Weekend Rewind! Goodguys 31st Summit Racing Lone Star Nationals presented by BASF
The final weekend in September means three things in North Texas: It’s the heart of football season, the start of the State Fair, and time for the biggest hot rod party in the region – the spectacular Goodguys 31st Summit Racing Lone Star Nationals presented by BASF! And Goodguys delivered yet another dose of Texas-sized automotive festivities this weekend in an event filled with sunny skies, big smiles, warm temperatures, cool cars, bitchin’ trucks, and Good Times here at Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth!
The buzz on this early-Autumn hot rod party had been brewing for weeks, and for multiple reasons. First, we would be crowning winners for two different BASF Top 12 Awards – Griot’s Garage Muscle Machine of the Year, and BASF Goodguys Most Bitchin’. That meant there was a strong contingent of top-tier builders here from across the country showing off some spectacular iron to vie for these top honors. On top of that, this event has a three-decade history of attracting the finest cars and trucks from throughout this region. Add in some picture-perfect weather and the good vibes that Goodguys always brings, and you had the recipe for a barn burner of a gearhead weekend!
We got the fuel and oil flowing early with a first-ever Poker Run around the greater Fort Worth area on Thursday. And we kept the wheels turning on Friday as more than a dozen hard-charging cars took to the streets for a 90-mile Reliability Run for the Griot’s Garage Muscle Machine of the Year competition. The fun continued back at Texas Motor Speedway, as the Muscle Machine finalists made AutoCross laps and drag runs on the TMS pit road.
By Saturday, we had added one more finalist to the list of Griot’s Garage Muscle Machine of the Year contenders – Jay Johnston’s ’66 Mustang built by Hot Rods by JSK, which earned its spot during the Friday reliability run and other activities in Texas. On Saturday afternoon we held a special awards ceremony to showcase all the Muscle Machine finalists and crown the ultimate winner. There was plenty of speculation as the eight finalists lined up and each car owner or builder was interviewed. And when the Griot’s Garage team cracked open the sealed envelope, the winner was revealed as Travis Alford’s bitchin’ black ’70 Camaro built by GAP Industries!
There was a similar amount of anticipation building for the Goodguys Most Bitchin’ award, an update of what we previously branded the America’s Most Beautiful award. High-caliber cars and trucks from around the country converged on TMS to compete, and by Saturday afternoon we had announced the five finalists: Joe Faso’s ’51 Henry J pickup; Randy Kohlfarber’s ’59 Chrysler 300; Dave Maxwell’s ’53 Corvette; Jason Hill’s ’96 Chevy pickup; and Doug and Debbie Kenny’s ’57 Pontiac Safari. Participants and spectators had to wait until the end of the Sunday afternoon awards ceremony to learn the Goodguys Most Bitchin’ winner, which was revealed as Dave Maxwell’s amazing ’53 Corvette, a hand-built, aluminum-bodied masterpiece built by the team at Kindig-It Design.
Among the many builders at this year’s event was Harold Chapman from Customs and Hot Rods of Andice, who also selects our elite Builder’s Choice Top 10 awards here. Harold had an amazing array of incredible builds from which to choose, and it was no easy feat narrowing the field down to just ten. His final lineup was right on target, though, representing a great variety of build styles and fantastic build quality.
The Goodguys awards team was also busy making dozens of selections and picks throughout the infield. Among those were a few remaining regional BASF Top 12 finalists. This included Tony Kondrotis’s ’70 Boss 302 Mustang as the Snap-on Muscle Car of the Year finalist; Danny and Penny Cobb’s ’55 Chevy pickup as the LMC Truck of the Year Early finalist; and Ty Zito’s ’93 Chevy pickup as the Dakota Digital Truck of the Year Late finalist. Jason Graham Hot Rods doubled up by becoming a finalist for the Chevrolet Performance GM Iron Builder of the Year honor with the ’55 Cameo they built for Mark Fuqua, while Revision Rods & Rides earned the GM Retro Iron Builder of the Year finalist spot for Joe Faso’s Henry J. The media team tapped Dudley Owens’s ’34 Ford coupe for the Goodguys Feature Pick, and Dr. Smith’s ’63 Ford Falcon for the Fuel Curve Pick.
While awards and trophies are great, most people come to the Lone Star Nationals to simply have a good time, connect with friends, and show off their rides. In other words, they just wanted to have some fun with cars and trucks, and there was plenty of that to go around! Every portion of the infield was filled with cool and interesting vintage iron, from the south paddock all the way to the north end of the facility. People were cruising all weekend long, and there were thousands of cars and trucks to admire and inspect.
Up on the north end of the infield, the Goodguys CPP AutoCross course was rumbling and squealing all weekend long as dozens of racers put their skills and vehicles to the test in class racing competition and the Summit Racing Big Hoss Shootout on Saturday afternoon. Every class winner doubled up with shootout victories, including Kurt Chenoweth in a ’70 Camaro in the Speedtech Performance PRO-X class; Karen Leisinger in an ’86 Corvette in the Summit Racing PRO class; Andrew Chenoweth in an ’84 Corvette in the Forgeline Street Machine class; Tim Molzen in a ’92 Corvette in the Sports Car class; Rob MacGregor in an ’84 Blazer in the No Limit Engineering Truck class; Beth Conaway in an ’87 Corvette in the Challenger class; and Gunnison Jones in a 2006 Corvette in the All American Sunday class.
As you can expect with any Goodguys event, there was a full smorgasbord of activities to keep the energy and fuel flowing throughout the weekend. The Summit Racing Super Shopping Experience brought dozens of great manufacturers to the Cup Garage for special displays and deals, on top of all the great things Summit Racing showcased in its outdoor vendor space. On top of that, there were Team Texas ride-alongs around the TMS track, plus the Saturday evening Track Cruise where participants made laps in their own rides. Add in a full swap meet, Nitro Thunderfest exhibitions, burnout competitions, vendors, live music, great food, and more, and there was plenty to keep gearheads active and engaged all weekend.
All of us at Goodguys would like to extend a Texas-sized thank you to all the hot rodders, gearheads, enthusiasts, racers, vendors, builders, and spectators who came out to Fort Worth this weekend and made this a spectacular September showcase of Cool Cars and Good Times. We couldn’t do it without you, and we appreciate all your support in making the Summit Racing Lone Star Nationals presented by BASF such a great event. We’re still reminiscing about all the good times over the weekend and looking forward to even more in Pleasanton and Scottsdale next month as we keep things on the rev limiter to wrap up the 2024 season.
Photos by John Jackson, Damon Lee and Todd Ryden
