Millions of passenger cars were pumped out of General Motors between 1955 and the end of 1957, and if we didn’t know any better, we would think that a solid third of those cars had descended upon Beech Bend for the inaugural Tri-Five Nationals, hosted by Danchuk. For days prior to the event, Bowling Green was inundated with so many finned cars that there were traffic jams of classic Chevrolets around town before the eve of the event! It’s not surprising that the first-ever event was something special in it’s own right, with a factory tour of Lokar Performance Products before moving on to Advanced Plating in Nashville. But the finale was when tons upon tons of classic iron (and a few bits of fiberglass!) finally descended onto Beech Bend’s grounds. Even early in the morning of the first day, the show fields were packed, the swap meet was up and going, the autocross course was set up and the dragstrip was ready for everybody who came out to race.
We saw it all: Gassers, Pro Touring, old-school Pro Street, Street Freaks, Kustoms, and near-perfect restorations. We even had a couple of celebrity cars out and about, with Jeff Lutz of Drag Week fame and both of his absolutely wicked all-black ’57s and the 1955 “Blasphemi” of Roadkill’s Mike Finnegan. We’ve got a few galleries filled with nothing but tri-fives, so be sure to paw through and check them out!
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