Brawlin' At Bristol - True Street Challenge

Far and away the most popular event at the GM High-Tech Performance EFI Nationals (held October 20-22, 2000) was the Motorsport Technologies True Street Challenge. With 39 entries, the number of True Street participants nearly equaled that in all of the other classes combined. This is one event that put the butts in the grandstand and kept the fence line packed elbow to elbow.

The beauty of True Street lies in its simplicity. All cars must have functioning street equipment, including lights, horn and wipers, have valid license, tags and insurance and be on DOT-approved tires. Participants are required to complete a 30-mile police-escorted drive that is followed by three quarter-mile passes run back-to-back. The best three-run average ET wins. Like we said: simple.

The lack of casualties during the 30-mile cruise tells us that our readers really drive their cars. In fact, only five of thirty-nine participants were plagued by the dreaded DNF. Warm sunshine combined with the track's elevation of 1700 feet made for density altitude in excess of 4100 feet during Saturday's activities. Most racers reported their cars' performance being off a couple of tenths and a few miles per hour. Of course there were a few that felt compelled to complain, but we say so what? Everyone was racing on the same track. And what a track it is. The Bristol crew worked tirelessly to keep the track in perfect condition, and their efforts paid off. Bristol Dragway was hooking something fierce.

The racing was sensational, with the top five places overall being separated by a hair over a quarter of a second. Considering how wide open the rules were, this is nothing short of amazing. Look for future events to be even more hotly contested. True Street racing is all the rage in the Mustang world. We predict it won't be long before it takes over GM EFI racing as well. Currently, there are no plans in place to run an official GMHTP True Street in 2001, but the summer of 2002 is looking real good right now.

Next up: the GMHTP Challenge at E-town on July 14. Then there's the Kenny Brown/GMHTP driving school at Virginia International Raceway on August 25 - 26, and on to another GMHTP Challenge (Englishtown) on October 27.

With the cruise out of the way, it was back to the pits for any last minute tuning. Participants were allowed thirty minutes to change tires or make any other adjustments deemed necessary before being called to the staging lanes.	Daniel Ethridge cruised into tenth place overall with an average ET of 11.986 seconds. He used the thirty-minute cool-down period to reinstall the T-tops on his purple Z28 and slather on another layer of tanning oil.	Have designs on getting your car in the magazine? Hover around the photo truck during the cruise. Hey, it worked for Jason Dellinger, who went on to place eighth overall.
Dennis Roberts of Next Generation Parts (Lawrenceville, Ga.) didn't actually enter officially, but he snuck in anyway (hey, he's a sponsor, so it's only fair). Dennis ran 12.60s in his naturally-aspirated 1995 Z28.	Editor's Choice and third-generation power-adder class went to Tory Hess and his smooth '87 Formula 350. Hess managed a three-pass average of 10.355 with his supercharged small-block. We can't wait to shoot this clean machine for you to see.	This '91 Syclone belonging to Jerry McCoy wowed the crowd with an average ET of 10.941 seconds. This was good enough for seventh place overall.
George Baxter's blown '97 SS convertible is a former GMHTP feature car. The Branchburg, NJ resident averaged 10.521, which was quick enough to take home top honors in the LT1 power-adder class and place him fourth overall.	Tom Guellich dominated the event with his '86 Camaro Z28. Not only did he sew up the overall True Street championship, he took top honors as fastest naturally-aspirated third-gen F-body. You may recall from last month's Nats coverage that he also brought home the hardware in Sunday's Next Generation Hot Street competition.	Bad kharma? Editor Hunkins insists that the reason for Jeff Nance's first round woes lie with the Hot Rod Power Tour sticker on his window. Hmm, there could be something to that. Stranger things have happened...
Another GMHTP alumnist in attendance was John Rafteseth and his sprayed and stroked '96 Impala SS. Unfortunately, Rafteseth's trans broke on the first pass and earned him a DNF.	Keith Maney of Next Generation also made some exhibition passes in his low 13-second '88 Firebird Formula.	Though not officially part of the action, Thunderchicken was prominent on the thirty-mile cruise, serving as the auxiliary photo platform.
Taking the Corvette class and finishing ninth overall was Michael Groh. The Elgin, Il. native averaged 11.068 over the course of his three passes with his '88 400-inch drop-top.	Between passes, all cars were quarantined on the return road. Participants were not allowed to open their hoods, add fuel, change tire pressure or adjust their suspension.	Robert Gulley made the long drive all the way from Richmond, Texas and took home the Long Distance award for his troubles. He also averaged 12.768 seconds which was enough to make him champion of the Impala/B-body class. Sure, others might be quicker, but it's darned hard to run 30 miles, then make 3 passes back-to-back without toasting something on these 4400-lb. beasts!
Second place overall went to Dave Bamford and his nasty '86 Grand National. Bamford averaged 10.268 seconds, missing the overall winning average by less than 4/l00ths of a second. We're sure he was consoled by the $100 prize for being quickest Turbo Buick, though. Don't think this is a true street car? We witnessed Bamford stomp Mustang after Mustang on Detroit's Gratiot Avenue last summer and got a good look at his taillights.	Birdsboro, Pa. native Michael Kleman averaged 12.245 seconds which won him the LS1 naturally-aspirated class and 11th place overall. Interestingly, the top three LS1 naturally-aspirated cars were all quicker than the most nimble of the LS1 power-adder cars.	Matt Persman wheeled his '98 Camaro SS to 16th place overall with an average ET of 12.697 seconds. Very respectable for a bolt-on car, but Michael Kleman's car (next lane) was quicker.
The illustrious Pro Stock John Ryan drove his '98 Formula down from Chicago and managed to place second in the LS1 naturally-aspirated class. He finished with an average ET of 12.450, which was good enough for 13th place overall. Ryan is actively working on setting up an F-body race series of his own.	As the sole FWD entrant, one could assume that Toni Andonian and her nitrous-sniffing '98 Cavalier Z24 coasted into the number one slot. Not so. Ms. Andonian slapped a holeshot on her first-round opponent (a 2000 Corvette owner who shall go nameless) and held her advantage all the way to the finish. The crowd went bananas!	Tom Guellich was the man of the hour at Sunday morning's award ceremony. Here he is seen accepting yet another trophy from Editor Hunkins. Did we mention how big the rear hatch area of a third-gen F-body is?
The Quickest Truck crown and sixth place overall went to Adamsville, Tennessee's James Hoover and his '91 Syclone. The 268 cubic-inch turbocharged V6 averaged 10.765 seconds over three passes. Hoover doubled his money ($200 total) by being the quickest vehicle on radials.