The Goodguys 7th Del Mar Nationals officially kicked off the show season not only for us lowly magazine guys, but literally thousands-2,013 entries in fact-of hot rodders throughout the Southwest corner of the United States. Once again taking place for three days at the end of March at the prestigious Del Mar Fairgrounds, home of the Del Mar Thoroughbred Club and once a stomping ground for Hollywood elite dating back to the early '40s, it was the street rodders' turn to play where the turf meets the surf. As always, the Southern California weather was spectacular all weekend long, with the sun high in the sky and a cool breeze blowing in off the Pacific Ocean throughout the day.
Del Mar has become one of the more popular shows in recent years, due to the fact that it is an almost unofficial kickoff to the summer rodding season. As most of you know, the winter can be rather brutal in Southern California, and our rodding season can sometimes be as short as 10 or 11 months. Those 30 days right around New Years are the most dreaded for us SoCal hot rodders, so our cars are ready for their "legs" to be stretched by the time March rolls around.
This year's show was even more exciting for us SRM guys because we've teamed up with Turtle Wax to present a Top 100 program, and the Goodguys Del Mar Nats is the first of 10 events to feature this new program. Similar to our Top 10 program we've been doing for some time now, the Top 100 program will consist of 10 different events throughout the country, with 10 of our favorite cars chosen at each stop. After every event, the 10 chosen from that show will be posted on www.streetrodderweb.com. All 100 cars will be featured on the site at the end of the year, and Web visitors will be able to vote for the STREET RODDER Street Rod of the Year presented by Turtle Wax. This should be a very exciting new feature for both our Web visitors and showgoers alike, so make sure to check out www.streetrodderweb.com throughout the year!
In addition to the SRM awards we presented, Goodguys also had five finalists picked for the Street Rod d'Elegance award. Dennis DeCamp's '32 Ford roadster, Ralph and Marlene Weaver's '35 Ford coupe, Mike Richard's Deuce roadster, and Ed Knudson's '33 Ford coupe were all spectacular runners-up, but it was Kevin Alstott with a three-peat with his '35 Ford roadster who took home the Street Rod d'Elegance award. You might remember Kevin's car, which also won the 2006 Ridler award as well as the recent 2007 America's Most Beautiful Roadster Award. The Goodguys Custom Rod of the Year Award was presented to Wes Rydell for his super-cool '54 Chevy Bel Air, and Kustom of the Year went to our very own Rob Fortier for his purple-on-blue '53 Chevy.
This year marked the seventh anniversary for the Goodguys Del Mar Nats, and the event has had a steady increase of participants ever since the first get-together. With an increase in more than 300 entries this year alone, next year's Del Mar Nats will hopefully hit the 3,000 mark. We'll definitely be on hand where the surf hits the turf in 2008 to have some street-rodding fun in the sun!