• Pit+Paddock (powered by Turn 14 Distribution) Power Lunch, presented by Powerstop Brakes, is our SEMA meal service where our staff members serve lunch to our valued partners and media guests.
• This year’s Power Lunch was prepared by Crystina Nguyen of This Mama’s House x District One, a well-known restaurant in Las Vegas’ Chinatown district.
• An array of flavors was offered across the four days, which included an open-faced Katsu Italiano, Hainan chicken rice bowl, bánh mì sandwich, and Mandarin garlic noodles.
• Dai Yoshihara helped deliver these meals to exhibitors all over the conference’s footprint, affording our partners some much-needed me-time amidst the hustle and bustle.

This may sound like an odd thing to say, but SEMA exhibitors seldom see the show. Indeed, months of focused preparation often go into getting ready for the annual pilgrimage to the aftermarket’s most coveted stand-off. However, once exhibitors land in Las Vegas, the show becomes puritanically self-sacrificial. From start to finish, exhibitors are often land-locked to the booth to meet vendors, builders, new customers, media, and fans of the brand. Don’t get me wrong, we love doing it—the SEMA show is where we often get reminded of why we got into the industry in the first place—but that doesn’t mean we don’t value a good break once in a while.

That’s where the Pit+Paddock (powered by Turn 14 Distribution) Power Lunch comes in. In sharp contrast to the drab, overpriced, high-school hot lunch equivalents available at the convention center, our Power Lunch, presented by PowerStop, served a diverse array of fresh, chef-prepared delicacies as a well-deserved respite from the action.

TAKE A BRAKE

Our lofty ambitions became possible with help from our friends at PowerStop. The name is purely a coincidence, but the caliber of meals we plated was intentional. You see, PowerStop has been cooking up bolt-on brake upgrades for virtually every type of motorist for almost 30 years. This high-quality, all-encompassing, everything-in-one-box approach made it the perfect partner for our Power Lunch activation.

VEGAS TASTEMAKERS

To fully accomplish our mission of delivering high-quality grub to our vendors and partners, we had to find the right source. Thankfully, we didn’t have to look far. We called Crystina Nguyen, the renowned chef behind This Mama’s House and District One who supported us in 2022 and 2023, to see if she could cook something up for this year’s conference. Her creativity to modernize and remix traditional flavors into tasty concoctions for SEMA attendees helped make the Pit+Paddock booth a must-visit destination for industry partners and well-known entities like Adam LZ, Vin Anatra, Jon Sibal, and Larry Chen.

Nguyen came through with a variety of delicious meals—open-faced Katsu Italiano, Hainan chicken rice bowl, bánh mì sandwich, and Mandarin garlic noodles—which kept us all looking forward to lunchtime.

SPECIAL DELIVERY

As if the food itself wasn’t enough excitement, acclaimed motorsport driver Dai Yoshihara became an integral part of our delivery service throughout the week. With Yoshiara on board, it not only brought a bigger smile to our industry partners’ faces but also guaranteed our effort would be speedy. It’s not every day you get your lunch delivered by a Formula DRIFT and Pikes Peak International Hill Climb champion and current IMSA star.

All in all, the Pit+Paddock (powered by Turn 14 Distribution) Power Lunch helped us all soften the edges of the annual show. Thank you to PowerStop for helping support a unique way to make an impression at SEMA. We’ll see you all next year.

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