Sunday morning started with a 35 mile cruise from Ely to the pre-stage grid at Lane's Truck Stop in Hilo, NV at the start of Highway 318. It was just before 6 am and still dark when we set off... which would have been less of an issue if we hadn't taped the hide-aways shut for the speed runs the day before. It only took a couple of minutes to figure out the problem and fix it but it was a big distraction first thing in the morning.
7 am - Lane's Truck Stop. It's hard to imagine a greater cross section of cars in any one place...
And from Lane's it's a short 2 mile drive to the final staging area on 318
This is most of the 115 mph class - starting with the 2006 Mustang at the top of the picture we were joined by a 2003 350Z, a '69 Olds Cutlass, an '08 Subaru WRX-STI and a '65 Shelby clone. I think that our class probably had the oldest average age of any group running.
Team Optima was there representing:
The OneLapCamaro running in the 115 mph class with Jimi Day handling the navigator duties.
Cam Douglass was driving the 2006 NASCAR Chevrolet with Craig Wibbert navigating in the 150 mph class.
and the Kepler brothers driving this awesome 2006 Z06 - also running in the 150 mph class. Steve was driving while his brother Mike was navigating; Mike is also drives the incredible Optima Batteries rig.
Cam and Craig were the first of the three to hit the open highway...
followed by Steve and Mike...
We weren't far behind...
.
90 miles... 115 mph average... 46 minutes 57.39 seconds...
Our strategy was to put 25 seconds in the bank heading into the narrows which meant spending much of the first half hour somewhere between 120 and 130 mph. When he banked our time Jimi told me that I had to drop down to our target... it was tough... the car was great at 125 and I could have stayed there for the whole race. We took the narrows at a comfortable 95 - 100 mph, exiting 8 seconds or so fast. With 10 miles to go we were withing a second of our target and with 1 mile to go we were only 0.07 seconds away from our goal.
When it was done the car had performed perfectly and the only problem we had was a couple of bugs on the front of the car...
other than that the car ran flawlessly and it was a comfortable drive.
As soon as we were done Jimi and I drove down to the gas stop as Ash Springs where I filled up with gas for the return drive to Lund while Jimi and Cameron and the rest of the Optima crew headed to Las Vegas. The return trip was 115 miles of desert at what seemed like a painfully slow 70 mph(ish). I admit that I did speed up a bit through the narrows but that was about all.
Brian Hobaugh SCCA National Tour June 2014
First Hemi 'Cuda Convertible Ever Built
Short clips: Goodguys Pleasanton autocross and pit videos
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