Car 404 was piloted by Chris...
Car 404 was piloted by Chris Cummings and his wife Susan. Their '91 Camaro was in the 130-mph class (tech speed of 165) where they missed their target time by 5.533 seconds. Still, they had a blast and are regular runners of the event.
To help get the car mechanically sorted out and ready for action, Shipka and I enlisted the aid of veteran go-fast gurus David and Mary Pozzi of Pozzi Racing. They're the same team who helped us win the 2008 Optima Ultimate Street Car Invitational and were instrumental in making sure the car was safe and sound. In fact, David noticed one of the front tires had a cut, so we mounted up a fresh pair of Toyo R888 tires. With a car, a team, and a plan, we loaded up our gear and headed to Vegas, the starting point of our adventure.
Like many things in life, this exercise involved math. James had a stopwatch secured to his steering wheel which would count down from our target time of 51:25.7 seconds. He also had two key times: one when we wanted to enter the narrows, and another when we wanted to exit it. As navigator I had two stop watches. The first counted down like James' while the other would count up and be used for splits at the various mile markers.
Fast Times At Camaro High
At the top of the speed heap for these open road races are the unlimited cars. They don't give a crap about checkpoints or average times. Their only goal is to traverse the 90 miles as quickly as possible, at times going well over 200 mph.
Richard Hille's '96 Camaro is built for one thing: open road racing. His ride features a 750hp small-block, tons of aerodynamic modifications, and more safety equipment than the space shuttle. This Camaro has been over 200 mph, something not done by many cars.
Richard blew his left rear tire somewhere near the narrows at 180 mph and just kept going, although he said he had to slow down to 160. He went like that for around 10 miles and when he crossed the finish line the car was smoldering and the beads were worn off the wheels. He told us that he hit over 200 mph along the route, but we'll never know since he was disqualified for not pulling over. Another unlimited car behind him ended up crashing, which red flagged the rest of the event. Luckily the driver, Michael Borders, wasn't injured.
The Results
As navigator, my job was to get us to through the timing lights as close to 51:25.7 as possible. When the countdown timer was 10 seconds from going to zeros, I started a verbal countdown to James so he could try and time the finish a little better. In fact, I was so busy I never even looked up to see the finish line (I heard it was cool). I was fairly confident that we were within a second of being perfect, but we wouldn't know until the awards dinner that night.
We came to find out we were fast, but missed our time by 0.377 seconds, which gave us an average speed of 104.99 mph. It got us a special mention, but that time was only good for Fourth Place in our class. Overall we came in 27th out of 118 teams, but we were the highest ranking rookies. We were happy with our performance even if we didn't get a plaque and a picture with the two smokin' hot trophy girls. You can see all the results and find out more about future events over at www.sscc.us.
James wasn’t’ sure trophy...
James wasn’t’ sure trophy girls were in his future, so he decided to play it safe and pose with a few ladies at the finish line. To his right is Nicole LeCarner who navigated for a car No. 333 in the 115-mph class. On his left is Connie Gray, also known as the Queen of 318, and to his far left is Nicole’s friend Amy.
Hossie Haney and Kasey Towne...
Hossie Haney and Kasey Towne brought their ’79 Camaro all the way from Oregon to run in the event. Their ride was a bit on the rough side, but it did manage to make it’s way though tech. The pair had some overheating issues during their run in the 110-mph class, but they did finish. They missed their mark by 44.477 seconds. While that sounds like a lot, they managed to best several other cars, such as a Porsche Carrera, ZR1 Corvette, and Dodge Viper. After seeing their Camaro run we had an overwhelming urge to go rent Mad Max.
T-minus five minutes, time...
T-minus five minutes, time for us to get strapped in and ready to roll. On the way to the starting line two nice ladies from the Las Vegas Corvette club pulled our belts really tight, and our tires were inspected once again for any problems.