I filled up with gas at my store, Anahim Lake Trading, then headed south of the border in May for the Silver State Classic Challenge.
I drove to Seattle, picked up my navigator, John Vittone, then we drove about 1,400 miles farther to Las Vegas and Ely, Nevada.
And it was another couple wins for the home team.
I won fastest in the Halfmile Shootout (103 cars).
My navigator, John Vittone from Seattle, and I won first in the 115-mph class with a time variance of .3 seconds slow over the distance of 90 miles.
We were competing in my supercharged 2001 Dodge Viper GTS. Being new my navigator had to learn the job while we were flying down the Silver State Highway at speeds of up to 139 mph — 140 mph would have resulted in an automatic disqualification.
With the Open Road Rally only the last (finish) milepost counts.
This race there were a few problems along the route and the race was red flagged, meaning that a restart was required after the race was stopped.
With speeds of 250 mph for some cars accidents are serious. During the race one car did blow a tire and left the highway at nearly 200 mph.
Because of the extreme safety requirements the driver and navigator were fine and uninjured, although the highly modified Hybrid Corvair/Corvette was completely destroyed.
Temperatures were at 39 C in Las Vegas for the media event and start of the Caravan to Ely, NV.
However, the rain forced the postponement of the Halfmile Shootout until the Saturday, just after the Mile Shootout.
Mile Shootout was won at 230 mph by a 1,500-wheel-horsepower race gas Lamborghini worth well over a million dollars.
There was rain again and even a few snowflakes that night although the rain had stopped by 6 a.m. and the race start at 10 a.m. had dry highways.
Unfortunately we got the word that there was a blizzard in Ely just as we started running the 103 competition vehicles from the start at one-minute intervals.
The start got pushed and we left at 30 second intervals which allowed all cars in the competition to head south, away from the snow.
At the awards banquet (Sam’s Town Casino) back in Las Vegas we were pleased to receive our awards.
There were classic muscle cars from Calgary and they also collected several trophies.
I overheard a comment that perhaps SSCC needs to form a Canadian Class so that we don’t take home all the trophies.
They were only half serious, of course, but it was pretty obvious that the Canadians did well.
With only eight mopars in this competition and those few cars winning 10 of the trophies, some corvette (33 in the competition) owners may switch brands by the SSCC in the fall.
Doug and Brent Seal (owner of Willowbrook Chrysler) came along and won first in the 110-mph class in Doug’s 2009 SRT Viper ACR.
Joe Christopherson and Josh Roush of Seattle also raced with us and were part of our team, the Mopar Maniacs.
Our team finished about fourth overall.
