This year’s Huntington Beach Cruise-In was a TON of fun with this year’s event growing to two days and adding a Sunday race/autocross to the traditional Saturday car show. Even the Saturday car show was expanded to incorporate Main Street as the city of Huntington Beach closed off two full blocks of Main Street for Factory Five cars!

The action got underway Friday night as Factory Five customer and HB Cruise-In organized Dave Hodgkins hosted a casual cookout at his house. About 30 cars showed up. Dave son’s Grant would serve as the official photographer for the weekend and other customers would volunteer their film, all of which has resulted in some BEAUTIFUL shots of the weekend car show and races.

Saturday, at first light, the big Factory Five 18 wheel show & event truck drove onto the pier plaza and Factory Five President Dave Smith and FFR tech master Tony Zullo began set-up with customers Ron Everitt and his wife Kelly, Dave Hodgkins, Doug Wonderly, Erik Hansen, Bob Stewart, Karen Salvaggio, and others.

The car show began at 9 AM with many Factory Fives arriving earlier. This year, there were two registration tents since the show involved the pier plaza with the adjacent parking lot on the beach as well as Main Street from Pacific Coast Highway at the base of the pier all the way past Dave Smith’s favorite breakfast spot, “The Sugar Shack”, at the end of the second block.

The band The Fabulous Nomads set-up at the intersection of Main Street and Walnut and were playing by 10 AM. Across from the band, Jim Ryan from KONI Shocks and Dustin Burr from Wilwood Brakes were on hand to answer customers questions about brakes and shocks on their Factory Five.

Jeff Dahlin, Executive Producer of Hot Rod Magazine, was on hand to check out the car and select one car to receive Hot Rod Magazine’s Editor’s Choice Award. On the magazine front, Steve Temple from Kit Car Builder was also on hand to report on the event and present the KCB Editor’s Choice Award to one of the cars in the show.

Jeremy Luchini from SolidWorks Software, a partner company to Factory Five, and Jeff Miller from Miller Customs volunteered to serve as car show judges. The competition was very tough as last year’s returning “Best in Show” winner Chuck Armstrong had returned with his absolutely stunning yellow and creme aviation-themed ’33 Hot Rod (to make matters worse, his car was selected as a cover car for KCB Magazine).

The perfect 70 degree sunny day absolutely FLEW by, and at 2 PM, owner’s gathered at the pier plaza for the awards presentation. There were some surprises and some outstanding custom cars. Mark & Gary Rasmussen’s entry looked to be a sure thing for “Best in Show”, and there were literally 15-20 super well-built cars that could easily have taken the top spot. In the end, the judges could not find a better than car than Chuck’s and he earned “Best in Show”! The owner’s agreed that he is to be banned for next year! (Just kidding.)

Factory Five customer Mike & Julie Casey wok “Best in Show – Roadster” with their pearl red Mk3 Roadster.

Award Winners

Best in Show – Chuck Armstrong, yellow ’33 Hot Rod
Best in Show, 2nd Place – Mark & Gary Rasmussen, vintage black Mk4
Best Roadster – Mike & Julie Casey, peral red Mk3
Best Roadster, 2nd Place – Lewis Britz, Nemo Mk3
Best ’33 Hot Rod – Chuck Armstrong, yellow ’33 Hot Rod
Best ’33 Hot Rod, 2nd Place – Tim Noble, light green ’33 Hot Rod
Best Type 65 Coupe – Fernando Vivero, silver metallic Type 65 Coupe
Best Type 65 Coupe, 2nd Place – Ron Stebles, bright white Type 65 Coupe
Best GTM – Steve Knecht, red and black GTM
Best Use of Chrome – Rick Walton, gray ’33 Hot Rod
Best Paint – Aaron Hogue, light blue Mk4 Roadster
Best Interior/Details – John Lipka, red Mk3 Roadster
Best Engine – Ron De Avila, radical yellow Mk3 Roadster
Best Innovative Design – Jeff Perl, driving Mk3 Roadster with no body!
Hot Rod Magazine Editor’s Choice – Ron De Avila, yellow Mk3 Roadster
KCB Magazine Editor’s Choice – Steve Knecht, red GTM

Factory Five customer Chuck Armstrong won “Best in Show – Overall” and “Best in Show – Hot Rod”.

The Saturday Cruise-In was over at 4 PM and the streets were opened up to normal vehicle traffic. Customers broke up into small groups and dispersed to local watering holes along Main Street and PCH. Customer Karen Salvaggio reportedly hosted a big bash down along the water with her camper van and close friends.

Sunday morning, customers were treated to a tour of the Riverside Auto Museum at 10:30 to 11:30 while the Factory Five was setting up at the autocross with customers Erik Hansen and others.

The Sunday autocross was a fun competition at Adam’s Motorsports Park in Riverside. TC McNett brought along his support van complete with music, tents, spare helmets, and every conceivable thing you would ever need at a race. About 25 customers took part in the autocross and got a chance to run their cars at an elevated pace through the very technical mini road course at Adam’s Motorsports Park.

Results from the Time Attack Challenge were separated into three categories: Fastest Times, Coolest Car, and Best Driving Style. Spectators voted on the last two categories.

Results:

Fastest Time:
1st Place – TC McNett, Challenge Car, 44.54
2nd Place – Dave Smith, Red Mk4 Roadster, 45.28
3rd Place – Marty Prario, Mk3 Roadster, 46.09
4th Place – Erik Hansen, ’33 Hot Rod, 47.01
5th Place, Freddy Hebert, Mk3 Roadster, 48.01
6th Place – Dennis Russell, ’33 Hot Rod, 48.24

Driving Style:
1st Place – TC McNett, Challenge Car
2nd Place – John Tsongish, Mk3 Roadster
3rd Place – Dave Smith, Red Mk4 Roadster

Coolest Car:
1st Place – Ron S., White Typed 65 Coupe
2nd Place – Dave Smith, Red Mk4 Roadster
3rd Place – Tom Coon, Red Type 65 Coupe

Based on overall votes scored, Dave Smith edged out TC McNett for the overall win (this was a complete scam and TC should have won, but Dave has a fragile ego).

It was a great day, extremely hot, and huge thanks to TC McNett for bringing his entire race trailer, tents, etc. And huge thanks to Erik Hansen and the boys at Adam’s Motorsports Park. Sunday night saw Factory Five’s going off in different directions heading back home to wrap up an exciting weekend.

Thanks to Grant Hodgkins, Dave Borden, Deane Christopher, Erik Hansen, and Jim Ryan for all of the great photos. You can view more images in our photo galleries or on the Factory Five Forum by clicking here.

Factory Five customers Erik Hansen and Mark Stackler, FFR President Dave Smith, Tech guy Tony Zulu, and master painter Jeff “Da Bat” Miller enjoy a cold one after the HB show.