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Ultimate Street Cars at Thunderhill: Round Two of the Ultimate Street Car heads to Northern California

Chad Reynolds — Mon, 25 Mar 2024 10:24:47 +0000

(Words by Jim McIlvaine, Photos by Kaleb Kelley) OPTIMA may be searching for the ultimate street cars, but they’re looking to amateurs (at least non-professional drivers) to deliver the goods and they’re doing it on a national stage. How do you allow amateur drivers to compete against each other, when none have the time or resources to run the full series, let alone carve out two weeks to run back to back events on opposite coasts? You set up a points system that allows all the drivers to compete against each other, based on their best two events, regardless of where those events are held or who else is in the field.

The points are handed out before the field is split into classes, so overall field size and talent depth are both important factors. That can often make early season stops and those in geographically remote locations like Portland or Sebring offer more potential for big points, than the sold-out events with stacked fields that will come later in the year. With a second stop at Thunderhill now in the books, the points battle is beginning to take shape across all the classes in the series. Even though these cars could be separated by thousands of miles and may not face off in the regular season, many tight battles are already emerging.

Duke Langley’s ’02 Corvette has been dominant in the Nine Lives Racing Lucky 7 Outlaw Class, but he always seems to be waging a battle with his car, to keep it on track. Langely lost the battle at Thunderhill and couldn’t even make the start, which now puts Danny Weller’s Camaro and Jamie Elliott’s Corvette in a tie for first place in the class with 399 out of 400 points at the first two events. Langley can still get around them, but it will probably take at least one perfect weekend for him to do it and the longer he waits and the more points they gather, the tougher that task will get.

In the Speedtech GTV Class, Ryan Breezee’s first place finish at Thunderhill only placed him third overall in the season-long points chase, while the Camaros of Chris Smith and Larry Woo hold onto the top two spots from their runs at Sebring. Breezee is only signed up for one more event this season at Weathertech Raceway Laguna Seca and it will take a 490-point run there for him to pass Smitty for the lead in points…if Smitty does no better than 472 points in his remaining three events.

Breezee won the GTV Class at Laguna Seca in 2023, but a sold-out field with lots of competitive cars limits points opportunities and Breezee was able to win the class there with 462 points. He may win again at Laguna Seca this season, but if he wants to get around Smitty to win the class championship, he’ll probably need to find his way to Portland.

A transfer case failure caused defending No-Limit Engineering GTT Class champion, Stephen Dorrick, to stumble badly out of the gates at Sebring. He still managed to win the class, but only posted 405 points, which now leaves him fourth after three trucks passed him at Thunderhill. David Carroll’s 41-point lead is not insurmountable, but if Carroll or Dustin Reed do well at Portland, Dorrick may need all three of his remaining events to catch either one of them.

In the After Dark Speed GTS Class, Bob Sobey’s Nissan GT-R posted a 13-point win over Jordan Priestley’s Model 3 at Thunderhill. The two are scheduled to square off again at Laguna Seca and if Sobey posts another win, it would make it hard for Priestley or anyone else to catch him. Priestley will have at least one more shot to do it at Road America and a run at Portland could make things very interesting. If Priestley were to move into the lead after Portland, that would force Sobey to travel from Arizona to the Virginias to try to reel him back in at one of the last stops of the season.

The tightest races can be found in the Lingenfelter GTL Class and the Viking Performance GT Class, where the point differential between first and second is two and one point, respectively. Both of those classes also look to be at least four-horse races. Ryan Mathews’ Corvette holds a two-point lead over Lane Farka’s Porsche GT3, but Mike Rovere and CB Ramey haven’t run any events yet this season. In the GT Class, Matt Ramirez’s Mustang holds a one-point lead over defending class champion, Dave Schotz, who is one point ahead of Austin Barnes’ Mustang, while Jonathan Blevins will wait until the final two events to try and take back the GT class title.

Compelling battles can be found at every stop in this series, so if one of these events comes to a track near you, don’t miss out on your chance to see these incredible machines in person. Learn how you can drive among them at www.DriveOPTIMA.com

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An East Coasters Tour Of So Cal Hot Rodding History: Part 2 – Mooneyes Shop Tour Photos From Joe Grippo.

