2009 Nevada Open Road Challenge - Optima and the OneLapCamaro - We're Going!
 

Jimi at FM3 Performance Marketing sent this press release out earlier today:

OPTIMA® Batteries to sponsor James Shipka and the One Lap Camaro for 2009 Nevada Open Road Challenge 




April 28, 2009


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 




Milwaukee, WI - OPTIMA® Batteries continues its support for the Silver State Classic Challenge in 2009 with sponsorship of James Shipka and his One Lap Camaro. The One Lap Camaro, a custom-built 1967 Camaro, featured at the 2008 SEMA (Specialty Equipment Market Association) convention, the worlds largest automotive industry trade show, will represent OPTIMA® Batteries in it's run across the public highways of central Nevada.


The Camaro was built and designed specifically for competitive sanctioned public highway competitions including the famous One Lap of America 4000 mile endurance race. James' first test of the brutal Camaro came last fall at the OPTIMA® Batteries Ultimate Street Car Invitational where it proved its prowess on the road course and autocross at Spring Mountain Motorsports Park.




OPTIMA® Batteries and James has assembled a top-notch team of OPTIMA® Batteries Ultimate Street Car Invitational veterans, including the reigning 2008 champion, Steven Rupp, Technical Editor of a popular automotive performance magazine and owner of Bad Penny. Bad Penny is a 1968 Camaro that earned the 2008 OPTIMA® Batteries Ultimate Street Car title. Steven will ride shotgun and take on the daunting task of navigator, attempting to keep James and the One Lap Camaro between the white lines and on schedule throughout the 90 mile timed run. Anchoring the rest of Team OPTIMA® is famed road course racer David Pozzi and his SCCA autocross champion wife, Mary Pozzi. They will be using their skill and experience to make sure the One Lap Camaro stays dialed-in for each event including the OPTIMA® Batteries High Noon Shootout - a one-mile top speed challenge. 




”We are very excited about working with James and promoting our continued relationship with the Silver State Classic Challenge Series. Partnering with James and this Silver State Classic event is a great example of our commitment to high performance events that prove OPTIMA® Batteries perform in the most extreme applications." said Cam Douglass, Director of Product Development and Marketing for OPTIMA® Batteries.


The Nevada Open Road Challenge, part of the Silver State Classic Challenge, is a 90 mile timed run on the closed public
highways of Nevada, starting in Ely and finishing in Ash Springs. It begins just South of Lund, at White Pine County just north of mile marker 9, heads South through Nye County, and finishes at Lincoln County mile marker 7. The journey traverses 90 miles of two-lane highway that has recently been repaved and is in excellent condition, with long straights, twisty sections, and dips, which for the faster participants, may result in an airborne experience. The winner in each class is the car that finishes closest to the perfect time for the average speed of their class. Visit www.silverstateclassic.com for more information.



OPTIMA® Batteries are like no other battery in the world. The unique SpiralCell design offers the most advanced technology and provides a strong and clean power source that far surpasses any of today's filled lead-acid batteries. With OPTIMA® under your hood, you can count on a longer lasting battery life under starting and deep-cycle applications. Stop by your local retailer or visit www.optimabatteries.com for more information.




About OPTIMA® Batteries 

OPTIMA® Batteries are manufactured by Johnson Controls, Inc. Johnson Controls (NYSE: JCI - 
News) is the global leader that brings ingenuity to the places where people live, work and travel. 
By integrating technologies, products and services, we create smart environments that redefine 
the relationships between people and their surroundings. Our team of 140,000 employees 
creates a more comfortable, safe and sustainable world through our products and services for 
more than 200 million vehicles, 12 million homes and one million commercial buildings. Our 
commitment to sustainability drives our environmental stewardship, good corporate citizenship in 
our workplaces and communities, and the products and services we provide to customers. For 
additional information, please visit http://www.johnsoncontrols.com. 


