Grand National Roadster Show  Jan 22-25, 2004      by Mark Byer

California Roadsters - Group Display

        Now we don't have a bunch of trailer queens in the California Roadsters, and we're not big Showtime type rodders, which made us a little hesitant when an invitation was received to do a club display at the inaugural move of the Grand National Roadster Show to SoCal.  

        But what the hell, it's in our own backyard and we do have a couple of nice roadsters.  Mark Byer took care of the booking and coordination; Phill Whetstone designed our display and made some fabulous storyboards for the club and each roadster; and detailer extraordinaire Tony Correia managed to get each roadster detailed in time for show.  

        The three-day show was, by all accounts, a huge success with California Roadsters doing a sweep. All six roadsters we chose for the show won awards, plus our club display placed in the “Money”. 

        Dick Roseberry, Tony Correia and Max Jamiesson picked up class awards for 28-32 Highboy Roadsters; Frank Currie's World's Fastest Streetable Roadster took runner-up in the Open Roadster class; Bernie Couch placed in the Nostalgic Roadster class; 

        Mark Byer received Best in Class for Restro-Rod Roadsters and Jon Kennedy got Second Place for his 36 Ford Woody in the Restro-Rod Delivery class and another Second Place for his two Whizzers in the Classic Bicycles class, that ride along in their matching woody trailer.

        The club also took Second Place in the Outstanding Club/Group Display over our friends, the LA Roadsters, which only had a four-roadster display, but maybe that's all the roadsters they have left in the club.  

        After the extended awards presentation, it was confirmed why our roadster guys aren't into Showtime. When Mark was driving his roadster out of the Fairplex, with his three foot high trophy strapped in beside him, one of the show attendants was trying to be helpful and asked if he needed help finding his trailer. Hell - this baby is for driving, and ain't no show queen. Open the gate and let me outa here!

Dick Roseberry

Tony Correia

Max Jamiesson

Frank Currie

Bernie Couch

Mark Byer