Schen
09-21-2014, 11:21 PM
So I took the drive up to Limerock this weekend to check out the new Challenger SRT Trans Am race cars and the series itself. I had never been to a Trans Am race before but knowing the history behind it and how legendary Limerock is I had to go! Viper driver and avid racer Tommy Archer, took the seat in the #11 for Tommy Kendall this weekend. Tommy really put on a show!
I arrived at Limerock shortly after 7 AM. Just the night before I had signed up for the 'American Muscle' car corral which allowed me to do some parade laps with my car before the race. If you've never been to Limerock before, it's a little slice of racing heaven located in the Northwest corner of Connecticut. I had only been to the track once before, in my junior year of high school, when I was part of a small race team that did SCCA SS/T class racing in a Neon. I learned not to always listen to your gps system or you'll take the George Washington bridge up the Saw Mill and onto some country backroads.
As I walked into the track I saw some Trans Am practice going on and then afterwards made my way down to the pits. I found the two Challengers and a Hellcat being cross-promoted with the two race cars. As I took some pics, I met Mike Rossey from SRT Motorsports. Mike's another well rounded, down to earth guy to talk with and we could have talked about the cars for hours. I got a quick introduction into Trans Am and the classes that make up TA, TA2 and TA3. The two Challengers built for TA2 are pretty unique. To put it simply, Trans Am cars are a lot like NASCAR cup cars but with IMSA rules and regulations. The Challengers put out around 500HP as required for TA2, mostly muscle car bodies. TA is the big guns, 800HP Corvettes and Mustangs with very low center of gravity. TA3 is more of a entry level type, like the gt500 and ZL1 Camaros' but on steroids, like an ACR-X.
https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5558/15316261052_e6a9042601_b.jpg
https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3878/15316173982_ed5931c593_b.jpg
https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3847/15129963697_2c6f1442a5_b.jpg
Hellcat, Hellcat, Hellcat. There was a good sized crowd around the car! Mike introduced me to Cameron Lawrence, he drives the #1 Challenger (in B5 Blue, drool) and currently sits first in points. The three of us made are way over to the Hellcat and Cameron let folks sit in the car, start it up and we all ended up basically selling the car where it sat. Out of the blue Sargent Liam Dwyer, another avid racer and Spec Miata driver, showed up and he too was checking out the Hellcat. I didn't take any pics of the car but I thought this one shot was way cooler than the car. Sargent Dwyer is a true example of never giving up, awesome guy.
https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3848/15316159402_db3e8bb82a_b.jpg
I did shoot one video of me in the Hellcat. :)
http://instagram.com/p/tK9ivNMfIV/
Around lunch, it was time to do the parade laps. There was great bunch of cars in my group. Special edition Mustangs, a Corvette club showed up, a few Cobra's and some older muscle cars. Quite a few cars caught my eye. Two of my favorites are both Cobra's. One with a crazy hardtop and the other is INSANE! The second Cobra features a new Coyote 5.0 V8, a crazy interior and a carbon fiber dash! Talk about rolling race car art.
https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5559/15313292641_c66b907b63_b.jpg
https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3913/15316080662_55ffb813da_b.jpg
https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3897/15316056992_5e27b37f0b_b.jpg
Oh and there was this Datsun Z, paint looked familiar...
https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3894/15293346266_69ab7ce0a3_b.jpg
There was one Viper in attendance though! I didn't get to meet with the owner, the tow rig was a big Orange Ram I swear I've seen on here before. The car was kick ass. Two seats, wish I could have gone for a ride.
https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5588/15293330816_680f28d8df_b.jpg
https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3877/15129671970_eb38fd777c_b.jpg
https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3913/15316009692_ccc2611e73_b.jpg
It was time for the Trans Am race! The Challengers lined up on the grid. I got to talk to Tommy for a little bit. He really likes this program and would love to get a thing going with Dodge again in the future. Both Tommy and Cameron felt really confident in the performance of the cars. Cameron qualified 2nd in TA2, just a few thousands of a second off the pole sitter, Adam Andretti (yes, Mario's nephew). With well wishes and fist bumps, it was go time.
