Thanks to everyone who helped make our first-ever Bandit Run a huge success. We had over 200 people register and had nearly 75 cars with us by the end of the run. Bandit Runners from all over the country were there, including one from Sheffield, England & 5 others from the UK! We can’t even begin to tell you how much we appreciate each & every one of you. We never knew there were so many people out there who share the same love and passion that we do for these cars and the movie. It was so special spending time with each of you. We will treasure those memories forever.

We wanted to send out a Special Thanks to our sponsors too. Without them, this could not have taken place. The Restore a Muscle Car crew for all their preparations of all the Registrations Packets, Roadside assitance, help with Registrations and Organization along the way. Dave Mars from Texas Trans Am and Texas TA Mufflers helped out with those awesome Bandit Run tote bags; Phoenix Graphics helped out with those great lanyards that everyone was wearing around their necks & Brett Campbell from TA Specialties helped out with our Bandit Runner badges that helped all of us identify each other at a glance. Brock Smith helped out with the editing and printing of the Official Bandit Run Guide Books that we all will no doubtedly be looking at for weeks to come to help relive the route. The folks at Motortopia are the ones who are keeping our lines of communication open through their website and the forums at Motortopia.com. Thanks to Eric and the gang there! Plus, a VERY Special Thanks to Kevin King, Pat Staton and Len Athanasiades at YearOne. They made our weekend there EXTRA special with the welcome reception, special VIP parking, track time and special ‘Bandit 3’ unveiling ceremony, and a Great YearOne Experience Event. Thanks guys!

Plus, we had wonderful hosts on the way, including the Texarkana Auto Museum, the Heart of Dixie Firebird Club, the Tupelo Auto Museum and the folks at the Talladega Superspeedway and museum. Thanks to each and everyone of them for making this run so special.

Please keep checking back to this website for more news and information. But for starters, here’s a few things we wanted to share right now. Thanks and see you all again soon!

David and Lori Hersheyy
(aka Texas Ban One)
Keller, Texas

Dave Hall & team
Restore a Muscle Car
Lincoln, NE
www.restoreamusclecar.com



1) Send your pix and videos for archiving!

I know many of you took a ton of pictures and shot some great video. We need your help to make sure it all gets seen!

For pictures: Please organize your photos into Days. Burn them to a CD and send them to: David and Lori Hershey, 1504 Penny Lane, Keller TX 76248.

For video: Please send your videotape (in whatever format) to:
David and Lori Hershey, 1504 Penny Lane, Keller TX 76248.
We will dub off your original video onto another tape or hard-drive, then return it to you.

The group photos we took in Talladega and at YearOne will be posted and available for download on this site soon, please check back soon.

There are also tons of photos and videos already posted on www.thebanditrun.com website along with www.thebanditrunphotos.com - special thanks to Rick Rodriguez for making that happen!

2) A note about the forums.

We plan to keep the Bandit Run Forums up and running, so each of you can share your stories with your newly-made Bandit Run friends. Please continue to contribute and visit these pages often!
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5) Bandit Run Souvenirs

Dave Hall of of Restore a Muscle Car, LLC plans to make some Bandit Run items available for purchase. Please keep checking back to this site or www.restoreamusclecar.com for more information. If you pre-registered for the run but did not receive your packet, it is being mailed to you.

3) What about ‘next year?’
That’s the question we’ve been asked most often. Are we doing this again next year? Should we do this every year? Every OTHER year? Or, once every 5 years?

The immediate idea is to change the route starting point to give us some new scenery and then continue the RUN into Atlanta, where we can all spend a few days at the YearOne Experience, before heading home. This would make it a lot more fun if we had enough interest in doing it Annually.

That’s what we are trying to determine now. But, as Lori Hershey told Hot Rod TV…the next time…we might have to ‘run up to Boston and get some clam chowder!’ Stay tuned!

4) When is all that TV and magazine coverage going to run?
We have confirmation that the Hot Rod TV show featuring our Bandit Run will air August 11th on ESPN 2. Check your local listings for exact air times. The exact day and time of the ‘Overhaulin’ show with AJ is still being determined. As soon as we get that confirmation, we’ll post it here. The ‘Burt Builds a Bandit’ shows shot by DIY, and featuring many of us, are running this fall. Keep checking the DIY website or the Yearone site for more information.

We are also waiting to hear when some of the magazine articles will be featured, namely in Hot Rod. We will posted that info asap when we get it. Plus, all the video we shot on the run, combined with the video and pics you all took, will make for an interesting video recap. Stay tuned for that!

Our goal is to obtain DVD’s of each national show we are featured in, then combine that with the video we would produce, and make it available for purchase here on this website. Stay tuned for that.

A final thought from the run…as penned by Bandit Runner Frank Tavarez from Virginia:


The Bandit Spirit

We were eastbound and down
Trying to catch the spirit of the Bandit
Running from Texarkana to Atlanta
Just as fast as the Snowman could have done
We weren’t running Coors
But making friends
From New Mexico to Virginia
From Wisconsin to Florida
With every Smokey waving us on in between
We depart with memories
And stories to last a lifetime
With open roads ahead of us
As original Bandit Runners

-Frank Tavares (aka Fezzik)
Springfield, Virginia
2002 TA WS6 Black