Smokey and the Bandit crash Pen City Cruiser show

Kirk Whittenburg, of Delavan, portrays "The Bandit" to Bob Whiteman's Buford T. Justice Saturday at the Pen City Cruisers' annual car show in Riverview Park in downtown Fort Madison. The two were part of the "TV Stars Cars" section. Whiteman is actually a sheriff's deputy in Knox County, Illinios.

Photo by Chuck Vandenberg/PCC

Fort Madison Fire Chief Chad Hannum, left, is conspicuously drawn to the red pick up at Saturday's Pen City Cruisers' annual car show in Fort Madison. The Fort Madison Fire Chief always selects his favorite vehicle each year and said the red vehicles are a little hard to ignore.

Photo by Chuck Vandenberg/PCC

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OTHER CLUBS HERE

Word of mouth is getting out and people are having fun. We have seven or eight car clubs aside from ours, so that tickles me pink.”

Chad Schneider, Pen City Cruisers President

FORT MADISON – Fort Madison Fire Chief Chad Hannum had his eyes on a couple bright red cars Saturday morning down at Riverview Park.
There was no emergency to tend to, but he did have to fulfill his duty to make the Fire Chief’s selection at the Pen City Cruisers annual Car Show in downtown Fort Madison.
Pen City Cruiser President Chad Schneider said this was the biggest show by far with 98 vehicles registered and enough unregistered just showing that put the event over 100 vehicles.
“Our record was 78 and we set that last year,” Schneider said. “We even went back to make some registration forms.”
New to this year’s event was the “TV Star Car Section”.
“We got two Bandit Trans-Ams from Smokey and the Bandit, we got the Buford T. Justice police car from Smokey and the Bandit, we got the Dukes of Hazzard General Lee and the Dukes of Hazzard Police Car, and then the Batman Chief O’Hara Police car,” Schneider said.
“That’s a fun gimmick and we’ve seen some of the local police and sheriff’s deputies going over and talking to them, so it’s been fun.”
Bob Whiteman, a deputy sheriff from Knox County in Illinois, brought over the Buford T. Justice vehicle and he was decked out in the Sheriff Justice garb. His friend Kirk Whittenburg of Delavan, Illinois came in the red leather Trans-Am jacket and a cowboy hat. His dark mustache and hair and slim frame made a good Burt Reynolds.
The two have been making the rounds.
“We’re just starting to get a name going, but we want to expand and get to a few more car shows,” Whittenburg said as car show fans gathered for pictures and a quick conversation.
"We tend to have a lot of fun here", Schneider said. “We want to keep it open and broad without too many restrictions. We’re open to any makes, any models, any years. No 'we can’t do this or we won’t do that'.”
The Cruisers always hold the car show as a fundraiser. In 2025, they raised funds for 2x4s for Hope, which builds small homes in the area for local veterans. This year they again are working for veterans and donating funds to the Honor Flight program which pays for veterans to attend national veterans' memorials in Washington D.C.
“All of our silent auction proceeds and our 50/50 raffle proceeds will go to the Honor Flight program and what we’ve done in the past is add some of our funds to make it a really nice donation,” Schneider said.
“Word of mouth is getting out and people are having fun. We have seven or eight car clubs aside from ours, so that tickles me pink. This is big for this town, but this is average for the car shows I go to,” Schneider said.
There is also a Mayor’s Choice from Melinda Blind, a Police Chief Choice from Fort Madison Police Chief Cody Potthast, the Lee County Sheriff’s award, and there are two special family awards – The Ron Hudson Family Memorial Award, and the Sue Butler Memorial Award.
Those awards were to be announced at the end of the show Saturday afternoon.