Bradenton Track Rental

First of all I'd like to introduce myself. I'm the owner of a silver 2001 Ford Lightning. Some of you may have recognized my truck as it screamed bloody murder on the dyno at OSW on December 3rd. I organized our gathering and we had a turnout of about 35 trucks that day. When I was sitting there I was thinking how great it would be to have a heads up drag day with another club, such as yours. Since then some people have expressed an interest in renting out Bradenton for a day of just pure speed and fun. (Bradenton as I'm to understand it is a far superior track to OSW).

Now Lightning on Lightning violence seems somewhat wrong to me, especially since most of our members will be able to call a winner before the race starts as most have similar combinations of mods. Unfortunately, we don't have 60+ years of heritage to add vairety to our ranks like you do.

So, this is what I would like to propose. A track rental with two clubs should make for a much more affordable day. Ideally, I would love it if the turnout from each club was similar. We then do runs to set benchmark times for the day, all the vettes run, then all the Lightnings run. 3 passes each should be good. At this point a representative from each club will create a lineup (slowest to fastest being the most logical) and have heads up races with mixed companies. You can keep track of total ET or win v loss total and crown an eventual winner, but the important thing is we all have fun. Anything after that is grudgematch time!

No idea of date set as of yet, I would love to see if you had any interest from you guys first. So let me know what you think, and thank you for having me as a guest on your forum.

You do realize that you're asking a bunch of Corvette owners, not the least egotistical of car enthusiasts, to sign up for the possibility of not only being beaten by a Ford, but by a Ford TRUCK?!?!?!?!?

How fast are those things, anyways?

A gallant offer. :thumbsup: It'll be interesting to see what folks think.

:hide:

Out of American Car World, March 2005 ...

The 2001 model has an impressive 386 horsepower.
And the truck was doing 13.8-second quarters.

Let's Run Them Trucks!

Brian and I would be interested in a friendly day of racing at Bradenton. We've been sitting idle due to a motor swap in our car but the motor has just about enough break in to entertain an event. What type of cost factor are we looking at? If the cost is high we can always show up for an informal Saturday AM test and tune session. We can get it arranged to have our own lanes, I believe. Let's let the dogs off the porch!!

Well truth be told stock for stock in the 1/4 a C-5 should have no problem with a Gen 2 Lightning, though in the 1/8 it might be a different story. Both with bolt-ons should be comparable, but I'm guessing and it all depends on what bolt ons naturally. I don't think any of our members have anything that can beat the black C6 ZO6 that was at OSW, but I'm sure there are a few that could make it interesting. We could see over 30 trucks show to this event, how many cars can you field for a track event? I can arrange for a dyno for those who are interested and for a bar-b-que trailer to have evryone fed. The target would be under $100 a head, but I'd need to get at least a rough idea of a head count before I commit to a price (shooting for $50). Also, there will be a few trailers to save the burn of a large towing bill in case the unthinkable happens.

As for hurt egos, please don't tell me you bought these cars to look pretty in your driveways. oke:

Why gentlemen (and ladies) I believe we've been issued a challenge...:reddevil:

If it goes down after I get my clutch replaced I'd be up for it. Unfortunately, I'm not quite sure when that will be yet. Christmas 'n all... Keep us posted.

Captainmorg said:

please don't tell me you bought these cars to look pretty in your driveways. oke:

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You'd be surprised. Seems as if a lot of Vette owners are scared to mash the gas. That's why we started trying to organize something out at OSW. We realized that a lot of guys were parking their Vettes at shows and getting bored with that.
I think it's a great idea and it would help us acheive our goals quicker ( getting dedicated staging lanes, etc.) My only personal issue would be if it is held anywhere other than OSW. My '72 is a reliable turd that could make it to Bradenton with no probs, but is BORINGly slow. When I get my '69 done (that's the car I intend to do my racing in), it will be too loud for that long of a haul, too illegal for that long of a haul and the DR's would disintegrate after a trip or two (to Bradenton). But I do realize that Bradenton is a far supeior track and wouldn't blame the others if they wanted to go there instead og OSW. So I can only speak for me.
I'm all for it if we can do so at OSW. I know a guy who has a modded Lightning who has ben talking some smack for a while and (when I get my '69 done) would like to have him join us too. :hehehe:

litevette said:

