Tulsa’s effort to produce the biggest celebration of the Route 66 Centennial year took another step forward Friday at Tulsa's Stokely Event Center.

There, city and state leaders, along with representatives from Visit Tulsa and the Tulsa Route 66 Commission, announced that Tulsa’s Route 66 Capital Cruise: Classic Car Centennial Parade will be an official GUINNESS WORLD RECORDS™ attempt. 

“We want to celebrate this momentous year and this momentous occasion in a manner worthy of the capital of Route 66,” said Jonathan Huskey, senior director of communications at Tulsa Regional Tourism. “What better way than doing something that has never been done before?” 

The record attempt is officially for “Largest Parade of Classic Cars,” currently held by Dorado, Puerto Rico and set in April 2017. 

That parade has 2,491 cars. Tulsa’s goal? An even 3,000. 

“We don’t want to just break the record,” Huskey said. “We want to blow it out of the water and make sure we hang on to it for a while.” 

The announcement was made in front of nearly 100 spectators in The Capital of Route 66®, at Tulsa’s Stokely Event Center. At the official attempt, an adjudicator from Guinness World Records will be on-site to validate the potential record. Mother Road Market is the official adjudicator sponsor of Capital Cruise. 

“There is no road more famous than Route 66,” said Brian Paschal, CEO of the Lobeck Taylor Family Foundation and vice-chair of the Tulsa Route 66 Commission. “There will be no celebration along the route quite like the GUINNESS WORLD RECORD Capital Cruise to honor it.” 

Capital Cruise is set for May 30. After staging at Tulsa’s Expo Square, cars will travel to the parade’s spectator route, which begins at 11th and Yale, and continue 5.5 miles west down historic Route 66, before dispersing downtown. 

“We intentionally set ourselves on a collision course with May 30,” said Christian Bengel, Tulsa Route 66 Commission chair and Tulsa City Council vice-chair. “As I said back in October, it’s time for us to start cleaning our house here in Tulsa as we welcome and invite visitors from not only across America, but also across our great oceans.” 

Expo Square will be the site of a pre-Cruise Tailgate and Expo on Thursday night and Friday, allowing spectators a chance to celebrate the Mother Road before the big celebration on Saturday. 

“In Tulsa, we don't do anything halfway,” Tulsa Mayor Monroe Nichols in a statement. “Making Capital Cruise an official GUINNESS WORLD RECORDS™ attempt adds another layer of excitement to what was already going to be a once-in-a-lifetime celebration in The Capital of Route 66®. This will be a true citywide celebration, from north to south and east to west, and we can't wait to show the world how we'll celebrate the Mother Road in Tulsa.” 

The parade is open to any car model year 1996 or older. Drivers can register to be in the Cruise at capitalofroute66.com, and sponsorship opportunities are available as well.