GTR Festival USA 2025 was off the hook. This was the second year for this event, after 10 years of shows in Australia, and additional shows in England and New Zealand, this event series has become a global phenomenon. With Andrew Hawkins behind it, these events have grown to be the premier festival style events for GTR racers, fans, and drivers, and I was THRILLED to be a part of it. After being recommended as the announcer and race director by the fine folks at the Texas Motorplex, and finding that I was somehow available that weekend, I was tickled pink to work with the GTR Festival crew for this epic event. It really was something special in the festival event landscape, and given the fact that I’ve announced more festival events than just about anybody else on the planet, trust me when I tell you this one was great.

The cars were epic, with R32, R33, R34, and R35 GTRs on the property for show and shine, drifting, roll racing, drag racing, and more. And the quality of cars at this event were truly mind blowing. I met all kinds of great people, saw incredible performances, and worked with my new brother from another mother in Australia, “Frosty”. We had a great time on the mic all weekend, learned to understand what the hell the other one was saying, and ultimately were just feeling lucky to be in the booth talking about all these great performances.

On the dragstrip we saw cars running as quick as low 6’s in the quarter at nearly 230 mph, and roll racers going nearly 230 as well. It was impressive to say the least and very very fun to be a part of. I can’t thank the Texas Motorplex and GTR Festival staff enough. They did their jobs like legends as always, and it was a pleasure to be a part of it.

During a one hour window of downtime on Friday evening, right before the sun went down, I walked around part of the show and grabbed some photos. Not a lot, two galleries worth in fact, but it will give you a taste of what was there. And there were things that weren’t GTRs too! If you had something else you thought could take out the GTRs on the dragstrip or in the roll race, it was welcome and there were Lambos, Audis, Corvettes, Mustangs, Camaros, and more that showed up to try.

If you want to attend one of the 2026 GTR Festival events, visit their website for more information. And hit them up on socials and tell them you want me at their other events around the world! The BANGshift Chad World Tour 2026 is in the works as we speak, and it would be great to add England, Australia, and New Zealand to the list of stops! Visit GTRFestival.com here!

I also want to give a special shout out to the folks at PPG, Pfitzner Performance Gearboxes, who make insanely awesome sequential transmissions for nearly any application. They have some sexy stuff, and you can even get it through American Powertrain! 

And wait until you see the cool cars we’re going to go visit at Cars From Japan USA who has just opened up a showroom in Dallas! They were on hand as a major sponsor of this show and had awesome JDM machines on site. The blue wagon in the photo gallery below gave me lumber and I could see myself driving it daily. Word on the street is that it is far more affordable than you might think.

Check out the photos below and click any of them to make them larger so you can scroll through them like a slide show.