 |
|
National Trail Raceway, October 1, 2005
The American SuperCar Challenge race at National Trail Raceway in Ohio ended with a big and glorious bang as numerous supercar racers established their personal best performances during an incredible day of record setting achievements.
Champions & The Championship Points
Series
This race was also the last event of the regularly scheduled American SuperCar Challenge racing season which concluded the Championship point series and produced 5 National Class Champions.
Vette vs Viper Racing
This event also had some of the most spectacular and fastest Corvette & Viper races of the year. The Extreme Street Class race between Corvette racer John Carter and Viper racer Jack Bene was a premiere event with both racers running their personal best performances.
The Vette & Viper race between Corvette racer Jerry Muniz and Viper racer David Rauske was incredibly close combat with both racers also achieving their personal best performance at this event.
Original Street Class Competition
In the Original Street Class competition, David Rauske and his 1994 Viper RT/10 raced Jerry Muniz and his 2005 Corvette Coupe. During qualifying David's Viper RT/10 ran a best ever elapsed time of 12.342 seconds at 112.25 mph, which is an incredible elapsed time performance for a virtually stock 1st Generation Viper. Jerry Muniz raced his LS2 Corvette to a best ever 12.45 second elapsed time.
When the competition started between these two almost stock supercars, the challenge was fierce with Jerry Muniz taking the win with a hard charging 12.74 second ET to David David Rauske's 12.49 ET which was just under the 12.50 index limit. This was an exciting Corvette vs Viper battle that was a pure driver's race since both super cars were capable of running faster than the 12.50 index limit.
The Original Street Class also had two new Corvette racers that entered the competition with Michael Stephens racing his C6 up to the final
round were he lost to Jerry Muniz in an all C6 final round of competition. Ted Amphaeis, who also owns a new 2005 Corvette, demonstrated that he is an experienced drag racer by producing a 12.503 ET at 114 mph in a stock 2004 Z06, which is apparently his wife's car.
Michael and Ted enjoyed this American SuperCar Challenge event so much that they already started to make plans to participate for next year.
This is what we call a fast reaction time to a fun time of racing.
At the end of the Original Street Class competition Jerry Muniz emerged victorious. Jerry also proceeded to accumulate the highest points total during the Championship Point Series to win the Original Street Class Championship.
Congratulations to Jerry Muniz for winning the Original Street Championship.
Genuine Street Class Competition
The Genuine Street Class had very intense competition with the National Championship being on the line between Edgar Perez and Eddie Plybon, whose passionate battle for the point's title went all the way to the end of the last race. What made this battle so interesting is that both Plybon and Perez have extensive drag racing experience and the fascinating capability to run the required elapsed time numbers right on the 11.50 index target.
Eddie Plybon was 10 points ahead of Perez in the points chase after the last race, but Edgar Perez scored 20 bonus points for attending all the originally scheduled American SuperCar Challenge races for 2005. The 20 bonus points moved Perez up 10 points ahead of Plybon at the start of this race.
The next battle for points between these two close competitors was for the 10 points rewarded for the number 1 qualifying position. This incredible competition for the number 1 qualifying position was a race in itself with Plybon running an 11.517 ET during the first round of qualifications to get the number 1 position. Then Perez pulls up to the line and pulls off an 11.516 to capture the number 1 spot. What next? Eddie Plybon pulls off his straw hat and pulls out an incredible 11.505 second elapsed time on an 11.50 index to secure the number 1 qualifying position. This miraculous elapsed time wins the qualifying competition and convinces us that the horses under Plybon's hood are wearing shoes, horseshoes to be more specific.
Since Perez ends up in the number 2 qualifying position, which rewards 5 points to the number 2 qualifier, Perez's points lead is reduced from 10 points down to 5 points ahead of Plybon. As the intense action moves to the first round of eliminations an unpredictable event occurs as another exceptional Genuine Street racer, Ernie King beats Perez and takes away his chance at winning the Championship.
This sets the stage for the final round of competition with Plybon racing Ernie King for the Genuine Street title and Eddie Plybon does the unimaginable, he red lights. A definite indication that his horseshoes do eventually wear out and need replacement, preferably after each race.
