Pharaohs Car Club united at Ignite the Nites

“They’re the best group in town during the Ignite the Nites,” Darren Short said, speaking of the Pharaohs Car Club. “You’ve got to talk to the Pharaohs.”

“Who are the Pharaohs?” two Western News reporters simultaneously asked.

The Pharaohs Car Club became a Spokane- and Cranbrook-based border-crossing group of car-loving friends at Libby’s Ignite the Nites event. Years later, they’ve become staple supporters to the event that made them who they are.

Yet, before the Pharaohs crossed the America-Canada border, a group of five men started a tiny club back in 1997. The original members, Mark Cockburn, Steve Cockburn, Mike Hall, Larry Hall and Leonard Parks loved cars — plain and simple.

“We were fans of American Graffiti,” Parks said. “And we wanted that culture for ourselves.”

After they became a group, they followed a friend’s tip to go to Libby for Ignite the Nites, “the best show ever,” according to the friend, and it changed their group for the better, Parks said. Soon after, the Canadians came south, and two groups bonded over another common love: beer.

Parks described how, one night at the Ignite the Nites’ burnout, he and his wife were sitting around, drinking a beer.

“These guys come up and ask to buy some,” Parks said. “And, of course, I said ‘No.’ I said, ‘I won’t sell them to you. But you can have as many as you want for free.’ That’s how we do it in this country.”

Later that night, the Pharaohs were hanging out with the rest of the event guests at a dance. Parks said the beer-peddling Canadians, who he’d given beer to earlier, kept coming back up to them and offering them new brews to repay them.

Dave Steward, a Pharaoh based out of Cranbrook, said once the Spokane group and the Cranbook group met, one thing led to another.

“After that, we started hanging out,” Parks said. “They really wanted to be part of our group. I told them they’d never get in even if they tried.”

So, what made them crack?

“We just became friends,” Parks said. ‘We came around to the Canadians after a while. We figured they were cool if they were like us, so we started this group of people who liked to be around each other.”

Ever since, the Pharaohs have grown ever closer. Parks said the group often wins participation awards at shows because they’re so involved and so many of them come.

“At first, you notice the weird things about people from a different country,” Steward said. “I don’t see much difference now. We’re friends. We’re so close that we’ve pretty much became the same people.”

Parks called himself the hot rod of the group, saying “anything with an engine” would get him going. The paint and body are secondary to the adrenaline that comes from driving the car, he said.  

Steward is a builder. Steward’s first car was a 1933 Chevy that he got running on the road in 1999. He has loved cars since he was kid, but only after his professional life settled down in the last couple decades could he focus on them seriously.

No matter what part of the car life each Pharaohs member loves the most, both Parks and Steward said the group’s cohesion and closeness is what keeps them together. They attend events together all over the region. Still, Parks insists Libby’s Ignite the Nites is the best event that the close-knit group attends.

“I always go to Libby,” Parks said. “I don’t do that with any other event. But with Libby, I’m there. I never skip it.

“People in Libby always treat us like family,” Parks continued. “We love those guys and we love Libby. Ask anyone else in the group about their favorite event and it’ll be the same answer. For sure.”