Weekend Rewind! Goodguys 39th West Coast Nationals
The Goodguys West Coast Nationals delivered the fun and good times for thousands of hot rodding enthusiasts, just like you’d expect out of the 39th running of the event! It was three full days of fun-with-cars celebrations topped with cruising fun earlier in the week during the Gary Meadors Hot Rod Week tours and poker run – what a week of good times hanging with family and car loving buddies!
Hot rodders were greeted to a picture-perfect California morning on Friday (actually, all weekend!) with a cool wisp in the air as muscle cars, customs, classics, and vintage trucks rolled into the grounds. One area that was cool to see really fill up was the strong turnout of early hot rods gathering in the York Speed Shop Hot Rod Hangout area. This of course makes perfect sense when you consider all of the hot rod clubs and enthusiasts that helped launch Goodguys over 40 years ago!
Across the fairgrounds, the other special areas filled up Saturday including the Trick Truck Corral, Builders Choice, and Tri-Five Corral, Good Wood, Homebuilt Heaven and more. If it was on four wheels and built before 1999, there’s a pretty good chance you’d find it by walking the entire fairgrounds over the weekend!
With such a variety of styles, makes and models, Ben York from Roseville Rod and Custom had a lot to choose from when it came to his Builder’s Choice Awards, though he could only pick his 10 favorites. It was tough to narrow it down, but as you can see, it was quite a variety and some terrific picks.
Thanks to the variety of rides at the West Coast Nationals, Goodguys has the opportunity to select seven new finalists for their regional Top 12 Awards presented by BASF. It’s a challenge to pick to just one candidate, but the finalist positions went to: Steve Aguilar’s 1970 Buick GS Stage 1 as the Snap-on Muscle Car; Nick Relampagos’ second-gen Camaro as the Griot’s Garage Muscle Machine; Homer Diaz’s ’54 Chevy as the Scott’s Hotrods ’N Customs Custom; Bryan William’s ’55 Chevy Nomad as the Vintage Air Custom Rod; Steve Castello’s ’56 Ford panel truck as the LMC Truck Early; Scott Hackbarth’s ’73 GMC as the Dakota Digital Truck Late; and Greg Heinrich’s ’87 Chevy crewcab for the Roaster Shop 4×4 of the Year Finalist. The Goodguys media team was drawn in by the beaming deuce roadster of Tom and Diane Walsh and selected it as the Goodguys Feature Pick.
One special area was reserved for the participants of the Goodguys Hall of Fame Road Tour which ended in Pleasanton after a week of driving the coast down from Seattle. The crew of about 70 rods rolled through small towns, toured shops and collections, took in beautiful views, and most importantly, had a blast with friends along the way! Several special awards were presented including the Gazette’s Feature Pick from the tour – Brad Brown’s, 1968 Mustang built and driven on the tour by Steve and Laura Keefer of Eastbay Musclecars. We’ll have a full wrap up about the Hall of Fame Tour soon.
Just across from Building A, which was packed with more show cars and manufacturers, racers were making laps on the Goodguys AutoCross strapped back in, revved up their engines, and started carving corners on the event’s tight and challenging course, vying for top class positions and a chance to compete in Saturday’s West Coast Shootout sponsored by Wilwood Disc Brakes. Winning drivers for the weekend included Matt Roberts scoring the shootout win by less than .04-seconds over class winner David Carroll in the Speedtech Performance PRO-X class, Mike Meier doubled up in the Summit Racing PRO class, as did Kyle Vallarino in the Forgeline Street Machine class. Doing double driving duties this weekend, David Carroll scored the shootout and class title in No Limit Engineering Truck while in the Corvette class, Mike Xvereb took the class win with Ken Yeo stealing the shootout victory followed by Jason Benson winning the Challenger class and Paul Dolan scoring the Wilwood West Coast shootout title.
The fairgrounds was just booming all weekend long with people enjoying some live music, chilling in the shade, cruising the show, and searching through the swap meet. Kids were playing games at the Family Fun Zone, making model cars thanks to the roar of the Nitro Thunderfest exhibition dragsters, the Pinstripers Brush Bash and the special Chopped and Dropped display put on by Deadend Worldwide.
Sunday was capped off by a fun Awards Ceremony where all the award winners and special picks cruised across the stage in front of their hot rodding peers. Next year, the West Coast Nationals turns FORTY and we’d say, the 39th was a great time to finish with the 30s – can’t wait to see what’s in store for next year!
Photos: Damon Lee, Todd Ryden