### 


Jimi Day
President & CEO

FM3 Performance Marketing, Inc.
1369 Port Washington Road, Suite 346
Grafton, WI 53024
Ph: 414-702-4939
www.fm3marketing.com

For those of you who don't recognize the name, the group that puts on the Silver State Classic Challenge run two events a year on Highway 318 - the Nevada Open Highway Challenge in May and the Silver State Classic Challenge in September. Both are similar formats and both follow the same course. We'll run in the half mile shootout as well as the one mile High Noon Shootout which is sponsored by Optima.

Obviously we are really excited about this opportunity and Dave and Mary have been working hard on the Camaro's suspension setup to prepare for this and work some of the other bugs out of the car. It's coming together really well and we will give it a run for it's money this weekend at Streets of Willow to see how it likes the improvements.

It should be a wild ride and will be awesome to have Steve navigating and the Pozzi's providing moral, spiritual, and technical support.

I'm probably going to say this more than once but I can not thank Dave and Maru enough for all of their help over the last month. They are two of the nicest people that anyone could hope to work with and I'm really looking forward to seeing how the car comes together.

Cheers!

Congrats James!

What MPH class will you be in? I recall that first timers are limited to 110 MPH Class max with a Tech Speed of 124 or so. However I also recall reading that if you have prior racing exp. that's waved. In anycase I am sure it will be a blast :thumbsup:

:woot:

VIDEO.

:D

VERY COOL!!! :thumbsup:

though I walk through the valley of death, I fear no evil for thou art with me....


lol


Should be fun.. Don't let the Pozzis know Penny is willed to them since they are working on the One Lap car... ;)

Watch out for the cattle guards and turkey buzzards (seriously). Have fun, it's a great event.

Tom - we're trying to pin down a class now. You are correct, as first timers we are restricted on time and maximum top speed (124). I also have to attend a Rookie School Thursday morning before the event. At this point we're looking to run somewhere between 105 and 115 mph; 110 is a really crowded group so we might just avoid that.

Scott - I don't think there will be any shortage of video. We'll do an in car and an out of car version and try to link them to the telemetry from the data logger. Maybe even the ever popular splitter cam...

It should be a lot of fun Tony.

Thanks Steve - at least you and are on the same page heading into this. lol

I really do appreciate your help with this - it should be a blast and, if I know you, we'll either be reallt confused or really close at the end.

I hear you Neil - I've seen the end result of multiple bird shots... not pretty.

:hail: I have always wanted to do the Silver State. For now, I'll have to live vicariously through you, as will many others around here, I'm sure.

Have fun, and good luck. :thumbsup:

James, check your PMs if you get a chance.

Thanks,

105-120 I may have to join you. 150 well I don't really feel like taking that chance. Let me know. I would like to run it.

Sounds like a fun event! Can't wait to see how this turns out! :unibrow:

You know.. there's not a not of difference between crashing at 150 and at 120.. It's like the difference between getting attacked by a 15-foot shark and a 12-foot shark... ;)

Nice way to put it Steve :rofl: Congrats and good luck guys. That should be a blast.

Oh, H*LL yeah. One of these days when I stop tearing the car completely apart over the winter, I would love to do this. I'm sure you will have a blast James, I'm looking forward to video. Thread subscribed

Matt

The outcome would be the same but the chances are lower. Let's not talk about crashing. That's going to be a blast!

I would love to do this someday:hail: Can't wait for the video's.:thumbsup:

What, pull your panties off?!? The car will just be getting going at those speeds... drop the hammer down.:willy:

Dave - they are fairly strict on first timers and, honestly, I don't disagree. When you start looking at all of the facets of the event it's a lot to take in and I think that a slower initial run through will pay off in the future.

That being said I am going to try to have them tech the car for higher speed classes. That way when we come back in the fall I'll know that the car will tech without issue.

It should be a blast.

I know you know I'm just joking... easy for me to say from my office chair.
The event will be super fun! So jealous ...again! But really you'll only be in like third gear at those speeds....

I know buddy. :)
Third gear thing probably won't fly though...
David Pozzi's first question when we talked about this... "so... how big is your fuel tank?"

Never thought of the fuel issue until now. You'd better go find some lonely strip of highway and do a 100mph -90 mile blast and see how it goes?
Lonely highway and Cali. is that even possible?? Quick blast to Nevada maybe?

