Weekend Rewind! Goodguys 29th Summit Racing Lone Star Nationals
The cars in sight, are cool and bright – deep in the heart of Texas! We got an incredible view of some fantastic vintage iron in Texas this weekend during the Goodguys 29th Summit Racing Lone Star Nationals at Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth! This early-autumn tradition has been going strong for nearly three decades and the past few days have shown us why. Simply put, rodders and enthusiasts in this region love to get their cool cars and trick trucks together for some big-time Goodguys Good Times!
September is a great time of year for getting together in Texas. There’s still plenty of sunshine and warm weather to enjoy, which is perfect for showing off the bright paint jobs, polished chrome, and classic shapes of our favorite rides. We could see it all around us as hot rods, cool customs, muscle cars, vintage trucks (a whole lotta trucks!) filled in the showgrounds and rumbled through the cruising lanes in the Texas Motor Speedway infield.
This event has always welcomed a Texas-sized lineup of vendors and manufacturers, and that footprint was even larger thanks to the Summit Racing Super Shopper Experience, which showcased an incredible variety of brands and parts offered by the huge online and catalog retailer. This was definitely the place to discover and see the parts you need to take your ride to the next level.
Speaking of next-level cars and trucks, Harold Chapman from Customs & Hot Rods of Andice was on the lookout for exceptional creations to receive his coveted Builder’s Choice Top 10 awards. The trophies themselves were works of art – imagined by Dotson Design and machined by EVOD Industries. Chapman had plenty of fine iron from which to choose, which resulted in a spectacular Top 10 lineup.
The Goodguys team was also scouring the grounds in search of exceptional examples of cars and trucks to receive dozens of other awards and picks. Some of the highlights included finalists for several Meguiar’s Top 12 honors. Those cars and trucks included Randall Campbell’s ’71 Chevelle SS picking up the Snap-on Muscle Car of the Year finalist spot, Angela Payne racing her brand-new ’69 Corvette on the AutoCross track and becoming a Griot’s Garage Muscle Machine of the Year finalist, and a duo of trucks finalizing the 2022 Scotts Hotrods Truck of the Year Early and LMC Truck of the Year Late categories which were Chris Pate’s ’56 Apache claiming the early spot (and also earning a Chevrolet Performance GM Iron Builder of the Year finalist for Mobile Toys Inc.) and Chris Rhodes adding his ’83 Chevy C10 into the late group. Poor Boy Rods earned the GM Retro Iron Builder of the Year spot with a bitchin’ ’47 Ford Convert. The Goodguys media team made two feature picks selecting JD Terry’s recently acquired ’32 Ford Phaeton for the Goodguys Feature Pick and Ryan Butler’s all black ’64 Nova for the Fuel Curve Pick.
On the north side of the infield, the Goodguys CPP AutoCross series was back in action and kept the engines revving and tires squealing all weekend long. There was intense competition for top spots in each of the classes, and especially during the Big Hoss Shootout presented by Summit Racing on Saturday afternoon. In every class across the board there were double up victories except in the Sports Car class. Josh Leisinger was the first to double up in the Speedtech Performance PRO-X class in the Crusher ’64 Corvette, Ron Scott did it in the Summit Racing PRO class driving a ’63 Corvette, Bill Graves was the next one to do it in the Forgeline Street Machine class in a ’66 Corvette, and Rob MacGregor driving Bill Holt’s ’86 Squarebody raced to two victories in the LMC Truck class. In the Gearstar Sports Car class Tim Molzen had the quickest time to claim the class win in the Leisinger ’97 Corvette but it was Brandon Carter claiming the Sports Car shootout victory behind the wheel of his ’89 Civic (yes, all pre-1997 vehicles are allowed in Goodguys events in 2022). On Sunday Marty Clarke raced his 2022 Tesla Model 3 to the double up wins in the Tremec All American Sunday class. The final winner from the AutoCross action was Scott Ward claiming the FiTech Challenger class win with his ’78 Camaro.
There was plenty of track action outside of AutoCross, too. True to tradition, Team Texas welcomed thrill seekers for ride-alongs around the TMS oval all weekend long. And on Saturday evening – and again on All American Sunday – participants had the opportunity to live out their racing fantasies during the Texas Motor Speedway Track Cruise!
Goodguys brought a Texas-sized activities agenda to Fort Worth for the weekend, with a jam-packed schedule that included multiple Nitro Thunderfest exhibitions, a smoke-filled Burnout Competition, and the always-popular (and large) Swap Meet and Cars 4 Sale Corral. Add in some live music, kids’ activities, Saturday Specialty Parking Areas, evening cruising at the host hotel, and more, and you had enough to keep even the most active enthusiast busy for three full days.
There might be a Lone Star on that Texas flag, but there were countless bright spots and a galaxy of cool vehicles here at Texas Motor Speedway this weekend. Thank y’all for making it another great Lone Star Nationals, and for so many great years here in Texas. We can wait to come back and do it all again next spring!
Photos by Steven Bunker, Terry Lysak & John Jackson
