GG Raleigh event review

[Josh@Ridetech]

Although the weather made everyone a bit skeptical, this first year show was a success! We had a good crowd and alot of nice cars driving through.

Friday started off a bit rainy but when the action got started in the afternoon, Bret Voelkel in the ridetech 69 Mustang and Chris Smith in the 48 Hour Corvette immediately put down the fast laps. At the end of Friday the Corvette developed an engine miss that was ultimately diagnosed as a bad lifter. Smitty and the rest of the ridetech team spent most of Friday evening resolving that issue in order to make the call on Saturday morning. Saturday’s weather was hot and sunny making for a more challenging track surface but the RideTech cars remained near the top of the leader board.

The weather was looking much worse on Sunday but the competition was completed by 11:00 AM with Kyle Tucker taking the top spot and Chris Smith and the RideTech 48 Hour Corvette placing 2^nd and thereby winning the invitation to the year end Scottsdale “Duel in the Desert” autocross shootout. Bret Voelkel in the RideTech 69 Mustang finished 4^th.

Smitty had this to say about the weekend’s results: "All the work everyone has put into this Corvette is showing every weekend. The car continues to get faster and faster. We just locked in our spot for Scottsdale and we haven't even turned this animal up yet. This is the year of the Corvette!"

The weekend was not all smiles and sunshine, but with the team's strong determination and help from a few others in the sport and industry, we persevered. When Bret Voelkel was asked about Raleigh and the weekend’s outcome he said: " The Corvette and the Mustang were welcomed with a huge amount of enthusiasm at Raleigh…I’m glad we could perform up to expectations. As with any high performance car, there were some significant challenges to overcome this weekend…our heroes among heroes at Raleigh were Lokar, MSD, Tim McGilton, and Chris Smith for keeping the Corvette up and running!"

Chris Smith will be running the 48 Hour Corvette this coming weekend in Kissimmee at the Goodguys' 2nd Annual Florida Nationals.

Chris & Bret were not the only successful RideTech Nation members this weekend. RideTech Shocks and Falken tires were on 4 of the top 5 in the Pro Class including Rob MacGregor's "Hellboy" C10 and Keith Corrigan's "Velocity" Camaro.

Chris Smith laying the hammer down in the RideTech 48 Hour Corvette. Fastest Musclecar of the weekend!


Rob MacGregor in the No Limit Hellboy C10 fished 3rd in the Pro Class.


The RideTech 69 Mustang takes 4th place in Pro Class. Bret Voelkel proving Air Suspension is highly capable 19 years in a row!


Keith Corrigan in the "Velocity" Camaro quickly rising through the field with a 5th place Pro Class finish.


Mike Holdren's 53 Buick was the heaviest car competing over the weekend. He led the HotRod Class most of the weekend until a light 33 ford kit car pushed him down to second




Mike Holleman sat in 1st place in the Truck class all day Friday but missed the rest of the weekend due to illness. He ended up in 2nd but we believe that wouldn't have been the case if he would of been on track Sunday morning.


....and the overall results!

