Ft. Stockton RROR Open Road Race Results
 

Fellow Rotorheads,

Last week I was fortunate enough to be invited to participate in my first ever Open Road racing event (the Road Runner Open Road Race www.rrorr.net in Ft. Stockton, Texas). My friend and Rotary Car Club of Arizona (RCCAZ) member Blue Offutt invited me to co-drive and co-navigate this 80 mile course (40 miles from Ft. Stockton to Marathon and back) on a closed public road in his 1993 Mazda RX-7.

Since this was my first event, I was limited to the 125 mph class as a rookie. Anyway, a special note of thanks to Blue's wife Deana who gave up her navigating seat to allow me the opportunity. I think we made her proud...

Objective: cover 80 miles in 38 minutes 12 seconds for an average speed of 125 mph.

Results: 38 minutes 11.727 seconds @ 125.015 mph for 1st Place out of nine cars in class (0.273 second variance). Two of the six corvettes in class took 2nd & 3rd.

As was the case all season, Blue's RX-7 ran and handled great. Considering it was my first time, I handled the pressure quite well (albeit tons of butterflys) and had the most accurate time of all rookies.

The rush of driving a car at speed (much of the 40 miles is spent between 130 and 138 mph to get your average up) is something ever gearhead should experience at least once in their lifetime. And, speaking of "lifetime," to say that my wife was a little concerned when I informed her that I needed to write my blood type on my helmet would be an understatement. Driving this fast is serious business and the race organizers do everything in their power to ensure that the event is run safely and without incident. However, certain obstacles proved hard to avoid for Stan Martin of Rogers, AK, who centerpunched a Texas Turkey Vulture at more than 130 mph, taking out his windshield, but thankfully he was uninjured.

As much as driving fast is exhilarating, I'd have to say that the icing on the cake in open road racing is navigating and dialing in the driver. With checkpoints every two miles along the course, the navigator and driver are in constant communication making speed adjustments either up or down to get their timing dialed in. There's nothing like being 4 to 6 miles from the finish line with your split times being dead on, knowing that only a slight throttle push or lift could throw you off in the final moments. The skill required to squeeze or lift the throttle at precisely the right moment to nail your final time is truly exciting.

Anyway, I've attached a .pdf file of the final race results (by class) along with some pics from the car show the night before the event so you can see how everything broke down. An exciting result from the event was having Charlie Friend from Alamagordo, NM set a new course record of 161 mph (avg) with a top speed of 178 mph (he had to keep it under 180 mph to keep from busting tech). Absolutely awesome Corvair powered by a 454 Chevy engine. Needless to say, it was one heluva weekend. I hope to do it again next year with few more friends in tow. Anyone wanna play??? ;)

More pics of cars at the event. Note the super clean 70 Opel GT with 12A P-port. He took second place in the 100 mph class with an RX-8 taking top honors in the 100 mph class.

...and again, more pics from the night before the big race!!

Final post with morning lineup shot.

Very cool! Thanks for all the pics, and nice job on hitting your time.

Cool Eggie.... thanks. The .pdf file was too large, so I'll separate the applicable pages and post it later this evening. Funny that more rotary cars don't frequent these events. It's a legal opportunity to drive as fast as you want. Take it from me, it's an incredible RUSH!

Open The Road
 

Any open road racing web sites?????

There are 8 open road racing events in the U.S. each year. Five in Nevada, two in Texas (Road Runner in Oct and Big Bend in April) as well as 1 race in Nebraska.

Here's the web site for the Road Runner:

http://www.rrorr.net/

Open The Road
 

Thanks. Didn't see an entry fee listed.

I think it was ~$250 for rookies, which includes qualifying (approx. 10 miles at speed with an instructor to ensure that you can handle the car at your registered speed) on Thursday. Final registration, driver meeting, car show and town parade was Friday, then Saturday morning at 6 am you grid up and head out to the starting line. Event (down and back) concludes by about 1 pm with the Awards Banquet on Saturday evening. All in all, a great time!!

More sites
 

Mr. Elliot,

On the rrorr.net page, look on the left for "Entry Info", at that page, the second doc file lists out all the fees. It's not an inexpensive sport. A gentleman that joined us this season said he likes his return on investment much more than drag racing. Said he'd spend similar money, run a few seconds, and game over. Now he gets at least 30+ minutes at speed, through hill and dale (sp?), and has a heck of a lot of fun.

Granted, track events are a blast and I hope to do more some day. In the meantime though, this is a little easier on the car as ORR events don't go through a set of brake pads, swap paint, or chew up a set of tires (all of which is much fun with the right budget!).

Other sites to check out:
www.openroadracing.com
www.sscc.us
www.bborr.com (very popular, will sell out)
www.sorcrace.com (already sold out for 2008)

Hope you can make one next year.

Blue

Looking forward to more rotorheads coming out to join us in 2008!!!

Mark your calendars everyone. Here's the 2008 Open Road Race schedule:

2008 Open Road Racing Schedule

Apr 23-26 Big Bend Open Road Race, Ft. Stockton, TX
www.borr.com

May 15-18 Nevada Open Road Race, Ely, NV
www.scc.us

Jun 19-21 Bonneville 100 Open Road Race, West Wendover, NV
www.openroadracing.com

Jul – tbd Gambler’s Run, Twin 50 Open Road Race, Elko, NV
www.openroadracing.com

Aug 21-24 Pony Express 130 Open Road Race, Battle Mountain, NV
www.openroadracing.com

Sep 18-21 Silver State Classic Challenge, Ely NV
swww.scc.us

Oct 1-4 Road Runner Open Race, Ft. Stockton, TX
www.rrorr.net

Sorry to report the Gambler's Run Twin 50 won't be ran this year.

Also, the correct website for the Nevada Open Road Race and the Silver State Classic Challenge is www.sscc.us

Ciao

Man I wished I live in the Southwest sometimes. Looks like a great time though.