Trucking into the Book of World Records

Ready, set, start your engines, please. An unusual record rumbled its way into the Guinness Book of World Records – blasting the competition to smithereens – when approximately 300 tow trucks chugged across Queens and Brooklyn in a parade of goliaths that ended its roar at historic Floyd Bennett Field. Escorted by police, 292 50-ton rotators and medium-duty trucks shared the spotlight with flat-beds and wreckers in the four-mile-long procession along the city’s highways, organized by the Metropolitan NY Towing, Auto Body & Salvage Association in a bid to outdo the previous record set on August 20, 2004 at Wenatchee, Washington when a total of 83 tow trucks paraded through the streets. At Floyd Bennett Field, the flotilla parked itself, spelling out the words “New York” on the 5,000-foot history-seeped runway where the Winnie Mae lifted off in 1933, carrying Wiley Post on his record-setting solo flight around the world. Aside from landing in the Guinness Book of World Records, the event served to pay tribute to emergency responders, who have died in the line of duty in the past year, in addition to raising money for the Shriners Hospitals for Children.