The Ridetech team is back from SEMA and the OUSCI event, here is the final report from the 2011 event:
“Beginning in 2008, Optima batteries has put on the Ultimate Street Car Invitational. They pick around 60 of the fastest and most interesting cars in the world to participate in an event at Spring Mountain Roadcourse in Pahrump, NV. the day after SEMA. We have been sponsoring the autocross segment of this event since it’s inception (the only remaining original sponsor, I believe). The logistics of dealing with SEMA AND the Optima event in the same week are very stressful, to say the least. The event is filmed for a TV show on Speed Channel. That means several interviews throughout the week and at the event. Fortunately I’ve had the opportunity to do this TV stuff several times, so at this point they can just pull my string and something will come out!
The first part of the Optima event is a road rally. This means that 60 VERY serious and nervous hotrods get to cruise down the Las Vegas strip…in 4:00 Friday afternoon traffic! I have found that the cab drivers in Vegas don’t have near the enchantment with a bunch of balky hotrods as we do. This year the road rally was “enhanced” by snow. Yep, that is not a misprint…it rained in Vegas, and snowed about 6″ in the mountain pass between Las Vegas and Pahrump. We were advised to take an alternate route, but by the time we got around to actually heading that way, the road was cleared and away we went…the 48 Hour Camaro, JF Launier’s 57 Chevy, and Gerry Kernan’s 62 Nova, all following each other for 60 miles through the slush!
Since it snowed, obviously it was cold… 37 degrees when we woke up in Pahrump the next morning. I’m thinking the cold track and cold tires should make for some interesting off track excursions.
I couldn’t get a lot of pictures at the event because frankly, I had my own car to worry about. We’ve always had a top ten car here. The 48 Hour Camaro is the fastest thing I’ve had here…it was a full 5 seconds faster on the road course than the Chevelle we took last year. But everyone else stepped up even more. Last year we ended up tied for 9th overall. This year…[even though we were much faster]…22nd! The really gratifying thing was that we had 13 customers competing at this event with the RideTech shocks and Tigercage components! Mary Pozzi was our best finishing customer in 5th place overall …4th in the Speed stop, 2nd in the autocross, and 12th on the road course. I’ll have complete results posted in a couple of days.
Until then…thanks for putting up with my daily ramblings. I’ll try not to irritate you again until sometime in January. We’re taking a 67 Chevelle to the Mecum auction in Kissimmee, so I’ll probably be doing some updates from there. Have fun!”
-Bret Voelkel
Getting ready for some photo ops on the track at pahrump.
Quite a selection of Hotrods!
Everybody kept asking, so I just wrote it on the fender!
No wonder Mary Pozzi always beats me...she eats like a horse!
Albert Melchior's 1970 Firebird "Cochise" uses Ridetech Triple Adjustable Coilovers
Terry Neuville's also uses Triple Adjustable Coilovers on his 1967 Camaro
Tags: musclecar
