Land speed race in the Everglades 10/11/09 150 car turnout

[NOT A TA]

I went to the Milemarker-1 race Sunday and entered with my 70 Firebird. The event was held at Dade-Collier airport. Organization was poor. Timing was by an officer with a radar gun. Tech and safety inspection was almost non existant. There were no classes or safety requirements for any speed.

The track is perfect, A 2 mile smooth concrete airport runway still maintained although the runway is not used much. I did not see a single airplane howerever there was a helicopter and pilot which made me feel better that if there was an injury the person could be transported.

The quality of cars there was very high with almost all cars being newer vehicles with turbos, superchargers or nitrous. The staging lanes looked more like a car show than a race area because all of the vehicles were so nice looking. There were two 4th gen Trans Ams besides my Firebird. Ford GTs, Ferraris, Porsche, Corvettes, GTOs, as well as the Tuner type cars were well represented. There was even a Mercedes going over 190 MPH !

My car was by far the oldest car there racing and the only one with a carb. The only other PT- G machine type car there was a 1st gen camaro that was spectating. My car was one of only a handfull of cars that had any kind of rollover protection and one of only a couple with fire supression. There were a couple people with driving suits. Most of the cars were running in the 150-190 range according to the radar gun and peoples GPS and datalogging equipment. Several cars were running 190-220.

here's a link to a thread with lots of pictures and videos from the event http://www.ls1gto.com/forums/showthread.php?p=6103461

Heres another thread on the Corvette site. http://www.corvetteflorida.com/forum...t=35146&page=3

If you go to you tube and search "Mile Marker 1" there will be tons of videos popping up the next several days as more and more people finish their editing. Please ignore the disappointment of one of the kids in one of the videos when he doesn't see my car take off like a rocket. LOL 2.41 rear and old school drivetrain just doesn't launch very well LOL I need more power!

There will be another event by the same guys in January with real timing equipment and better organization I was told. They were just overwhelmed with the amount of people.

[NOT A TA]

There were over 200 spectators there and for them it was perfect. They got to walk right up to all of the cars in staging like it was a car show (and it could have been). Since it was so poorly organized the spectators had about 3 hours of "car show" to chat with the drivers, crews and owners who had no where else to go.

After that they got to go right up to the start line and watch everyone make their first pass for a couple hours. By then temps were over 100 degrees and everyone started to fade away.

It was a very different kind of race experience with almost all of the cars being almost silent at idle. My car was one of the only cars that even had a rumble to it. No open headers or any of the other sounds you usually hear at a race. Also almost every single car was a show quality car appearance wise. There were no clapped out race only type cars there. The pits and staging truely looked like a car show.

[NOT A TA]

Here's an in car video of the fastest run of the day made by a Ford GT. If you go to you tube and search "Mile marker 1" you will find more and more videos as they keep getting posted this week.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n2E9xc97W-E

[JayR]

Lax tech inspections aside, it looks like an incredible little event and that was an insane level of acceleration! I would love to watch from a safe distance!

[NOT A TA]

People at the starting line were only 20' away. At the finish area people were several hundred feet away. Here's a video walk through of some of the cars in the tech inspection area. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j_p0vwhaGJw

[Mizfit]

we went down there and the owner and I took
The silver kenne bell 69 down and meet up with
The guys from diablo sport tuning. It was good
Time! Extremely hot , but we saw your car run
Nice setup you looked like you had some pretty
Fast runs.

Taylor
Mizfit

[NOT A TA]

I knew that 69 looked familiar! I looked at the car and kept trying to place where I'd seen it. I was pitted right across from where you guys parked it but only went back to the pit area once while the car was there and no one was around.

Thanks for the compliments but my car looks faster than it is LOL I wanted to test a rear and get seat time so it was a good deal for me. $100.00 early entry fee and within 2 hours from home so no hotels, meals etc. I made 8 passes nascar style after the crowd thinned so it ended up costing less than $25.00 a pass including all expenses. Can't beat that!

[wedged]

I had no idea this was happening ! I'll have to pay attention for the next one. Now where did that set of 2.73's go (looks around shop for gear set)

[NOT A TA]

Originally Posted by wedged

I had no idea this was happening ! I'll have to pay attention for the next one. Now where did that set of 2.73's go (looks around shop for gear set)

There's more than one group renting the airport for these events. The next one I'm aware of is Nov. 7 and being run by Top Gun Run LLC. Signups are at topgunrun.com Better find those 2.73's quick!

[elitecustombody]

Originally Posted by wedged

I had no idea this was happening ! I'll have to pay attention for the next one. Now where did that set of 2.73's go (looks around shop for gear set)

I posted about this in "Events" section a while before