Click here to register for the Great American Trucking Show. |
A year’s worth of shining, polishing, waxing and wiping comes to a head this month in Dallas at the Great American Trucking Show, where four trucks will emerge as the 2014 Overdrive’s Pride & Polish National Champions.
The contest pits the 20 Best of Show winners from the season’s five Pride & Polish shows, dating back to last year’s GATS winners. Winners from the 2013 GATS and 2013 Performance Diesel Inc Truck Show & Dyno event Pride & Polish, along with the top rigs from the Pride & Polish events at the 2014 75 Chrome Shop Show, 2014 River States Customz Show and Fitzgerald Truck Show, will be on hand and in the competition.
Cast your vote for Pride & Polish’s top rig
The judges aren’t the only ones who have a say in naming the Pride & Polish champs: You can vote once per day leading up to the show for your favorite truck, and the truck with the most votes at the end will be named the Truckers’ Choice National Champion. Click here to vote. |
The trucks will be specially staged and judged in a special round, apart from the show’s main judging round.
In addition to the National Championship trucks, GATS will also be packed with show trucks competing in the general Pride & Polish competition, and the winners will qualify to compete in next year’s championship round.
The show’s winners will be announced in a ceremony open to the public in the show truck staging area at 11 a.m. on Saturday, Aug. 23.
Here are the trucks that will be competing in the championship:
LIMITED MILEAGE BOBTAIL: |
Joel Dawes, 1988 Peterbilt 379
Austin Ashley, 2007 Peterbilt 379
Seth Denning, 2006 Peterbilt 379
Paul Marcotte, 1999 Peterbilt 379
LIMITED MILEAGE COMBO: |
Vinnie Diorio, 2013 Peterbilt 389 and 2009 Mac trailer
Brian Davis, 2005 Peterbilt 279 and 2012 Wilson trailer
Josh Skidmore, 2007 Peterbilt 379 and 2014 2014 Western Elite stepdeck (trailer not pictured)
Michael Manuel, 1984 Peterbilt 359 and 2003 Benson flatbed
WORKING BOBTAIL: |
Bob and Shelley Brinker, 2000 Freightliner Classic XL
Ron Brubaker, 1993 Peterbilt 379
Ken Fisher, 1997 Peterbilt 379
Isaac Aguilar, 2005 Peterbilt 379
Raymond Riojas, 1983 Peterbilt 359
WORKING COMBO: |
Small fleet owner Bill Rethwisch earned Best of Show honors in two Pride & Polish shows in the 2014 series — With two different trucks. His trucks will be squaring off against one another in the Working Combo category. The orange and white rig, “Dreamsicle”, won the Pride & Polish National Championship in the Working Combo category in 2013 and qualified to compete again this year by winning Best of Show in the PDI show last November. The green truck, “Blood, Sweat, and Gass”, won Best of Show at the 75 Chrome Shop show in April. Dreamsicle is a 2012 Peterbilt 389 pulling a Polar tanker, and Gass is a 2013 389 and Polar tanker.
Rethwisch’s 2012 Peterbilt 389 and matching tanker
Dan Brubaker, 2014 Peterbilt 389 and 2015 Wilson livestock trailer
Eric Bilgo, 1995 Peterbilt 379 and Mac trailer
Jerry Mies, 2013 Peterbilt 389 and 2007 tanker