Chad Reynolds — Fri, 22 Mar 2024 15:19:02 +0000

(Words and Photos by Joe Grippo) The next few stops on our East Coasters Tour of Southern California Hot Rod Shops took us to some legendary locations. First up on this day was Blairs Speed Shop in Pasadena. If you are not aware of Blair’s, first off it is supposedly the oldest operating speed shop in the world, being at its Foothill Blvd location since 1957. Don Blair is the namesake and ran the shop from the beginning to 1975 when Phil Lukens purchased the business. Phil has shepherded the Speed Shop through the tumultuous years of the 1970’s gas crunch, multiple recessions in the 80’s and 90’s, and trends as varied as Vans, Street Rodding, Drag Racing and other ups and downs right up to the current day. In a time when the local speed shops are closing, the fact that Blair’s is still very active is a testament to Phil’s dedication, quality of his service and building of his customer engines.

CLICK HERE IF YOU MISSED THE PREVIOUS JOE GRIPPO GALLERIES

Walking into Blair’s is like stepping back into time. Don’t expect a spotless, sanitary white glove environment, this is a hardcore speed shop with oil-stained floors, with boxes and parts everywhere. Various engine builds are lined up and waiting to be paid for and picked up. We spied a FE Ford ready to rumble on the run stand, a few 351 Cleveland’s and of course a few big and small block Chevys. The walls are lined with chrome do-dads and serious race equipment. Looking deeper we see lots of cool hand lettered sings, and vintage awards and photos from years of Drag Strip activities. Heading to the back rooms we find the well-used machine shop, fully equipped with mills, lathes and other heavy machinery needed to crank out high performance engines. Check out the inventory of cylinder heads, cranks and blocks waiting to roar again. After showing up unannounced, Phil gave us free reign to wander around the entire shop and shoot some photos. It was a great experience chatting with Phil about the old days and hearing a few war stories of all the past names and personalities that have passed through Blair’s over the years. We bought a few t-shirts, thanked Phil for the hospitality and headed out. This experience got me wistfully thinking about my local shop, K&G Speed Associates that closed a few years ago. These remaining speed emporiums need our support, so, when possible, buy local when you can, long live Blair’s Speed Shop!

Our next destination was another Southern California staple of hot rodding, Mooneyes Equipment in Santa Fe Springs. The Moon name and logo is ubiquitous in land speed, drag racing, and all facets of the automotive hobby. From fuel blocks, tanks, and wheel discs to custom accessories for motorcycles, VWs, and trucks Moon Equipment has what you need to add the finishing touch to your ride. I personally have a silver Moon metalflake steering wheel on my race car! The Santa Fe Springs location is part retail store, part shipping warehouse and part fab shop, and part museum. The store is great with so much cool stuff in every square corner. Check out the Ed Roth scale model diorama featuring all Big Daddy’s creations, an amazing amount of detail work is in there. Exiting through the gift shop leads to another room that takes you back in time. Check out the huge display case and shelves full of vintage speed parts and insanely cool artifacts from the history of Mooneyes. And upon turning around, there sits Dean Moon’s personal ’34 hot rod with wire wheels, bobbed fenders, and glowing yellow paint. Adjacent to the roadster is a perfect recreation of the old Mooneyes Dragmaster rail job, complete with a gorgeous Potvin blown little Chevy mill. The dragster was rolled out into the bright sunshine and was simply stunning. The back area of the Moon complex is the shipping and receiving section, nothing too exciting, unless you know the story of Carroll Shelby coming to Moon in 1962 with the idea of building his own sports car. I was standing right where it happened. The lore goes something like Shelby, ever the promoter, was telling all the magazines he had multiple Cobras ready to road test, when he had only one! So right there in in the Moon shop that single Cobra was painted numerous times for the car mag scribes to drive and report on, giving the illusion of a fleet of cars ready to be sold. Wild stuff!

