10-4 Magazine October 2021

Truck Show Report: By Eric Hill I’ve attended at Rantoul, this was the most trucks I’d ever seen, and trucks were parked in nearly every area of the show field. The final tally I was given on Sunday at the awards presentation was 238 trucks, which was awesome. Another fun event and one of my favorites on Saturday afternoon is the Kiddie Tractor Pull. Sponsored by our good friends from the Chrome Shop Mafia, the 10-4 Magazine booth was located just opposite of the Kiddie Tractor Pull area, so I was able to watch most of the kids make their pulls. I’m always amazed at how far these young girls and boys can pull the weighted sled with their little pedal-powered tractors. Another neat aspect of this event is watching the participants being cheered on and encouraged by their family and friends. It’s truly a family affair! The top finishers in each class of the Kiddie Tractor Pull were as follows. In the 4-6 Year Old class, it was 1st Knox Grinsteed, 2nd Lane Johnson, 3rd Stella Bussell, and 4th Gabriel Krumne. In the 7-8 Year Old class, it was 1st Braylee Carl, 2nd Adelene Witvoet, 3rd Owen Lawrence, and 4th Xander Krumrie. In the 9-10 Year Old class, it was 1st Jaxx Pruit, 2nd Evan Carl, 3rd Jaxson Huberts, This year’s Top Gun Largecar Shootout was again held at the Rantoul Aviation Center in Rantoul, Illinois, and brought out some of the “top guns” of trucking. Held on July 23-25, 2021, this show is in my back yard (about 60 miles from where I live in Normal, IL). I’ve been going to this show for many years, and it’s where I first met Erik “Big E” Sieben of 10-4 Magazine (RIP). It was typical central Illinois summer weather at Rantoul – sunny, hot and humid all weekend! The only break in the weather was Saturday night when the rain rolled in all around Rantoul. Many people are unfamiliar with the history of the Rantoul Aviation Center. Prior to 1993 it was an active United States military base named Chanute Air Force Base. It was commissioned in May of 1917 during World War I as one of 32 Air Force technical training bases across the United States. It’s a very large and open facility that covers over 1,100 acres, and its perfect for a truck show. Chanute Air Force base was named after Octave Chanute, a pioneer aeronautical engineer and experimenter, and a friend of the Wright Brothers. Interestingly, one of my uncles served a tour of duty in the 1950s at Chanute. Arriving at the show, I noticed many staging areas for cleaning, polishing and detailing rigs near the entrance. Several polishers and detailers were on-site and getting trucks and trailers polished and detailed to a show quality shine. They were extremely busy preparing trucks and trailers for judging. Some of the trucks I saw getting their shine on was Tony Huttenstein and his grayW900, and Dill and Dave McKinney with their two Peterbilts. It’s amazing to watch these polishers and detailers, and the magic they perform, on all this equipment. Typical of previous Top Gun shows, there was a full agenda of planned events Friday, Saturday and Sunday morning. The Friday schedule was light for the first day, with the following activities of registration and truck parking, vendor setup, and opening of the beer garden, sponsored by Shooters Bar & Grill. The highlight of Friday is the Parade of Lights at dusk, which goes from Rantoul to Thomasboro, and then back to the truck show grounds. Personally, this is my favorite event of the weekend. At dusk, trucks began pulling out to the north side of the show grounds onto Veterans Parkway of Rantoul. The cool thing about this event is the parade goes through the town of Rantoul, then south on Highway 45 for about six miles, to the small town of Thomasboro, IL, then back to the show grounds. All along the parade route, people are camped out to watch the parade of brightly lit show trucks and trailers. There is always a big outpouring of support by the people of Rantoul, Thomasboro, and surrounding areas, and this year was no different. Fortunately, Mother Nature provided us with good weather for the light parade. Saturday is typically the busiest day of the weekend. By noon on Saturday, truck show registration had ended, and I was informed there were 235 trucks registered for the event. In all the shows 30 10-4 Magazine / October 2021 TOP GUNS IN ILLINOIS