Las Vegas Review-Journal

May 19, 1997

By Scott Butterworth

North of Hiko, Lincoln County – Even in the middle of nowhere, you still have to deal with gridlock.

State Highway 318 was turned into an autobahn Sunday for the Nevada Open Road Challenge. But instead of speeding along the 90-mile course at 150 mph, several drivers found themselves idling for nearly a half-hour.

By 11 a.m. – when the last cars were supposed to be finishing – only 30 of the 101 Open Road entrants had finished. The unlimited-class drivers, who regularly hit speeds of more than 200 mph had to wait nearly two hours to hit the highway.

The problem was as mundane as any rush-hour traffic jam on Interstate 15 – a car wreck. Of course, this car, a Mustang driven by Michael Sullivan of San Mateo, Calif., was travelling in excess of 160 mph when it blew a tire about seven miles from the finish.

Steve Corzonkoff, whose car was just ahead of Sullivan’s, saw the accident develop. "We turned the corner, and I saw a little cloud of dust in my rear-view (mirror), like he cut the corner tight. Then he went left, and I saw a big cloud of dust, and then I saw the car going up through the cloud," said Corzonkoff, of Redwood City, Calif.

Sullivan’s car rolled over several times. Luckily, he and his navigator, Vince Asaro, sustained only minor injuries. But the accident forced organizers to close the road so rescue crews could extricate the men.

The Mustang was just the fourth car on the course, with cars starting behind it in 30-second intervals, so the long delay caused sizable backups at two main checkpoints.

To clear the traffic jam, some drivers close to the end were told to continue at highway speed. For them, the event was over. That stung the affected drivers, like Mike and Betty Casey of Las Vegas. "Everyone else in our (Super Sport) class got to finish except us and one other car," Betty Casey said. "I don’t know why they wouldn’t let us go on too." "The first 60 miles was fun. It should have worked out where we got to run the last 30," Mike Casey said. "But I feel bad for the people who crashed."

The last third of the highway is the most challenging, including the S-curved section known to Open drivers as "the Narrows."

"We didn’t get to do the Narrows. We didn’t get to do the ski jumps," Betty Casey said, referring to little rises in the highway that can send a speeding car airborne. "Yeah, it was a little disappointing." But the Caseys'' are bitten by the open road bug. They’ll be back. "We love it, win or lose," said Mike Casey, who has been racing open-road since 1994. "The people here are just great, and we’ve met all types of people we’d never know otherwise."

It seems an odd hobby for the couple, who drive more than 150,000 miles a year as professional truck drivers. "Oh, this is worlds different than driving a truck," Mike said. "This is one chance to really cut loose." Well, most of the time, anyway.

Former Reno resident Kelly Sievers repeated as unlimited champion. Sievers averaged 187.66 mph over the course. Fifteen other classes crowned champions.