Tag: 2016winners

2016 GATS Best of Show winner, Builders Bobtail: The next ‘Project’

The crew out of Triple R Diesel’s Texas Chrome Shop showed its latest highly custom build for the first time at GATS, culminating more than a year-long venture that Texas Chrome’s Roland Mendez says “sets a new bar” for the company’s show rigs.

October 5, 2016

2016 GATS Best of Show winner, Working Bobtail: Equipment hauler’s dream

Boullion’s showed the Pete for four straight years at GATS, never thinking he’d pick up the coveted Best of Show nod. “It was a shock,” he says. “I still pinch myself. It’s something I’d never thought I’d even get.”

October 3, 2016

2016 GATS Best of Show winner, Limited-Mileage Combo: Crème de la crème

Freddy Velasco’s 2003 Peterbilt 379 was given an overhaul before the 2015 Great American Trucking Show, perhaps highlighted by Velasco’s unique paint scheme of purple and “crème brule.” The rig’s “California Dreamin’” moniker was suggested to Velasco by, what else, the model year. It won’t be picking up produce out in the Golden State anytime soon, he says.

September 30, 2016

2016 Pride & Polish National Champion, Builders Class Bobtail: From ‘ratted out’ to rat rod

Following a few years off from the showing his small fleet’s trucks, Minnesota-based aggregates hauler Jonathan Eilen said he wanted to “come back and make a statement” on the Pride & Polish circuit this year. Just six weeks after qualifying, Eilen left GATS with his statement made and a National Championship trophy in hand.

September 28, 2016

TC16_JonathanEilen

2016 Pride & Polish National Champion, Builders Class Combo: A father’s special truck build

Nearly 2,000 metal puzzle pieces adorn the inside and outside of Michael Manuel’s “One of Many.” Manuel built the rig for his 23-year-old daughter, Kara, who has autism.

September 27, 2016

TC16_MichaelManuel-2017-05-05-09-25

2016 Pride & Polish National Champion, Limited-Mileage Combo: Jordan Jay takes the family mantle

Jay’s company, Jay Transport out of Rigdy, Idaho, hauls specialized over-length shipments on the West Coast. The fleet runs 23 trucks total, most of them leased owner-operators. But the seven fleet trucks owned by Jay himself all sport the two-tone look. “It’s kind of my thing,” he says. “My dad kinda had his theme, and I have my theme. I wanted it to be similar — classy and clean just like his, but in my own way.”

September 26, 2016

Jordan Jay’s 2015 Peterbilt 389 and Western flatbed won the Pride & Polish championship in the Limited-Mileage Combo category.

2016 Pride & Polish National Champion, Limited-Mileage Bobtail: Josh Skidmore’s duotone calling card

Small fleet owner Josh Skidmore says his signature yellow and white paint scheme is like a personal calling card, and it’s a scheme that’s done him well, having scored the Utah-based operator two Pride & Polish National Championship trophies with two separate trucks.

September 23, 2016

Josh Skidmore’s 2016 Peterbilt 389

2016 Pride & Polish National Champion, Working Bobtail: The original ‘Icon’

The 2015 Kenworth W900 Icon shown jointly by Kyle Cousins and Sid Calangelo is a rarity on the show circuit simply by way of being an Icon. However, Cousins’ KW is even more of a rarity: It’s the first-ever Icon edition built by Kenworth, numbered 000.

September 22, 2016

Cousins’ 2015 Kenworth W900 Icon, which is shown jointly with Fleenor Brothers dispatcher Sid Calangelo.

2016 Pride & Polish National Champion, Working Combo: Joe Regalado’s 2000 Pete doubles up

Regalado has only entered two shows — last year’s GATS and this year’s. “I showed it last year for the first time, and we won Best of Show. I go back this year to the nationals and win. I’m spoiled now,” he says. Profiling the winners of 2016’s Great American Trucking Show Pride & Polish…

September 21, 2016

“Blue” — a 2000 Peterbilt 379 owned by small fleet owner Joe Regalado — picked up the 2016 Pride & Polish National Champion on the Working Combo category.

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