Friday First Look! Goodguys 39th West Coast Nationals
All right west coast hot rodders – it’s finally time for the Crown Jewel of the Goodguys 2026 season with the 39th West Coast Nationals at the fabulous Alameda County Fairgrounds in Pleasanton! It is always a great time to get back to our home town to see thousands of old friends and make even more new ones over the weekend – and we are off to a fabulous start with picture perfect No-Cal blue skies, cool temps, and sweet customs, classics, and vintage hot rods.
Today’s good times actually kicked off on Tuesday morning with our annual Gary Meadors Memorial Hot Rod Week featuring tours and a poker run around the region with stops at shops, collections, and other fun stops. The pre-partying continued Thursday night at the Double Tree hotel with a cruise night meet-and-greet.
Friday morning got the show off to an official start as vintage rides rolled into the Fairgrounds to find a parking spot and start exploring all the Goodguys good times! There’s the swap meet and car corral, Autocross racing, Goodgals Gallery and plenty of vendors to visit.For the younger guys and girls in high school that are thinking about how to get involved in the hot rod industry, there was a terrific Goodguys/ASE Careers in Hot Rodding program with a panel of builders from Dutchboys Hotrods, South City Rod & Custom, and Eastbay Musclecars providing input about the opportunities in the industry.
And that’s all just in one day! We’ve got two more days of Goodguys Good Times ahead with thousands of cars and trucks to check out, hot rod buddies to visit with, and plenty of activities for the whole family. There are three buildings full of the coolest cars and trick trucks plus scores of vendors both inside and out, the Summit Racing Nitro Thunderfest exhibition dragsters, the Auto World Model Car Show and Make and Take for the kids and so much more!
If you missed today, you have two more days to take in so fire up that hot rod and head out to Pleasanton! For those on the east coast, be sure to check back Monday for a full weekend recap of the Goodguys good times!
Photos by Damon Lee, Todd Ryden
