USCA Pittsburgh Wraps up the 2014 USCA Race Season

[Trackside-Brandy]

Through the cold, the hail and the rain merged four new invitees and the end of the 2014 USCA season. USCA Pittsburgh was the most sought after event, possibly because of it being the last event before the optima Ultimate Street Car Invitational in Las Vegas, Nevada. Whatever the reason may be, this past weekend brought some serious competition, fast cars, and amazing drivers.

This past weekend determine the final four drivers who would move on to compete at OUSCI. It was also the final race that confirmed which Top 20 Non-Qualifying drivers would secure their spot into OUSCI next month. Many sitting in the Top 20 positions retuned to race one final time at Pittsburgh hoping to make the final list. While many of these drivers secured their spot, others got bumped from the list, losing their chance to move on to next months race.

There’s a good chance you might recognize some of the winners from this past weekend. Billy Utley from B&B Classic secured his spot at OUSCI in his ‘72 Nova, winning the GT3K Class. Throughout 2014, the GT3K Class has had the most entries with some of the toughest competition. With thirty-seven competitors racing in the GT3K Class in Pittsburgh, coming in the top ten was a notable finish. Utley placed second overall in his class next to Danny Popp.

Though Utley came in second, he finished higher than Popp on the Design Challenge and the Autocross, coming in second on both. Since Popp had already secured a spot at OUSCI in a past USCA event, Utley automatically claimed the Pittsburgh invitation and will be on his way to Vegas in four weeks.

Douglas Lutes was our “Go To” guy for content on social media throughout the weekend. If you wanted an update, Lutes was the guy to follow. Call me his Facebook stalker for the weekend, I don’t mind, because this guy did an amazing job covering the event.

Another person we seek content from is Steve Anderson.

We can always count on Anderson to
1. Be at every USCA event
2. Post content including his media as well as sharing others
3. Find out who won before anyone else announces it.

We wanted to thank both of Lutes and Anderson for doing a great job covering the event and sharing it with everyone.


We wanted to highlight a couple other drivers in the GT3K Class before moving onto the next class. Dan Ballard did some incredible driving this past weekend in his ’72 Nova. As a returning USCA member who had attended multiple events throughout the year, his accumulative points landed him in the Top 20 Non-Qualifying, sending him to OUSCI.

Ryan Matthews of Detroit Speed and Engineering had the DSE ’12 Camaro out at Pittsburgh. He placed first in the autocross and top five overall in the hot lap challenge. Matthews also secured a spot at OUSCI, ranking in the Top 20. Matthews invite only adds to the several DSE vehicles that will be racing at OUSCI next month.

James Shipka- I believe the man that has attended more USCA events than anyone else this year. The One Lap Camaro has seen it all; west to east coast, good and bad days, hot and cold weather. This car has literally been through hell and back and Shipka has maintained a positive attitude the entire time. Shipka has done a great job to remain on the Top 20 Non-Qualying List throughout the year, so it is no surprise that he secured his spot to OUSCI, ranking third overall on the list.

When we saw that Chris Jacobs was participating in the Pittsburgh event, we automatically looked for his Chevelle, but the car was nowhere in sight. Instead Jacobs had the opportunity to race the Lingenfelter Camaro during the two day event. He placed a respectable 11^th place overall. This was an amazing finish considering Jacobs had never driven the Lingenfelter Camaro before this event.

Pro-Touring trucks have been increasingly popular at these USCA events. All three trucks present at USCA Pittsburgh made their way into the 2014 optima Ultimate Street Car Invitational by ranking in the Top 20 Non-Qualifying or winning a past event.

Both Rob MacGregor and Chris Smith earned enough points throughout the year to award them an invite to this year’s OUSCI.

Bob Bertelsen on the other hand won a K&N Spirit of the Event Award, automatically qualifying him to attend OUSCI.

The GT2K class only consisted of four drivers at Pittsburgh. Though the class was small compared to the GT3K class, the pressure was still on; each driver hoping they would win and move on to OUSCI. Bradley Yonkers in his ‘02 Corvette took the last invite for the GT2K Class, while also winning the autocross and the speed stop challenge in his class. Though the Corvette looked fairly stock from the outside, Yonkers proved that the car was defiantly a contender by the end of the weekend.

The AWD class included three drivers, one of which most everyone is very familiar with. When looking at the results for this class, you might have scratched your head when you read that Larry Woo took first place. Those that are familiar with the name know Woo for his Camaro; not a ‘12 Porsche. The eye catching blue Porsche took first on the hot lap challenge, first in the speed stop and ranked number one overall in his class.

Last but not least we want to highlight the K&N Spirit of the Event Award.

We are proud to say that the winner once again goes to a California resident; yes we said California. Andrew Nier took his ‘12 Mustang from Los Angeles, California and embarked on a four day road trip to Pittsburgh just to race in the final USCA event. We do not know much about Nier, but we do know that he is awesome. Not only did Nier journey from California, he drove his car; no trailer involved. The Mustang was even equipped with a roof rack along with a set of spares.

If this isn’t the true meaning of #becausestreetcar, then we don’t know what it. Nier left for his journey on September 30^th and drove through some not so ideal road conditions to race on Saturday.

Once again this is a great example of someone who had completely embraced what the meaning of these USCA events. We were glad to see the K&N Spirit of the Event Award go to Nier and will definitely be following up with him before OUSCI.

Though the weather on Saturday was not ideal, Sunday brought some sun and better track conditions. As competitors headed home from the two day event, the curiosity and anxiety started to build as everyone waited to see the official list on the Top 20 Non-Qualifying that would be invited to this year’s final race. Within the next couple weeks we will continue to breakdown the Top 20 additional invitees while also highlighting several pro-touring members that will be racing in four weeks.

This concludes the 2014 USCA Season. We look forward to seeing everyone again next year. Good Luck to those who qualified for OUSCI and may the next four weeks be productive as you try to get your cars prepped and ready to run one of the biggest races our pro-touring community has ever seen.



We would like to thank our Sponsors who attend and provide coverage for each USCA Event. Below are photo galleries from optima batteries and Detroit Speed and Engineering. We have also provided the links to their Facebook pages where this coverage can and tons more can be found. Please visit the links, like their pages and continue to support our sponsors as they get ready for the Optima Ultimate Street Car Invitational.

optima batteries Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/optimabatteries

Detroit Speed and Engineering's Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/detroitspeedinc

[SicMonte]

Great write up of an amazing event! Here are my GoPro vids from the Speed/Stop Challenge...it's all I took on video.

[UMI Tech]

Great coverage from SicMonte! I have a feeling he'll be covering some events next year from the driver's seat...