JUST WHAT THE DOCTOR ORDERED

THE SURGEON GENERAL OF HORSEPOWER PRESCRIBED A FIVE-DAY ROAD TRIP TO CURE OUR ILLS

- JOHN MCGANN

Some pills are more bitter to swallow than others, but imagine receiving a prescription from your primary care physician recommending a course of treatment comprised of a five-day road trip in your favorite car. Sign me up! Anyone reading this would find that pill to be very easy to swallow.

That’s the remedy we had planned for the 2021 HOT ROD Power Tour Presented by HP Tuners and Driven by Continental Tire. After a hiatus last year due to the global pandemic, the Power Tour returned to offer an octane-fueled remedy for gearheads looking to cure the COVID blues. Normally held in June, we bumped the Power Tour back to the end of August to have extra time to plan the event and to also gauge the climate of the country in case things took a turn for the worse.

Thankfully, that didn’t happen, and we proceeded with our prescribed course of treatment, a five-day road trip through the Midwest, beginning in Norwalk, Ohio, and ending in Champaign, Illinois. Our roughly 730-mile journey included stops in Dayton, Ohio; Indianapolis, Indiana; and East Saint Louis, Illinois. It was an experience we shared with more than 68,000 like-minded enthusiasts, many of whom were with us for the duration of the trip, while others dropped in when they could. Though our car count wasn’t as high as years past, we had at least 4,500 registered vehicles, and more than 2,500 were with us start-to-finish. We consider that a huge success, given the uncertain nature of things the last couple of years.