Last weekend, thousands of gearheads from all over the country took to the 2012 Goodguys event held at the Ohio Expo Center in Columbus. The 15th annual outing was bigger than ever, and enthusiasts poured through the gates early on Friday morning to attend the show, and compete against one another like modern-day gladiators.
All of the biggest names in the aftermarket were in attendance, and the festivities kicked off at 9am with an autocross competition. Participating during Friday’s event was Josh Leisinger, Tom and Debbie Farrington, Jimi Day, Albert Melchior, Stacy and Kyle Tucker of Detroit Speed Engineering (DSE), with Ryan Matthews piloting the new DSE Mustang. For the Chevy fans; Brad Granger, Mark Turner, John Kundrat, Ken Edwards Jr. and Sr., and Sam Farrington were called upon for driving duties in the Jet-Hot High Performance Coatings sponsored DSE Nova around the cone-littered course.
The autocross kicked off at 9am again on Saturday for a dose of deja vu with the Sponsor Shootout. The show was packed, bringing in the highest turnout of spectators and participants for the weekend.
Competition grew more intense as the majority of the field included seasoned autocross veterans, making for one hell of an action-packed show, while Goodguys announcer Chad Reynolds entertained the audience. Participation included: Brad Coomer, Roger Burman, Ryan Mathews, Bret Voekel, Rob McGregor, Phill Gerber, Stacy Tucker, Robert McGaffin, Jimi Day, Curt Ukasik, Brian Finch, and Cheryl Herrick of Jet-Hot rounding out the competition.
For the third and final day, Sunday provided a more laid back environment, with cooler temperatures and a smaller crowd, as there were only a total of sixteen cars competing against one another for the top prize from each of the remaining four categories.
Brian Finch took home the gold in the Pro Class category with his ’71 Camaro packing a new Kurt Urban-built mill under the hood. The Street Machine honors went to Danny Popp and his ’72 Corvette. Rounding out the awards, Brad Coomer reigned victorious in the Goodguys Rod and Custom Truck category, with Eric Wise as the winner of the Street Rod class.
We would like to thank Jet-Hot High Performance Coatings for relaying the results of this year’s Columbus competition to us, and look forward to more Goodguys events in the future. See you next year!