Local Car Club Rides to Keys for 9/11 Anniversary

Ben Launerts started the annual Patriot Run nine years ago

The raging rumble of muscle cars could be heard around town as South Florida car enthusiasts began a caravan to the Florida Keys on Saturday in honor of Sept. 11 heroes.

"We have many members who have been personally touched by 9/11, have lost relatives where some were even first responders, so it hits home for actually I think all American people and it's a great time for a great cause," said Ben Launerts, the president of Stangs of South Florida.

Launerts started the annual 'Patriot Run' nine years ago. The group departed Saturday from Davie.

"Our club was arranging a cruise down to the Keys, and we had to pick a date, and that date happened to be on Sept. 11,” he said. “So we decided to make something of it."

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Today the number of participating cars has doubled to 250.

"It's incredible,” he said. “It's great on so many different levels."

The ride is scheduled to end at Holiday Isle Beach Resort in the Florida Keys. Stangs of South Florida hopes to raise $10,000 through registration fees and donations to benefit the local, non-profit group Homes for our Troops.

The Broward Sheriff’s Office and other agencies escorted the parade of cars out of the parking lot at Tower Shops.

"A police officer everywhere is your brother in arms, so when one hurts, we all feel it," said deputy Tom Sheridan.

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Participant Scott Kaplan told NBC 6 South Florida he would be thinking of the lives lost.

"I'm going to be thinking about the people that we lost, family members, friends, the perfect strangers who risked their lives and lost their lives to help the people that were in the towers," he said.

Kaplan is driving a sponsored 2012 Mustang, a car participants said is best fit to honor American heroes.

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