Crew Chief Rick Lemon needs to add changing the horeshoes to next year's tuning program.
At the end of the day, it was another formidable Genuine Street Competitor, Ernest King who won the race by beating both Edgar Perez and Eddie Plybon in some intense and dramatic racing competition.
The genuinely fascinating conclusion to the Genuine Street Class competition ends with the following results:
Ernie King defeats Perez and Plybon to win the Genuine Street Class race.
Eddie Plybon wins the Genuine Street Class Championship by 5 points.
Edgar Perez proceeds to deal with the agony of defeat, graciously with a vengeance.
Congratulations to Ernie King for winning the race and making it a 3 way competition.
Edgar Perez congratulates Eddie Plybon for winning the Genuine Street Championship
while Rick Lemon is not happy to hear Plybon blame the converter for the red bulb.
Congratulations to Edgar Perez for setting
the standard and record for race attendance
and for being a Genuinely great drag racer.
Congratulations to Eddie Plybon for winning the Genuine Street Championship.
Serious Street Class Competition
In Serious Street action, Jerry Land appeared to have some fuel pump problems that took him out of the competition, but his massive points lead helped him to secure the Serious Street Class points Championship.
In fact, this fuel pump was the only thing that could take Jerry out of competition during the entire season as Jerry Land proceeded to have a great year of drag racing in the American SuperCar Challenge and succeeded to end the 2005 season without being defeated in Serious Street Class race competition. Never being defeated makes Jerry a Grand Champion.
Congratulations to Jerry Land for winning the Serious Street Championship.
Extreme Street Class Competition
The fastest Corvette & Viper race of the year took place in the Extreme Street Class competition between John Carter and his nitrous injected 2000 Corvette convertible and Jack Bene and his nitrous oxide injected 1997 Viper GTS.
John Carter narrowly won this race by .0899 of a second after
he delivered a 9.968 second performance at 139.07 mph to Jack
Bene's best performance to date of 10.276 seconds at 139.56
mph. Both Jack Bene and John Carter ran their best performances
during this incredible Vette vs Viper race with John Carter
proceeding to break both his own American SuperCar Challenge
mph and ET
records for the fastest nitrous oxide injected 5th
Generation Corvette. Jack Bene also demonstrated that traction
is the only thing that is limiting his high powered Viper from
being a 9 second supercar.
Congratulations to John Carter and the
crew for winning a very competitive
Extreme Street Vette vs Viper race.
Fastest Vette & Viper Race in 2005
The incremental data for this drag race demonstrates how John Carter won with superior traction, which gave him the 3 tenths of second lead to the 330 ft mark.
| Driver |
|
R/T |
|
60 ft |
|
330 ft |
|
1/8 mile |
|
1/8 mph |
|
1000 ft |
|
¼ mile |
|
¼ MPH |
|
John Carter
Chevrolet C5 Corvette |
|
.524 |
|
1.504 |
|
4.187 |
|
6.431 |
|
109.21 |
|
8.358 |
|
9.968 |
|
139.07 |
|
Jack Bene
Dodge Viper GTS |
|
.305 |
|
1.686 |
|
4.435 |
|
6.728 |
|
109.17 |
|
8.666 |
|
10.276 |
|
139.56 |
Jack Bene also produced one of the best ET's for a Viper entering American SuperCar Challenge race competition, being second only to his friend Tom Welch who still holds the record for the fastest Viper with a 9.89 second performance. Jack Bene's 139.56 mph performance is also the 4th fastest mph in American SuperCar Challenge Extreme Street class competition with only two Corvettes
and 1 Viper running faster at 140 plus mph.
The Extreme Street Class is known as the heavy weight class in street-legal Super Car racing with no index limits for performance. It is for this reason that the fastest street legal Super Cars race in this category. The following Super Car top speed performances represent the fastest MPH's achieved in Extreme Street competition:
| Driver |
|
Extreme Street SuperCar |
|
Fatest Speed |
|
| Steve MacDonald |
|
1986 Corvette |
|
149.80 mph |
|
| Tom Welch |
|
1997 Viper GTS |
|
143.93 mph |
|
| Mike St. Eve |
|
1996 style Corvette |
|
140.87 mph |
|
| Jack Bene |
|
1997 Viper GTS |
|
139.56 mph |
|
| John Carter |
|
2000 Corvette |
|
139.07 mph |
|
| Dave Busch |
|
1999 Corvette |
|
137.76 mph |
|
| Paul Major |
|
1962 Corvette |
|
133.37 mph |
John Carter went on to win the Extreme Street race with a fantastic solo performance running 9.99 seconds at 138 mph. His final round competitor, Steve MacDonald and the purple C4, did not make it to the final round when the rear axle pinion broke after MacDonald performed an incredible high flying wheel stand during a previous run.
