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For
Immediate Release
Contact: Phil Henry 702-456-9660
Phenry@phenry.com
informs@silverstateclassic.com Racers Chase 200-mph Public Highway Record Drivers will try to average 200 mph for a 90-mile section of closed Nevada highway; hundreds of racers to compete in slower classes “You heard
it here first: No excuses, 200 mph in 2000,” announced
driver Rick Doria, an open highway racer whose modified Corvette
averaged 195 mph at the September, 1999, running of the Silver State
Classic Challenge, a legal 90-mile-long highway event held twice every
year in the Nevada desert. “That’s
what I’m going for,” said fighter pilot Kelly Seivers, who added
he’ll be driving a “secret” 850-hp specially built tube-frame
racer at the May event. Seivers, an aerospace company owner, has run more
unlimited miles on highway 318 than any other open road racer.
“We’ve spent $225,000 on our new car,” he added. At last
September’s event, winning driver Chuck Shafer set an open highway event
record average speed of 197.9 mph in his Chrysler LeBaron-bodied
ex-Busch series stock car. “I want to be the first to reach a 200 mph
average. We can break the 200-mph average barrier, although we are
pushing the envelope.” More of
these experienced drivers will battle to be first to reach a 200-mph
average for the 90-mile event at the Nevada Open Road Challenge, held
Sunday, May 21. Perennial open road event driver Dave Golder is entering
a modified Winston Cup stock car, fresh from the stables of the Tony
Stewart Home Depot NASCAR team. --more-- page two
The 200-mph Public Highway Chase
Contact: Phil Henry 702-456-9660 This isn’t
an outlaw event—it’s a sanctioned, legal event that’s been held on
a 90-mile stretch of Nevada state highway 318 every year since 1988. As
these experienced racing drivers battle to be first to average 200 mph
over the 90-mile closed highway course, they will be joined by hundreds
of serious amateurs in slower bracket classes, pushing the limits of
their machines. Of the
record 211 entrants who raced full-throttle against the clock at the
September event, some didn’t make it to the finish, including John
“Bo Duke” Schneider, driving a Dukes of Hazzard-era Dodge Charger.
“The Jesus clip disintegrated and now there are a bunch of little
dings on the inside of my $400 chrome valve covers,” said the TV star.
The entry list is growing faster than it did at last September’s event,
too, so expect some dedicated high-performance car racing to fill the
desert scenery. For example, no fewer than 19 Dodge Vipers raced the
clock at the September event. Events begin
Thursday, May 18, at the Showboat Hotel and Casino on the Boulder Strip
in Las Vegas, with driver qualifying at Las Vegas International Speedway
Park. On Friday, May 19, cars are paraded 245 miles north to the rustic,
wild west town of Ely, Nevada. This trip is an excellent photo
opportunity of the cars on the road. Saturday, May 20, is a parc
ferme at the Ely high school football field, where all of the
racecars will be on public display. At 5 a.m. Sunday morning, May 21,
highway 318 is closed to the public, and at 8 a.m. the cars are
scheduled to start, one-by-one, and race the clock for 90 miles. The
course begins in the town of Lund, 40 miles south of Ely, and ends just
before the town of Hiko. There’s no
cash prize fund, but the winner in the unlimited class is immortalized
on a perpetual trophy that resides in the Carson City statehouse in the
state’s capital city. --end--
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