Happy to say I am home.
The Pantera ran great (averaged 149.16 MPH), and like in May I got
the honor to be the1st car off the starting line.
Jason Eaton's '71 yellow Pantera powered by the Cleveland 408ci stroker
nailed his goal speed average of 140.40 MPH for the 90 mile run down
the 318. So much for those skeptics who said he would grenade ;-]>
Navigating for Jason was his bro' Nick Morland...who is an awesome guy
who I've become good buds with. They brought Jason's monster RV plus
the wives and all the kids and they were totally into the event weekend.
In Jason & Nicks division class there were 13 cars (mostly Corvette
Z06's or Vipers but one Lamborghini Gallardo to make it interesting
(but NONE were vintage cars!)......There were 23 cars in my division
class and again most of those were all Z06's and Vipers, but I also
had one nice '05 Ford GT. We were both close to our goal speed averages
but thats not close enough these days to win, place or finish in the
top 3.
To give you an idea, the winner in Jason's 140 MPH Grand Sport division
class ran a 139.999 MPH Average! And the winner in the 150 MPH group
ran an average of 149.985 MPH. Our consolation prize if you can call
it that was winning the "Most Exotic Car Award" at the car
show on Saturday! ;-]>
The "Hard Luck Award" goes to my buds "JB Bentley"
and Chuck Brown who drove from Santa Clara. Chuck is a veteran of many
ORR's and he had previously won 1st Class in JB's Pantera driving solo
with no navigator which is no easy feat.
This time out he Chuck wanted to run his '89 C4 Vette in its maiden
ORR voyage....Must have been upsetting to the Pantera Gods because 25
miles from the finish line their Corvette tranny grenaded ;-]> They
got the usual ring side seat next to the course after the Vette broke
and the communal with nature until the road re-opened. Then they headed
back to Ely for dinner and back to Santa Clara late Sunday night.
Down at the finish line Jason and Nick noticed two of their trailer
tires were starting to de-laminate (DOH!). We decided to try and convoy
into Vegas to the awards banquet and half way there one of the tires
came apart. My spare trailer tire wasn't a lug fit so we pulled the
wheel and what was left of the tire and Jason pulled the Pantera and
trailer on 3 wheels the last 25 miles into Vegas and the hotel/casino
with no problems.
At the Awards dinner there were 51 NORWEGIAN VIKINGS showed up to support
their team which Paal-Arvid Blytt and Gunnar Skjerve drove a '86 Pontiac
Firebird in the Unlimited Division.
They came in 2nd place (there were only 2 cars!) but they averaged
a respectable 181.64 MPH and won the TOP SPEED award with a 226 MPH
in their ROOKIE run!!!!!! All those guys were awesome and I wish we
had had more time to spend with them....as we were leaving the hotel
this morning their RV and generator were dead so I jump started them
on their way back across the country. It truly as an honor to meet them
and I'm looking forward to them coming back....No doubt our brothers
from Sweden will not take this challenge lying down! ;-]
In the One Mile Shoot Out Jeff Schwartz driving I think (?) a 2002
Ultima GTR with 40 pounds of boost ran 212 MPH.....Yea, thats not a
typo....He ran 40 pounds of boost on his turbo....its like pulling the
pin on a grenaded and waiting for it to go off in your hand. And when
his did at the end of the course it blew hot oil over his windshield
which then made seeing anything other then the oil on the windshield
impossible he spun out but otherwise did not get hurt.
Bottom line:
135 Cars - 3 DNF's
1 Crazy Norwegian Race Team + 1 Crazy Pantera Race Team = FUN!!!
P.S. After the ignition, carburetor and starter and electrical shot
'challenges that I had I figured wot more could go wrong? Well as JB
said we got up, close and personal with the 2 deer and then towing the
Pan tea hoe I got side swiped by an 18-wheeler that damaged the trailer
but left the Pan tea harm free....must be the positive Pantera-force-field....anyway,
gonna need some trailer fender and turn signal repairs.
I also want to thank Donny & Bobby Byers (Precision Pro-Formance),
Russ Fulps (Russ Fulps Race Engines) and Ken Green for being Ken Green
who stepped up to support the team with the spare ignition. After a
week of fixing last minute glitches and just when we thought Dick realized
about 10PM we also had an electrical short that also caused the starter
problem. Dick doesn't work well with no ambient light or sleep so we
knocked off early and loaded the Pantera with the winch and the next
morning I towed the Pantera to Donny and Bobby's shop where Donny able
to find and fix the short and replace the starter. So my sincere thank
you to all these guys + Jason, Nick, and their families for going and
for JB for DAWGING me everyday to go....it was the BEST ORR ever. And
it was the 20th Silver State Anniversary...
PPS - May was the 20th Anniversary for the Nevada Open. There was a
nice tribute 20 minute video that was shown at the Awards Banquet that
had Junior's early Pantera in the film as well as I believe Dave Griego'
or possibly Dan Miller's stock Pantera's in the film....Nicely done....The
fact is WE have had a Pantera at EVERY single Silver State event EVERY
YEAR for the last 20 years (except 2005 for safety reasons, ed.). We
should all be proud of that.
Mad Dawg Antenucci
Team Pantera Racing
"Its good to have friends"
