Goodguys Rod & Custom Association,has closed out the 2022 season with a successful end of the year show. The organization welcomed well over 350,000 spectators during its 39th year in operation, including tens of thousands at WestWorld of Scottsdale for the 25th Speedway Motors Southwest Nationals to see winners of the “Top 12 of the Year Awards, presented by Meguiar's” on display and witness the culmination of the yearlong Goodguys CPP AutoCross racing series.
This spells great news for future Goodguys events. entirely new Goodguys show series format for 2023, which will include additional cities throughout the United States. The upcoming 40th-anniversary season will showcase 12 three-day national events and two two-day Get-Togethers in 10 destinations across nine states, plus an additional series of smaller-scale gatherings in various new regions of the country. Dates, cities and details for the new localized event series will be announced in the coming months.
“Goodguys continues to set the standard for enthusiast events,” said Goodguys Chief Operating Officer Andrew Ebel. “It has been an exciting year highlighted by cool cars and cool people. With the move of our headquarters from California to Texas and our new 2023 event format, we’re excited for our 40th year as America’s favorite car show.”
Winners of the “Top 12 of the Year Awards, presented by Meguiar's” were front and center at the final 2022 event, representing the nation’s finest show cars and trucks, including Snap-on Muscle Car of the Year, Vintage Air Custom Rod of the Year and more. Also onsite were winners of the Next Generation Award presented by Goolsby Customs, plus Chevrolet Performance GM Iron Builder of the Year and Retro Iron Builder of the Year. Finalists were recognized throughout the Goodguys event season and the winners were showcased at the Southwest Nationals in Scottsdale.
The CPP AutoCrosser of the Year Award, presented by Classic Performance Products, was also announced, adding Bill Graves Sr. of North Carolina and his 1963 Chevrolet Corvette to the “Top 12” feature section. The award goes to the 2022 autocross season competitor with the highest overall points total following the final two events in Scottsdale. Graves took this year’s AutoCrosser of the Year title after earning more points throughout the 2022 season than any driver in any other class. The award-winning racer showed his dominance by qualifying in the top spot for the Forgeline Street Machine class of the “Duel in the Desert” field, further advancing over other competitors and finishing the race with a 35-second lap.
Goodguys CPP AutoCross Series racers faced a new format for the final competition in Scottsdale this year with eight-car “Duel in the Desert” shootouts for each competitive class. When these shootouts were complete, the winners were Jared Leisinger in the Speedtech Performance PRO-X class, Eric Sheely in the Summit Racing PRO class, Ryan Mathews in the Gearstar Sports Car class, Bill Graves Sr. in the Forgeline Street Machine class and Dustin Reed in the LMC Truck class.
In addition, the all-new “King of the Desert” shootout commenced on Saturday afternoon, made up of the eight fastest vehicles of the weekend, regardless of class. The ladder included qualifiers from the PRO-X class, the PRO class, the Sports Car class, and the Street Machine class. It came down to a familiar final round – brothers Jared and Josh Leisinger facing off in their Summit Racing-sponsored Corvettes. Josh claimed the win in an especially tight final lap, running a 33.232 to Jared’s 33.284 – a .052-second margin of victory. The weekend racing action concluded on Sunday with the Tremec All American Action resulting in Gunnison Jones topping the field and winning the shootout.