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Road Runner Open Road Race


Speedratchet

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Speedratchet

Here is a picture of Malcolm at the Road Runner Open Road Race.

Word has it that he went a little faster there than at the drags. :lol

Papa%20Smurf2.jpg

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All right guys. The story is this. I did compete in the Road Runner Open Road Race this last weekend. It is a 40 mile stretch of 2 lane highway from Ft Stockton to Marathon, Texas that they close down the road for and let cars go fast. The race is 80 miles, the first leg south bound and timed, then an hour or so break, then the return leg northbound. Your speed is a function of safety equipment and the objective is to hit exactly the time for your speed class. I raced in the 110mph class and needed to hit the round trip in exactly 43 mins 38.182 seconds to be right on. So, it's a combination of speed but mainly precision timing. I hit the finish within 3.9 seconds of the time, good for 12th place in my class of 21 cars. The top three were less than .2 seconds off with the winner in my class off by 0.009 seconds. Some of those guys have more money in timing equipment than their engines! It was a lot of fun!! I can't describe the feeling though of going about 120 mph down a straight and carrying all of it into a turn while going around a highway patrol car whose occupant is checking you with radar. The police are out there checking to make sure people don't bust their tech speeds to support the race. In my class, I could go as fast as 124 but would be disqualified from the race above that. :bolt:

A new course record was set by a Corvair (yes, that's not a typo) that did the course averaging 161mph. It was doing 180 in straightaways. It had a V8 in the back seat and a lot of Vette running gear on it I believe. It's a lot of fun and I think I'll add a harness bar and 5 point harness next time so I can go into higher speed classes (120-150) for the Big Bend Open Road Race in April which is 118 miles. Last weekend there were about 35 Corvettes racing out of about 86 total cars. If you want to check out what I'm talking about, check out www.rrorr.net or www.bborr.com.

Now, as for my racing suit, I want to thank Gary (Speedratchet) for his outstanding sewing skills. He did an incredible job on my jacket, don't you think?? :thumbs

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Gary sew's.... :smilelol :smilelol :smilelol

:smilelol :smilelol :smilelol

:smilelol :smilelol :smilelol :smilelol

Great write up, thanks for sharing....

I'm surprised the stock C6 is only allowed the 126 top speed... did you shift to second???

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that sounds like a lot of fun. i will have to enter my car in one of those races.

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:3gears: I held it down to about 120-122 so as not to get busted for going over tech speed. You're right about the gearing but I have the C6 Z06. It did that in neutral. Seriously, cruising to dial in my speed was done at 2400 rpms in 6th. Ya think that is stressing the car. Nope, it was just loafing along..... I ran the a/c during the race too. It's an amazing car... :3gears:

By the way, I didn't mention that one of the 86 cars had a bad day. A guy in a Ford Lightning P/U was running in the 140 mph class (let's say the truck wasn't exactly stock) and collected a turkey vulture in the windshield. Driver's ok but it ended his day and messed up the truck. The buzzard wan't quite so lucky. Can you imagine, munching on road kill and looking up at a red Ford pickup doing 140? That buzzard probably thought it was hallucinating.... :ken:

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Hey Malcolm, congratulations on the results. Do you need a navigator/timer, sounds like great time.

I checked out the RRORR website and saw some of the videos of the cars going by one of the checkpoints.

Also another car that ate the turkey buzzard in the windshield.

Love the suit.

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Hi Rich. My friend Bob Allyn did the codriving/navigator job this time. You may remember him at the Corvette n America run. He was in that group of 7 vettes going up with us in the yellow C6. The picture you may have seen of the Nascar Monte Carlo with the buzzard happened in one of the previous races. Not many pictures are up on the web yet of the race last weekend although there is a clip of the Corvair going by at about 178. What would Ralph Nader think of that?

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