Weekend Rewind! Goodguys 14th LMC Truck Spring Lone Star Nationals Presented by Old Air Products
We got a full dose of Texas spring this weekend at the 14th LMC Truck Spring Lone Star Nationals Presented by Old Air Products. There was a lot of wind, a little rain, and an ever-shifting mix of sunshine and clouds. The weather on the ground at Texas Motor Speedway remained mostly favorable, though, and dedicated Goodguys members brought the positive vibes to deliver a fun weekend filled with our signature mix of cool cars, cool people, and good times!
This jam-packed fuel-filled weekend had been brewing for months and got an early start for countless gearheads who came to check out the legendary Pate Swap Meet, which began on Thursday on the west side of the TMS facility. Thousands of vendors covered acres of land with an incredible selection of vintage parts, vehicles, signs, memorabilia, and just plain cool stuff. We saw plenty of Goodguys participants who came early to hunt for good deals.
By Friday morning, the car and truck fans were warmed up and ready for the good times inside the TMS infield. A steady stream of cool cars, trick trucks, and bitchin’ hot rods flowed through the south tunnel and began filling into the show ’n shine areas. Since this is Texas – and an LMC Truck-sponsored event – there was a strong percentage of cool haulers, which made the LMC Ultimate Truck Showcase an especially popular spot for the weekend.
True to Spring Texas Lone Star Nationals tradition, we had two truck-minded builders selecting Builder’s Choice Top 10 awards during the weekend. Jason Hill from Hill’s Hot Rods was one of them, and he had an impressive lineup of selections:
We also had KC Mathieu of KC’s Paint Shop making Top 10 picks, and his final roster was also extremely cool:
The Goodguys awards team also made some selections for regional Top 12 finalists during the weekend. Levi Green’s ’58 Chevy Apache was selected as the LMC Truck of the Year Early finalist, Robert Carpenter’s ’68 Chevy C10 was chosen as the Dakota Digital Truck of the Year Late finalist, Alex Short’s ’62 Lincoln Continental was selected as the Vintage Air Custom Rod of the Year finalist, and Reggie Kopecky’s ’67 Pontiac GTO for the Snap-On Muscle Car of the Year finalist. Bob and Kelly Ward’s ’84 Chevy K10 helped Hill’s Hot Rods earn a Chevrolet Performance GM Iron Builder of the Year finalist spot – in addition to the Fuel Curve Truck Pick – and Nobody Customs picked up the Chevrolet Performance GM Retro Iron Builder of the Year finalist nod for the ’61 Rolls Royce they built for Brian Gantley. The Goodguys media team tapped Mike Reed’s ’72 Ford F100 for the Goodguys Feature Pick.
Goodguys CPP AutoCross Series racers got a new challenge for the weekend as we opened up a portion of the TMS infield road course to create a larger and more varied track setup to test their abilities in class competition and Saturday’s Lone Star Shootout presented by Speedtech Performance. Winners included Dustin Morrow in his ’67 Dodge D100 in the Speedtech Performance PRO-X class, Jason Bottenfield in his ’69 Camaro in the Summit Racing PRO class, Patrick Layden in the Forgeline Street Machine class in his ’63 Nova, Jared Cash in the Sports Car class in his ’92 Corvette, Rob MacGregor in the No Limit Engineering Truck class driving Bill Holt’s ’84 Blazer, and David Beck in his ’65 Chevelle in the Challenger class. The shootouts were cut short due to excessive wind, but all class winners doubled up with either wins in their respective shootouts or points credited toward shootout wins.
The weekend was filled with all sorts of other happenings and activities to keep car- and truck-crazy enthusiasts active and engaged for three solid days. In addition to hundreds of vendors to visit and shop from, we had multiple Nitro Thunderfest dragster exhibitions, fun activities for kids and families, live music, and lots of cruising through the TMS infield. On top of all that, we also had the signature TMS Track Cruise on Saturday evening, and finished off the night with some two-wheeled action at the Progressive AFT Mission Foods “Texas Half Mile” motorcycle flat track racing event on the TMS Dirt Track!
While Sunday dawned a little soggy, we still filled our Winners’ Circle with hundreds of award winners from throughout the weekend and had a laid-back final day before finishing off the weekend with our awards ceremony. Goodguys is grateful to all the participants and spectators who didn’t let the forecast scare them away and came together to have a great gearhead weekend in Texas. We couldn’t put on such great events without fun-loving enthusiasts like you, and we look forward to even more Good Times as we gear up for some of our busiest events in the coming months. We’ll see you at another event soon!
Photos by Damon Lee, Todd Ryden & John Jackson
