10-4 Magazine / June 2025 23 for the day – or the entire weekend. This was a big hit, and something we will do again next year, for sure. As mentioned before, we had over 250 trucks on the lot, but I have to say, it was one of the finest collections of trucks we had ever seen at TFK. The quality of trucks in attendance was through the roof. All the “cool kids” and fleets were there, including names like Ingrid Brown, Chad Ellison, Bobby Vaz, Stan Alles, Albert Guzman, Bedrock, Central Valley Transport, Richie Foster, DeVries, DanDee Dairy, Rod Pickett, North Coast Wine, Double E, Hettinga, Ten West, Hammett Excavation, PJ Brink, Heet Trucking, Carballo Transport, JDT, Rivera Trucking, Soza Trucking, Bill & Luke Rethwisch, DeBoer, Lagomarsino Transport, Justin Mascaro, Rollin’ R, Vince Jenkins, Silva Trucking, Monarch Heavy Haul, Basse (Trey), Oldenkamp, Kent Swapp and so many others. On Sunday, the day started out a bit gloomy, but by early afternoon, it was nice and clear. The drag racing began at noon, and those grandstands were pretty packed! The first to make a pass on the quarter-mile track and open the show was one of Tony Franco’s jet dragsters (he brought two) from Muy Caliente Racing. After that blisteringly fast run, a not so fast, but very fun, race happened. Me and my TFK partner Tim climbed into a couple of those little, tiny Shriners cars and did a drag race of our own. These cars go about 30 mph and hardly have any brakes, so it was exciting, to say the least. After that the real racing began, which went on for about four hours, then it was time for the awards. This is a non-judged event, but we do give out about 20 trophies, most of which are chosen by fellow competitors, the people at the show, or just earned (like the drag racing awards and the Largest Fleet and Longest Tow trophies). We’d like to thank Dickerson Custom Trucks and Rockwood Products for building and donating all our trophies. This year, they were painted blue, which was different, and six of the bigger ones featured lights. Special thanks to Doug Kline at DCT for making sure the trophies were perfect, and to Molly and Dustin for getting them delivered to the track just in the nick of time on Friday afternoon. We would like to thank everyone who came out and participated in the event. We would also like to thank each and every one of our volunteers – over 30 of them – for coming and helping us run the show. Many of these folks live in Southern California, but even after the venue change, they still opted to go “over the hill” and help out. Some people even came from as far away as Arizona, Washington, and Montana to volunteer! Thanks to Jacob Gunderson for coming out from Wisconsin to help us with the pictures, along with Tim Sieben and his daughter Gracie, and John Testa, who came from Oregon to do live remotes. Special thanks to our friends Roger & Annette Ghidelli for pulling our TFK trailer to the show and, this year, for cooking us all breakfast, too. All of us on the TFK team, which includes me, my wife Shannon, Tim Sieben and his wife April, our matriarch Jean Osugi, and special help from Kris and Angelina Gaare, can’t thank you all enough for coming out and supporting the cause. Raising money for kids in need is what this show has always been about, and we are happy to announce we will be making a $60,000 donation to Shriners this year, bringing our four-year total to $270,000! This show has been “a good time for a great cause” for over 40 years, and going “back to the future” might be what keeps it going for a few more decades. Next year’s dates have been set for May 2-3, 2026, so put it on your calendar now and keep an eye on www.truckinforkids.org for more details as they become available. n
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