John Carter put on a great show and a fantastic final round performance to take home the solo Extreme Street Class win in spectacular style.
Congratulations to John Carter and the team for winning the Extreme Street Championship.
Modified SuperCar Class Competition
In the Modified Super Car Class Angelo Valla laid down an 8.6 second performance during qualifying and won the final round with an 8.99 second solo pass after Paul Major had some problems getting his car to the final round race.
Congratulations to Angelo Valla for winning the Modified SuperCar Championship.
Worlds Fastest C4 vs C5 IRS Race
As most hardcore Corvette racers know, the big problem with high powered Corvettes is that they are prone to breaking the rear end gears and the independent rear suspension components. For this reason many Corvette drag racers replace the production based independent rear suspension with a solid axle rear end that offers more durability.
Although switching to a solid axle rear end is a simple solution for some racers, there are those Corvette purists who want to maintain the original independent rear suspension on the Corvette. Dennis MacDonald and Paul Major are two of the most hardcore Corvette racers, who have dedicated a lot of time and money to further developing the durability of the Corvette independent rear suspension. Both of these supreme Corvette competitors decided to bring their independent suspension equipped Corvettes to an American SuperCar Challenge Race War to determine who had the fastest IRS Corvette.
They also had another enormous objective to conquer, to try and run that very illusive 8 second quarter mile performance with an IRS. To make this objective a lot more challenging they needed to accomplish this with D.O.T street tires and with a factory based vehicle weight of 3300 lbs with car and driver. Why? To prove that they can get a Corvette to run an 8 second quarter mile time, the way a Corvette was built to do it, with an Independent Rear Suspension.
This is what made their race the most spectacular race of the day, as two of the world's fastest independent rear suspension Corvettes came to compete
against one another in what appeared to be the fastest IRS Corvette drag race of all time.
This was history in the making as Paul Major and his technologically advanced 2001 C5R equipped Z06 pulled up the line to race against driver and super wrench Steve MacDonald, who pilots his uncle Dennis MacDonald's Purple 1986 Super C4 Corvette.
This race resulted in the fastest and closest IRS race ever, between 2 Corvettes, with Paul Major winning with a 9.099 second performance to the MacDonald's 9.107 second elapsed time. What a spectacular race this was with the C5 running .008 of a second faster than the C4.
The MacDonald's dedication to C4 chassis preparation also produced an incredible 60ft time of 1.35 seconds on a drag radial, which certainly set the standard for what can be achieved with a C4 IRS suspension.
Congratulations to Paul Major for winning this fantastic race and congratulations to Steve and Dennis MacDonald for running a 60 ft time of 1.35 seconds with an IRS on D.O.T drag radial tires.
More IRS Power & More IRS Performance
The most amazing part of this IRS race record competition was that both Corvettes had more power and better performances available so they went back to the pits to tune up for bigger & better performances. The purple C4 Corvette came back out first and quickly demonstrated that the power had been stepped up by producing an incredible wheel stand that resulted with the destruction of the rear gear pinion.
The only thing that went higher off the ground than the front tires of the purple C4 was owner Dennis MacDonald, who was absolutely ecstatic about the power and performance that generated that high flying wheel stand.
World Record
When Paul Major arrived back on the playing field, he came well tuned and extremely determined to achieve his long standing goal of running an 8 second quarter mile performance with an independent rear suspension Corvette.
On this illustrious day, Mr. Major proceeded to make history as he delivered a fascinating record setting run by producing an amazing 8.90 second elapsed time performance with the independent rear suspension equipped in his 2001 Z06 Corvette.
