Silver State Classic Challenge - We're heading back for more!

[buickfunnycar.com]

Great pics Dave...like the starter,looks like he meant business,lol...

[Scott Parkhurst]

AWESOME

I gotta get back out there...

[James OLC]

Wow - what a great weekend!

Over the last six weeks we have been preparing for this Silver State Classic Challenge and this weekend we finally got our chance to try out some of the changes that we had made and I could not be happier with the results. With less than a week to go before we had to leave for Ely, NV Currie Enterprises built us a new 3rd member with a True-Trac replacing our(well and truly blown up) old differential. David was able to get a few miles on it before loading up in the trailer but there were still some unanswered questions as we hauled the car across "The Loneliest Road in America" to our destination.

Friday morning we prepped the car for tech:



and spent some time drooling over Cameron's ride for the weekend:


it's a former Mark Martin road course car that made it's way through Borris Said who used it for driver training before winding up with Cameron. Yes... it is the real deal and yes... it is awesome!

Since the transmission and rear end were still new most of Friday was spent on the highway outside of Ely - breaking in the new parts. We managed to put a hundred miles or so on the drivetrain and brought the car up to speed a few times - and it felt great. Friday night was the cruise through town which is a lot of fun - nothing like 135 badass cars snaking their way down Ely's quiet main street.

Saturday morning saw us preparing for the optima High Noon Shootout - a standing mile competition which is made all the more challenging given Ely's 7000 foot elevation. When we ran in the spring we encountered an issue with the engine cutting out at 148 mph - we had spent a lot of time working on that issue so my fingers were crossed in the staging lanes as we waited for our chance to run. In May we were the oldest car in the competition and this time was no different, the competition consisted of a V8 Porsche, a couple of Vipers, two NASCARS and a whole lot of Corvettes...


...including a couple of new ZR1's.

As soon as we got there we got the familiar feeling that we had (once again) brought a knife to a gun fight


We new that we weren't a serious threat to win the event but wanted to see what we could do in the standing mile. We were the first car to hit the track (really a two and half mile stretch of 2 lane highway) which means that we had the fastest pass... at least for a while


Our second run yielded another 160 mph run so we decided to park the car and safe ourselves for tomorrow. At 161 we were still pulling hard at just under 7000 RPM in 5th...

[James OLC]

Sunday morning started with a 35 mile cruise from Ely to the pre-stage grid at Lane's Truck Stop in Hilo, NV at the start of Highway 318. It was just before 6 am and still dark when we set off... which would have been less of an issue if we hadn't taped the hide-aways shut for the speed runs the day before. It only took a couple of minutes to figure out the problem and fix it but it was a big distraction first thing in the morning.


7 am - Lane's Truck Stop. It's hard to imagine a greater cross section of cars in any one place...

And from Lane's it's a short 2 mile drive to the final staging area on 318


This is most of the 115 mph class - starting with the 2006 Mustang at the top of the picture we were joined by a 2003 350Z, a '69 Olds Cutlass, an '08 Subaru WRX-STI and a '65 Shelby clone. I think that our class probably had the oldest average age of any group running.

Team optima was there representing:


The OneLapCamaro running in the 115 mph class with Jimi Day handling the navigator duties.


Cam Douglass was driving the 2006 NASCAR Chevrolet with Craig Wibbert navigating in the 150 mph class.


and the Kepler brothers driving this awesome 2006 Z06 - also running in the 150 mph class. Steve was driving while his brother Mike was navigating; Mike is also drives the incredible optima batteries rig.

Cam and Craig were the first of the three to hit the open highway...
followed by Steve and Mike...

We weren't far behind...
.
90 miles... 115 mph average... 46 minutes 57.39 seconds...

Our strategy was to put 25 seconds in the bank heading into the narrows which meant spending much of the first half hour somewhere between 120 and 130 mph. When he banked our time Jimi told me that I had to drop down to our target... it was tough... the car was great at 125 and I could have stayed there for the whole race. We took the narrows at a comfortable 95 - 100 mph, exiting 8 seconds or so fast. With 10 miles to go we were withing a second of our target and with 1 mile to go we were only 0.07 seconds away from our goal.

When it was done the car had performed perfectly and the only problem we had was a couple of bugs on the front of the car...

other than that the car ran flawlessly and it was a comfortable drive.

As soon as we were done Jimi and I drove down to the gas stop as Ash Springs where I filled up with gas for the return drive to Lund while Jimi and Cameron and the rest of the Optima crew headed to Las Vegas. The return trip was 115 miles of desert at what seemed like a painfully slow 70 mph(ish). I admit that I did speed up a bit through the narrows but that was about all.

[James OLC]

Some of the other cool cars at the event...


Tom Ciancitto's 1937 Ford runs in the 180 mph class


Blaine Spendlove runs his 1963 Ford Galaxie in the 145 mph group


and this awesome twin turbo Viper was on hand to run 200 plus in the mile shootout!

