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

[James OLC]

With 30 days to go and hot on the heals of Steve Rupp's awesome article "Road Warriors" in the September issue of Camaro Performers magazine I'm excited to announce that we're heading back to Ely, NV next month as part of Team optima for the Silver State Classic Challenge! optima batteries was kind enough to invite us back for another blast down Highway 318 and, like last time, I jumped at the chance. Unfortunately, the Silver State Classic will be held the same weekend as the Run Through the Hills so my crack navigator Steve won't be available (he'll be busy hammering on BP down east) so Jimi Day from FM3 Performance Marketing will be in the passenger seat for the weekend. Jimi's run the event a few times as a driver and will be a great help in keeping me on time and focused for the 45 minutes it should take to run the course.

We'll be running the Optima Half Mile Shootout on Friday, trying to better our 136 mph run from May and then the Optima High Noon Shootout on Sunday where we'll find out if we've fixed our 148 mpg engine cut-out issue. On Sunday we'll probably be running in the 120 mph class with a 140 tech speed - we could probably go higher but there's been a lot of work done on the car over the last month and I want to push our luck.

On that note the car has been spending some time over at Turn Key Engine Supply where they have been working on calibrating the ECU and giving us a new tune up that should be pretty awesome when it's all said and done. They found a couple of issues on Tuesday that were working on now and we'll head back next week for some power runs. We think that the 148 mph cutoff was ECU related and should have that issue resolved and we're hopefully going to have a closed loop program that should help us at altitude. We're also changing the transmission out to a new Magnum T-56 from Classic Motorsports which I hope helps on the gearing a bit and gives me a little better comfort in the cockpit. All that combined with some more optimization on the suspension side of things should put us in a really cool place.

If you haven't checked it out yet, Steve's article in this months Camaro Performers does an excellent job in capturing the spirit of the event from our rookie perspective in May. As always, Steve was able to put together a story that gives you a sense of what it was like to be there that speaks really well of the whole event. Like Speed Week out on the Lake, the Silver State deal is really like a grass roots event that brings a lot a characters together for a short but intense few days. It's a lot of fun and I hope that we can represent the Pro-Touring guys well.

If anyone is interested:

Friday September 18th - Half Mile Shootout, Z1Z (0-100-0) and Z2Z (0-200-0) Challenges
Saturday September 19th - High Noon Shoutout
Sunday September 20th - Highway 318 - Lund to Hiko (woo hoo)

and just 'cuz I love this picture:

[dipren443]

Any chance we can get that pic in high res? I could sure use a new desktop.

[SicMonte]

I stopped in Ely last monday on our way from Vegas to Wendover. I went throught the car wash at a gas station there. Pretty nice little town!!

[James OLC]

Nick - I's sure Steve can hook us up when he stops in (which I assume he will eventually do).

Doug - It is a really cool little town. I was amazed that the Hotel Nevada was the tallest building in Nevada when it was built 80 years ago. It was really something on Friday night when they have all the participants drive a parade route through town - it seemed like the whole town came out to watch. It's a great host town who really gets behind the event.

[buickfunnycar.com]

Best of luck to you James,hope you got all the bugs worked out.

[Twentyover]

Ely NV- known for it's prisons and bordellos...

Don't worry, i won't tell any wive's.... Although i was there with mine about 20 years ago w/ a timing and scoring team when Ward ran the program.

[camaro2nv]

Best built 67 hands down.

[TonyHuntimer]

Hey James,

Have fun and good luck. When I was navigating a few years back we took first in our class. It's definitely a team effort between driver and nav. We posted 139.985 average. Not bad with a cheap Radio Shack stopwatch and a digital (Dakota Digital) tach...no speedo. I got a second place plaque for being second most accurate with a handheld "timer".

[MrAngry]

Awesome, have fun guys and be safe.

[454bug]

GOOD LUCK James!