Across the parking lot is the fab shop. Moon tanks and wheel discs are spun, welded and hand finished right there on site. Once again, the laid-back Moon staff gave us carte blanche and we wondered around trying not to bother the dudes actually working. We checked out the machines, tooling, welders and all the other stuff utilized to produce these iconic speed parts. Hanging from the rafters was another complete Dragmaster chassis, and a bitchin’ ‘glass Anglia gasser front end hung on back wall. A few Bonneville and El Mirage running Streamliners with Moon livery were being maintained in house, as well. So much neat eye candy was everywhere.
To paraphrase Ice Cube, “…Today was a good day”.

CLICK HERE IF YOU MISSED THE PREVIOUS JOE GRIPPO GALLERIES

Us BangShifter’s need to support these places, as they are truly hallowed ground for us hot rodders, we ended the trip by grabbing a few more t-shirts. I went with the classic black and white Mooneyes tee in double fat!

Join the Blair’s Speed Shop Facebook group to check the history:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/1460627117571926

And buy something cool from Mooneye Equipment:
https://www.mooneyesusa.com/

The post An East Coasters Tour Of So Cal Hot Rodding History: Part 2 – Mooneyes Shop Tour Photos From Joe Grippo. appeared first on BangShift.com.

Fun With Cars & Car People at the Track: OPTIMA’s Ultimate Street Car series visits Sebring International Raceway

Chad Reynolds — Mon, 04 Mar 2024 17:00:55 +0000

(Words by Jim McIlvaine, Photos by Kaleb Kelley) A full moon glided over a clear Florida sky, making way for a warm sunrise and the start of the 11th season of OPTIMA’s Ultimate Street Car series. While most car guys were still in mid-Winter hibernation, competitors in this series converged on Sebring International Raceway, like the bumble bees in the Blind Melon video- oddities in their own corners of the country, but surrounded by their people when they arrive at these events.

There is a camaraderie here that is not always found in other forms of motorsports, in part, because this series doesn’t follow the script of a typical motorsports series or event. Saroja Day makes track-themed cookies at every event and they are handed out for all the best reasons. At NOLA Motorsports Park a couple years ago, it was every driver who had a Presidential last name- Tim Grant, Doug Taft and James Garfield.

The outcome of a weekend doesn’t just depend on how the car runs on the track. It has to be driven on public roads and presented to a group of judges in the Wynrock Speed Shop Design & Engineering Challenge. That segment of the series is a bit of a lightning rod, but it is a key element of this series for a couple different reasons. All of the cars that compete in this series are vying for an invitation to the OPTIMA Ultimate Street Car Invitational, which is typically held in conjunction with the SEMA Show in Las Vegas (it was run at Circuit of the Americas during COVID) and while there are some race cars on display at the SEMA Show, it would not roll out a welcome mat for a haggard pack of track rats.

As a result, the cars and trucks in this series are not only very capable on the track, but they look the part against the best of their contemporaries at any car show in the country. Many have been featured in magazines and TV shows over the years, in part, because of their reputation from this series for being so well-rounded. More than capable on the track and about the nicest example you’ll see of a modified Camaro, Mustang or Corvette anywhere else, but Design & Engineering is more than that.

It forces competitors out of their shells. They get four minutes to present their vehicles to the judges and they can’t afford to have a laser focus on how they’re going to run a faster time in the afternoon, because they have to be warm and personable to a group of fellow car guys, who hold their fate in the scores they enter on ipads. Design & Engineering bonds competitors in this series, who may have nothing in common, other than their fear of the outcome or disdain for even having to do it…until it becomes their saving grace.

As Teslas have emerged as dominant competitors in the Peak Performance Challenge and Classic Car Liquidators Autocross, Design & Engineering helps level the playing field, due to the challenges it presents to owners of newer vehicles, who are trying to figure out how to modify them in a way that will improve performance and/or appearance- a task much easier to accomplish in a car built 50 years ago.

Even beyond that aspect of the series, there’s a different vibe here. Competitors will often talk about how intimidated they felt, showing up at their first event. They’ve been to other time trial events and even track days, where podiatrists try to “out-cool” investment advisors, as they all pursue the singular goal of fast time of the day.