[James OLC]

When it was all over, as you know, we finished a respectable 2nd in the 115 mph class. We were 1.2 seconds off our time (fast... my fault - I must have misjudged the hill beween the final mile marker and the timing lights) but still managed to bring home the hardware. This was Jimi's first time navigating although he had run the event six times before as a driver. This was Jimi's first podium finish (and obviously mine as well) so we were both stoked despite being slightly off the pace.

Steve and Mike wound up finishing 4th in the 150 mph class, only 0.197 seconds off their target; Cameron and Craig wound up 8th, 0.443 seconds off the pace. Most importantly, everyone finished safely and without issue. We all ran the High Noon Shootout (results are not officially out yet) and completed the 90 mile run without a hick-up so that is a success in itself.

I have to thank Cameron Douglass and optima batteries for their support over the weekend and Jimi Day for his awesome navigating and advice. Most of all I have to (once again) thank David Pozzi for his support and great car preparation. A lot of effort went in to getting the car ready for the event and David was there every step of the way. Thanks everyone - It was a great time and a great result.

Next time we'll shoot for the 130 mph class (or so) and see how we do... should be fun!

[John Wright]

Awsome thread...with lots of great pics and dialogue to boot!

[Steve1968LS2]

Congrats on the win Jim.. We need to go back in May with Penny so I can finnaly get one of them damn plates! lol

Glad all the parts worked out... hey, you might as well leave your car down here for the winter.. not like you can drive it in the frozen north.

[dogz67chevelle]

So is there any chance of finally getting the Bad Penny-OLC autocross shootout at the Great America autocross? Hint Hint!

deanna

[James OLC]

LOL - nobody wants to see that Deanna. Besides, the two cars can't coexist in the same place at the same time.

For what it's worth I just got finished downloading the IQ3 data and thought I would post some of the telemetry:

In the mile...

• Top of 4th gear - 130.6 mph at 6925 RPM (97.7 % throttle)
• At the mile - 161.97 mph at 6706 RPM (also 97.7% throttle)
• The entire run took approximately 31 seconds and it took 14.6 seconds to go from 130.6 to 161.97 mph.

During the run on highway 318

• Cruising at 120 mph was at 3900 RPM with 25.5% throttle

[Scott Parkhurst]

Awesome! Team optima are all great guys- I've had the pleasure of running with that pack as well. Your car is dialed in and working great! You've got all the bugs out of it...unfortunately they're smeared all over the front end now..!

[Damn True]

LOL - nobody wants to see that Deanna. Besides, the two cars can't coexist in the same place at the same time.

For what it's worth I just got finished downloading the IQ3 data and thought I would post some of the telemetry:

In the mile...

• Top of 4th gear - 130.6 mph at 6925 RPM (97.7 % throttle)
• At the mile - 161.97 mph at 6706 RPM (also 97.7% throttle)
• The entire run took approximately 31 seconds and it took 14.6 seconds to go from 130.6 to 161.97 mph.

During the run on highway 318

• Cruising at 120 mph was at 3900 RPM with 25.5% throttle

What kind of mpg did you get this time?

Does your ECU record fuel flow rate?

[James OLC]

The ECU doesn't record fuel flow but I drove straight from the finish line to the gas stop at Ash Springs and filled up... it took a touch over 7 gallons for a calculated average of 16 mpg and change.

[buickfunnycar.com]

Just awesome James & Dave (and obviously Jimi),those are some great pictures and wow...16+ mpg,that is very impressive indeed.

[Griffith Racing Vipers]

Even though we brought a "Bazooka" to this Gun fight we thought your car was just plain cool!!! Our guys have built a lot of race cars and fast street vehicles and are very picky about craftsmanship and functionality. We all found your 67 Camaro to be an awesome piece in the areas of fabrication, fit & finish and functionality. Even though our Viper is a bit over the top for a street car, we really appreciate what you did with your car.

It appears that your GPS and telemetry did not match up with the SSC's radar either. If you car was only going 146 on the run that I witnessed, I would have eaten all the road kill on hwy 318!! 161+ was definitely more accurate. I know our telemetry recorded in excess of 214 MPH, while their gun showed us going only 197. That would have been a Silver State Record but oh well it was fun anyway!! Here is a youtube link to our in-car camera (go to the 3 minute point to see the mile runs as the others were tests being the very first time the car had run). http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Dkr70J3FQM

In any event, your 67 was a big hit with a bunch of fussy racers from Socal. Hope to see you at future events.

Eric Lenore
Griffith Racing

[David Pozzi]

Eric,
Great car you have! Thanks for the video.
David

[David Pozzi]

Here is a video I took of the start.

[YancyJohns]

Congrats James and Jimi! Thanks for the pics and video, Awesome! Are you bringing the car to SEMA?

[YancyJohns]

That Viper looks /Mad Max like w/out the hood.

[James OLC]

SplitterVision of the Start of the SSCC:


This should approximately sync to David's video above. Data logging has us at about 120 and change when the video ends.