Nebraska Annual Tour Classic Car Cruise to Depart North Platte for 28th Annual | Latest titles

“It’s not bad,” he said with a laugh in a phone interview earlier this week. “My wife is sitting right here, so I probably shouldn’t tell you how many I have right now.”

Perhaps his favorite — at least right now — might be a red 1962 two-door Chevy Impala hardtop. You’ll probably see him driving it on the Nebraska Rod & Custom Association’s Tour Nebraska during the first June weekend. The annual cruise will depart from North Platte on both days of the event.

Hoskins, tour coordinator and vice president of the NRCA, said the 400-vehicle limit for the cruise was reached 27 days after registration opened at midnight on New Year’s Day.

“It’s pretty amazing. (Registration) was stretching and it would be two weeks before the tour started, we would be a few hundred (vehicles) away,” Hoskins said. “It’s become a big deal and people seem to really like it.”

This summer marks the 28th year of the event. There were only 75 vehicles on the first cruise.

Interest has grown since then, not only across the state, but also among attendees as far away as Arizona, Florida and Illinois. A few years ago someone from New Zealand on a summer visit to Nebraska joined the cruise.

To participate in the cruise, individuals must be members of the NRCA – an annual fee of $15 – and pay an additional $30 for the event. A portion of the funds the NRCA receives goes toward scholarships for students entering automotive and body technology programs, or any industry-related training. The organization issued 10 scholarships of $1,000 in 2021.

The only other requirement is that the cars on the cruise be at least 30 years old.

The tour will depart from North Platte around 7am on June 3 for a loop to Valentine with stops at several towns along the route. The next day is a trip south ending in Kearney to take part in the Classic Car Show.

This year’s two-day tour totals about 500 miles of riding, a reduction of 100 miles from some past tours that Hoskins said was based in part on rising fuel costs.

The NRCA selects a new route each year. The group traveled through approximately 25 towns around the Grand Island area last year. There was no tour in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

In February, the North Platte/Lincoln County Visitors Bureau Advisory Board awarded the NRCA $2,000 in incentive funding, in addition to the $4,000 the organization received in 2020, in hopes that the event continues to return to the North Platte region every three years.

“What’s so fun is that we’re taking people to areas of Nebraska they’ve never been before,” Hoskins said. “You get people from the Omaha and Lincoln areas and they love it in the western parts of Nebraska and the Sandhills. They just don’t come out here.

Hoskins said the relationships and friendships he made over the years are the reason he continues to tour.

“I love having my car there and it’s just neat to see a parade (of vehicles) that’s about 30 miles long,” Hoskins said. “And you meet people. This is the most interesting part.

“I got on a flight to Las Vegas and someone came up to me and said, ‘Hey, Lin. Are you ready for this year’s tour? And it was people from Kansas.