Sporting a rebuilt supercharged engine, Nimpo Lake’s Ted Hlokoff continued his annual pilgrimage in his 2002 Dodge Viper to Ely, NV. to race the Silver State Classic Challenge Open Road Rally in September.
“The world champion, Jim Perutto’s race car, beat me by five miles per hour,” Hlokoff said, adding he finished second in the Standing Mile Shootout at 180 mph.
“I didn’t realize the first sweeping, long corner was so sharp.
“There were a couple of corners I was listening for the sound of squealing tires as I went around the corners and being an actual road there are bumps in corners. When you’re tight around a corner at 164 miles per hour and hit a bump … it can get very exciting.”
In third place in the Standing Mile Shootout was a Corvette ZR1, Hlokoff said, at 174 mph, with another ZR1 finishing fourth at 170 mph.
“We ran in the 145 mph class but didn’t finish well,” Hlokoff said. “My navigator was confused and couldn’t read the mile markers while flashing past at 164 mph for 10 miles — my supercharged Viper got nearly 12 miles per gallon at those speeds.”
In May Hlokoff finished first at 148 mph in the Halfmile Shootout.
The Silver State Classic Challenge is a stretch of 90 miles on Route 318 through Nevada where more than 200 drivers from around the world converge to race the public highway.
The SSCC began in 1988 and runs every May and September.
