‘Patriot Power,’ a 22-foot animated racing car, built from the ground up on top of an actual kid’s go-cart, performed at the Rancho Cordova Fourth of July. Photo by Rick Sloan

RANCHO CORDOVA, CA (MPG) – The excitement of the 2026 Rancho Cordova parade, celebrating America’s 250 birthday may have subsided, but a one-of-a-kind entry stood out for the thousands of parade goers at two parades.

‘Patriot Power,’ a 22-foot animated racing car, built from the ground up on top of an actual kid’s go-cart, performed first at the evening Historic Folsom Hometown Parade on July 1. 

The brainstorm of Rancho Cordova’s Float Master Wayne Harmer, the float took 500 hours over five months to build with an added 10 hours of emergency repairs three days before the Folsom event when a test run led to an emergency repair to the wheels. According to Harmer failure was not an option, as he says, “time, tide and parades wait for no one. Not even the Float Master.”

A trademark of Harmer’s float creations since 2010, are all the bells and whistles carefully placed on each float. Since ‘smaller’ did not mean simpler his bells and whistles included two constant spinning wheels, flashing police lights, a strobe light, and “flying” eagle. Finally, to make sure all possibilities were covered $800 worth of safety equipment was built in throughout the float. 

As Patriot Power rounded the corner, the announcers remarked following the description, “Check this thing out…. that is freaking cool”!

As usual ideas for next year’s entry are already mentally in the works/