10-4 Magazine - For Today's Trucker

BEAUTY IN BOSTON
By Roving Reporter Suzanne Stempinski

The North American Truck Show (NATS) is one of the oldest trucking industry shows in North America. From April 28-30, this event celebrated 33 continuous years. After a change of location to Baltimore in 2004, show management returned this event to a new state-of-the-art Convention and Exposition Center in the heart of Boston. With hundreds of vendors, on-site seminars and acres of beautiful trucks in competition and on display, there was no shortage of things to see and do.

Truck drivers, owner/operators, company owners, service suppliers, equipment manufacturers, parts distributors – folks from all segments of the trucking industry – strolled the aisles looking at trucks, searching for trucks and even voting for their favorite show trucks. Once again, Stars & Stripes organized the Truck Beauty Contest, where chrome is king and the smell of polish permeates the air.

The People’s Choice Award is voted on by show-goers, offering the attendees the opportunity to recognize their top picks, based on totally undefined criteria. It doesn’t matter what OEM it comes from; it doesn’t matter how clean or detailed it is; it makes no difference if it’s muralled or plain – all it has to be is somebody’s favorite. The show participants themselves are not permitted to vote (for obvious reasons). In Boston, every truck in competition received votes – lots of them! In the first two days of the show, more than 1100 votes were tallied. And on Saturday morning the favorite was announced – the People’s Choice Winner was Mark Hoyt and his Xtreme Transport 2004 Black Peterbilt 379X pulling a matching 2004 Kentucky Transporter trailer. Tucked inside were his wife’s electric yellow Corvette and his Harley Davidson motorcycle. Of course there was still plenty of room inside for more cars or bikes, boats or trophies.

Clint Dicks’ white and orange Peterbilt 379 short hood has become a crowd-pleaser since he first popped up on the truck show circuit last year. This year, he continued his winning ways, bringing home trophies in all his classes, the Road Works “Most Head-Turning Use of Chrome and Stainless on a Working Class Truck” award, as well as recognition from Peterbilt as one of the top three Peterbilts in the competition (see photo).

Ron and Jan Huey, from Greensburg, IN brought home the Best of Show Bobtail honors. Their 2000 Metallic Silver International 9400 was immaculate and pretty close to flawless. They had recent hood surgery – a careless driver in a truck stop parking lot last fall removed their old hood – or at least substantially rearranged it. The Hueys missed entering the competition at MATS this year because their truck was back in the shop, having some maintenance and cosmetic touch-up work performed. Now looking better than ever, in spite of the many miles they run (this truck has run well over 800,000 miles to date), Ron and Jan beamed as they collected three class trophies and their magnificent Best of Show trophy, a Waterford crystal vase.

One good win deserves another – or at least that’s what Tommy and Kim Turner of Cynthiana, KY think. Still riding high from their Best of Show win in Louisville at MATS, the Turners followed it up with another Best of Show Combo award at NATS. Their truck is deceptive in its simplicity. This 1995 teakwood and cream Peterbilt 379 pulling a 2003 Transcraft step-deck looks nice from a distance. Up close, it just gets better and better. Attention to detail, including lights inset in the deck of their trailer, which is tooled vinyl-clad and awesome, the bullet casings that cover their switches, the swirled paint on the air breather tubes – nothing has been left to chance. And they’d run roughly 14,000 miles in the few weeks between MATS and NATS. A working truck? You bet. They don’t rack up over 200,000 miles per year hauling jet engines for Southern Pride just sitting in some parking lot!

This Stars & Stripes Show Truck Event was proudly sponsored by: Peterbilt Motors Co., Chevron DELO, Newport’s RoadStar Magazine, International Truck and Engine Corporation, OOIDA, Rockwood Products, Alcoa Wheel Products, PPG Industries, Freightliner, Howes Lubricator Products, Valley Chrome Plating, Arvin Meritor, Road Works Manufacturing, Inc., The Holland Group, Truk-Rodz by Jones Performance, White Diamond Metal Polish, Hendrickson, Rig Skirts, Panelite and Midnight Trucking Radio Network. Our thanks go out to all of them for their support.

The next Stars & Stripes Truck Beauty Contest will be held at The Truck Show in Las Vegas, Nevada (indoors) on June 16-18. To get more information or to register your truck into this event, please contact Diana Owens at 916/786-3073 X10. We hope to see you there!