Every trade show has a trophy. The SEMA Show has the one the builders themselves care about. The Battle of the Builders, presented by Mothers, has run since 2014 — its thirteenth year opens Tuesday on a stage in Central Hall, booth #24743 — and its premise is the purest in the building: the finest custom builds at the world's biggest automotive trade show, judged down over four days until one builder holds the crown. This page is your preview, and it stays alive all week: we will update it as the field narrows, cut by cut, through Friday's crowning. For the full week around the stage, see our SEMA Week complete guide.
How the Narrowing Works
Entry closed October 16 — every car in this fight already earned its place on the show floor, with a booth vehicle or feature vehicle secured, before it could enter. From there, the week is a funnel. Industry judges work the floor and the stage through Tuesday, and at 3:30 p.m. Tuesday the first verdicts land: the Automotive Top 40. Wednesday the judges cut the forty to the Top 12 — three survivors in each class — announced at 3:30. Thursday the twelve become the Top 4 — one winner per class — named at 3:30. And then the format turns on itself: from the Top 12 on, the finalists judge each other — the builders who survived every cut pick the class winners and then the overall champion, crowned Friday at noon on the Central Hall stage. It is the hardest kind of win to argue with — to take this crown, the people who build at your level have to say yours was better.
The Four Classes
The field fights inside four classes. Hot Rod & Hot Rod Truck is the traditional heartland — the class last year's champion came out of. 4 Wheel Drive & Off-Road covers everything built to leave the pavement. Sport Compact, Import Performance, Luxury & Exotic is the widest tent in the building. And BFGoodrich Young Guns is the future: the class for the youngest builders in the competition, and pound for pound the most fun to watch — last year its finalist, Thomas Dickerson, built his entire 1967 C10 himself, chassis to Brazilian-ironwood bed, and stood in the Top 4 next to the biggest shops in the business.
The New Fight: Bike Builder Shootout
For the first time in the competition's history, two wheels get their own war. The Bike Builder Shootout debuts live on the Battle of the Builders stage Tuesday, a custom-motorcycle competition judged on craftsmanship, design innovation and execution by a dedicated panel: Zach Ness of Arlen Ness Motorcycles, Jeff Holt of V-Twin Visionary and Pat Patterson of Led Sled Customs. The motorcycle competition runs Tuesday from 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m., with the Top 3 announced at 3:30 — and in a twist borrowed from the automotive side's best idea, the Top 10 finalists themselves serve as judges for the Top 3 and the champion. The first Bike Builder Shootout champion is crowned Thursday at 3:30 p.m., on the same stage, in the same announcement block as the automotive Top 4. Look at this year's official event art — a motorcycle stands in the lineup with the cars for the first time. That is the statement.
The Bar: Last Year's Crown
Whoever wins Friday has to clear the bar set by the 2025 final four. The overall crown went to Troy Trepanier of Rad Rides by Troy and a 1936 Ford Roadster that was not restored or modified so much as invented: scratch-built, completed in January 2025, with the body, chassis, suspension and machined parts made in-house, a supercharged Ford 312 Y-block, a quick-change rear end and full torsion-bar suspension — a car that had already taken America's Most Beautiful Roadster at the Grand National Roadster Show. It was Trepanier's second overall crown, after 2017. Around him stood the class winners: Tim Franklin's 1960 Porsche 356, its power raised from 70 to 165 horsepower with everything but the wheels built in-house; Thomas Dickerson's solo-built C10; and Ron Jones's 1973 VW Thing, a coach-built off-roader on a chromoly long-travel chassis with a Porsche 930 engine and more than 350 machined pieces. That is the level. Anything less does not survive Wednesday.
What to Watch, Day by Day
Tuesday: the Bike Builder Shootout's first live judging (9:00–3:00), then the double announcement at 3:30 — Motorcycle Top 3 and the Automotive Top 40. The Top 40 list is the week's first real information: which classes are loaded, and which famous shops are already out. Wednesday: Young Guns competition runs the stage (9:00–3:00) before the Top 12 announcement at 3:30 — the deepest cut of the week, forty down to twelve. Thursday: the Top 12 compete all day; at 3:30, the first Bike Builder Shootout champion is crowned and the automotive Top 4 are named. Friday, noon: one of the four stands alone. Be in Central Hall — the crowning is the week's single best hour, and it lands while the public floor is open, so Friday ticket holders can watch a champion made.
We will update this piece at every cut — Top 40, Top 12, Top 4 and the crowning — with the names as SEMA makes them official. The week around the stage is in the complete SEMA Week guide, and badges, rules and shuttles are in the attendee guide.
Sources
- SEMA Show — Battle of the Builders official page: stage location (Central Hall #24743), entry terms, 2025 winner and Top 4 finalists with build details.
- SEMA Show — Official schedule of events: stage times and announcement blocks, November 3–6, 2026.
- SEMA — August 2026 release announcing the inaugural Bike Builder Shootout: competition debut, judging criteria, judges Zach Ness, Jeff Holt and Pat Patterson, and the four automotive classes.
