Truck Show Report: By Josh Rietveld For 18 years, there has been a truck show in a small Midwest town about 120 miles south of Chicago on the tarmac of an old Air Force base in Rantoul, Illinois. The show was always known as the Top Gun Large Car Shootout, which was started by Tom and DaVeda Reitz in 2008. Sadly, Tom passed away in 2018, which left DaVeda to keep future shows going. At the end of the 2025 Top Gun show, DaVeda announced that this was the last one through tear-filled eyes. Every year, at the end of July, it’s like going to a family reunion. It had become my tradition, along with many others, to attend each and every year, as so many memories were made and friendships gained, all out on that old tarmac. That show was where I begged this girl to come meet me for the first time (we had mutual friends setting us up). She actually did come to meet me at the show after driving 1.5 hours to get there. We got married 10 months later, and we are still going strong. We always made it our family tradition to take our son to that show each year after we were married, too. I was excited to hear lots of talk behind closed doors of someone stepping up to host another truck show on the same grounds as the Top Gun show. This would not be taking over the previous show, but starting a brand-new one, with a new name. It just so happened to be a friend of mine that I’ve known for over 20 years who stepped up to do a show in Rantoul. Kris Santoianni, known as “Halfkut” to many, is a fellow trucker and President of Chi Town Large Cars Club, and he has a passion for old-school trucking and trying to keep those old-school values alive in today’s trucking world. Kris couldn’t put a show on by himself, so he teamed up with some great people from Pride Truck Wash in Hebron, Indiana, Diesel Pride Apparel, Summer Shine Supply, Roger Lake Trucking, and D&S Express. Talking with Kris on the phone a couple weeks before the show, he was already excited about how many trucks were pre-registered for the event. On Friday, July 24, me and my son Carson loaded our golf cart in the back of our toy hauler and headed down to Rantoul from our home in Cedar Lake, Indiana. Upon arrival, I couldn’t believe how full the lot already was with trucks. A huge stage was set up for Tony Justice to put on an awesome show on Friday night, along with tons of different food vendors, die-cast truck dealers, cleaning supplies, and some other booths selling some very cool and unique items. Riding around on our golf cart, we saw lots of familiar faces from years past, and we also met lots of new people with some pretty sweet rides, who had never even taken their truck to a show before. And with over 260 trucks on the tarmac and the grass, the turnout for this first-ever (sort of) show was amazing! One truck that really stood out to me was a Kenworth W900A “Golden Nugget” edition. I’ve seen many replicas of these trucks, but never a real one, as Kenworth only produced 200 of these rigs). Along with many other cool rides at the show, the black “Rubber Duck” Mack from the movie Convoy was there, too! At the end of the day on Friday, I took my son down to Champaign to a local barbecue restaurant that Erik (Big E) Sieben, one of the founders of 10-4 Magazine, took me and his mother, along with a bunch of my friends, to for our first date when she came to that show many years before. It was a nice trip down memory lane with my son! We sure do miss you, Big E. Saturday, July 25, we woke up to a light drizzle, so we waited it out in the camper. Once the drizzle let up, we headed to the show on the golf cart to start shooting some pictures and admire more trucks that showed up. Saturday’s activities also included a Jake brake competition, stereo competition, and a light show truck parade at dusk, which had 125 trucks participate in it. Sunday morning, we arrived at the show grounds early and ordered some biscuits and gravy from one of the local food truck vendors, and I would highly suggest it if they are there next year! Then, it was time to announce all the awards. Awesome trophies, built and designed by Rockwood Products, were handed out to the winners. Shortly after the award ceremony ended, we loaded up the golf cart and headed back to Northwest Indiana. If you’ve never been to a little podunk town in Illinois named Rantoul, I suggest you check it out in 2027 for the Large Car Takeover on the Tarmac. This show will definitely not disappoint, and I only see it growing bigger each year. n EDITOR’S NOTE: Big thanks go out to Josh Rietveld, Carson Rietveld and Jacob Gunderson for providing all the photos for this show report. 38 10-4 Magazine / October 2026 A LARGECAR TAKEOVER
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MjA1MjUy