NJ Region Event - Raceway Park

Vipergtsbob

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Firstly, our sincere thanks to all the New Jersey VCA members and officers who volunteered their valuable time and effort to make this event a great success. All events should be so well run. We had a great regional showing with Viper participants coming from New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania and Maryland. Special thanks to all those who traveled to the event. Our special thanks to Walter and the whole Raceway Park gang for excellent coordination, cooperation and outstanding facilities for our Club Event.

The East Coast Viper Nation enjoyed two great days of drag racing and a full day of SCCA supervised autocross. We had over 30 Vipers participate and everyone took part in something. Neat New Jersey Club event shirts were given to all drivers.

Highlights of the event: Great People!! Great Food!! Great Racing!!

Viper Drag Racing Winners:

First Place: Jason Heffner Time: 11.044
Second Place: Steve Kaas Time: 11.692

Viper Autocross Winners:

First Place: Michael Thomas Time: 60.650
Second Place: Phil Cornick Time: 61.356
Third Place: Lawrence Kaufman Time: 62.859*

*Okay Lawrence, here it is; note to the Viper Community; his Viper was the only completely stock in the top 3 finishes.

Congratulations to the winners and indeed, all participants. [Did we say Great People and Great Food.] The New Jersey Club also awarded great trophies to the winners.

Special Event Notes: We all enjoyed the good spirit and camaraderie of the Viper Club. We had a lot of energetic races, the most notable was the crowd pleasing Charlie “The Wild Pomeranian” Taraskewicz’s blue missile’s narrow .01 second victory over Bob “Shock and Awe” Carroll’s black and silver ACR. (The “Shock and Awe” was due to Bob’s crappy launch and later miss- shift). Bob won the initial race, Charlie the second and third match resulted in Charlie’s ultra narrow victory (we’re doing our best to make this sound close!). After the third heat, Charlie was quoted in the pits as saying “I live life a 1/4 mile at a time and Bob can’t see that far”. In equally humble fashion, Bob remarked that “I love the smell of nitro methane in the morning, I only wish I could get some in my Viper...”. This rivalry is obviously a Yankees -Red Socks level blood feud, with more events to allow these dedicated 1/4 mile warriors even more opportunities to demonstrate their lack of driving skill. (Someone discussed a possible tractor pull utilizing Bob and Charlie’s Vipers towing trailers with crates of pigs to take place at Charlie’s house this summer; stay tuned.)


We also appreciate the presence of the Viper engined Ram truck and the Mercedes E55 AMG which, although not winning any categories, did make for interesting comparisons and healthy exchanges among the Viper crowd.

This event is really a great annual event and it continues to grow in excellence and participants. Special thanks to Larry Milonas and especially Donna Kocubinski whose hard work and administrative skills have become the backbone of our Club.
 

Joseph Houss

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Awesome event! Great Job Bob, Donna, and Larry! And all others that helped make this event great!
 

twinvipers

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Why was the low et so slow ? Not being sarcastic at all. I know Heffner has some cars that run much faster than 11.00.
 

PhilC

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Jeff, whoever reported the 11 above was wrong. I saw him run a mid 10 second pass. It wasn't his car so I'm sure he took it a little easy (I know he din't launch very hard because I saw the 60 foot was a 1.9) The biggest part of the bad times was the air. It was hot and very humid. Everybody was way down on power. I personally was running 8-10 mph lower than normal and I believe I remember Jason saying he was 10+ mph lower than what he expected to run.

I tried making a pass or two on Wed for practice but had clutch/flywheel problems. I did see a bunch of guys from LI who were speaking very highly of you and your cars.

Phil
 

twinvipers

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Hey Phil,

Who did you see from LI ? I will probably go this Friday and make some 1/8 mile passes without the roll bar. You in ?

Dimitrios

you in ???
 

PhilC

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I don't remember their names but I believe they were involved in the filming of your meeting with the Supra /bike/vette

Unfortunately I cant make it Friday. I do look forward to going again (hopefuly when the air is better)

Phil
 

Jason Heffner

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Why was the low et so slow ? Not being sarcastic at all. I know Heffner has some cars that run much faster than 11.00.

The first pass I made was on about 9 psi. The 60 foot time was a 1.82 and the car ran 10.6X @ 141mph. The tech guy told me that if I ran in the 10s again I would be done for the day. With traction as poor as it was, I knew that 9s were not in the cards. There was nobody there running within a full second of our first pass, it kinda took the fun out of it so we packed it up and headed home. I was hoping to see you there.
 
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