With and 18 gallon tank you could get 5 mpg and make it 90 miles.. lol

and you LS7 is a sipper of a mill... we should be fine. We could always carry some milk jugs of gas in the back seat in case we run out.

Awesome stuff! One of these road races is on my to-do list before I die.

Five days to go before the Rookie School... wow

Obviously, we couldn't be doing this without help from OPTIMA Batteries who got us set up for the event but as the days get closer there are a couple of other companies who have stepped up to help us run the event...

A special thanks to TORCO USA who set us up with some of their awesome SR-5 Synthetic Racing oil so we could do an oil change before the race. One thing about the LS7 is that it takes a bunch of oil so TORCO's help was greatly appreciated.

Likewise, another thank you to the guys at Racequip who have helped outfit both the driver and navigator for the event. Even though we're competing in the 105 mph class which has fewer safety requirements, we are erring on the side of caution and will be wearing all of the requisite safety gear for higher speeds. I may even head out with a HANS device if I can put the peices together.

Also, TOYO is giving us some help with fresh rubber for the event. I cut up the outside edge of one of the fronts at the Goodguys show in Del Mar last month and although it's hasn't proven to be an issue I wanted to change both the fronts. Again, erring on the side of caution. The R888's are great tires and I was really impressed with how they wore at Streets so they should be great on highway 318!

James,
Very cool! Will you be running 275 up front and 315 in the rear? You got to love sponsors.

Hopefully Steve can remember to take some sweet pictures...

Everyone's help is appreciated when you're trying to prepare for an event of this magnitude. There are lots of things that "could be" addressed that just aren't in the budget without some help and every bit of assistance makes it easier. It's especially hard when the car is 2500 miles away - without David and Mary's help there is no way that we would be going so I will remain grateful to the Pozzi family for some time.

As far as the fronts go, I would love to stick a 275 or a 285 on the front (ala Carl :hail:) but that's really tough at my ride height. It might be possible but would require new wheels and some serious modification to the steering assembly to work; neither of which are in the budget right now.

You might also want to add a filler in the passenger compartment, just in case you need them. Stopping to fill up would just ruin your time. :lol:

If my cocktail napkin estimates are close, it looks like we got about 9.5 mpg on the Streets course last weekend - almost entirely in 3rd and 4th gear. Get us in 5th or even 6th and we should be ok...

Hi James,

I'd like your feedback on the performance of the electronic traction control system you installed.

Thanks.

James,

I'm thinking something like this!

http://i140.photobucket.com/albums/r...cin/Madmax.jpg

Have a great time and be safe!:thumbsup:

Wouldn't that be a blast.. driving an open road event in a Mad Max clone.. lol


Can't wait until next week.. gonna be fun and should make for a great story.

Safety gear should be here Monday.. tires are in transit.. fresh underwear is packed..

Looks like we're a go...

We're doing a whole story on the deal.. from tech to parties to the actual event.

"including the OPTIMA® Batteries High Noon Shootout - a one-mile top speed challenge."

Any estimate on what your speed will be at this event?

Do they to that zero to 200 to zero event there?

They run both a 0 - 100 - 0 as well as a 0 - 200 - 0 in addition to the Half Mile and Optima Batteries High Noon (one mile) Shootouts. I won't be trying either of the speed stop challenges - too much risk of flat spotting the tires and, in all honesty, I don't see the Camaro being competitive against anything with antilock brakes.

As far as the Shootouts... I have no clue... I'm definately planning on doing the Half Mile on Friday - just to see. If it goes well and the car feels good then I will try the one mile on Saturday.

I have the vid camera mount out of penny and out camcorder is all charged up. I will also bring my go-pro to use along with yours. Should be fun.

Gear came but I forgot to get a head sock..

Pez dispenser ... check, Bad Penny trophy ... check ...

:P

I have a new single layer in the trailer. Replace it and it's yours.

Mary Pozzi

How did you know I take that everywhere???

Deal!

I read between the lines. :D