[Steve1968LS2]

Wish I could go nav for you again but I'll be at the RTTH event..

Will be routing for you though!!!

[Scott Parkhurst]

Those optima guys are nuts- You WILL have fun!!

[justimagine]

Hey Scott, don't divulge too many more details - remember what happens on the road stays on the road!!!
It is guaranteed fun and I'm looking forward to holding down the right side seat and working closely with James to see if we can bring home the coveted "Silver Plate"! We've got a bunch of media coverage planned so there should be plenty of above-the-board details afterwards!

[Damn True]

Next up?

http://targacanadawest.com/index.php...&id=2&Itemid=1

[Steve1968LS2]

Hey Scott, don't divulge too many more details - remember what happens on the road stays on the road!!!
It is guaranteed fun and I'm looking forward to holding down the right side seat and working closely with James to see if we can bring home the coveted "Silver Plate"! We've got a bunch of media coverage planned so there should be plenty of above-the-board details afterwards!

So a friendly bet of $5 if you can beat our previous best of .377 seconds??? ;)

It's a great event.. I encourage people to do it at least once.

[slowcamaro]

Next up?

http://targacanadawest.com/index.php...&id=2&Itemid=1

broken link.

[James OLC]

Here is another link for the Targa Canada West Rally.

But no - I can't see doing that one next year. IF I can swing it I'll be pushing it to run the One Lap of America which will be from April 30 to May 8th (and is going to nearly 4000 miles next year) and then get to Ely for the Nevada Open Road Challenge two weeks later. That will make for a crowded May as is.


I'm really looking forward to taking on highway 318 again without the first time jitters. Your rookie year you really have a lot of stuff thrown at you quickly and the four days is just a blur. You're at Las Vegas Motor Speedway on the road course at 6 am Thursday and then it's go - go - go until you cross the finish line on Sunday. Knowing where everything is and knowing where you're going will make things a bunch easier.

[TonyHuntimer]

Hey Scott, don't divulge too many more details - remember what happens on the road stays on the road!!!
It is guaranteed fun and I'm looking forward to holding down the right side seat and working closely with James to see if we can bring home the coveted "Silver Plate"! We've got a bunch of media coverage planned so there should be plenty of above-the-board details afterwards!

Hey Jimi,

Don't get your right and left mixed up! Oh, and don't do the rookie mistake of thinking your a minute too slow when you're really a minute too fast.

Have fun! Drive fast! Be safe!

[Scott Parkhurst]

Hey Scott, don't divulge too many more details - remember what happens on the road stays on the road!!!

You're preaching to the choir here Amigo...LOL!!! Mum's the word...

[James OLC]

Two weeks to go... and we have a long way to go...

The car is back from Southern California and a bunch of progress has been made - after three days at Turn Key Engine Supply we have a properly caliberated ECM and a pretty decent tune from idle to WOT - although we'll have to run without the wideband for now. That's not a big deal for the Silver State Classic and I've always run open loop to this point anyways so that's not going to slow us down at all. Best of Show installed our new Magnum T-56 (thanks to some help from Classic Chevy 5-Speed and Tremec) with a new driveshaft from Inland Empire Driveline. Our charging gremlins have been tracked down and chased out so we should be locked and loaded for the optima High Noon Shootout on Saturday. The steering upgrades seem to be working and we're darn close to being ready... or at least we were until yesterday...

we've been chasing a driveline vibration since day one and think that we might have found it last night. When the new driveshaft was going in David noted what felt like some excess free play in the rear end so he pulled the center section yesterday. His first indication that things were amis came when he unscrewed the (huge) drain plug... and nothing came out. A little bit of fishing around yeilded some huge blobs of metal shavings... not good a good sign... When the center section came out the carnage was immediately obvious - the differential was completely pooched - to the point that it was actually cracked. Shoot... not a great start to the long weekend.

We should have time to get it fixed - and broken in at least a bit - before we hit the road on the 17th... I hope.