The smell of burning rubber and exhaust fumes on a Tuesday night in Merrillville can mean only one thing: Cruise Night! On July 7th, Southlake Auto Mall held their twice-monthly Cruise Night at their dealership along Route 30 to the delight of car lovers from throughout the Region. Spectators had the chance to see up close a range of magnificent cars, from newer models to classics.
“We just have so much fun,” said Joe Olietti who runs the Cruise Night for Southlake Auto Mall. “We try to attract everyone: Hot Rods, Tuners, Truck Clubs, Classics. We call it Family Cruise Night because we want people to know that everyone is welcome. There’s free popcorn, hot dogs and drinks and during the night we’ll have a drawing where we give away three free oil changes and three free services, either transmission or coolant services.”
“The events are really weather driven,” Olietti said. “We’re in our 5th year doing the Cruise Night so we usually get a good crowd here, especially for the burnouts. At 5:30 we’ll close our road off to let the guys do burnouts and the crowds really enjoy that.”
“Some nights we’ll have over 150 cars and 150-200 spectators and that’s been great to see,” Olietti continued. “A couple weeks ago we had so many that we had to start parking people up on the grass and eventually we had to turn people away because we couldn’t fit them in here!”
Lisa Winstead, Executive Director of the Hobart Chamber of Commerce, came to check out the cars and promote their Car Show coming up in September, and really wanted the chance to win tickets from Indiana 105.
“We came out for a chance to win tickets and to talk to all the car guys here,” Winstead said. Not a heartbeat later, the emcee for the Cruise Night called out her name as a winner.
“This is so cool!” said an elated Winstead. “I can’t believe that just happened!”
There to show off their 1972 Datsun 240Z were Ted and Barb Targonski.
“We had always wanted this car but you had to go and sign up at the dealer to get on a waiting list,” Targonski said. “Well one Saturday morning, we got the newspaper and it said ‘In Stock -240Z Immediate Delivery’ in Zion, Illinois. So, we drove all the way up there that morning and we got it. Of course the kids came along so we had to modify a car seat to fit in it.”
“Over the years we got different vehicles and were able to keep it in the garage,” Targonski continued. “As time went on, we kept thinking, 'Should we keep it? Should we sell it?' We decided to keep it, joined the Windy City Z-Club, and realized that what we had here was something special.”
This summer, the Targonski’s will be taking their beloved ‘Z’ to the “Z Convention” in Memphis, Tennessee where it, and all it’s originality, will be truly appreciated.
Check out the Southlake Auto Mall Cruise Night all summer long, from now until September, on the 1st and 3rd Tuesday of the month from 4pm to 8pm.