Museum Meetup – WheelHUB Live Brings Top Hot Rods and Builders to the Speedway Motors Museum of American Speed
Wheel Hub Magazine and the Speedway Motors Museum of American Speed made some lasting memories on Memorial Day weekend with the fourth installment of Wheel Hub Live, an event that gathers dozens of premium hot rod and custom builds and a selection of the country’s top builders to deliver a truly distinctive automotive experience. The two-day show in Lincoln, Nebraska combines a reliability run, a massive cars-and-coffee happening, tours of the spectacular Museum of American Speed, and a curated display of invited feature vehicles within the museum.
This year’s event also included the new Wheel Hub Cup competition, where invited vehicles contended for $100,000 in prize money and some incredible custom trophies. Competing vehicles arrived on Thursday, May 21 and loaded into the museum for initial evaluation and peer judging. By Thursday afternoon, the field was narrowed down to a Top 7, which were displayed in a separate area and judged by a committee of builders. Deliberations continued throughout the event until the Saturday afternoon awards ceremony, when Larry Carrell’s ’34 Ford coupe built by Craig Naff and Charley Hutton’s Color Studio was announced as the winner of the first-ever WheelHUB Cup!
The event continued its tradition of hosting a reliability run on Friday. The tour departed from the Museum of American Speed in Lincoln and traveled two-lane highways and backroads through the Nebraska countryside and several small towns. A spring rain shower dampened the first leg of the tour, but not the spirits of participants. Most were able to dry off at the first stop, the Strategic Air Command and Aerospace Museum, where featured vehicles got to park inside the museum’s massive hangar filled with vintage aircraft.
The tour’s next stop was Victory Lane, a complex of luxury car condominiums on the west edge of Omaha. That’s where most participants also enjoyed lunch from one of several food trucks. From there, many participants plugged in on open houses at CAL Auto Creations and No Coast Custom and Rod Shop before returning to the Museum of American Speed for a catered dinner.
Saturday dawned sunny and clear, making it a perfect morning for the cars and coffee portion of the show, which attracted hundreds of cool cars and trucks that spilled into several overflow parking areas. Attendees enjoyed donuts and coffee, plus the opportunity to explore both the regular displays in the museum, in addition to the featured Wheel Hub vehicles showcased in the west wing. It’s always a treat to explore this expansive and engaging collection, and the Wheel Hub vehicles just add to the allure during this holiday weekend.
With so much to see, and so many friends and fellow enthusiasts to connect with, the Saturday celebration stretched well into the afternoon, right up until the awards ceremony. As featured cars and trucks loaded out of the museum afterward, we can’t help but think the participants packed up a little something extra for the journey home: fond memories of a few special days at the museum that combined incredible vehicles, fun times on the road, good friends, and the camaraderie that happens when you bring the hot rod community together.
Photos: Damon Lee
