Inside Look at OUSCI Invitees Across the Country and How They Are Preparing

[Trackside-Brandy]

There are only 15 days until all optima Ultimate Street Car Challenge Invitees must have their vehicle in Vegas to display at this year’s 2014 SEMA Show. With that being said, we were able to get a quick glance at some competitors here on the west coast and how they are preparing for OUSCI.


In our pro-touring community, the Camarillo Airport is well known for hosting autocross events. This past weekend, JCG set up a practice course and opened it to the local community. If you were an OUSCI invitee, this was an event you wanted to be at.

The autocross course was a great opportunity to shake down vehicles, get some last minute seat time, and mentally prepare for the big event in three weeks.

There were several OUSCI competitors present at the autocross including

Cris Gonzalez testing Karl Dunn’s ‘02 Corvette

Jake Rozelle and his ‘69 Camaro

Mike Cavanah and his ’66 Chevelle

Jane Thurmond with her ‘64 Corvette

Wes Drelleshak and ’59 Chevy Apache

Matt Alcala and his ‘12 Mustang

And a handful of others

Across the country others were prepping their vehicles and attending track events this past weekend as well in preparation for OUSCI.

Jordan Priestly has done quite a bit of work to his ’11 Camaro recently. We’ve been watching his continuous posts on Facebook while he hustles to get everything done before heading to Vegas.

Rick Hoback left his car in the hands of Danny Popp for several changes before OUSCI. Looks like Hobacks car is getting a new pair of shoes along with some upgraded brakes.

John Lazorack III is playing with aerodynamics on his ’88 Conquest. We have to admit, this is awesome…

Debbie Farrington is not the only Farrington who will be attending OUSCI. Her husband Tom and son Sam will also be competing in the event with their own vehicles. With three people attending OUSCI, we have a feeling their OUSCI checklist is quite long.

Detroit Speed and Engineering took three of their vehicles out to a private test day at Carolina Motorsports Park. They too will be representing three spots at OUSCI: Kyle Tucker in his ’70 Camaro, Ryan Matthews in the ’12 Camaro and Stacy Tucker in her ’08 Mustang (we believe this will be the DSE sponsor vehicle).

There are only a couple of events left before OUSCI. Seat time is crucial at this point. With Goodguys Charlotte, NC and the NMCA Hotchkis autocross here on the west coast, that does not leave competitors with many choices. Of course there are still some SCCA autocross events across the country and the option of renting a local track for a private test day. Throughout the next couple weeks we will be closely following a select few to see how they are prepping for this year’s optima Ultimate Street Car Invitational. We will also be covering the race live on social media and our forum. Make sure to like our Facebook Page at: https://www.facebook.com/ProTouring for coverage of this year’s SEMA and OUSCI events.

[Bad94]

Danny Popp, Rick Hoback, Ken Thwaits and myself, did some testing over the weekend at a SCCA test and tune. Some of the SCCA people didn't like the times we were laying down on street tires. I think we all learned a few things on car set up. One more test weekend and then its time to load the cars/parts/tools in the boxes and head to Vegas.