Just ‘gearheads’ having fun

Randy Buss and Jose Juarez show off the trophy Buss created after he lost to his friend in a series of drag races as part of the HOT ROD Power Tour. [Photo by Andy Fillmore/Ocala Gazette]

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Posted August 13, 2025 | By Andy Fillmore, [email protected]

Four Ocala car enthusiasts survived the recent five-day, 1,000-mile-plus 2025 HOT ROD Power Tour Long Haul, which is billed by the organizer as “the world’s largest traveling car show” and which featured 6,000 entries.

The group included Jose “BarbaCuban” Juarez, Randy Buss, Ken Kirkpatrick and Randy Keuntjes.

“Belly laughs,” was one of the takeaways from the tour for Keuntjes, who rode in the multi state event in a 2024 Lotus Emira with car owner Kirkpatrick. Keuntjes, owner of Eaton’s Beach Sandbar and Grill, said the tour was a “riot…(and) great time.”

Kirkpatrick, who oversees restaurants from Orlando to Brunswick, Georgia, with the Sonny’s BBQ company, has made the HOT ROD Power Tour three times. He said the tour is like a fishing or camping trip, but cars are the central focus. He remarked on the “camaraderie” shared by all the car buffs.

According to HOT ROD.com, the 2025 Power Tour began June 9, 2025, at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park and traveled to Route 66 Raceway in Joliet, Illinois. The caravan wound through Fort Wayne and Monroe, Indiana, on the way to Norwalk, Indiana, and arrived at Summit Motorsports Park on tour closing day, June 13.

Tour rules state that “any year, make and model of car or truck is accepted” and helmet and other safety gear is needed for racing.

Juarez and Buss, both longtime collectible car enthusiasts, friends and northeast Ocala neighbors for 30 years, were two “spark plug” entrants whose fun “grudge match” drag race at Indianapolis Raceway was a reoccurring theme throughout the tour.

Juarez, 62, whose nickname comes from his line of “Florida BarbaCuban Crafted Sauces,” which he markets through Publix Supermarkets, also is an officer with Victory Solutions, an 11-employee consultant firm in Ocala.

Juarez drove a Cameo White 1977 Pontiac Firebird Hardtop Coupe on the tour. The Firebird was purchased four years ago from the California-based original owner, who bought the car in the summer of 1977 through Webster Pontiac in National City, California.

Juarez christened the car Marla Jane in honor of the original owner. He learned of the car through Hemmings Classic Cars. The window sticker, preserved in an album, indicates a price of $6,254.80 including options. The car was originally equipped with a 3.6-liter V-6 Oldsmobile engine.

Juarez said about 500 of the cars entered made the Long Haul, which consisted of stops in Indiana, Illinois, Michigan and Ohio.

The is the third time on the tour for Juarez, who made the run in the late 1990s when the event included a leg from Daytona International Speedway to the Don Garlits Museum of Drag Racing in Marion County. He said he and his son, Brock, did the one-day tour back then and they promised each other they would do the HOT ROD Power Tour together again. They did so in 2023.

Buss, a realtor with NAI Heritage Realty, made the 2025 tour in his red 1967 Plymouth Barracuda convertible, which he has upgraded over 12 years. The car’s original 273 V-8 engine, with a two-barrel carburetor, has been swapped out for a 340 V-8 engine with a four-barrel carburetor. It has a four-speed manual shift, Holley fuel injection and classic Cragar Mag wheels.

Buss also owns a 1968 ‘Cuda, which was originally his parents’ car, and another ‘67 ‘Cuda that he uses for parts.

Buss and Juarez ran three one-quarter mile drag races at Indianapolis Raceway at the start of the tour and Juarez’s Firebird bested the ‘Cuda in two of the three races.

Buss fabricated a “winner’s trophy” out of spare car parts for Juarez, including a part that resembles a stylized section of the Firebird.

“We do it all for the trophy. The loser makes the winner a trophy,” Juarez said.

To learn more about the annual event, go to hotrod.com/hot-rod-power-tour-2025