https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5586/15313181131_fa27641fa3_b.jpg
https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3849/15129589879_6dedce7ffa_b.jpg
The National Anthem was sung, the cars started and the pace laps began. A loud furry of V8's echoed into Turn 1, the long right handed sweeper. Cameron looked to jump ahead in the entry, but coming out was slightly pushed to the dirt dropping two wheels. Tommy looked for a way to position himself to get ahead. A dozen or so laps later, Tommy's car looked like it was struggling. I could see the car push out of the corners and Tommy fought the wheel a bit dropping to about 6th. Cameron on the other hand, was on a tear! Literally inches from Adam's bumper, the Challenger and the Camaro bumped drafted around a road course for two laps before Cameron gave Adam a little bit of slack.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zmrTehmk8IY
As the race went on, a few accidents occurred. A Camaro ate the wall on the other side, a Mustang was shoved right in front of me! The car turned right, then left, back right again, pulled a 360 in front of four other cars, took to the dirt and carried on unscathed without a single scratch. Some cars ended up with some gremlins. Trans issues, electrical issues. In fact, with roughly 15-20 laps left in the race, the Miller Racing team Challengers seemed to come around! Cameron caught a lucky break. I'm pretty sure that if Adam didn't run out of fuel towards the end he would have driven away from everyone. Cameron got around him and put the Challenger in P1 in the T2 class. Tommy seemed to get the car in the groove again, going from 6th to 2nd.
The race remained green and the white flag came out. One more go around and Cameron and Tommy ended up finishing 1-2! Everyone was not only really excited to see the Challenger win, but to finish 1-2. Cameron extended his points lead and a during the post-race ceremony, I heard conversations with people saying how they were happy to see Tommy on the podium. While all that was going on, I was still white knuckled looking at my phone to see race results from Texas. Talk about an incredible day!
Anyway, enough story for now. I feel like I've been up for hours. I'm going to edit more pics tomorrow night, so stay tuned. Hope you guys liked the story!
--RS
I arrived at Limerock shortly after 7 AM. Just the night before I had signed up for the 'American Muscle' car corral which allowed me to do some parade laps with my car before the race. If you've never been to Limerock before, it's a little slice of racing heaven located in the Northwest corner of Connecticut. I had only been to the track once before, in my junior year of high school, when I was part of a small race team that did SCCA SS/T class racing in a Neon. I learned not to always listen to your gps system or you'll take the George Washington bridge up the Saw Mill and onto some country backroads.
As I walked into the track I saw some Trans Am practice going on and then afterwards made my way down to the pits. I found the two Challengers and a Hellcat being cross-promoted with the two race cars. As I took some pics, I met Mike Rossey from SRT Motorsports. Mike's another well rounded, down to earth guy to talk with and we could have talked about the cars for hours. I got a quick introduction into Trans Am and the classes that make up TA, TA2 and TA3. The two Challengers built for TA2 are pretty unique. To put it simply, Trans Am cars are a lot like NASCAR cup cars but with IMSA rules and regulations. The Challengers put out around 500HP as required for TA2, mostly muscle car bodies. TA is the big guns, 800HP Corvettes and Mustangs with very low center of gravity. TA3 is more of a entry level type, like the gt500 and ZL1 Camaros' but on steroids, like an ACR-X.
https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5558/15316261052_e6a9042601_b.jpg
https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3878/15316173982_ed5931c593_b.jpg
https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3847/15129963697_2c6f1442a5_b.jpg
Hellcat, Hellcat, Hellcat. There was a good sized crowd around the car! Mike introduced me to Cameron Lawrence, he drives the #1 Challenger (in B5 Blue, drool) and currently sits first in points. The three of us made are way over to the Hellcat and Cameron let folks sit in the car, start it up and we all ended up basically selling the car where it sat. Out of the blue Sargent Liam Dwyer, another avid racer and Spec Miata driver, showed up and he too was checking out the Hellcat. I didn't take any pics of the car but I thought this one shot was way cooler than the car. Sargent Dwyer is a true example of never giving up, awesome guy.
