Sand Hills Open Road Challenge

WOW !! What a great turn out for this years SORC Open Road Race. We had eight racers sign up, and seven racers that were able to make the trip.

It all started on Wednseday morning, August 10, 2005, at 5:00 am, four LSCC members met at Texas Motor Speedway to venture forth to Arnold, Ne, to represent the Lone Star Corvette Club in the fifth annual “Nebraska Sandhills Open Road Challenge”.

Gary & Janna Ellsworth in #9, Clement Caracciolo in #99 & Cynthia Turk in # 111, Bill & Bonnie Armstrong in # 98, David & Lauri Robbins in # 81, Tom & Tommy Whalen in #31 and Don & Kelly Davis in Red #13, headed north to do battle.

The race consisted of four events, 1. a One Mile Shootout, 2. a Racers Parade, 3. a Car Show, 4. New this year was a “burnout contest” for those that wanted to destroy their tires .. a Mustang Corba won that contest ( he got a $12 trophy for $200 worth of tire rubber) and the next day 5. the Open Road Race.

The LSCC members once again represented the club well with the following results:
Bill & Bonnie Armstrong – 3nd Place – 120 MPH Class
Gary & Janna Ellsworth – 1st Place – 115 MPH Class
Clement Caracciolo - 3rd Place – 115 MPH Class
Tom & Tommy Whalen – 1st Place – 115 MPH Class
Cynthia Turk – 3rd Place – 110 MPH Class
Don & Kelly Davis – 2nd Place – 100 MPH Class

The One Mile Shootout was rained out, so we did a ¾ mile shootout the next day – The results were 1. “King of the Hill (fastest pass) – winner was a “Viper” that clocked 175 mph in the ¾ mile, man that’s moving. And the fastest speed for LSCC member was Gary & Janna Ellsworth clocked at 151 MPH ( and Gary didn’t miss a shift this year, yeah Gary).

There was a team trophy and dah we forgot to sign the LSCC Team up for the “Team Challange” – we would have won that too.

The Racers Parade was a lot of fun with radio, newspaper and TV coverage. Each of the racers was asked to let a local child ride in the parade with them and a lot of the kids wore the race helmets & were strapped into the cars just like racers, what a neat sight and fun for all.

The car show had many beautiful & unique vehicles in it and the town as a whole loved looking at the race cars.

The burnout contest stunk of burning rubber & no LSCC members took part.

The Open Road Rally course was rough, windy, up & down, and just as tough a race course as any of us had seen. It had 78 hazzards (turns, dips, whoop de dos, etc.) in the 55 mile run. Both driver & navigator were kept very busy, but we all did well.

The awards pinic (held in the city park, with over 600 attendees), was wonderful, full of kids and family’s and the best corn on the cob you could ever want to taste and we won lots of the trophy’s as well.

What a great event, it will be fondly remembered by all.

Don Davis

Regularly scheduled events

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Meetings — second Saturday of every month. Locations vary.