Weekend Rewind – Goodguys 32nd Summit Racing Lone Star Nationals presented by BASF
Goodguys hosted a late-September horsepower summit this weekend in Texas as the 32nd Summit Racing Lone Star Nationals presented by BASF took over Texas Motor Speedway for three days of fuel-injected fun! The calendar may say autumn, but it sure felt like summer as we enjoyed warm days, sunny skies, lots of cruising, and all the Good Times we’ve come to expect from peak-season Goodguys events.
The Lone Star Nationals has gained a double dose of awards appeal in recent years with the inclusion of two prominent Goodguys Top 12 Awards presented by BASF. This includes the reliability run and final evaluation for the Griot’s Garage Muscle Machine of the Year honor. Following the Friday reliability run and related driving events, we hosted a special Saturday afternoon awards ceremony to showcase the nine Muscle Machine finalists and announce the winner. When the envelope was opened, Jerimiah Belk’s standout ’66 Nova built by Driven Speed Shop was announced as the Goodguys 2025 Griot’s Garage Muscle Machine of the Year!
The other Top 12 honor bestowed in Texas is the BASF Most Bitchin’ title, which attracts a truly varied field of contenders. This year’s finalists included Harold and Tracy Chapman’s classy ’37 Cord phaeton, Roger Weibel’s Porsche-powered ’73 VW Thing, Marshall Gay’s ’71 Plymouth Cuda, Amadeo Angelo’s GMC-powered ’32 Ford coupe, and Scott Movic’s ’32 Ford roadster. And at the end of the Sunday afternoon awards ceremony, Amadeo Angelo cruised home with the BASF Most Bitchin’ honor in his inline Jimmy-powered coupe built by Roseville Rod & Custom.
Other standouts in the Sunday awards ceremony included the Builder’s Choice Top 10 honors bestowed by Harold Chapman and his team from Customs and Hot Rods of Andice. These awards came with bitchin’ custom-machined trophies and included a cool variety of hot rods, ’50s cruisers, vintage trucks, muscle cars, and more.
Dozens of other picks and awards were also selected throughout the weekend, including finalist spots for two more Top 12 Awards presented by BASF. This included the ’53 Chevy pickup owned by Michael James for the LMC Truck of the Year Early finalist, and Kenny Frederic’s ’66 Chevy C10 as the Dakota Digital Truck of the Year Late finalist. The Goodguys media team was smitten by Jack Barnett’s ’32 Ford pickup and tapped it for the Goodguys Feature Pick.
Up on the north side of the infield you could hear the tire gripping, high revving engines at the Goodguys Autocross as racers tried to qualify in the top of their class to get to race for in the Big Hoss Shootout on Saturday afternoon. The competition was as hot as the Texas asphalt with the following drivers taking home the wins: Josh Leisinger in the Speedtech Performance PRO-X class; Tyler Gibson in the Summit Racing PRO class; Andrew Chenoweth in the Forgeline Street Machine class; Rob MacGregor in the No Limit Engineering Truck class; Justin Grenert got the class win in Sports Car while Jared Cash scored the shootout victory; Shawn Thompson doubled up with the class and shootout win in the Challenger class; and Lloyd Collins took the class win in All American Sunday with his buddy Jim Lynch edging him out by a tenth of a second for the shootout victory.
As we mentioned at the start, the weekend weather was sunny and almost summer-like, making it a perfect couple of days to catch some rays while enjoying the rest of the event. Beyond the thousands of cars cruising and on display, there were dozens of vendors, including many top-name companies inside the Cup Garage taking part in the Summit Super Shopping Experience. Many more could be found both inside and out, including a huge number of shops and builders that had vendor spaces. One of those was Murray Kustom Rods, the shop that also hosted the fantastic Saturday evening After Party at their incredible new shop in Fort Worth.
There were many more activities to enjoy throughout the weekend, including a Friday evening Track Cruise, ride-alongs in Team Texas racecars, a huge Swap Meet and Cars 4 Sale Corral, a Lowrider Showcase hosted by Shorty’s Custom Paint, multiple Nitro Thunderfest Exhibitions, activities for kids in the Auto World Family Zone, live entertainment, great food, and much more. Simply put, it was enough to keep any gearhead engaged and entertained for three full days.
Summer may technically be in the rearview mirror, but you wouldn’t have known it by the warm-weather fun we had this weekend. Thanks to all of you who came out to be a part of this late-September party! We’ll be taking a little time off in October and gearing up for two final Good Time events to finish off the 2025 season. Come join us in Pleasanton, California November 8-9 for the 35th Fuel Curve Autumn Get-Together, or cruise to Scottsdale, Arizona November 21-23 for our spectacular season finale, the 28th Speedway Motors Southwest Nationals. We hope to see you there!
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- Weekend Rewind! Goodguys 32nd Summit Racing Lone Star Nationals
Photos: Damon Lee, Todd Ryden