https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3848/15316159402_db3e8bb82a_b.jpg
I did shoot one video of me in the Hellcat. :)
http://instagram.com/p/tK9ivNMfIV/
Around lunch, it was time to do the parade laps. There was great bunch of cars in my group. Special edition Mustangs, a Corvette club showed up, a few Cobra's and some older muscle cars. Quite a few cars caught my eye. Two of my favorites are both Cobra's. One with a crazy hardtop and the other is INSANE! The second Cobra features a new Coyote 5.0 V8, a crazy interior and a carbon fiber dash! Talk about rolling race car art.
https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5559/15313292641_c66b907b63_b.jpg
https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3913/15316080662_55ffb813da_b.jpg
https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3897/15316056992_5e27b37f0b_b.jpg
Oh and there was this Datsun Z, paint looked familiar...
https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3894/15293346266_69ab7ce0a3_b.jpg
There was one Viper in attendance though! I didn't get to meet with the owner, the tow rig was a big Orange Ram I swear I've seen on here before. The car was kick ass. Two seats, wish I could have gone for a ride.
https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5588/15293330816_680f28d8df_b.jpg
https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3877/15129671970_eb38fd777c_b.jpg
https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3913/15316009692_ccc2611e73_b.jpg
It was time for the Trans Am race! The Challengers lined up on the grid. I got to talk to Tommy for a little bit. He really likes this program and would love to get a thing going with Dodge again in the future. Both Tommy and Cameron felt really confident in the performance of the cars. Cameron qualified 2nd in TA2, just a few thousands of a second off the pole sitter, Adam Andretti (yes, Mario's nephew). With well wishes and fist bumps, it was go time.
https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5586/15313181131_fa27641fa3_b.jpg
https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3849/15129589879_6dedce7ffa_b.jpg
The National Anthem was sung, the cars started and the pace laps began. A loud furry of V8's echoed into Turn 1, the long right handed sweeper. Cameron looked to jump ahead in the entry, but coming out was slightly pushed to the dirt dropping two wheels. Tommy looked for a way to position himself to get ahead. A dozen or so laps later, Tommy's car looked like it was struggling. I could see the car push out of the corners and Tommy fought the wheel a bit dropping to about 6th. Cameron on the other hand, was on a tear! Literally inches from Adam's bumper, the Challenger and the Camaro bumped drafted around a road course for two laps before Cameron gave Adam a little bit of slack.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zmrTehmk8IY
As the race went on, a few accidents occurred. A Camaro ate the wall on the other side, a Mustang was shoved right in front of me! The car turned right, then left, back right again, pulled a 360 in front of four other cars, took to the dirt and carried on unscathed without a single scratch. Some cars ended up with some gremlins. Trans issues, electrical issues. In fact, with roughly 15-20 laps left in the race, the Miller Racing team Challengers seemed to come around! Cameron caught a lucky break. I'm pretty sure that if Adam didn't run out of fuel towards the end he would have driven away from everyone. Cameron got around him and put the Challenger in P1 in the T2 class. Tommy seemed to get the car in the groove again, going from 6th to 2nd.
The race remained green and the white flag came out. One more go around and Cameron and Tommy ended up finishing 1-2! Everyone was not only really excited to see the Challenger win, but to finish 1-2. Cameron extended his points lead and a during the post-race ceremony, I heard conversations with people saying how they were happy to see Tommy on the podium. While all that was going on, I was still white knuckled looking at my phone to see race results from Texas. Talk about an incredible day!
Anyway, enough story for now. I feel like I've been up for hours. I'm going to edit more pics tomorrow night, so stay tuned. Hope you guys liked the story!
--RS