All American Corvette Club at the
Corvette Express Show & Go at Englishtown, NJ
August 8, 2004
If you're tired of the same old Corvette show, here's a good one. Have a go at the drag strip, autocross and/or regular show presentation of your car. On this day, several of us decided to give it a shot. Jon & I did the drag strip and autocross. Mario, Rich, Steve & Al did the show while Al, Don, Chris & Jim tried the drag strip. We all had a nice time and look forward to next year's show. Here are some of the day's pics!
Left - Right: Jim, Don & Chris eagerly await Jon & I - blistering speeds on the drag strip were guaranteed!
Jon was eager to test his new Stroker (silver shark on the left). He was in the 14 second range. You can see my orange shark behind Jon.
This being only my 2nd time at this, I didn't do so well. I dropped a 16 second 1/4 mile (I fell asleep at the light!). My 2nd run (and reaction time) was better - but not by much. Pops (Jon) tells me that my car simply isn't geared for this application...and I am sure my slow foot at the lights had something to do with it too! Oh well, I truely don't care - it was pretty cool just flying down the strip...legally. Besides, I was at this show for the autocross!
Waaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhoooooooooooooooooo! 16 second 1/4 mile may not be a world record - but it sure does seem fast when you're driving!
Although Chris (black '86 on the right) got a slower start in this match-up, he did well. In fact, I was surprised at the C4s in general - they gave many C5 owners hell!
Jim (black C5 ZO6 on left) had a huge weight upon him. Last year Don whipped him good with his C4 and yes - as expected, Don reminds Jim at every instance. This time around, Jim pulled some nice times.
During the autocross event, I was placed in the 1968-82 stock Corvette class. Other cars from midyears to C5s participated. Here's a pic of me waiting to start a lap around the coarse. C3s completed the coarse in the 40 - 47 seconds range. All drivers are required to wear helmets. I also had to empty the car of everything and remove my centercaps.
Simply put - you race alone in an empty parking lot trying to complete the coarse as fast as possible. You are penalized if you hit/knock over the cones. You are given 4 practice runs followed by 4 qualifying runs. Last year I placed 3rd in my class (stock 1968-1982). So how did I do this year?
...I placed 2nd in my class! Wahoo! My best time was 41.4 seconds to complete the coarse (my slowest was 44.8 seconds). The winner's best time was 40.5 seconds - just missed him. Pictured here (Left - Right) are Rich, Papa Jon, myself & Mario.
Mario also took home a trophy (he did the show part), as well as Steve and Al. (Sorry for the file photo of Mario's car - I somehow missed taking one on the day of the event - hey, we were all busy!). Special thanks to my buddy Mario for taking the pics of me driving!
----- Last Updated on August 11, 2004 -----