The History of the CenCal 1953 Chevy Panel

The panel was originally used by the Sanger Unified School District to transport lunches to the different schools in their growing district. In the late 70’s they began to phase out the panel trucks for newer larger delivery trucks. Randy Tompkins (Tod’s father) purchased the truck at an auction for his personal use. The truck was “tricked” out to almost car show standard, but was used for his everyday use. A wielder by trade Randy restored the 53 with the help of several of his buddies over many cases of beer. Randy was a weekend warrior racing professionally speedway bikes, and was an amateur flat track racer. When he would travel to races he would pull out the carpet flooring in the back, and load his motorcycles to travel to the races. The vanity plates on the panel still read his original race number 398C in memory of him. As his son (Tod) turned the age of three he followed in the family business of racing. The panel would then go on to transport all of Tod’s race equipment such as flat track bikes, motocross bikes, speedway bikes, quarter midgets, and BMX bikes across country. The panel made the 53 hour journey in 1983 to Nashville, TN where Tod captured the World Title in BMX. After Randy’s passing in 1989 the panel would sit idle until 2018. That is where at a 40th birthday party for a friend in Paso Robles Tod saw Josh and the Central Coast tap truck. It was if the clouds parted and his father yelled “You have to do this!! My two favorite things, beer and the panel” Tod heard the call an immediately called long time buddy and fellow beer lover Tim. Tap Truck CenCal was formed the next day.