PORT ANGELES — Gentlemen and ladies, start your engines!
See a huge, chrome-filled array of cars and trucks, drop “local celebrities” into a dunk tank — take your pick from 19 of them, including Port Angeles Deputy Mayor Betsy Wharton and PDN publisher John Brewer — enjoy hot dogs and music and watch local Herculean strongmen lift boulders.
It’s the Ruddell Cruise-In, a combination car show and community block party from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. today, with the dunk tank beginning at 3 p.m.
The annual July event, now in its 13th year, is sponsored by Ruddell Auto Mall and Ruddell Hyundai.
It takes place at the twin car dealerships off U.S. Highway 101 at Golf Course Road on the east end of Port Angeles.
The centerpiece of today’s Cruise-In is hundreds of cars and trucks — from street machines to classics, vintage vehicles to hot rods — drawn from across the North Olympic Peninsula, Western Washington and even Canada.
The Cruise-In has grown in size every year.
“We expect this year’s show to have more than 400 cars on display,” said owner Howard “Howie” Ruddell.
“We were full within 40 minutes of opening the gate last year and expect the same again.
“The theme is a community get-together and to help charity — and all the activities and the celebration of the car experience and the music make this evening a very special event.”
More than 4,000 people attended last year’s Cruise-In. Co-sponsors this year are First Federal, KONP radio (it plans remote broadcasts from the event) and Red Lion Hotel.
Ruddell is also making a special contribution to support Port Angeles’ volunteer firefighters, who are operating the dunk tank.
He paid $500 for the dunk tank — and plans to give a second check to the volunteers to match whatever their proceeds are from the dunkings.
Still time to register
Both Ruddell lots will be emptied of new and used cars to make room for today’s convergence of cars and community.
About a dozen different car clubs are expected to participate in the Cruise-In.
Individuals are welcome as well.
You can display your car if you register this morning in the main office at the Ruddell Auto Mall.
Project cars (those being built or re-built and not yet completed) are not allowed at the event.
Trophies will be awarded in several categories including Best of Show, People’s Choice and Farthest Distance Traveled.
Co-hosting the event with Ruddell is the Old Timers car club, based in Bremerton.
“We expect cars from across Western Washington — from Bremerton, Tacoma, Puyallup up to Bellingham, as well as some folks coming down from Canada again,” said Old Timers chairman Jerry Scott.
“This is a big event, and we are expecting this year’s Cruise-In to set a new attendance and display record on the Peninsula.”
The Cruise-In was started in 1996 by Howie Ruddell’s father, the late H. “Mac” Ruddell, with help from Scott.
Members of the Old Timers will also display their cars in downtown Port Angeles on Saturday.
Between 100 and 120 cars are expected to line Front Street from Lincoln to Oak streets from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Dunk tank, strongmen
Entertainment tonight will be provided by the The Way Back Machine classic rock band, with special guest sax player Lonnie Anderson and a special guest guitarist.
Pop, hot dogs and hamburgers and ice cream will be sold by Knights of Columbus members as a fundraiser for Queen of Angels Catholic Church.
Led by John “Sarge” Allen, five or six Sequim-area residents (possibly including one woman) who participate in strongman events will put on muscle-busting displays of toughness at the Cruise-In.
They are expected to flip huge tractor tires as if they were Frisbees, bench-press a heavy axle and hoist “stones,” concrete orbs weighing hundreds of pounds.
The dunk tank will be overseen by Mike DeRousie, captain of the Port Angeles volunteer firefighters.
It will be in the parking lot of Ruddell Hyundai, with a fire department ladder truck parked nearby.
Cost is $5 for three balls to throw at a target. Hitting it dumps a local celebrity into the water-filled tank.
The money will support the volunteer firefighters – they want to buy much-needed “medic bags” — and the Boy Scouts’ Explorer program.
Sitting on the dunk tank hot seat (times tentative):
3 p.m. — Jack Heckman, owner of Olympic Bus Lines.
3:20 p.m. — Betsy Wharton, deputy mayor and a City Council member running for re-election.
3:40 p.m. — Trevor Warren, Port Angeles volunteer firefighter.
4 p.m. — Terry James, James and Associates property management.
4:20 p.m. — Sean McDonald, Peninsula Daily News advertising director.
4:40 p.m. — Matt Schubert, PDN sports writer and outdoors columnist.
5 p.m. — Bob Schilling, executive director of the Boys & Girls Clubs of the Olympic Peninsula.
5:20 p.m. — Kent Myers, Port Angeles city manager.
5:40 p.m. — Jim McEntire, a Port of Port Angeles commissioner.
6 p.m. — Tom Baermann, Pacific Office Equipment, Inc. owner.
6:20 p.m. — Steve Baxter, president, Port Angeles School Board.
6:40 p.m. — Steve Methner, State Farm Insurance agent.
7 p.m. — John Brewer, PDN editor and publisher.
7:20 p.m. — Betsy Reed-Schultz, owner/innkeeper of The Tudor Inn Bed and Breakfast and 2009 president of the Port Angeles Regional Chamber of Commerce.
7:40 p.m. — Edna Petersen, owner of Necessities & Temptations gift shop and Port Angeles City Council candidate.
8 p.m. — Jim Jones, Clallam County administrator.
8:20 p.m. — Dan Huff, captain, Clallam County Fire District 2.
8:40 p.m. — Joe Cammack, owner of Jim’s Pharmacy.
8:50 p.m. — John Miller, Farmers Insurance agent.