This record setting performance makes Paul Major's Z06 Corvette the World's fastest independent rear suspension C5 Z06 Corvette and the current IRS record holder for the fastest independent rear suspension equipped Corvette in the American SuperCar Challenge.
Congratulations to Paul Major for setting the IRS record and making history with an 8.90 second elapsed time performance.
Paul Major also demonstrated that he is a first class Corvette drag racer by accomplishing even more performance achievements during the 2005 ASCC race season by setting 3 records with two different Corvettes that he owns and races. The 2001 Z06 currently holds two ASCC records and his 1962 Corvette also has the title for the fastest nitrous oxide injected C2 Corvette.
Paul is also waiting for the arrival of his new high powered 2006 Z06, which he says he does not plan on modifying. We are anxiously waiting to see how long the elapsed time will before he modifies the LS7 in the C6. Just judging by the other elapsed times that he runs with Corvettes, it could be in record time.
Dennis MacDonald also has a lot of people talking about his Corvette since his purple C4 currently holds 5 performance records. That number could easily go to 6 records if there was a competition for the highest wheel stands with an IRS.
Jerry Land stepped up his race program after the 2004 season and proceeded to win more races than anyone else in the American SuperCar Challenge and finished the year with an incredible unbeaten streak in Serious Street Class competition.
Edgar Perez who tirelessly runs the Corvette Challenge race series is the most dedicated promoter of Corvette racing, who has made major contributions to getting both Corvettes and Vipers out to the American SuperCar Challenge.
Mr. Perez not only talks the talk about promoting racing, but he walks the walk when it comes to participation and is the only racer to have attended every originally scheduled American SuperCar Challenge race during the 2005 season.
Many thanks to Edgar Perez for being a GENUINE hardcore performance enthusiast who has contributed much to promoting the sport of super car drag racing.
On the performance scale, Edgar Perez also got back in the fast lane by running an 11.42 elapsed time at this event which gave Eddie Plybon no room to breathe. This may be the reason why Plybon stopped smoking that cigar; however it wasn't long before that cigar was soon seen blowing big smoke again after Plybon won the championship. Crew chief Rick Lemon was also seen smoking but it was soon realized that he was actually fuming because of Plybon's red light in the finals.
Many American SuperCar Challenge race competitors set a fine example for great sportsmanship after this race by socially interacting together and congratulating one another for their performances.
John Carter assisted with the social interaction when he showed great generosity by inviting American SuperCar Challenge participants to his trailer for some fine dining experiences. Since John is well known for his great C5 starting line launches, it was no surprise to see that his party action got great traction as new friendships were launched.
The word is that the party action went on until 3:30 a.m. that morning, which is just another good reason to maintain the American SuperCar Challenge as a one day racing event.
The 2005 Championship Points Series ended with a very exciting and enjoyable event at National Trail Raceway with several fast and thrilling races during the day and many personal best performances also being achieved by racers.
The American SuperCar Challenge race series also succeeded to attract extraordinary hardcore supercar racers who are committed to spending the time, money and energy to participate in drag racing competition at a national level, where traveling to distant drag strips is a part of this race game.
It is rewarding for fans and competitors to experience Corvette & Viper performance enthusiasts who participate in drag racing competition, where winning races and earning championships is the name of the game.
Thanks to all the Corvette & Viper race participants who had the aspiration and courage to attend the American SuperCar Challenge championship point series and congratulations to all the American SuperCar Challenge Champions.
Original Street Champion - Jerry Muniz
Congratulations to Jerry Muniz for winning the American SuperCar Challenge Original Street Championship.
Genuine Street Champion - Eddie Plybon
Congratulations to Eddie Plybon for winning the American SuperCar Challenge Genuine Street Championship.
Serious Street Champion - Jerry Land
Congratulations to Jerry Land for winning the American SuperCar Challenge Serious Street Championship.
Extreme Street Champion - John Carter
Congratulations to John Carter for winning the American SuperCar Challenge Extreme Street Championship.
Modified SuperCar Champion - Angelo Valla
Congratulations to Angelo Valla for winning the American SuperCar Challenge Modified Super Car Championship.
More Info on the National Trail Race:
> Race Results
> Photo Gallery
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
