A little glimmer of hope came in the form of Optima’s Search for The Ultimate Street Car. With a little bit of help from Willow Springs and the Racing Gods – We loaded our trailers and headed to the track.
Speedtech Performance is internationally known as a leader in the aftermarket high performance chassis and suspension scene. Specializing in vintage American Muscle Cars, they manufacture top-of-the-line products for the likes of Camaro’s, Nova’s, Chevelle’s, Corvettes, Vintage GM and Ford Trucks and many more.
Speedtech was represented in the GTV class by four great drivers all sporting the ExtReme line of subframes, chassis and suspension. Nick Relampagos with his 1970 Camaro is a track veteran and the only member of Team Speedtech who has ran the Big Willow course. Alan Miller was representing with his full framed 1970 Chevelle. Scott Timmons who competes running his matte black 1967 Camaro, and Bret Madsen with his newly refinished 1968 Camaro.
Big Willow is an internationally known raceway with a reputation of being a fast track. Top speeds for this event were topping 160 mph on the front straight. All of Team Speedtech performed really well on the Road Course portion of the event. After the Road Course it was the Speed Stop. For anyone who doesn’t know what a Speed Stop is: Hit it as hard and fast as you can down the track, do a 180 turn, accelerate and then stop as fast as you can without hitting the cones at the end of the track.
At Optima events after the day is over, everyone jumps in their cars for the Road Rally. Given an address and a return time, you take off down the road. For me, this was a memorable event. After everything we have been going through with the Covid pandemic and the divide in the country with other issues; it was so nice to be out cruising with a large group of high-performance vehicles. Everyone’s waving to you, stopping and taking pictures, honking and most importantly: smiling.
Day two was full of fast take offs, hard braking, quick turns and weaving known as Autocross. For Team Speedtech this is where their cars really shine. The way the ExtReme product line is designed and engineered; these cars are able to run a 315-wide tire with full turning.
Fast cars, great friends, brotherhood, competition and most of all – Being outside! All-in-all it was a great weekend.
