The June Road Tours: Vintage Air and AMSOIL

June is always a busy month for street rodders across the United States. Great weather is finally upon us and it is time to hit the highway. For folks on the east coast the fun starts at the huge NSRA East Coast Nationals in York, Pennsylvania. Midwest rodders can join the Hot Rod Magazine Power Tour for a week as it makes its way from Madison, Wisconsin to Bristol, Tennessee early in the month. On Father's Day weekend the west coast folks usually attend the LA Roadsters Show and up in Minnesota over 10,000 rods and customs fill up the Minnesota State Fairgrounds for the Back to the 50's Weekend. Toward the end of the month folks in Colorado attend the NSRA Rocky Mountain Nationals in Pueblo.

The month of June also finds the AMSOIL/Street Rodder Road Tour series on the highway for two consecutive weeks. Beginning in San Antonio, Texas on Saturday, June 13th, The Vintage Air Tour kicks off with a get together at Vintage Air's Headquarters. Rick Love and Jack Chisenhall from Vintage Air always put together a great week of fun on the road and this year will live up to that reputation. On Sunday the Tour heads east from San Antonio to the historic San Jacinto Battleground Memorial where the battle for Texas was fought in 1863. Also on display is the Battleship Texas, which has been made into a museum. Sunday night will be spent in Lake Charles and on Monday we visit Avery Island, the home of TABASCO Hot Sauce. After some great Cajun food at Mulate's near Lafayette, Louisiana it is off to Vidalia, Louisiana for the evening.

The next two days will be spent traveling along the beautiful Natchez Trace Parkway as we cross the state of Mississippi. On Tuesday evening we will visit the Tupelo Auto Museum. We will also be treated to some tasty bar-b-que provided by none other than street rod legend George Poteet as he brings his traveling BBQ circus to Tupelo just for the Road Tour folks. Wednesday night we will be just south of Nashville in Franklin, Tennessee. Thursday morning we are going to visit the Country Music Hall of Fame in Nashville and Johnny Freund at Hunter's Custom has invited us to stop by for lunch. It is then off to Bowling Green, Kentucky for the NHRA Hot Rod Reunion and all of the activities that surround that great event.

The AMSOIL Tour starts off right where the Vintage Air Tour wraps up. Sunday morning the AMSOIL Tour participants head north and make a brief stop at The Garage where Jason Grimes and crew will show us their latest traditional rod projects. From there we head north around Chicago. Sunday evening we will be the guests of Electric-Life Power Window Systems at a great Italian restaurant in LaGrange, Illinois. Monday we will have lunch in Eau Claire, Wisconsin where some folks who had attended the Back to the 50's Weekend in St Paul will join us. It is then on to AMSOIL's Headquarters in Superior, Wisconsin for a big party. Last year when we stopped at the AMSOIL Center over 300 street rods and special interest vehicles greeted us. I am sure this year's gathering will be even bigger. Tuesday we will take a beautiful drive across the upper part of Wisconsin. Our destination for the evening is Iron Mountain, Michigan where Randy Hallman and the folks at Specialty Motorcars are hosting a party to greet the AMSOIL Tour. Wednesday we leave Iron Mountain and travel across Michigan's Upper Peninsula, across the Mackinaw Bridge and on to Charlevoix on Michigan's west coastline. This beautiful area is home to Rod Tops and the restoration shops of Time Machines Unlimited and Great Lakes Motor Works.

Thursday afternoon we head to St Ignace, Michigan where the AMSOIL Tour participants will spend the weekend enjoying the fun of one of Michigan's longest running and most famous car shows. The St Ignace Car Show fills the street with thousands of participants and spectators and has been the destination for Midwest street rodders at the end of each June since 1975. This year's Grand Marshal is automotive journalist Ken Gross. It will be a great weekend of automotive fun and entertainment in St. Ignace.

The Vintage Air Tour and the AMSOIL Tour are going to be two weeks of fun and camaraderie on the Road. For more information on the Tours and how to join in the festivities watch the pages of Street Rodder Magazine, NSRA's StreetScene magazine, check in at our website www.streetrodderweb.com or call the Road Tour Hotline at 1-800-664-1362. I hope you can join us on one or more of the eight AMSOIL/Street Rodder Road Tours this summer.