2010 Optima Ultimate Street Car Invitational - Racin' The Big Dogs

The Optima Challenge is equal parts car flog and test of driver skill between the road course, autocross, and Speed Stop Challenge. Our primordial Mouse-powered Chevelle performed admirably against the best Pro Touring cars in the country.

The Optima Challenge is equal parts car flog and test of driver skill between the road cou

The Optima Ultimate Street Car Invitational (OUSCI) has quickly become the preeminent Pro Touring street car competition with barely three years under its belt. As the name suggests, you can qualify to compete in the OUSCI, but ultimately you have to be invited. There are feeder events such as the Optima Ultimate Street Car Faceoff at the Road America road course in Wisconsin and other events throughout the year leading up to the event directly following the performance industry's SEMA show in Las Vegas in early November. For the past year, we've been beating, tuning, and racing our '65 small-block-powered Chevelle in hopes of earning our way to an invitation to compete at the OUSCI. Many acquaintances questioned the intelligence of that desire saying that they didn't think we had a chance. The plan was not to win, since we were up against some very heady competition such as Mark Stielow's Red Devil '69 Camaro powered by a Thomson Automotive-built 427ci LS engine complete with a heavy-breathing Eaton TVS 2300-style supercharger that made a conservative 750 hp. Add to this list competitors such as Kyle and Stacey Tucker's two Detroit Speed Camaros, Brian Finch's second-gen Camaro, and several other notable bad boys of the Pro Touring scene, and we figured if we could squeeze into the top 15 finalists based on just the actual driving events, that would be our version of a major achievement.

Most of the competitors survived Las Vegas' Friday afternoon traffic to make it to the group photo location. Here the Optima gang delivered digital photo cards and asked us to shoot a photo of our car in front of a classic Las Vegas location. We never made it because our alternator died on the way out of the parking lot, so we took off directly for Pahrump, some 45 miles away. We expected the battery to die somewhere in the middle of the desert.

Most of the competitors survived Las Vegas' Friday afternoon traffic to make it to the gro

Once we made it out to Pahrump, Nevada, on Friday night, the entire event was staged in a single day at the Spring Mountain Motorsports Ranch facility. We finished lower than our intended goal of the top 15, and while the Chevelle performed well, it's clear our author/driver could use a talent transfusion. The OUSCI is based around three competitive driving competitions: the 2.2-mile, 10-turn BFGoodrich Hot Lap Challenge road course; the RideTech Street Challenge autocross; and the Baer Brakes Speed Stop Challenge. Optima also includes a Design Challenge in which the cars are evaluated on style and image, and this year, a road rally from Las Vegas to Pahrump, sponsored by Detroit Speed, was added to emphasize the cars' street manners.

One friend remarked, "This wouldn't be an official event if Smith wasn't flogging on his car." Keeping with our tradition of breaking something at the most inopportune moment, a new alternator fragged just as we set out for Pahrump. But even driving at night with electric fuel pumps, an MSD unit, EFI injectors, and headlights putting the drain on our Optima RedTop battery, we were able to survive the 45-mile jaunt across the desert to make it to the hotel. Optima loaned us a second battery, and for the next day we honed our wrench-spinning skills by swapping batteries. As a footnote, the Chevelle is now undergoing a complete rewiring of the electrical system courtesy of a new Painless universal muscle car harness.

All OUSCI competitors were required to be at the SEMA show, and the event started on Friday afternoon as saoon as the show ended. Optima requested all cars drive to a nearby location for a photo shoot featuring all the cars. This is Tom Ciancitto's '37 Ford pickup that races in the top speed Silver State open road race. His Ford has run in excess of 175 mph.

All OUSCI competitors were required to be at the SEMA show, and the event started on Frida

Last year's event was dominated by Bruce Camber's bad-boy Cobra. This year, Bruce brought a Ford GT that performed well, but it was Mark Stielow's Red Devil '69 Camaro that was the dominant car for 2010. Mark won the RideTech autocross, the Baer Speed Stop Challenge, and finished second only to the StopTech road race Corvette on the BFGoodrich road course, and at that the Vette beat him by barely more than 0.40 second. We thought we should have done better, but then even Mark Stielow thought he should have done better. There's always next year.

Our thanks to Optima and the sponsors that stage this event every year. And watch for a Speed Channel hour-long recap of the Challenge. Root for the Chevelles.