You'd be surprised. Seems as if a lot of Vette owners are scared to mash the gas. That's why we started trying to organize something out at OSW. We realized that a lot of guys were parking their Vettes at shows and getting bored with that.
I think it's a great idea and it would help us acheive our goals quicker ( getting dedicated staging lanes, etc.) My only personal issue would be if it is held anywhere other than OSW. My '72 is a reliable turd that could make it to Bradenton with no probs, but is BORINGly slow. When I get my '69 done (that's the car I intend to do my racing in), it will be too loud for that long of a haul, too illegal for that long of a haul and the DR's would disintegrate after a trip or two (to Bradenton). But I do realize that Bradenton is a far supeior track and wouldn't blame the others if they wanted to go there instead og OSW. So I can only speak for me.
I'm all for it if we can do so at OSW. I know a guy who has a modded Lightning who has ben talking some smack for a while and (when I get my '69 done) would like to have him join us too. :hehehe:

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I agree with litevette, keep it at OSW and I'm in. It seems we have similar goals and might be able to support one another.

I like the idea as well...count another vote for OSW...I'm too slow to heads up with anyone but I'd try anyhow... if we could do some bracket racin'..ohhhh baby, now you're talking...

I see no reason why we couldn't do it at OSW, but I know alot of us from South Florida are interested in the 'good track' experience. I'd like to pursue this a little further and am not opposed to holding it at OSW. A few people in our group have discussed the possibility of bracket racing but personally Id like to stay away from that. I say let this be about our rides and not the drivers.

Would someone here like to step up and be my main point of contact? Perhaps the individual who organized your 12/3 OSW meet? I'd like to have someone one your side who can rally the troops. I'll be more than happy to do most of the leg work, but would like to have a head count before I start commiting money to rent a track or what not. If you want to step up, say so here of send me a PM.

One more thing, I would like to put a wager on this. No, it's not what you think. The losing club will make a $20/head donation to the charity of the winning clubs choice in thier name.

Hope you all have a Merry Christmas, and for those who celebrated a Happy Chanukkah.

I understand wanting to race at BMP...I don't speak for all the vette folks but I do know that bracket racing is the what we are interested in...it gives everyone a chance regardless of how fast or slow their ride may be...easy for me to say with my 13 second ride...lol...seriously, we are trying to start a racing series and brackets are the only way to include all the vette's in the mix...

:iagree: Developing a bracket series where everyone can compete on a level field is our goal.

A bracket series between Lightnings and Vettes?

:shrug01:

Sad to say it, but as many quick Vette's as I know of, not many of them have showed up at our get togethers out there. I know how quick the well modded Lightnings can be, so unless it was bracket racing, I don't think the majority of Vette's that have been coming out there would fair too well. Knowing that, I would have to say that bracket racing would be more of a challenge to both the Lightning and Vette driver's. I'd be all up for that. I'd even be willing to donate the $20 if I lost to an evenly matched Lightning in a bracket race. As I said before, the Vette I'm stuck with for a while is a real turd that an unmodded Lightning or even one that's in major need of a general tune up would smoke it if going heads up.

This is a copy of what USA-1 posted on the "Funday Sunday" thread.

Could this work for the Vette vs Lightning? :shrug01:

"...we may have an (optional ) 'BEST-PACKAGE' competition amongst our group, throwing a dollar into-the-pot for every run we want to record, which I will run from the Staging Lanes....

A 'package' is what bracket-racers call a combination of their Reaction Time, plus the amount of time they run over (or slower ) than their pre-run determined 'dial-in' :
if you think the car will run a 12.02, you may want to dial-in at 12.00, and cut the best-possible light without red-lighting.

I will stand at the front of the Lanes with an envelope to collect the entry-fees, and a clip-board to write-down car-number and dial-in before the car leaves the lanes:
each driver can show me their time-slip info after that run, where we can verify & record RT and ET, then have each racer 'sign-off' on the information for his run, and at the end of the day, the 'BEST-PACKAGE' wins the pot.

Participation in this 'contest' is not-mandatory, and gives us a way to have a 'friendly-competition' between drivers of cars with vastly-different performance capabilities"