CRANBERRY TWP — The organizers of the Bantam Jeep Heritage Festival are on a quest this year to break their own world record for the largest Jeep parade ever, but they now have competition from a festival in Florida.

Jack Cohen, president of the Butler County Tourism and Convention Bureau, said the group Jeep Beach in Daytona wants to break the Bantam Jeep Festival’s world record.

The is the fifth Bantam Jeep Heritage Festival in Butler, and this year’s event will mark the 75th anniversary of the original jeep, known as the Bantam Reconnaissance Car.

The festival’s world record is 1,100 Jeeps that lined up for a parade along Main Street in Butler in 2011. Organizers want to break that record at this year’s festival on June 12-14, but that is after Jeep Beach gets its shot on April 26.

Patti Jo Lambert, the lead organizer of the Bantam festival, said Thursday at the tourism board meeting that there are not many similarities between Butler’s festival and the one in Florida.

The one in Florida, which mostly attracts vacationers who are in the area for other reasons, will be at the Daytona International Speedway stadium, which is a tourist attraction.

In comparison, the Bantam Jeep Heritage Festival brings people to Butler County solely for the festival to celebrate the Jeep.

“Their event is very, very different from ours,” Lambert said.

Lambert did call it a “friendly competition,” although she made no secret that she wants to keep Butler in the record books.

“I can’t tell you what I said when I found out about it,” Lambert said with a laugh about Jeep Beach’s attempt to break the record. “We can’t let the beach beat the birthplace (of the Jeep).”

Rodney Shaffer, the chairman of the tourism bureau’s board of directors, agreed with Cohen and echoed the adage that imitation is the most sincere form of flattery.

“Apparently we’re on the right track,” he said. “People are copying us.”

Jeep Beach, founded in 2003, is run by the Mid Florida Jeep Club as a fundraising event. Proceeds go to charity groups in Volusia and Flagler counties.

Representatives from Jeep Beach did not respond to calls for comment.