he 2026 show season officially kicked off as January wrapped up in Southern California with the 76th installment of the longest-running indoor car show, the Grand National Roadster Show (GNRS), which took over the Fairplex in Pomona—with not a hint of rain!

While the GNRS has just spent the last two decades of its three-quarter-century existence in SoCal, during that time it has become quite the place to be for classic trucks—from high-level Slonaker Memorial Award contenders to the daily drivers that fill up the surrounding outdoor space for the Grand Daddy Drive-In feature, co-sponsored by yours truly and In The Garage Media—and even in the Suede Palace, which celebrated its 20th year as part of the Big Show! What started out in the Bay Area back in the late ’40s as a premier hot rod show ultimately focusing on the coveted America’s Most Beautiful Roadster, has now become a yearly hub for some of the hottest classic pickups from California … and beyond!

From Building 4, where the AMBR contenders traditionally exhibit and thus all the hustle and bustle occurs throughout the three-day gathering, to the aforementioned Slonaker room (Building 6) and every other building on the Fairplex grounds—including this year’s Fat Attack exhibit in Building 9, where we saw plenty of previous CTP feature trucks—we spotted some fresh, amazing pickup builds. With everything you could imagine make/model wise from the likes of Customs and Hot Rods of Andice, Fat Fender Garage, Lopez Performance, Jackass Ranch Garage, Sew Cal Rods, Rain City Garage, HS Customs, and two of our favorite ’56 F-100s from South City Rod & Custom and East Bay Speed & Custom, we almost—almost—didn’t notice the beautiful roadster in AMBR competition!

And just like last year’s celebration of the 75th anniversary of the GNRS, this year saw a huge turnout for the Grand Daddy Drive-In, which practically has become a show within itself for many obvious reasons. We look forward to wandering throughout the Fairplex grounds to see what all the local talents have to offer more and more each year.

Stay tuned to Classic Truck Performance’s social media (@classic_truck_performance) or Rod Shows online (rodshows.com) for announcements concerning the upcoming fourth installment of the Grand National Truck Show and the coveted ARP World’s Most Beautiful Truck. Let’s keep the momentum going and make that the World’s Most Biggest Indoor Truck Show!