BELLEFONTE — For car lovers, the 30th annual Bellefonte Cruise and Car Show in historic downtown Bellefonte was the place to be over Father’s Day weekend, June 15 through 17.
The event featured an open cruise and a sock hop on Friday night, a car show and a cruise for the show participants on Saturday and an afternoon of soap box derby racing on Sunday.
The Cruise attracted hundreds of vehicles of all kinds. Antiques, classics, muscle cars, hot rods, trucks and motorcycles were seen cruising the block on Friday night, then lined up along Bellefonte’s curbs during the Saturday show, with hoods open and polished paint glistening in the sun.
If you stood near the courthouse on Friday night, you could hear the rumble of big V-8 engines, and the chirping of tires for a block in either direction on Allegheny Street. Traffic flowed easily at first, but soon became bumper to bumper, as each lap of the block brought in more vehicles on a perfect summer evening. Spectators lined the streets to see the cars, with many reminiscing about their time spent cruising the block years ago.
Paul Johnstonbaugh, of Bellefonte, who watched the parade of vehicles with his wife, son and daughter-in-law, remembered cruising in his 1954 Ford Crestline sedan back in 1958 and 1959 . “It was a coral color with a white top,” said Johnstonbaugh.
On Saturday, the town quickly filled up with show cars of all descriptions. Some made long trips to Bellefonte from distant points in the state. Craig Itle drove his 1929 Ford Model A roadster hot rod in from Loretto.
Though Itle is just 30 years old, he loves the style of vintage hot rods from the 1950s and ’60s, and he built his car in that style. It features a steel reproduction body on a custom built chassis. It’s painted satin black with red wheels and wide whitewall tires, and has aluminum “bomber” seats. Hand-painted pin striping and checkerboard grille shell and firewall make it a real eye-catcher. A Chevy 350 with a three-speed automatic transmission gives it plenty of power.
Another cool hot rod was shown by Barry Dutrow, of Centre Hall. A longtime rodder, he brought his 1937 Ford sedan, built in the style of an early 1960s rod with chrome reversed wheels and wide whitewalls. Painted in Sundance gold with multi-colored flames on the body, this car took spectators back to a golden age of hot rodding.
Dutrow found the car already built in Connecticut, where the previous owner had discovered it sitting in a barn.
No car show would be complete without a 1957 Chevy, and several examples of this classic were seen in Bellefonte. One that stood out was a red and white Belair four-door hardtop model shown by Jack Turner, of Johnstown. The four-door hardtop is a rare body style which combines the sporty looks of a pillarless hardtop with the practicality of four doors.
Another rare body style at the event was a 1964 Dodge Custom 880 hardtop station wagon, shown by Allen Kile, of Bloomsburg. Fewer than 1,000 of these wagons were made in 1964. Kile’s red wagon features a 383 V8 engine mated to a push-button-operated automatic transmission.
The Bellefonte Cruise began in 1988. Though it started small, it has greatly expanded in size and prestige over the last 30 years, becoming one of the premiere car events in central Pennsylvania.