Pos.	Class	#	Rookie	Driver	Car Model	Total	Diff.	From 1st
pro - 'Pro/Sponsor' Total Entries: 9
1T		1196		Kyle Tucker	70 Chevy Camaro	0:39.545	[-]0.845	-
2T		1200		Chris Smith	72 Chevy Corvette	0:40.390	+0.845	+0.845
3T		722		Rob MacGregor	69 Chevy C-10	0:40.475	+0.085	+0.930
4T		1199		Bret Voelkel	69 Ford Mustang	0:40.559	+0.084	+1.014
5T		349		Deb McGilton	69 Chevy Camaro RS	0:41.923	+1.364	+2.378
6T		478		Keith Corrigan	68 Chevy Camaro	0:42.003	+0.080	+2.458
7		246		Marshall Machado	67 Chevy Corvette	0:42.247	+0.244	+2.702
8		366		Bob Bertelsen	69 Chevy C-10	0:42.678	+0.431	+3.133
9		1197		Stacy Tucker	2010 Chevy Camaro	0:43.307	+0.629	+3.762
sm - 'Street Machine' Total Entries: 28
1T		771		Mike Jr. Johnson	06 Chevy Corvette 206	0:39.396	[-]1.753	-
2T		770		Kandy Johnson	06 Chevy Corvette	0:41.149	+1.753	+1.753
3T		350		Tim McGilton	70 Chevy Camaro	0:41.446	+0.297	+2.050
4T		11227		Rob Machado	03 Chevy Corvette	0:41.695	+0.249	+2.299
5T		45		Scott Feldon	67 Chevy Corvette	0:42.144	+0.449	+2.748
6T		360		Mike Gallagher	09 Cadillac CTS-V	0:42.299	+0.155	+2.903
7		937		Bill Graves	66 Chevy Corvette	0:42.866	+0.567	+3.470
8		227		Rob Machado	67 Chevy Corvette	0:43.099	+0.233	+3.703
9		184		Rodney Wright	08 Ford Mustang	0:43.213	+0.114	+3.817
10		911		Flann McLaughlin	14 Chevy Camaro	0:43.379	+0.166	+3.983
11		527		Randy Haskins	71 Chevy Nova	0:43.494	+0.115	+4.098
12		971		Robert Ballard	04 Ford Mustang	0:43.589	+0.095	+4.193
13		545		Richie Kibler	70 Chevy Camaro	0:45.337	+1.748	+5.941
14		1003		Christian Hankins	93 Mazda RX7	0:45.347	+0.010	+5.951
15		801		David White	67 Chevy Chevelle	0:45.477	+0.130	+6.081
16		705		Chris Lewis	14 Dodge Challenger	0:45.821	+0.344	+6.425
17		173		Tim Lucento	64 Chevy Corvette	0:45.965	+0.144	+6.569
18		263		Michael Tucker	69 Chevy Camaro	0:46.341	+0.376	+6.945
19		352		Sean Farmer	80 Chevy Camaro	0:46.506	+0.165	+7.110
20		945		Joseph Boyer	71 Chevy Corvette Roadster	0:46.635	+0.129	+7.239
21		22		Sam Matchett	55 Chevy Z10	0:46.856	+0.221	+7.460
22		970		Kurt Urban	78 Chevy Malibu SW	0:47.318	+0.462	+7.922
23		317		Dick Sossomon	71 Opel GT	0:47.743	+0.425	+8.347
24		528		Josh Saronce	71 Chevy Chevelle	0:48.215	+0.472	+8.819
25		723		Tina MacGregor	65 Ford Mustang	0:48.648	+0.433	+9.252
26		739		Neal Landenberger	14 Ford Mustang	0:50.143	+1.495	+10.747
27		1014		Charles Hamlin	65 Chevy Corvair	0:50.611	+0.468	+11.215
28		546		Marc Scarborough	70 Chevy Camaro	0:50.991	+0.380	+11.595
trk - 'Truck' Total Entries: 3
1		757		Gary Perkins	49 Chevy 310	0:45.023	[-]0.175	-
2		748		Mike Holleman	65 Chevy El Camino	0:45.198	+0.175	+0.175
3		206		Ray Thompson	99 Chevy Tahoe	0:46.515	+1.317	+1.492
hr - 'Hot Rod' Total Entries: 4
1		274		Christopher Haigler	33 Ford Roadster	0:43.218	[-]1.110	-
2		763		Todd Holdren	53 Buick Special	0:44.328	+1.110	+1.110
3		226		Kip Hartzell	32 Ford 3W	0:50.025	+5.697	+6.807
4		628		Harry Hennis	37 Ford	0:54.997	+4.972	+11.779

[rchaskin]

It was a cool event, especially for the first one.

The autocross track was fun as well. We got a ton of runs
If you throw out the late models in Street Machine i finished 5th!!
Here are a few videos of our runs.

Autocross from Outside car -


Autocross from Inside car -


Autocross / Drift -


Autocross - My Buddy's Diesel Chevelle


Diesel Smokout.....LOL
Watch the lady at the ticket booth....Wrong place / wrong time

[Josh@Ridetech]

Thanks for the videos! It was a good time

[RobNoLimit]

Big props to my wife Tina. This was her first ever GoodGuys auto-x, and she's only driven her Mustang about 6 times. It's mechanically done but we wanted to shake it out a bit before paint. She had two goals. 1. Don't do anything too stupid (worthy of a pink hat) 2. Don't be the slowest in her class. She had a great time, hit both goals, and is now officially bit. She signer herself up for a driving school in a few weeks, and is excited about the next event, Nashville Goodguys on her birthday. Yes, it was a great weekend!

[Josh@Ridetech]

^^ I didn't even realize Tina was there, I'm glad she had a good time.

I didn't get around much though, I would've at least said hi to you guys!

[RobNoLimit]

BTW Josh, Tina's car has ridetech shocks!

[71RS/SS396]

It was a fun weekend for sure, glad I could help with the repairs. One of my favorite things about this hobby is helping each other out in the time of need, you build memories and long lasting friendships this way. Congrats to Smitty on the invite!