Classic car cruise held in memory of Huntington Beach’s Daniel ‘Dano’ Patten and Tommy Simpson

By MATT SZABO STAFF WRITER JAN. 7, 2021 6:17 PM

It was the kind of classic car cruise that Daniel “Dano” Patten would have loved to film. More than 100 cars drove down the streets of downtown Huntington Beach on Wednesday night, cruising through the fog down Pacific Coast Highway from Warner Avenue to Brookhurst Street. The only thing missing was “Dano.” Surf City Classics car club held a memorial ride starting at Lake Park to honor Patten as well as another late member, Tommy Simpson. Patten, was a well-known Huntington Beach-based videographer who shot video of car shows and other Surf City events for his “Dano Live” YouTube channel, which has more than 10,000 subscribers. He died on Christmas Day. The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department said Patten, 66, was filming an illegal street race in Carson when two cars crashed into each other and went into the crowd. He died at the scene, police said. The following day, Simpson, 72, another Surf City Classics club member who lived in Huntington Beach, died after a battle with Parkinson’s disease. He left behind his daughters, Renic and Airyn, as well as three grandchildren. “We’re going to do this every year for Dano and for Tommy,” said Brian Almas, an Irvine resident who is the president of Surf City Classics. “Dano was loved by everybody coast to coast, Ventura to San Diego. But at the end of the day, this is where he hung his hat up. When the cameras went off, we were his family.”