By Rob Fortier – Images by the Author
After a bit of a lengthy hiatus, I found myself with a direct flight from Ontario, California, to John Glenn Columbus International Airport this past July for the Goodguys Rod & Custom Association’s flagship event. Now in its 28th year (can you believe since 1998?!), the Summit Racing Nationals has consistently turned the Ohio Expo Center into one of the nation’s top hot spots for muscle cars, hot rods, and of course, classic trucks—the latter of which I was a bit skeptical about till I heard about a special attraction put on by our compadres Jason and Eddy (et al.) from Auto Metal Direct!
Turns out AMD commissioned the back of the Bricker Building (main exhibitor’s building) for not one but two amazing exhibits. First was The AMD Garage Live Ultimate Truck Experience that featured a display of nearly 50 years of classic Chevy/GMC trucks, showcasing a number of past and future CTP feature trucks. But smack-dab in the middle of all that was the Squarebody from Scratch Build: a live, three-day truck build led by our July cover model builder, Rockford Smith and an ultra-talented team, including Mike and Jeremy from FiTech, Phil Cato from Cato’s Custom Upholstery, Kevin Tetz, and many others. It was quite amazing to see the all-aftermarket Fleetside come together in that short amount of time (of course, the No Limit Engineering chassis had been preassembled to help expedite). While all of this was going on, I was asked to join a live discussion panel hosted by Tetz alongside my aforementioned pal FiTech Mike Wahl and Dakota Digital’s Justin Olsen, Big Oak Garage’s Will Posey, and Rod Kraft from Griot’s Garage.
But that was just part of the show—there was much, much more to see and take in over the three-day Ohio adventure.
While no major Truck of the Year awards are given out in Columbus, Goodguys did crown the 2026 Classic Instruments Street Rod of the Year (John Fairleigh’s ’33 Ford by Big Creek Restoration) and the Forgeline Street Machine of the Year (Matt Jewell’s ’70 Chevelle by Eddie’s Rod & Custom), the proceedings of which drew a huge crowd on Saturday evening. But there were plenty of award-worthy classic trucks in attendance—from the annual Autocross (which we got to spectate from atop the Griot’s rig top!) to the handful of pro-built rides by Scott’s Hotrods, Goolsby Customs, Greening & Co., Roadster Shop, and even our friends at JEGS had some bitchin trucks on display, to all the participant haulers spanning the range from homebuilt daily drivers to showstoppers.
Other show features included the Builder’s Choice Top 20, live entertainment, good (but expensive) food, swap meet and car corral (which I actually didn’t get a chance to see!), and People’s Choice New Products sponsored by yours truly, In The Garage Media!
It was good to be back in Ohio—and it definitely wouldn’t be a true Columbus weekend without a crazy tornado-warning downpour Sunday evening as a proper send-off back to California!
