The first year of the Hotchkis autocross in Vegas at the MATS they weren’t sure how many Mopars would try turning instead of just straight and fast so it was free to enter. I ran our 69 440+6 runner that is our raffle car this year.
Having never done this kind of thing before, I have to admit that I was a bit nervous.
John Hotchkis encouraged me and sent me out with his driver in the blue runner with the 383 on the door. I have to admit that I couldn’t even see where the course was in the sea of orange cones on that first time around but I knew I had to try it in the 6-pack runner.
Then with his driver in my car as passenger I did a slow lap to get the feel for it. Laps were free that year so I went again…and again…and again until finally it happened. After getting faster with each lap I finally overcame the grip of the front tires and mowed down some cones. DOH!
Embarrassed by this I completed my lap slowly and had pretty much decided that this wasn’t really for me. Seeing the discouraged look on my face John came up to me and said, “don’t feel bad; that happens to everyone eventually.” Then he gave me some advice. He said; “Go back out there and this time try this: Leave your car in low gear, you wont need second on this course and it will keep you in your power zone with the 6-pack. When you get to the corner let off the gas and just tap the brakes to set the front tire’s contact patch and then turn in and mash the throttle. The back of the car will come around nicely as the 6-pack comes to life and the rear tires start smoking. Then; once you get it pointed in the right direction; straighten the front wheels and let off the gas momentarily to stop the wheel spin. Then mash it again.”
So with this advice I went out again.
WOW! Was this ever a good time! And everyone in the crowd was really digging seeing the silver bullet 6BBL smoking the tires and laying down some impressive times. Soon there was a line forming of spectators that wanted to go for rides in the car.
At the end of the day when the awards were being handed out I got second in the midsize class behind the blue # 383 Hotchkis car.
Not bad for my first time in a car that I had built.
Then John Hotchkis came over to me and complimented me on how well I drove and how well my car handled and asked; “So what suspension modifications do you have?”
He was noticeably disappointed when I told him, “we have Firm Feel torsion bars and front sway bar and that’s it.”
If you want to get a chance to win the car that got second place in that first year we will be out at MATS again this year with the car as the official charity car for the event. Tickets are just $20 bucks and there are only 5000 tickets available to win the car. Proceeds from the raffle will go to 3 southern California veterans charities. You can check it out at http://earlyrides.org/ or
http://www.matslv.com/2007/charity.shtml
As a side note, this same car won the “street class” at the 2006 MATS event too.
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