The Langley Good Times Cruise-In just had one of its most successful cars shows to date.
So why does volunteer board of directors feel so deflated?
Burnouts.
The show is plagued by the issue.
“It was a deflator for us,” said board member Riccardo Sestito, speaking on behalf of the board.
He noted that someone did a burnout in a parking lot near this year’s Cruise-In display on Saturday and people have tried to do them in the middle of Cruise-In surrounded by people and classic cars.
The board was disappointed to see people lobbying drivers to do burnouts on public streets.
A Langley Advance Times reporter took a photo of people lining an Aldergrove street with a sign calling for drivers leaving the car show to do burnouts. The photo was posted on the Advance Times Facebook page with a question on people’s opinions on burnouts. The overwhelming majority were in favour.
Sestito is concerned the online posting implies the Langley Advance Times supports burnouts at Cruise-In.
“The Cruise-In board is really disappointed that the [newspaper] did something like that,” he added.
He explained that for years, the board has worked to disassociated itself from activities such as burnouts because Cruise-In gets the blame for activities that have nothing to do with the show.
“We don’t have a problem with burnouts… but don’t associate it with Cruise-In,” Sestito commented.
Burnouts are the chronic problem for the charity show, and the reason why the show relocated to Aldergrove from Langley City.
The City demanded the board put up a $5,000 deposit for policing the Friday evening problems in 2017 even though Cruise-In was only a Saturday event. Unable to afford it, Cruise-In moved the show east. Yet vehicle owners still congregate in Langley City on the Friday night before Cruise-In Saturday, and the City is incurring the policing costs. The RCMP assigns extra staff to patrol the area to help prevent dangerous driving activities.
Burnouts are also the main reason why the volunteer board cancelled the car show in 2010.
“This was a whole new beginning in Aldergrove,” he commented.
He said the show doesn’t allow such things as burnouts and beer garden so the event can be as safe as possible because this is an event that attracts thousands of people and the risk of someone getting hurt or killed is too much to bear.
“Ninety-nine per cent of the car community police themselves,” he said.
But Sestito is concerned that word will spread in the car community that Langley allows burnouts and there will be problems at future Cruise-Ins.
A car collector himself, Sestito said burnouts belong in a controlled location with safety measures in place, not on public streets or in business parking lots.
“I’d love to be able to set up a burnout spot, but where is it feasible?” he commented.
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