Weekend Rewind! Goodguys 26th Grundy Insurance Colorado Nationals presented by Griot’s Garage
Hot rodders across the Mile High State and neighboring cities rolled into Loveland for a stellar weekend of cars and cruising at the Goodguys 26th Colorado Nationals presented by Griot’s Garage! There was never a cloud in the sky as classic trucks and vintage cars cruised into The Ranch Events Complex for three days of full throttle family fun.
Thursday morning started with a cruise up to WyoTech for a tour of the school and to meet with students. On Friday morning tech students from regional high schools were treated to a Careers in Hot Rodding seminar presented by the ASE Educational Foundation, Goodguys and WyoTech. Afterwards, the students were able to enjoy the car show and take in all the fun across the fairgrounds.
As Friday afternoon came to a close, the party was just getting started down the street at Pinkee’s Rod Shop and neighboring Mash Lab Brewery for the best Friday night kick-off party! Saturday morning came quickly and it didn’t take long for the Ranch Events Center to fill up with the rumble of horsepower, gleaming paint and smiling car owners and enthusiasts. The Saturday Specialty Parking Areas were packed with great rides, especially the Builder’s Choice area with Eric Peratt of Pinkees on hand to make his favorite 10 selections.
The Goodguys team roamed the grounds selecting cool cars and trucks for special awards as well as several finalists for their Top 12 categories including Daren Swails’ ’69 Mach I Mustang for Griot’s Garage Muscle Machine of the Year. Dennis Schroeder’s ’57 Dodge pickup picked up the LMC Truck of the Year Early, and Joe McMillian’s ’67 SS427 Impala for Snap-On Muscle Car of the Year.
Picking up the Chevrolet Performance Builder of the Year finalist awards was Ron Jones Garage claiming the GM Iron title with Greg and Anna Spaur’s ’68 C10 and Pot-o-Gold Kustoms netting the GM Retro Iron spot with their 383-ci small-block powered custom ’51 Mercury. The Goodguys media team worked in a couple picks as well starting with Jim Ross’s sweet ’60 Pontiac Catalina for the Goodguys Feature Pick and our Fuel Curve pick going to Armando Encinas and his slammed ’85 Chevy C10. You’ll see more of these two rides in an upcoming issue of the Goodguys Gazette.
From the show grounds you could hear the roar of the engines and tires squealing as racers made laps at the CPP AutoCross Series preparing for Saturday afternoon’s Western Shootout. Eric Sheely pulled double duty, driving his ’72 Corvette in the Summit Racing Pro Class and the No Limit Engineering Truck class as he went on to win both classes as well as the shoot-out titles! Josh Leisinger also doubled up in the Speedtech Performance PRO-X class in his ’64 Corvette as did Andrew Chenoweth in the Forgeline Street Machine class in his ’84 Vette. George Gonzalez also drove his ’69 Camaro to a double win in the Challenger class. Tim Molzen scored the class win in Sports Car, but narrowlylost to Valerie Pichette to win the Shootout. For All American Sunday, the class win went to Gunnison Jones in his ’06 Corvette while Phil Haberman ran his ’22 Corvette to the Shootout win.
The crowds filled up the Ranch Complex all weekend which included a packed to the brim swap meet area and Cars-4-Sale Corral, a fun Goodgals Gallery with unique arts and crafts, kids enjoyed the Autoworld Make and Take along with the pedal drift trikes and participants got to get their fill of nitro fumes at the Summit Racing Nitro Thunderfest.
The fun filled, action packed weekend wrapped up on Suday afternoon with an Awards Ceremony with every award winner driving across the main stage in front of a cheering crowd. Colorado car-crowds never disappoint and we’re already looking forward to next year’s event. If you didn’t make it out, have a look to see what you missed (and if you were there, take a look for your ride!).
Photos by Terry Lysak and Todd Ryden
