Pro Touring at Pirelli Ultimate Track Car Challenge
The Pirelli Ultimate Track Car Challenge ran last Friday at VIR. And it was amazing!
65 of the fastest cars and drivers compete in Time Trial format. Three members of the pro-touring community participated:
-Mike Holleman 1964 El Camino - Pro Touring
-Mark Steilow 1969 Camaro - Pro Touring
-Jake Parrott / Jakes Rod Shop 1972 Camaro - AIX Race Car
Unfortunately, Mark suffered a steering rack failure in his 69 Camaro, but he took over driving duties for Mike Holleman's El Camino, which placed 40th overall and received the pro touring trophy. Jake's Rod Shop proved that off-the-shelf pro touring parts can run with the big dogs.
Jake's AIX 2nd Gen Camaro placed 26 overall and 12nd in class. The JRS team then stayed the weekend and competed in the NASA American Iron Extreme race, where Jake finished in second place. That's a podium finish for the same exact torque arm and front subframe that you can buy for your pro touring street car.
It's unfortunate that Steilow's Camaro suffered a DNF, but it was way cool that Mike Holleman's El Camino was such a crowd pleaser. When I mentioned the ElCo at the awards ceremony, people cheered and clapped. We hope to see more pro touring cars at this event next year. It's a chance to see how our cars fit into the overall super high performance landscape. Even if you don't wish to participate, you can bring out your car and sign up for NASA's excellent HPDE program (High Performance Driver Education)
INSANE! Watch Glenn Bunch's 528 Hemi IMSA Challenger walk away from the new Dodge Viper ACR-X on the straights. The Viper then reels it in under braking.
RED DEVIL! What do Steilow's Red Devil Camaro, a Porsche GT Race Car, and a 550RWHP Evo have in common? They all participated in the Ultimate Track Car Challenge.
STAGING / PIT OUT! Is this the coolest car show ever? or just staging for the Pirelli UTCC. Watch this video of the big dog class exiting pit road prior to the first session.
You can check out more Pirelli Ultimate Track Car Challenge news in the link below including footage. And keep checking back. More images and video will be posted throughout the week.
What a great weekend! It was cool finally meeting all the pro touring guys and putting faces with the names on the board. I'm really motivated now to finish my car to start running it next year. Congrats to Jake for a fine showing and Mark for showing what PT cars can do driving Mike's El Camino! I ended up staying till Sat so I could drive the Hyperdrive session. My instructor must have been pretty confident with me cause he let me get the firebird up to about 140 on back strech! That's flying with the T-tops out! We wrenched on the Panoz all weekend trying to keep the belt from jumping, in the end the crank broke and was the cause of the belt harmonics in the first case. Even so, a bad day racing is still better than a good day working!
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No Shop, No Money, No Time.... No problem!
It was nice meeting you, that was a blast. 140 with no T-tops is flighing, according to the rpm-speed calcultor, my Mustang got somewhere between 145 and 150, I think Jake said he made it in the 160's, that was awesome. I can't wait to get that thing back out on the track. Ron
ya my car went 167-169 on both straights, which ended with 60 mph turns.
Steve and grassroots thanks for a great event. I have driven at a bunch of race tracks and Vir is the hardest by far to master, it is so fast in places, then slow and technical in others. Awesome awesome race track. Friday we struggled with learning the track, corner speeds, alot of off camber stuff, and set up. We messed with rc adjustments and shock tuning. An rc changed resulted in a 5 second lap time reduction!!!
The utcc was great, an awesome event with a HUGE variety of cars.
We stayed for the nasa racing on saturday. We qualified 14th overall (mixed class racing) and 2nd in aix. We finished 4th overall and 2nd in our class, to a guy in a 92 trans am, whos home track is vir.
Great event and thanks again.
Nothing like running 168 mph down the straights, only to wow down to 60 or so for the turns at the end of each.
Couldn't see much of it, but that looks like a pretty cool car.
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1969 Camaro/ Tom Nelson TT 434 / Wayne Due C5 / DSE QLink / and a bunch of other stuff...
It was nice meeting you, that was a blast. 140 with no T-tops is flighing, according to the rpm-speed calcultor, my Mustang got somewhere between 145 and 150, I think Jake said he made it in the 160's, that was awesome. I can't wait to get that thing back out on the track. Ron
Ron, I don't think my T/A would go any faster if you dropped it out of an airplane! I had it on the floor all the way from Oak tree till the braking zone. I'm only running an LS1 with a paltry 340 RWHP. My son timed me at 2:44 while running in heavy (really slow) traffic. I passed a car at every point by zone on every lap. Major motivation to get my Camaro done!
Great job Jake! Every one on the local forums are so stoked with your car! Ron and Mike, your cars got major props too! There are more pictures of the "pro touring" paddock posted than any of the others.
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No Shop, No Money, No Time.... No problem!
mills, it was awesome meeting you and your son. you are both good people. We need to do it again sometime. Get that camaro done, if there is anything i can help with let me know!!!!
Ron, I don't think my T/A would go any faster if you dropped it out of an airplane! I had it on the floor all the way from Oak tree till the braking zone. I'm only running an LS1 with a paltry 340 RWHP. My son timed me at 2:44 while running in heavy (really slow) traffic. I passed a car at every point by zone on every lap. Major motivation to get my Camaro done!
Great job Jake! Every one on the local forums are so stoked with your car! Ron and Mike, your cars got major props too! There are more pictures of the "pro touring" paddock posted than any of the others.
Very much enjoyed meeting you and Tripp. I'm still spent from the heat and intensity. I just finished watching my in car from Mark's last session. He was hooked up. Passing Evo's and BMW's with ease. Nothing like a little GM HP. I was surprized at the many positive comments I got about the Elky from the track crowd. Got a feeling it surprized many folks. As Ron said the straightaway speeds are a thrill. My car will run 160 as it was setup at VIR, but I never was comfortable trying to get flat out. Early in my sessions I used 5th and saw 5,000 r's which is about 150, but I later found my laptimes were just as fast staying in 4th and topping out at 130. Thanks to Mark for showing me what the car is capable of.
Mike Holleman
Very much enjoyed meeting you and Tripp. I'm still spent from the heat and intensity. I just finished watching my in car from Mark's last session. He was hooked up. Passing Evo's and BMW's with ease. Nothing like a little GM HP. I was surprized at the many positive comments I got about the Elky from the track crowd. Got a feeling it surprized many folks. As Ron said the straightaway speeds are a thrill. My car will run 160 as it was setup at VIR, but I never was comfortable trying to get flat out. Early in my sessions I used 5th and saw 5,000 r's which is about 150, but I later found my laptimes were just as fast staying in 4th and topping out at 130. Thanks to Mark for showing me what the car is capable of.
Mike Holleman
I had a blast driving Mikes car (Thanks Mike) a couple cool photos from a buddy of mine at the track
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Pro Touring at Pirelli Ultimate Track Car Challenge
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