In this series, they pull into a track and are suddenly amid cars they’ve watched on TV, read about in magazines or saw featured in online advertisements for years. Brand names like Forgeline, Falken and Lingenfelter are no longer in the abstract, they are front and center, along with the principals behind them. There is a misguided belief based on other track experiences, that you need to put on your “game face,” but then you see people laughing and joking with each other and they are driving the same cars, which means they’re also competing against each other.

Then the cookies come out. A little while later someone loses an alternator and someone else lends them a spare, while others jump in to help get it swapped out. At Sebring, Henry Crawn’s weekend ended early, but he stuck around and pitched in when his fellow No-Limit Engineering GTT Class competitor, Stephen Dorrick, blew up his transfer case and needed help. The same thing happened when Dave Schotz had splitter issues on his Camaro. Ted Barnes and Robert Weathers dropped what they were doing to get him back on track.

If they had known their efforts would’ve made the one-point difference that gave Schotz the win over their Mustang, they wouldn’t have thought twice to do it again. Chris Smith rode with Randy Johnson to help him dial in his new Camaro build because they all want to win on the track, but not because someone else wasn’t at their best.

They walk the autocross course together, with veterans explaining nuance to newcomers, they ride right seat to learn a faster line around the track and head out to dinner together afterwards. Come see for yourself and then figure out a way to get out here with your street car. You may not beat the world right out of the gate, but you’ll have a great time and make new friends, who you’ll look forward to seeing when you come back…and you will come back. www.DriveOPTIMA.com has all the information you need to get started.

Top Ten Overall
1. Chris Smith 1970 Chevrolet Camaro GTV 489 points
2. Dave Schotz 2022 Chevrolet Camaro GT 477 points
3. Ryan Mathews 2002 Chevrolet Corvette GTL 477 points
4. Larry Woo 1968 Chevrolet Camaro GTV 476 points
5. Austin Barnes 2020 Ford Mustang GT 476 points
6. Mike Gallagher 2016 Ford Focus RS GTS 464 points
7. Ron Scott 1963 Chevrolet Corvette GTV 462 points
8. Jason Bottenfield 1969 Chevrolet Camaro GTV 461 points
9. Dayton de la Houssaye 2016 Mazda MX-5 GTC 459 points
10. Collin King 2018 Chevrolet Camaro GT 452 points

2024 OPTIMA Ultimate Street Car Schedule
February 23-25th Sebring Raceway
March 1-3rd Thunderhill Raceway
May 3-5th Weathertech Raceway Laguna Seca
June 28-30th Road America
July 26-28th Portland International Raceway
August 16-18th Summit Point Motorsports Park
October 4-6th VIRginia International Raceway

QA1 First Timer Award- Joshua Johnson 1979 Chevrolet Camaro

Anderson Composites Competitor’s Choice Award- Ron Scott 1963 Chevrolet Corvette

Operational Speed Supply Most-Improved Driver- Patrick Lever 1966 Superformance GT40

Summit Racing Spirit of the Event Invitation- Mike Owen 1970 Chevrolet Chevelle

Sparky’s Showdown Winner- Steve Rivett 1968 Chevrolet Camaro

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PRI Show Photos: Here’s The Last Gallery Of Photos From The PRI Show, Plus A Link To All The Rest If You Missed Any!

Chad Reynolds — Sun, 24 Dec 2023 10:16:47 +0000

Here’s our last batch of photos from the 2023 PRI Show and a link below in case you missed any of them.

We’ve got more photos from the 2023 PRI Show in Indy. Man this place is full of epic stuff that I’d really love to see under the tree or under the hood in 2024. The PRI Show is where everyone that’s anyone seemed to be on hand checking out parts, making sponsors happy, signing autographs, partying at the local bars and just having too much fun all around. It’s our favorite trade show of the year and we had a great time. There was tons to see and even more importantly, awesome people to talk to. Check out our continuing coverage below, we’ve got more galleries coming this week as well!

We are in Indianapolis for the 2023 PRI Show and man there is lots of cool stuff here as usual. Thursday we got to the show, judged the featured products, saw some awesome stuff we’d never seen before, and then wandered around shooting some photos. Then we attempted a more stuctured approach to our coverage and went aisle by aisle in search of all things cool. Check back tomorrow for even more coverage as we’ve got all kinds of cool stuff we know you will dig.

