Cruise Nite: 2012

Thank you to Justin Burch for his beautiful images

Cruise Nite: 25 years of triumphs — and Corvettes, Novas, Chevelles, too

Reprinted from www.kearneyhub.com (Tuesday, June 5, 2012) By ASHLEY LEEVER Hub Staff Writer

KEARNEY — Brad Kernick describes the wee morning hours on Saturday of Cruise Nite as similar to Custer’s Last Stand.

“We will be downtown before 6:30, and there will already be cars lined up ready to register. And then when they start rolling in, it’s kind of like Custer’s Last Stand. They just keep coming and coming and coming,” said Kernick, chairman of Cruise Nite and vice president of Central Nebraska Auto Club.

This year’s Cruise Nite will be July 18-22.

A mere 25 years ago, Central Nebraska Auto Club struggled to get a little event called Cruise Nite off the ground. It began in 1987 as a one-day car show in downtown Kearney on The Bricks.

“We were having trouble trying to finance it. I remember one of the employees of the KGFW (radio station) said, ‘Let me help you.’ He was one of the employees in their advertising program. That’s when we really started to make it work,” said Conrad Smith of Kearney, a member of the auto club since the 1960s.  …read the entire story at www.kearneyhub.com