Weekend Rewind – Goodguys 35th Fuel Curve Autumn Get-Together
There’s something special about cruising in your hot rod in the fall. The days are cooler, the scenery is more colorful, and knowledge that winter will be coming soon makes the time all the more precious. You’ve got to squeeze in opportunities to enjoy that special car or truck before the madness of the holiday season sets in, which is exactly why Goodguys hosts the Autumn Get-Together every November to provide Bay Area enthusiasts a chance to get out and hang out with their hot rod friends for one last weekend of the season!
The 35th Fuel Curve Autumn Get-Together held over the weekend at the Alameda County Fairgrounds in Pleasanton reinforced the idea that rodders in this region were eager and ready to celebrate the end of the season in style. It helped that the weather was just about perfect, with lots of California sunshine and warm temperatures providing an ideal atmosphere for showing off your car and hanging out with friends.
True to tradition, the Autumn Get-Together also celebrated that special connection between hot rodding and military service with several events to help commemorate Veterans Day. This included a color guard presentation, a live national anthem performance, and our annual Vettes for Vets parade where veterans could catch a ride in a cool Corvette. What a great way to honor our service men and women and share our national pride!
The Autumn Get-Together always delivers a wealth of attractions, from the huge swap meet and Cars 4 Sale Corral, to the fun vintage camping trailer display and the Smash 4 Cash Demo Derby, where members of the Hayward Firefighters Local 1909 compete in a hard-hitting demolition derby while raising money for charity. No matter where you turned, there was something cool to see or experience!
Of course, cool cars and trucks are still the primary focus, and with this Get-Together open to all years of American-made and -powered rides, there was a huge array of genres and styles. From all those fine rides, the Goodguys team selected finalists for two regional Goodguys Top 12 awards presented by BASF that included Angel Palacios and his ’56 Chevy scoring the LMC Truck of the Year Early Finalist position and Ricky Jackson’s ’73 Chvy C10 for the Dakota Digital Truck of the Year Late. The staffs for the Goodguys Gazette selected Joshua James’ ’47 Chevy Fleetline as their Feature Pick with Fuel Curve pulling Dan Bartel’s ’71 Firebird from the Autocross pits.
For West Coast Goodguys AutoCross racers, the Autumn Get-Together offers one last chance to carve corners and dodge cones before heading to Scottsdale later in the month for the season-ending races. Dozens of racers took to the track to seize that opportunity and vie for a chance to compete in Sunday’s Fall Shootout. Top performers for the weekend included: Nick Relampagos scoring the class win in the Speedtech Performance PRO-X class though John McKissock took the shootout win; Christopher Stoner doubled up in the Summit Racing PRO class; Matt Roberts won the shootout in the Forgeline Street Machine class with Ken Yeo taking the class title; George Reiss was the class winner in the No Limit Engineering Truck class with the shootout victory going to Dean Richards; Valerie Pichette doubled up in the Sports Car class; David Beck and Shaun Graham scoring the win and shootout respectively in the Challenger class, and the All American Sunday wins went to Geon McKenzie.
Even though the weather outside was beautiful, there were plenty of attractions to lure folks inside, as well. Three separate Indoor Car Show displays celebrated different branches of the hobby – vintage trucks in one building, Thunderbirds in another, and customs and lowriders in the Deadend Magazine display. There was also a great Pinstripers Brush Bash and model car show, lots of vendors to see, and a Goodgals Gallery for your early holiday shopping. Step back outside and you could find many more vendors, experience the Summit Racing Nitro Thunderfest exhibitions, and listen to some live music when you weren’t checking out all the cars and trucks.
The 2026 event season is quickly coming to a close, and we’d like to thank all our West Coast friends who came out to celebrate with us this weekend. We’ve got one more Good Time weekend in the works for the year, and it’s a big one – the 28th Speedway Motors Southwest Nationals in Scottsdale, Arizona! It’s happening soon – November 21-23 – and it’s going to be a fantastic finale. Get there if you can, and we’ll look forward to sharing a splendid sendoff in Scottsdale!
Photos by: Terry Lysak, Todd Ryden