The Performance Racing Industry show is one that any racer would love to attend. Unlike the SEMA Show in Las Vegas, where every kind of automotive aftermarket part is on display, the PRI Show features only racing-related parts. If the parts aren’t related to the motorsports world, you won’t find them here.

CLICK HERE IF YOU MISSED OUR PREVIOUS GALLERIES FROM THE 2023 PRI SHOW

The post PRI Show Photos: Here’s The Last Gallery Of Photos From The PRI Show, Plus A Link To All The Rest If You Missed Any! appeared first on BangShift.com.

OPTIMA’s Ultimate Street Car Invitational- 2023 Edition: Bob Sobey’s Nissan GT-R successfully defends its title

Chad Reynolds — Sun, 24 Dec 2023 10:00:53 +0000

(Words by Jim McIlvaine, Photos by Kaleb Kelley & Royce Rumsey) Bob Sobey’s Nissan GT-R became the third vehicle to successfully mount a title defense in the 16-year history of the OPTIMA Ultimate Street Car Invitational (OUSCI) presented Advance Auto Parts. The first two to accomplish that feat were Danny Popp in his 2003 Corvette and Mike DuSold in his 1967 Camaro, which puts Sobey’s GT-R in very elite company. His margin of victory over second place also increased by six points from the prior year, but that’s no guarantee Sobey will be resting on his laurels for the 2024 season.

Eight of the top-10 cars from the 2022 OUSCI returned to Las Vegas to take another shot at Sobey and came up short, but several narrowed the gap. While Sobey’s GT-R enjoyed a larger margin of victory in 2023 (13 points vs 7 points in 2022), Sobey’s overall score only improved by three points from the prior year. At the same time, fourth-place John Falkner’s Camaro improved by 12 points, eighth-place Ryan Mathews’ Corvette improved by 13 points, runner-up Jordan Priestley’s Tesla improved by 22 points and third-place Chris Smith’s Camaro improved by 29 points.

It’s incredible to think that just six years after the first Tesla competed in the series, Jordan Priestley’s Model 3 is knocking on the door for an OUSCI title and Sobey’s Nissan GT-R was the only car preventing that from happening in 2023. In fact, all four Teslas finished inside the top-20 and to date, no Tesla has ever failed to complete one of these events due to a mechanical issue.

Between the Teslas and the improvements made by others, Sobey could have a very hard time matching Danny Popp’s record of three consecutive OUSCI victories in 2024. At the same time, several top competitors, including the Camaros of Dave Schotz and Brian Hobaugh and the Mustangs of Matt Ramirez and Jonathan Blevins all had unusually disappointing performances early in the competition, which they all aim to remedy before the 2024 season-opener. The list of contenders is long and doesn’t appear to be shrinking.

If there’s anything that can be said about the OUSCI, it’s that it definitely earns the “Ultimate” moniker in its title. To stand still in this event and the qualifying series that feeds into it, is to fall backwards. Too many others are constantly finding ways to perform better on the track and look better while doing it. See a massive photo gallery from this event below and be sure to catch the TV series when it airs later this year on the CBS Sports Network. Registration for the 2024 season will open on January 5th at HYPERLINK “http://www.DriveOPTIMA.com” www.DriveOPTIMA.com

Top Ten Overall

1. Bob Sobey 2013 Nissan GT-R 487 points

2. Jordan Priestley 2021 Tesla Model 3 474 points

3. Chris Smith 1970 Chevrolet Camaro 460 points

4. John Falkner 2021 Chevrolet Camaro 455 points

5. Ryan Breezee 1969 Chevrolet Camaro 453 points

6. Dave Schotz 2022 Chevrolet Camaro 447 points

7. Brian Hobaugh 1973 Chevrolet Camaro 445 points

8. Ryan Mathews 2002 Chevrolet Corvette 445 points

9. Austin Barnes 2020 Ford Mustang 436 points

10. Mike Rovere 2008 Chevrolet Corvette 432 points

2024 OPTIMA Search for the Ultimate Street Car Schedule