You will hear a couple of recurring themes regarding the Car Craft Summer Nationals show at Beech Bend: variety, inclusiveness, and action. The action is a no-brainer: between the dragstrip and the autocross-slash-drift pit, at any given point in time you would hear the bellow of some poor machine getting caned into service. The inclusiveness stems from my overall view of the event, which mimics LS Fest’s excellent layout, but isn’t stuck to one engine. Which brings up the last point: variety. As I’ve said before, I went in expecting Pro Fairgrounds by the acre full and while there were no shortage of those cars on hand, there wasn’t a lack of other types present either. From a turbocharged Mercury Bobcat ripping up the strip to Tony Netzel’s snow-driven rolling work of art 1961 Plymouth Belvedere radiating in the sun, there was something for everyone. And we mean that too…from diesel trucks to drift cars packing the turbocharged inline-sixes instead of the automatic LS swap, it was present and accounted for, and ready for your viewing pleasure. And this is on Friday, when attendance at shows tends to be down. Just wait until you see what rolled in on Saturday…

Click on a photo below to see more from the fields on Friday!