The OPTIMA Ultimate Street Car Invitational

First off - congratulations to Steve and Dave on Bad Penny’s repeat as winner of the OPTIMA Ultimate Street Car Invitational; regardless of any other considerations, Steve and Dave worked their butts off on Saturday and the month before to get Penny ready and at the end of they day they pulled it off. David first noticed that the power steering pump was going away on the orientation laps and when Steve hit the autocross it was done; while the autocross course was not as demanding (from a steering point of view) as some of the others that Steve has tackled, it was still a ton of work to drive with no power assist. That they were able to (a) find a power steering pump in Pahrump and (b) get it changed in time to run the road course and finish the event was a testament to their dedication and in the end their hard work paid off. Great job!


Second – hats off to OPTIMA Batteries for putting on the event and to all of the sponsors that made it possible. All of the controversies – tires, drivers, invitees, scoring, and anything else – aside, the fact is that this was only the second time that the event had been held and it was a TON OF FUN! The quality of the cars there was awesome and – for the most part - they were being driven to their very limits. It was great to see guys like Larry C. driving the absolute butt of Motiv8r and loving it. To see Bill and Yancy and Mark and Charlie and a host of others driving their cars to the very limit was incredible and without FM3 and OPTIMA stepping up to organize the event and sponsors like Ridetech and K&N it never would have happened.
Third – it’s a competitive event and we (pro-touring) remain the cream of the crop. Throughout “the week” there were opinions galore on who would win and why. There was discussion about practicing, new vs. old, race tires vs. street tires, and pro’s vs. joes and in the end OLD JOES won the day. But a couple of big worries were disproved – new cars don’t automatically have an advantage over our old cars and professional drivers are not a magic bullet, nor are pre race practice sessions. Some of the best drivers IN THE WORLD were in attendance at the race and they did not dominate the competitions where they were expected to… Paul Tracy put some fast road course laps down in the F/M 2010 Camaro but he did not walk away from the field at all… nor did Tanner Faust dominate on an autocross course that was seemingly designed with drifting in mind. The Nissan GTR was not a factor, nor was the AMG Mercedes or any of the other new cars. Pro Touring and vintage G Machines truly ruled the day. And everyone was pushing hard – as shown by the attrition and off road excursions. It was really cool.
I think it was a great day and want to congratulate everyone who was fortunate enough to participate – both as competitors and volunteers. And I think that the volunteers need to be recognized as well – they worked tirelessly throughout the day and were also a big part of making the whole deal possible.
We had a lot of fun and it was great seeing everyone there. For my part I want to thank Robert for the ride to Pahrump on Saturday and (as always) Dave and Mary for the help getting the car ready.