Havoc 2005

Mini Truckin' Cover Truck CorralFrom the very beginning, we wanted the Mini Truckin' and Sport Truck Havoc show to be more than just a show 'n' shine. That's why we decided to go all-out and make sure that the baddest mini-trucks would come out to this first-year kickoff. We put together the first-ever Mini Truckin' Cover Truck Corral, where all past cover trucks could come and compete head to head for braggin' rights as the top dawg. To prove that there is still life in the show scene after being on the cover, many past and present cover-truck owners came to show that they still have what it takes to compete.

When all was said and done, we had a total of seven cover trucks together under one roof, which is simply amazing to see in person. In order of their respective appearances on the cover: (1) Lenny Gruver, everyone's favorite shirtless mini-trucker, and his fully redone Feb. '99 cover truck, "2-XITE-U," complete with a revamped motor, new paint, and a little retro stylin'; (2) Donnie Babb from Gauge and his July '99 cover truck Dawg Wood, which looks as good today as it did six years ago - this truck was way ahead of its time!; (3) Chris Starr's Feb. '05 cover truck - a super-modified and insanely detailed '86 Mazda named Below U - which took home the braggin' rights and the KAIK Products Best Cover Truck trophy; (4) Trent Van Arsdalen of Trent's Trick Upholstery, representing huge, having done the interiors in three of the five cover trucks, including his April '05 cover, the SEMA-award-winning Coloradical; (5) and Carl Arft, making the trip down from Michigan with his rolling business card from PMA Motorsports, the July '05 cover truck, Re-ar-ranged. The final two cover trucks that made the trip to Louisville were the Desert Dragger, the Aug. '04 Nissan Frontier cover truck, and a rebuilt version of Corey Boelter's Feb. '00 cover truck, sportin' a new look and a new owner. For more information on how to be a part of next year's cover-truck competition, e-mail mike.alexander@primedia.com.

Audio Buildup and Paint DemosIn addition to the cover trucks on display, there were obviously plenty of other cool things going on all weekend. Memphis Audio and Xtreme Autosound of Louisville, Kentucky, teamed up to build a bumpin' custom sound system on location. Tony and his crew stripped a Chevy Tahoe and got to work building a killer custom box to house four Memphis Power Reference 12-inch dual-voice coil subwoofers (15-PR124D) powered by a trio of Memphis amplifiers. They also built custom door pods for two pairs of MClass 6.5-inch component speakers with 1-inch blue silk dome tweeters (15-MCSQ6.5). All wiring, installation accessories, and stiffening capacitors are Memphis Connection. This went on all day and night on Saturday, and was finished off with some color-matching paint by Auto Air Colors on Sunday.

Speaking of Auto Air Colors, the company came out full-force with famed airbrush artist Mickey Harris, who sprayed the hood of one lucky raffle winner with a full-custom free-handed mural. He also put his talents to work on random air accessories and answered many paint questions on technique, style, and the company's water-based paint system. For more information, check out www.autoaircolors.com.

Draggin' and ChicksProbably the number-one reason mini-truckers are who they are: draggin'! Throw a few chicks into the mix and you have what is sure to be good times. Since we planned this event as a hard-core mini-truckin'-style show, we just knew that we had to have some draggin'. In fact, we even bribed the city of Louisville by paying to have the road repaved so we could put together the coolest event to ever be held downtown. Suicidedoors.com, being hard-core mini-truckers themselves, sponsored the event and gave away all kinds of cool prizes, including a trophy to Brian "Firestarter" Brubaker for proving once again that he is as die-hard as they come. Brubaker says, "Stop complaining about the trailer parking and drive that beeotch!"