What was I thinking taking my Civic to speeds exceeding 100 mph on a two-lane highway that's a popular hang out for 18 wheelers, broken down cars and animals of the road-killed variety? The Silver State Classic Open Road Challenge is one good answer to that question.
K&N Filters, one of my long time sponsors, is also the primary sponsor of the SSC Challenge and through that relationship I met Steve Waldman who insisted that I bring my Si. I had already been prepping the car as a Time Attacker and I realized that it was going to be too expensive to prepare for both events. Open road racing differs immensely from Time Attack. The imperfections of the surface, off-camber turns and a 6,500ft elevation increase make the Silver State a bit different than a hot lap around Buttonwillow. A street racer at heart, I knew that the SSC was the only way to go.
Wed., 7:00 pm (four days before the race)
I picked up my boy Martin Chubb (Exercise. Self-restraint. - CJ). of MJHSound.com from LAX and then we were off to Ely, Nevada. Why did I choose Martin as my navigator for the event? I have no idea. He's never actually raced, but he's my boy and I trust him with my life. We arrived at Sam's Town Hotel around midnight and there were already Vipers and Vettes parked all around the perimeter of the hotel. We had to wake up by 5:30am to attend a mandatory rookie driving school at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
Thurs., 6:00am (three days before the race)
Damn, our cheap hotel alarm clock didn't go off. We were running late for the first part of the event. Our tardy arrival for everything except free drinks became a common trend for the remainder of our trip. Once we arrived at Vegas Speedway everyone was looking at us like, "Are you sure you're in the right place?" We had the only Civic there, or, let me rephrase that-the only sport compact car there in a field filled with Roush Mustangs, Z06 Vettes, 700-plus hp Vipers and more. I passed the driver evaluation and even received an authentic certificate, and we were on our way to inspection back at the hotel.
On our way back, Martin and I caravanned with the other rookies up to the middle-of-nowhere highway 318. This was basically like driving the course backwards, since we would race back down the highway to Vegas for the awards ceremony. The drive up was painful. We couldn't speed-not in the slightest. There were cops all over the place, and the rules of the race clearly state that if you get a ticket on highway 318 within 90 days of the race, you're disqualified. This was killing me.