Texas Motor Speedway has never looked so good! The seventh running of the Spring Lone Star Nationals in Fort Worth, TX was one for the books with record breaking numbers for both cars and crowds. A beautiful three-day weekend weather forecast attributed to that success making for 72 non-stop hours of mechanical mayhem.

Our engines were bouncing off the limiter early on Friday morning as the event quickly went from 0 to 100 mph the moment the gates swung open. Hot rods, customs, muscle cars, and of course some of the finest pickups the Lone Star State has to offer flooded the infield at Texas Motor Speedway casting an exciting vibe throughout the event giving hints that we were in store for a huge weekend.

After a full fill day of cruisin’ and schmoozin’ on Friday, the Marriott host hotel held a stellar TGIF kickoff party with live tunes from our own DJ Axle playing long into the evening — it was the perfect way to unwind and kick back with old friends and new!

The folks at PPG couldn’t walk past Tracy Chapman’s 1949 Caddy named “Pearl”. They gave Pearl the nod of approval and awarded it as their Dream Car which will receive a full feature in an upcoming issue of the Gazette.

Saturday rolled out the red carpet for the Specialty Parking Areas and along with the Builders Choice area, many others were busting at the seams. The new 50th Anniversary Camaro Corral and Tri-Five Chevy areas offered big fun while the Trick Truck Corral brought out the region’s hottest haulers.

While that was all happening, we had the chance to shine the spotlight on the North Texas Camaros – a local Camaro club featuring killer cars with over 70 first-generation Camaros filling their special featured club area near the popular Fuzzy’s Taco Shop in the TMS infield. The North Texas Camaros were also the first group of cars to hit the TMS oval for Saturday evening’s track cruise. Hundreds of cars made their laps until the last group exited the high banks off turn four – it’s a highlight of the year for many!

If horsepower is what you’re looking for, the Spring Lone Star Nationals had you covered! A total of eight nitro burning vintage dragsters and funny cars fired up three times over the course of the weekend for our Nitro Thunderfest. Paired with the rumblings of the Team Texas NASCAR rides taking place throughout the weekend on the TMS oval, things got loud! Add in Goodguys AutoCross and all the bases were covered. Chris “Smitty” Smith picked up an AutoCross PRO class win and was joined by Kevin Diagle (Street Machine), Duke Roddy (Truck), Morgan Martin (Hot Rod), and Josh Leisinger (Shootout) in Sunday’s winners circle.

Street Machine class winner Kevin Diagle experienced some problems last weekend in Scottsdale resulting in an early departure. Diagle put in a couple long days to make the needed repairs and is leaving Texas with the Street Machine class win and the bump into the PRO class for the remainder of the year

Sunday brought out the late models for the K&N Filters All American Sunday portion of the event. Late model show cars from 1973 vintage to brand new 2017 models filled the grounds to strut their stuff. On the AutoCross track, Relle Howard drove his 2010 Corvette into the winners circle with a 43.451 fast lap.

Follow the link to view the Spring Lone Star Nationals AutoCross results page.

Next up, we head back home to Pleasanton for the 35th annual All American Get Together March 25th & 26. A big Northern California weekend is on tap! We will pick our first Top 12 car of the season – the Goodguys 2017 Street Rod Headquarters Custom of the Year!

Until then, check out our gallery of award winners and some of our favorites from the 7th Spring Lone Star Nationals weekend!