46th Annual Tulsa Rod And Custom Show - Sooner Style

Unlike this day and age, when trucks rolled off the line years ago they were sent straight into action. Whether it was the farm, oil field or the local plumber, the beds were filled with tools and the bench seats with grease, grit, and grime. Unfortunately, after years of abuse, the old trucks were swept to pastures, barns, and junkyards for retirement. Fortunately, the Midwest is a vast land filled with retirees ready to be resurrected. Just attend a hot rod show in the Midwest and you'll see what we mean. Take the Darryl Starbird 46th Annual National Rod and Custom Car Show in Tulsa, Oklahoma, for example; it's loaded with trunkless wonders.

Once again, the 46th Annual Darryl Starbird show didn't disappoint. We saw a plethora of trucks scattered throughout the building. Best part is we saw a good variety of year, make, model, and styles of build. There was even a truck qualifier in the Go For the Gold tournament. The Go For the Gold award is an exclusive Tulsa award that encourages builders to create a vehicle displaying innovation, execution, design, and engineering. The award is open to all year, make and model vehicles. The real kicker is, besides actually winning, the winner also receives the largest cash purse in the hot rod industry, twenty grand! On Friday night the field of entrants is narrowed down to the Fine Nine, and the winner is announced Sunday night. Sadly, the truck didn't rein king come closing time, but it was still rad to see one in the Fine Nine holding strong.

Years ago, Tulsa was the oil capital of the world, and because of it, they built the Quicktrip Center (then it was the Expo Square) to hold the largest indoor oil trade show in the country. Long story short, oil equipment is large, and for that reason, the building is even bigger. Because of the mass amount of space available, the Starbird show has room to "play." Let's start with the lower level of the building, which holds monster truck races. Throughout the weekend, 8,000 pounds of mayhem fly over the pummeled rubble of cars below. Along with that is freestyle motocross riders soaring 45 feet in the air performing such acrobatic tricks as candy bars, cerran wraps, and knack-knacks . . . not entirely sure what they are, but they look cool; or crazy, dangerous, insane, and the list goes on. Upstairs are more sights and sounds. Several hot rod icons were on hand over the weekend, including the legendary kustomiser/hot rodder/painter/speed freak Gene Winfield, the animated Norm Grabowski, and the most famous mustache in all of the automotive land, Dennis Gage, the host of "My Classic Car." Other attractions included the Pinstriper's Jamboree, Brian Dunning and His Rockabilly Band, the Texas Bikini Team, and more. All in all, the show is a good time from the minute the doors open until closing time. For information on next year's show, log onto to www.darrylstarbird.com, but for now, take a look at what this year had to offer.