2007 Nevada Open Road Challenge (NORC) Report from Mad Dawg Antenucci:

Check out the photo gallery

Check out a special 20th Anniversary report.

Check out the Blog by Jason Eaton

This was the 20th anniversary of SilverState. We had 3 Pantera's in a field of over 133 cars most of which were late model Corvettes and exotics. Out of that number I don't think more then 10 cars were more then 10 years old so I think we did our rides and the List justice.

Justin "the Kid" Eaton and Nick "the Wrench" Morland navigating showed up in Jason's immaculate beautifully detailed '71 Pantera powered by a 408ci Cleveland stroker. Justin and Nick also placed 1st in their class in last years ORR at their rookie event. Eliot Kushner with Lynn Rosa navigating showed up with Eliot's equally good looking '73 GT5 which has completed 5 ORR's in the past and included a new carbon fibre hood, some NACA side induction and new aftermarket wheels and tires. Justin, Eliot's and my Pantera's were all dedicated modified street licensed and driven Pantera's and definately not race cars which I think is the coolest bragging rights of 95% of the field there.

As I mentioned while I was still in Ely, Jason's Pantera won "Most Exotic" show award at the car show Saturday out of a field of several exotic Lambo's and Ferrari's which says something about the timeless styling of the Pantera. At the One Mile Shoot-out on Saturday the fastest car was a twin turbo charged Viper making over a 1,000 HP who also crashed and pretty much totaled the Viper.

Jason and Nick had a good run in their Pantera averaging 110 Mph with a recorded speed of 122 Mph through the radar trap. Jason put up some details on his web site and I sent a full story of both the Sept '06 Silver State as well as details of last weeks NORC to George and PI. When Eliot and Lynn finally ran in the 125 Mph group they're front trunk opened up at mile 7 catapaulting luggage (including wallets and cell phones) out on the road so unfortunately they had to stop and take a DNF since the rule books state that if you stop you can't re-start. Very unfortunate SNAFU for them but they were good sports about it all and even showed up at the awards banquet in Vegas Sunday evening and we all shared a laugh together and more importantly we all had a great weekend together. And that was the best part of the entire weekend, just hanging with your buddies.

In my division on Sunday morning it was 9 Corvette Z06's, 3 Viper's and 1 or 2 Ford GT's and another 2 late model Corvette C5's. This was the 1st time in 37 ORR's where I was the 1st car gridded off the starting line which seemed surreal to be the 1st car to start and also the first car to cross the finish line and not see 10 or more drivers and cars waiting for me but race conditions were near perfect and the aero and suspension mods Dick Drenske and I worked on worked beautifully. I have to say Justin no Viper ever came within eyesight of my Pantera <grin> There was no wind in the morning and temp's were cool so race condtions were perfect. I averaged 151.5 Mph over the 90 mile course hitting 172 mph through the radar trap. I wasn't anywhere close to my bracketed 150 mph goal but I was the fastest car in my division which was good enough for an old guy in a old car. ;-]>

In another week two of us (Doc Abe and I) are registered for the Bonneville 100 out of Wendover which is a 2-way run of 50 miles in each direction...I am having trouble AGAIN with the f'ing @#* distributor gear and timing but still hope to have it resolved by Wedensday when I need to be ready to run. Then in August Durango Dave, Tommy Gun Di Iulio and I are all registered for the Nebraska Sandhills and it loooks like we should have 5-6 Pantera's at the SilverState in September so that is a great representation for a marque that has been out of production longer then most of our kids are old.

John Schneider WAS there but he never ran the "General Lee"....when I asked him why not he mumbled something about the Hemi powered 69 Charger being worth too much money. BWAHAHAHA...someone nominated John into the "Liars Club" for the bogus multi-million auction which he was also a good sport about. There was only ONE car in the Unlimited Division which was a full race '96 Camaro which lost a mechanical oil line at 200+ mph and it is amazing he wasn't killed because his in-car video showed the Camaro instantly filling with smoke so ALL visability was lost instantly..... The driver, Richard Hille who has run the Camaro and won the Unlimited Division in the past said as unbelievable as it sounds he was somehow able to come out of a sweeper turn at a confirmed 200+ mph using the bot-dots on both sides of the 2-lane road to ease him to a stop without going off the road!!!

As he blindly hit the dots on the left he gently eased the steering wheel and Camaro over to the right until he hit the bot-dots on that side and then he gently pulled to the center where he was able to pull the Camaro to a full stop all most a good mile after he lost full visabilty. We all saw the video and it was a serious pucker factor ride he was lucky to survive. Amazing.

The fastest finishing car was a race prepared '65 Corvair (old school rules!) that averaged169.95 MPH in the 170 Mph group....I wonder what Ralph Nader would say about that record!

George Pence at Pantera International got our photo's and our story so stay tuned for a full in depth story of the Silver State as well as the NORC ORR's and remember to join us at Silver State THIS September. We're still waiting for one Mangusta and driver to start and finish 1 ORR. Will 2007 be the year?
I hope so. ;-]>

Mad Dawg Antenucci
Team Pantera Racing
"If it was easy you'd do it"