Eddie Pettus's 1,300-HP Chevelle Wins SEMA Battle of the Builders 2026

Eddie Pettus has had his 1970 Chevrolet Chevelle on a winning streak all year. On Friday, Nov. 6, it added the biggest prize at the SEMA Show: the overall title in the 2026 SEMA Battle of the Builders presented by Mothers.

Pettus won the Hot Rod/Hot Rod Truck category, then beat the other three category champions in the final round: Buddy Hale's 1955 Volkswagen Ghia (Sport Compact/Import Performance), Mark Giambalvo's 1974 Chevrolet K10 (Off-Road, from Creative Rod & Kustom, @creativerodandkustom) and Jesse Rieger's 1969 Ford Mustang (Young Guns).

"This is just awesome and it was such a tough year," Pettus said in SEMA's announcement, adding that "to finally get the overall is an honor." Finally is the right word. In 2018 he made the Top 4 with a 1932 Willys built as an aircraft refueling truck and won the Truck/Off-Road category, according to SEMA's results that year.

"The Chevelle was a five-year build, over 15,000 man-hours between the interior and the car being built," Pettus told SEMA News. SEMA vice president of marketing RJ de Vera said the car "demonstrates the creativity, craftsmanship and technical expertise" the competition is built around.

The winning Chevelle

This isn't a bolt-together pro-tourer. SEMA lists a wedge-sectioned body, an extended wheelbase, a modified roofline, custom rockers and fender extensions, flush-mounted glass, and custom floor pans, wheelwells and firewall. The wheels, grille, bumpers, lighting and exhaust are all custom too.

Under it, a twin-turbo LS3 rated at 1,300 hp feeds a Bowler Performance 4L80 and sits on a Roadster Shop chassis with cantilever independent rear suspension and Brembo brakes. Inside, the cabin was designed by Avante Garde, with Dakota Digital gauges.

One car, two trophies (almost certainly)

SEMA's announcement names the builder, not the owner. But the spec sheet matches, item for item, a car the street machine crowd already knew. In July, Goodguys named Matt Jewell's 1970 Chevelle, built by Pettus's shop, Eddie's Rod & Custom (@eddiesrodandcustom) in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, its 2026 Forgeline Street Machine of the Year at the 28th Summit Racing Nationals in Columbus, Ohio. That car has the same 1,300-hp twin-turbo LS3, Bowler 4L80-E, Roadster Shop chassis with cantilever IRS, Brembo brakes, wedge-sectioned body, Avante Garde interior and Dakota Digital gauges. Neither SEMA nor Goodguys has said in writing that the two winners are one car, and we have not confirmed it with the shop, but the match is point for point, and the custom green Goodguys describes matches the dark green Chevelle we photographed in Central Hall. If it is the same car, it won two of the biggest builder awards in American hot rodding in one year.

The story behind the Goodguys car, as Goodguys' Fuel Curve tells it, starts in high school. The Chevelle SS was Jewell's daily driver. He and his father stripped it for a restoration, then other projects took over and it sat in a corner of the garage. About eight years ago, after his father died, Jewell decided to rebuild it as a modern street machine; by then, THE SHOP notes, he had owned it for more than 30 years. Per Fuel Curve, he talked with Pettus for a few years before handing it over, Eric Black of e.Black Design drew it and Steve Morris Engines built the engine. THE SHOP's Goodguys coverage puts the build at six years, one more than the five Pettus gave SEMA.

Fuel Curve's write-up of the Jewell car also puts numbers on the bodywork SEMA lists: a 1.75-inch wedge section, repositioned wheel openings, a reworked junction between the roof and quarter panels and about an inch out of the A-pillar, plus a belly pan, one-off taillamps and a custom Glasurit green. It lists Holley Dominator EFI, a Roadster Shop FastTrack chassis modified for the longer wheelbase, Bilstein coilovers, six-piston Brembo calipers and one-off wheels styled after the second-generation Camaro Z28 wheel, 19x9 in front and 20x12 out back on 345/30-20 rear tires. Inside, beyond Avante Garde's 3D-scanned and machined work and the Dakota Digital gauges, it credits a push-button shifter in a console shaped after the factory horseshoe shifter, an Ididit column, a Sparc steering wheel, Vintage Air and seats modified from a 2010 Camaro. The front keeps the quad headlights and split grille, so from the nose it still reads as a 1970 Chevelle.

The other category winners

Mark Giambalvo's 1974 Chevrolet K10 took Off-Road. SEMA's Battle of the Builders listing describes an LT4 crate engine, a Bowler 4L80E, a Roadster Shop RS4 chassis and Forgeline wheels. It's not Giambalvo's first trip this deep into the competition: his 1965 C10 made the Top 4 in 2020.

Jesse Rieger won BFGoodrich Young Guns, the category for younger builders, with a 1969 Ford Mustang. It runs a Ford Performance Aluminator crate engine on a fully fabricated, CAD-designed perimeter chassis with independent front and rear suspension.

Buddy Hale's 1955 Volkswagen Ghia won Sport Compact/Import Performance. SEMA's listing gives few details beyond a track-inspired engine. Hale runs Type One Restorations (@typeonerestorations), the VW specialist. We found Hale's Ghia up on a lift on the Battle of the Builders stage on Thursday.

The full Top 12

SEMA cut its Top 40 (ten per category) to 12 finalists on Wednesday, Nov. 4. We photographed the board on Thursday, and it matches SEMA's announcement name for name.

Hot Rod/Hot Rod Truck: Charles Crews, 1970 Plymouth 'Cuda; Andy Leach of Cal Automotive Creations (@calautocreations), 1933 Pontiac Vicky; Eddie Pettus, 1970 Chevrolet Chevelle.

Sport Compact/Import Performance: Buddy Hale, 1955 Volkswagen Ghia; Jordan Henke, 1974 Ford Capri MK1; Kamaka Pocock, 1956 Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud I.

Off-Road: Mark Giambalvo, 1974 Chevrolet K10; Scott Luscombe, 1985 Chevrolet K10; Jeremy Wessels, 1969 Ford Bronco.

Young Guns: Bryce Adams, 1972 Chevrolet K5 Blazer; Jesse Rieger, 1969 Ford Mustang; Dylan Russell, 1999 BMW E36.

Wessels's Bronco is the one finalist we documented up close. Wessels is president and chief engineer of OMF Car Craft (@omfcarcraft), the Houston-area shop that builds carbon-bodied classic Broncos. The truck's display placard lists a Ford Performance Gen 4 supercharged Coyote, a Ford 10R80 10-speed, Method wheels and BFGoodrich KO tires. You can see the exposed carbon on the lower body in our photo.

Motorcycles get their own battle

For the first time, Battle of the Builders had a two-wheel category. The Bike Builder Shootout, also presented by Mothers, went to Steven Iacona of Iacona Custom Cycles (@iaconacustomcycles) in Brooklyn, N.Y., with a custom Harley-Davidson Knucklehead built around a 1945 Knucklehead engine. According to SEMA, the bike features a hand-formed gas tank and oil tank, a heavily modified frame and rear fender, and machined brackets and controls.

Robert Zeolla took second with an Indian In-Line 4, and James Crosby was third with a Harley-Davidson Panhead. Judges Zach Ness of Arlen Ness Motorcycles, Jeff Holt of V-Twin Visionary and Pat Patterson of Led Sled Customs scored the bikes on craftsmanship, design innovation and overall execution.

The new category is part of SEMA's bigger push into powersports this year, along with an expanded motorcycle and side-by-side section in West Hall. A Brooklyn shop building around a 1945 engine and winning the first one is a good start.