Our friends at Grassroots Motorsports recently hosted their annual celebration of low-cost racing builds with the $2015 Challenge. The event meets every year at Auto Plus Raceway in Gainesville, Florida, seeking the finest and fastest cars that competitors can build on a budget of two grand and change. Challengers are judged based on their autocross performance, quarter-mile times and concours scores.

Competitors were surprised with a special guest, Al Unser Jr., who acted as a judge for the concours portion of the event. He also took some of the competing cars for autocross runs, signing the dashes of each following the run. Word is that he’ll be returning.

Victory was claimed by the Nelson family entry of a Volkswagen Beetle. After 11 years of competing in the Challenge, this was their first win.

To read more about the event, visit GrassrootsMotorsports.com. Additional photos and videos are also posted at facebook.com/grassrootsmotorsports.