THE PONTIAC / WOODWARD CRUISE

Hey Pontiac lovers: A little trivia for you...Ever hear of the "Woodward Cruise"? Ever wonder how it really started?

In 1952 there were two Hot Rod Clubs in Pontiac, Michigan: The Road Lords & the Shifters...All best friends.

We raced from every light whenever we went someplace. Even the Police would race us sometime just to see how fast are cars really were. We usually won those races.

The Woodward cruise was our Racing Circuit...That's where every one went to meet.

The start was at Mike Katchkas’ A & W Root-beer stand on Huron Street West of Pontiac Senior High School.

From there we raced at every light to Teds Trailer on Woodward Avenue & Square Lake Road. That usually ended with a 100 MPH "Punch" at the light with everyone at Teds watching and yelling...We raced to Birmingham...Big Boys and Totum Pole. Police Road Blocks never slowed anyone down... They never really tried to catch us.

Then keep going towards Detroit to cruise three or four more Drive-Ins and to set up races. We raced rails on I-75 at midnight while it was being constructed. FUN!

Now the "REAL" Woodward Cruise: I lived on a large lake in Pontiac and my parents were gone a lot. That meant “Party Time” on the lake!

My parties attracted 300 plus car guys and lots of crazy girls that loved fast cars.

When we had short notice to plan a Party we would start at the “A & W” on Huron Street just to start passing the word: “Party tonight on the Lake...” People came all the way from Detroit with one thing in common: We loved fast cars and beautiful girls. In six years we never had any problems or any one get in an accident. Drugs were not invented yet…

POINT: The Woodward Cruise was started to pick up girls for a party on the lake! It is about the same today except people come all the way from California. LOL

We loved Detroit and the Automobiles...Now it just makes me sick to see what crooked Politicians running the Big Three have done to our first love!