Gilchrist has such an affection for this place. He’s visited Somernites Cruise four times now, three with his 1988 Mustang Cobra, and won the distinction of having come the longest distance — about 900 miles from Fort Myers — the first time he came, back five years ago.

“I love Somerset,” said Gilchrist. “It’s a great little town.”It took significantly less time for Tommy Thompson to get here — all he had to do was drive from Louisville, Ky. — yet June 2010 marked his first Somernites Cruise event. Much like Gilchrist, Thompson’s attitude toward the oven-like atmosphere was dismissive: Hot weather? Fuggedaboutit.

“It’s not hot!” declared Thompson, half-consumed ice cream cone in hand. “It’s beautiful out! It’s not raining. It’s perfect.”What’s perfect is Thompson’s car, an extremely rare 1969 Chevrolet COPO Camaro, its golden hue mocking the color of the tyrant sun overhead. It’s won or placed high in a number of muscle car contests. A sign sitting beside the car, leaning up against the brick wall encircling Fountain Square, boasted, “This is the real deal,” and listed wins at the Gold Camaro National in Carlisle, Pa., “Best of Show” at Super Chevy Indy, “Muscle Car of the Year ‘09” at the Goodguys competition in Scottsdale, Ariz., and more.

Somewhere between a thousand and 500 of these cars were made, said Thompson; Floyd figured the car was even rarer than that, only a couple of hundred produced. That’s because of the automatic transmission on the column, “which is extremely rare,” as Thompson put it.“It does well everywhere it goes,” said Thompson, who’s had the car 13 years, doing a very thorough job on it. “It’s been totally restored, ground up, rotisseries, all the way through. ... I enjoy building a correct car and trying to make it perfect.”

The numbers on the car are impressive: 427 cubic inch engine, 400 turbo cx transmission, 4:10 positraction on the rear end. Still, it’s only one of a number of very hot cars to be found in Somerset on a very hot day.“I’m very proud of my car, but there are a lot of beautiful cars here,” said Thompson. “They’ve done a beautiful job. ... I’ve been all over the country, and this is a great show, very nice, the hospitality is excellent. Beautiful show.”

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