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August rolling around means it’s time to load up the trucks and the coolers and make the trek the Indianapolis, Indiana for the infamous Indy Truck Bash & Import Drags. This show keeps getting bigger and bigger every year and I always seem to have more fun every year I attend. This year was no exception. It all started for me Friday afternoon. After missing the meeting spot with the rest of the crew, the significant other and me had to do 100 mph on the freeway to get in back in the line with the rest of my friends. Ha Ha, what a way to start out a run. After catching up with the crew, me managed to make pretty good time for the 280-mile venture to the east coast Mecca, a.k.a. Indy Truck Bash. When we arrived at the hotel exit, I knew it was going to be a good weekend. Every hotel was already jam packed with show rides. What a great site. After getting settled in from the excitement, we finally crashed, hoping to get a few Z’s before the events that would take place that weekend. Ahhhh, Saturday had arrived. I love the feeling of waking up on Saturday morning, knowing I’m about to attend a run that just gets better as the years go by. Special Events and Latest Craze always put together an awesome show, and with that in mind, it seemed like I couldn’t get myself together fast enough to get to the show. After a quick shower and shave, change of clothes and all that drama, I met up with the crew at the breakfast buffet at the hotel. Let me break away from the show, because I have to give props to whoever thought of the buffet idea. Now, being the pimped out SSM staff member that I am, you know I didn’t pay for a damn thing. Instead, I managed to sneak a few sausage links and some hash browns off one of the kid’s plates. Ha Ha, and if that wasn’t cool enough, the girl at the buffet even told me I could get some juice from the buffet line. This morning was starting to get even better. After a free breakfast, we were ready to head to the show site and kick it with the rest of the crew. For me, I was ready to kick it with the crew, but start snapping photos that I could bring home to our beloved readers (and keep slave master Garrick off my ass at the same time!) The line at the park was already packed. You could see the hundreds of cars and trucks already set up inside, plus the few hundred waiting in line to roll in at the registration booth. People were everywhere waiting for their turn to enter the park, either in their ride that they drove, or pulling their beloved show vehicle off of the trailer. The level of competition was going to be high this year, as with every year, with some of the top dogs of the sport entering the show site.
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After getting squared away with the nice people from Special Events and Latest Craze, I started my first walk around to see what exciting things I could capture. All of the top clubs were on hand including Negative Camber and Relaxed Atmosphere, along with some of the lesser-known clubs that still bring out some of the nicest stuff at every event. There were so many different kinds of rides on hand; it was hard to really stay focused on just one type. One thing that I noticed this year though was how many compact cars were entered in the show. I’m used to Indy being a show that attracts mostly trucks, but every year the compact cars grow in numbers. My guess would be, in part, because not only is this a truck and car show, but also an import drag as well. Along with the hundreds of compact cars, there were slammed minis and fullsizes and tons of 4x4’s on hand as well. The show was very diverse this year, more so than previous years. The import drags at Indy keep getting better every year as well. I didn’t have as much time as I would have liked to watch the competition, but there’s something about seeing a daily driven four cylinder pulling a 11 or 12 second ¼ mile run. Even the ones that aren’t quite that quick are still fun to watch. Keep your eyes open, cause from what I understand, the import drags at Indy are supposed to be getting bigger and better next year as well. Back to the show. After looking at hundreds and hundreds of spectacular vehicles, I was able to talk to literally countless numbers of people that I had either just met or already known from my years of being involved in the sport. Walking down “Vendor’s Alley” is always a lot of fun at Indy as well. Many great well known and less known vendors were in hand promoting their products and talking to people including Toyo Tires, Weld Wheels, Bewley’s, Carparts.Com and Todd Wilt and Wilt Bilt Motorsports. Speaking of Todd Wilt, anyone who knows anything about hydraulic competitions knows this guy as a house hold name. This guy can literally do it all - hydraulics, air bags, body drops. On this day, Todd would be remembered more for his balls than anything. Hosting the hydraulics competition, Todd decided to take things to a different level and show people what it means to be Wilt Bilt. Anyone who has been keeping up with things knows Todd’s Toyota dancer. Well, at Indy Todd decided to go ahead and make his mark. After dancing the Toy for a short time, Todd went ahead and flipped it all the way over. Gotta love that! Everyone went crazy and Todd managed to make sure people knew who still runs things in the hydraulics world. Continued------>
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