Angelo Vespi’s 1969 Camaro Named a Top Five Finalist for Street Machine of the Year at the Goodguys Columbus Nationals

http://goo.gl/IywoDy Every year the anticipation of the Goodguys Columbus Nationals seems to grow a little bit. This year was no different. The crew at Detroit Speed was overly excited to get to Columbus and when they did, as always, it didn’t disappoint. With the autocross sponsor shootout, Detroit Speed’s latest creation, Angelo Vespi’s 1969 Camaro unveiling, as well as a full weekend of autocross action, there was no shortage of excitement at the Columbus expo center during the long weekend.

The weekend starts a little earlier than usual for Detroit Speed. The crew jumped in the Test Cars and made the over 400 mile trip up 77 through the mountains of West Virginia on the way to Goodguys Columbus early Thursday morning. This is a great chance to shake out the Test Cars as they prepare for a full weekend of autocross action. After the crew arrived and setup was complete, Kyle Tucker met up with a man who was anticipating this day for a long time. Angelo Vespi was at the show waiting eagerly to see his Detroit Speed built 1969 Camaro. The smile on his face said it all as Kyle and Stacy Tucker dropped the trailer door to unveil the matte white, black and red beast of a Camaro. The weekend was just getting started for Angelo and the Camaro as Friday it would run the autocross in the Street Machine of the Year competition.

Friday started out with great weather as the Detroit Speed team loaded up the pit cart and made their way to the Goodguys Columbus autocross. Kyle drove the DSE 1970 Camaro Test Car while Stacy and Ryan took turns with the DSE 1966 Mustang Test Car. Stacy, and Ryan made sure to keep the passenger seat filled with customers looking to get a feel for the Detroit Speed Mustang suspension parts. Racing continued through the morning until noon when the Street Machine of the Year competitors took over for 2 hours. New for the last few years, Street Machine of the Year competitors must complete at least 2 laps around the autocross in order to be eligible for voting. To say Angelo Vespi was happy with the result would be a major understatement. With Kyle driving Angelo’s 1969 Camaro, he finished 6 seconds ahead of the nearest competitor in the Street Machine of the Year autocross. Autocross class racing fired back up in the afternoon and after the first day of racing Kyle sat in 2nd place in the Pro Class.

While not competing in the SMOTY autocross, Angelo Vespi’s Camaro was one of the major hits of the show with crowds surrounding every inch of the Camaro throughout the day as it sat in the autocross pits and then eventually being moved back to the Detroit Speed hauler for the remainder of the afternoon.

Saturday morning brought the autocross sponsor shootout. If you remember last year, it was Kyle Tucker driving the DSE 1970 Camaro Test Car to victory with a win over Rob McGregor in the finals. After a driver’s meeting, some practice laps, and qualifying, the event was ready to kick into high gear with a single elimination bracket style event. Kyle made it all the way to the semi-finals before eventually being knocked out. Danny Popp was crowned champion. After the sponsor shootout, the class racing took back over and Kyle, Ryan and Stacy all ran hard giving numerous rides. Unfortunately the team came up a little short at the autocross this weekend but many DSE “Equipped” cars were out in full force and performing well. One of those was Ray Thompson. Ray is one of Detroit Speed’s first customers ever and finished strong in 3rd place in the Street Machine Class. Another Detroit Speed customer, Billy Utley, finished 4th in the autocross. Great job guys!

Saturday wasn’t just about the autocross, it was also about finding out if Angelo Vespi’s 1969 Camaro would be selected as a finalist for the Street Machine of the Year award. To ours and Angelo’s delight, it was selected and made its way to the Celeste building for the announcement of the Street Machine of the Year and Street Rod of the Year awards. Detroit Speed was thrilled with the top 5 Street Machines as 3 of them were Detroit Speed “Equipped.” It was a very deep competition that even included a Ridler winner but at the end it was Steve Tornari and his twin-turbo 1967 Nova by Miranda Built Inc. that came home with the win. Overall we are proud of Angelo Vespi’s 1969 Camaro being a finalist and also being named a PPG dream car.

Sunday was an All-American Sunday which opens the show up to any year car that is American made or American powered. The autocross was open again Sunday morning for everyone to get a little cone carving in before the end of the show. Unfortunately some inclement weather came in the afternoon and cut things short.

This is always a fantastic show that seems to get bigger every year if that is even possible. From Angelo Vespi’s 1969 Camaro debut to all the fun of the autocross this is definitely an event that will be remember by Detroit Speed for a long time. We would like to thank Goodguys for putting on another spectacular performance and for everyone who came out to support us. We look forward to doing it all again next year.

Click here for Goodguys Columbus autocross results.