2006 Honda Civic Si - Silver Streaker

Friday, 8:30am (two days before the race)

We took the car to inspection before preparing for the town parade. After the parade we spent the rest of the day doing preparation and attending event meetings.

Saturday, 8:30am (one day before the race)

The town's football/soccer/baseball/ or whatever other sport they play-field was the site of the car show. At this event we were introduced to our team, the Invaders. This was the team created for cars like ours that are invading the SSC-the import cars. My man Dai Inada from JDM Option was with us, too, and he brought a big crew as well as the third version of the Option Stream 350Z. Unfortunately, Dai's streak of bad luck continued at this year's SSC with a DNF to go with his horrendous 200mph barrel roll in '03, and a relatively "slow" 167mph average for third place in the Unlimited class in '04. After another long day of hanging out with fellow competitors, we had to get serious. It was time to actually sit down and plot our times and mile markers for the race.

Being first timers on the SSC, we couldn't enter anything faster than the 110mph class. The goal in this class is to average 110mph over the 90 miles of the 318 highway that had been blocked off without exceeding the tech speed of 124 or going under 80 mph. We developed a time chart that allowed Martin to give me speed instructions. If we were at a certain mile marker, we should be at a certain time on our stop watch. If we were above, he had a speed chart, example: going 124 mph will help us gain four seconds of time per each mile traveled.

Sunday, 5:00am (race day)

We filled the tank with 101 octane, suited up, hit the camera power and rolled to tire inspection. This was a tense moment as you'd be surprised at how many people pick up nails or other things in their tires over a weekend in Ely.

All of a sudden, I hear a guy in the right corner of the car say "Hey, over here, look at this." With my heart pounding, he asks, "Can they race with this bumper zip tied?