10-4 Magazine June 2024

Truck Show Report: By Daniel J. Linss caricature ar tist on Saturday (our longtime friend Greg Dohlen), there was plenty of enter tainment for the little ones to enjoy. And, as mentioned previously, the coloring contest featured three age groups of boys and girls, and each day, six age-appropriate bikes were awarded to the winners in each age group (three boys and three girls). And let me tell you, these kids who took home a free bike were smiling from ear to ear. Big thanks to our friends at Premier Paving in Ontario, CA for providing all the bicycles. Something else we have been doing since we took over this show is encouraging people to register in advance by offering the first 200 who do so a free “Bonus Bucket” filled with amazing items. These buckets have become highly prized and a big success thanks to the many sponsors who donate the products to put in them. In total, these buckets are filled with about $200 wor th of mostly cleaning products, which makes sense, since they all want their truck to be shiny at the show. This year, big thanks to A & L Truck Supply, Time 2 Shine, Sic Rigz, Zephyr Polishes, Bull Snot, The Custom Rag, 4 State Trucks, Stay Loaded, Shriners, Truckin’ For Kids, Mobile Smoke Check, and 10-4 Magazine for “filling the buckets” with a bunch of really good stuff. As the trucks rolled in and began to fill the lot, it was obvious this was going to be a special event. So many of the trucks in attendance were The 43rd annual Truckin’ For Kids (TFK) Show and Drags was again held at Irwindale Speedway in SoCal on April 27-28, 2024, and with yet another great turnout, we continue to build this event on the traditions of the past four decades. When we acquired this show three years ago, we had no intention of recreating the wheel. This event had a long history of success, fun, and raising money for various children’s charities, and our goal was just to build on that foundation. And I believe, with lots of help from great sponsors and volunteers, we have fulfilled that goal. But we aren’t done yet! With almost 300 trucks in attendance, 32 vendors, and thousands of spectators, the 2024 TFK event was another “Good Time For a GREAT Cause!” Since moving the show to the spring, after it was a fall affair for 40 years, we have heard nothing but good things. And why wouldn’t we – the weather is better, there are less shows around it to compete with, and it kicks off the truck show season out west in a big way. And once again, the track and their crew did another stellar job of managing the gate, running the drag strip, and handling all the little things so we didn’t have to (like por t-a-potties, trash cans, concessions, and security). With perfect Southern California weather on tap all weekend (temps in the upper-70s, clear blue skies, and no humidity), trucks began lining up early on Saturday morning. With the gate officially set to open at 9:00 AM, by then they were already lined up down the street, and by 11:00 AM, we were told the lineup was over two miles long. Although some people thought that was a bad thing, we were ecstatic! With over 200 trucks pre-registered, we were not surprised, but it seemed everyone decided to show up all at once. By about 1:00 PM the lineup had been reduced significantly, and by 3:00 PM, when we closed the truck gate for the day, there was no line at all, and everyone was parked. This year we debuted a new secondary gate just for vendors and volunteers to enter, and this proved to be a smar t addition that greatly improved the experience for our vendors and volunteers (last year they had to enter through the main gate with all the trucks, and some of them had to wait a long time to get inside, which was not efficient or fun for them – and we heard about it). But we listened and, hopefully, have now addressed that issue this year and moving forward. And with 32 vendors this year and almost 50 volunteers throughout the entire weekend, that gate was plenty busy. In addition to our large group of longtime volunteers like the Algorri family, the Avila family, the Malarkey family, Bob Watkins, and Leo Monteon, a ton of my family has jumped on board to help, as well, including my two sisters and their families, my mom, my three kids and their spouses and/or friends, and my awesome mother-in-law Polly, who ran the coloring contest in the Kid’s Zone. Many people came from out-of-state to help, including Jacob Gunderson and Stephanie Haas (who came from Wisconsin), our old friend Jed DeBardeleben and new friends JT and Trey (who came from Florida), and our longtime volunteer Pete Zamora, along with my father Clark (who both came from Arizona). We really can’t thank all these folks and so many others enough, because without them, we’d never be able to pull this event off! Speaking of the Kid’s Zone, once again it was a huge hit – with both kids and adults alike. With games to play, face painters, and a talented 22 10-4 Magazine / June 2024 BUILDING ON TRADITION