Overdrive Magazine | Trucking Business News & Owner Operator Info
Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/550385
Custom Rigs gAts PReview 64 | Overdrive | August 2015 The show also will host dozens of other custom rigs in one of the top show truck events in the country. The four Best of Show winners qualify to compete in next year's Pride & Polish National Champion- ship at the 2016 GATS. The National Championship win- ners will be named at a ceremony Saturday, Aug. 29. Rigs in this story are among those competing in the champion- ship. Visit OverdriveOnline.com/ truckerschoice to see all of the competitors. MORE AT GATS THAN SHOW TRUCKS Though Pride & Polish is one of the main draws of the Great American Trucking Show, the annual industry trade event also has free musical performances, hundreds of trucking exhibits, celebrity appearances, giveaways, the culmination of the Overdrive- Red Eye Radio Trucker Talent Search, and educational sessions, including Partners in Busi- ness seminars for existing and prospective owner-operators. See Page 51 to see more of what GATS has in store for attendees and to learn how to register to attend. Going for thirds: Wisconsin-based small fleet owners Vinnie Diorio (above) and Bill Rethwisch (below) are vying for their third straight Pride & Polish National Championship. Diorio won the award in 2013 and 2014 with his orange and purple 2013 Peterbilt 389 and Mac trailer. This year, his 1985 Peterbilt 359, built to look exactly like a stock Pete from the 1980s, qualified to compete in the cham- pionship by winning Best of Show at July's Fitzgerald Truck Show. Rethwisch also could win his third straight. In 2013, he won Best of Show with his orange and white 2012 Peterbilt 389 and Polar tanker, the "Dreamsicle," while in 2014, he won with his green and white 2013 Peterbilt 389 and Polar tanker, "Blood, Sweat and Gass." This year, the '13 Pete will return to defend its championship in the Working Combo category. California-based three-truck fleet owner and operator Ray Rodriguez of Lil' Ray's Transport will be competing in the National Championship with his 2015 Peterbilt 389 and matching step- deck. The truck, named "Wicked," is a testa- ment to Rodriguez' "messed-up head," he says, with demons, bats, gargoyles, sirens and other underworld-like creatures gracing the truck inside and out. Rodriguez won Best of Show at last year's GATS and at this year's Dynaflex Monster Stack Shootout. Longtime Pride & Polish competitor Todd Roccapriore of Clean Slate Environmental and his 1999 Peterbilt 379, "Disorderly Conduct," will be competing in Limited-Mileage Bobtail. The truck picked up one of the first Pride & Polish National Championships in 2010, though with a different owner. Roccapriore added his own touches to the rig this year and returned it to the show circuit, picking up a Best of Show win at the 75 Chrome Shop Show in April.