Thousands of hot rodders gathered at the Iowa State Fairgrounds in Des Moines over the 4th of July weekend to celebrate our nation’s birthday alongside the Goodguys 34th Speedway Motors Heartland Nationals. There were cool cars, great fireworks, as well as fun for the whole family, including apple pie baking and watermelon-eating contests, a huge burnout contest, autocross racing, and, of course, street rods, muscle cars, and classic trucks filling the grounds.
This was the first show where our titles gave away special awards for Modern Rodding, All Chevy Performance, and Classic Truck Performance. The winners of our unique plaques include Modern Rodding pick to Joe Horsik and his chopped 1934 Ford coupe, Dalton Dreesen’s 1967 Chevelle got the All Chevy Performance pick, and Garrett Ford scored the Classic Truck Performance pick with his big, bad 1969 F-250!
Goodguys also picked six finalists to be added to their regional Top 12 Awards presented by BASF. This included Dennis Albaugh’s 1967 Yenko Camaro as the Snap-on Muscle Car of the Year finalist, John Vanderhulle’s 1969 Camaro as the Griot’s Garage Muscle Machine of the Year finalist, Curt Wittman’s 1955 Chevy Cameo as the LMC Truck of the Year Early finalist, Jim Rezac’s 1965 GMC as the Dakota Digital Truck of the Year Late finalist, Jimmy Hervatin’s 1952 Ford F-1 as the Scott’s Hotrods ’N Customs Custom of the Year finalist, and Buck and Rose Wright’s 1958 Corvette as the Vintage Air Custom Rod of the Year finalist.
The Heartland Nationals was a packed event and a terrific 4th of July tradition for car enthusiasts. It gets even better as it’s a wash-rinse-repeat cycle for Goodguys as they take over the Ohio Expo Center in Columbus July 11-13 for three more packed days at their 27th Summit Racing Nationals presented by PPG. Plus, we’re picking three more cool rides for our Modern Rodding, Classic Truck Performance, and All Chevy Performance favorites.
