2002 * Event 1
* Event 2
* Event 3
* Event 4
* Event 5
* Event 6
* Event 7
* Event 8
* Event 9
* Event 10
* Bonus * Top 4 * Final Standings Rob Farley wins 2002 Cartek Corvette Challenge Event 5
 On Saturday July 27, 2002 the stage was set for the biggest Cartek
Corvette Challenge yet at Raceway Park in Englishtown, NJ. The weather, however did not
cooperate. It was cloudy and hazy all day, not to mention hot and humid, and the field was
reduced to a still successful 66 Corvettes in 1st round. The morning session was also a
Corvette Day with Vette Magazine and The Corvette Express Club of NJ hosting an all day
Corvette Show & Go event. Many drivers came to do "double header duty". The morning
session got hit with a 2 hour rain delay and a late start of eliminations causing the
Challenge event to start late. Racers however were excited to see Raceway Park bringing
out the jet dryer and drying the track so that we can have our day. Class act Raceway
Park!
The Corvette Challenge final for Event 5 of 2002 belonged to two C4 Corvettes. Rob
Farley from Staten Island, NY had the look of determination in his eye and it paid off as
he took the win over Ralph Savarese of Mahopac, NY. This again was a very close final.
Farley dialed his 1989 Blue Corvette at 13.99 up against the quicker Savarese in a Black
1985 C4 at 11.91. The drivers left the tree with almost identical lights as Rob had the
tiniest advantage of .550 to Ralph's .553. At the top end, each driver would have to
monitor the finish line to try to judge how to play the game. Farley with a tiny tap of
the brakes crossed the line dead-on with a 9 (13.999) and Savarese ran a great 11.934 ET
just .024 slower than his dial. Savarese said "I couldn't tell who won." thinking he might
have broken out similar to Event 4's final as Ralph almost
said the same thing when he also finished runner-up. Farley is one of New York's finest (a
police officer) who also races on Sunday's at Raceway Park in his Mustang in the Raceway
Park Heavy
ET series. He has been making the points charge there too ranking 5th currently. He
now is 3rd in the Challenge series. Those are high rankings with two different cars. Both
Farley and Savarese secured spots in the Top 4 to make them eligible for the special race
on Wednesday night at Raceway Park during the PC Richard & Son Night of Thrills. As a
sidenote, Farley also won his class in the earlier Vette Magazine Show & Go, so that
is two Eliminator wins in one day. Way to go Rob! Congrats and
welcome to the Corvette Challenge Rob(now what can we do about that Mustang?).
Ralph and Rob are hard charging on points leader Edgar Perez, who now holds a 7 point
lead with 3 points races remaining. But this series not only for points racers! For the
second event in a row, Eric Fischer drove his father's Automatic LT4 (yes A4 LT4 converted
by Eric personally) Collector Edition 96 Corvette. Eric however had not planned on
participating in the series as his father Bill was to be driving the car. However, Bill
raced in the AM event, so he handed the keys to son Eric just as he did at the last event.
It is too late for Eric to get points for the prior two events but he may want to consider
signing up for points now as the end of year payouts go down to the 10th place for this
series. Complete list of prizes can be seen at www.corvettechallenge.info/2002rules.shtml Another interesting
match-up included the first round pairing of Rob Farley and the 2nd in points Jack
Schwarzwalder. Of course you know Farley won that match causing Jack to fall out of 2nd
for the 1st time this season into 4th place.
Don't miss the next Cartek Corvette Challenge event on Saturday August 31, 2002. Please
note this event is an AM event with gates opening approximately 9 AM. Those of us that
race in the Real Street Class at Raceway Park as well as the Challenge should be happy to
know that our event is in the AM so we can race Real Street in the PM without conflict. If
you cannot wait till the next event, try the 1st Annual Civil War on August 17th at
Raceway Park were the F-bodies will be taking on all other GM EFI cars for cash and
trophies.
Did you see those Quick 4 Corvettes?
This day also marked the 1st ever heads-up Corvette Challenge competition. Each car's time
trial runs was used as qualifying runs for the Quick 4. The Quick 4 was the 4 Quick(est)
ET's of the time trial session. Keith Brownlee from Shrewsbury, NJ was the number one
qualifier with an astounding and wheel standing 9.79 ET. Mike Romain, Brian Miller and
Bill Maloney filled the rest of the field with 10 second ET's. The first round pinned
Keith against Bill and Bill ran a new personal best 10.656 at 129.40 MPH but it just was
not enough with Keith tripping the clocks with a 10.192. We also saw Romain in his Black
99 against Miller in the LeMans Pace Car painted 99 Corvette Coupe. Mike took the win
despite a slight RT disadvantage with a 10.805 @ 127.81 to Brian's 11.14 @ 124.58. Brian
is the founder of the Corvette Challenge and Mike has participated in each of its 4 years
of existence despite his profession's requirement for him to travel frequently.
Congratulations and thank you go out to all the drivers who rushed to meet the
requirements for the Quick 4 in particular those that made the investment in installing
NHRA legal rollbars. Stay tuned as we will be looking to continue this series within a
series.
Some statistics from Corvette Challenge Event 5
Many have asked how many of the participants in these races are racers in the points vs.
how many are not. Of the 66 Vettes that made 1st round, 25 were NON-points racers, making
this event 62% points racers and 38% non-points racers
| Time
| #
| %
| 
|
| 10
| 2
| 3%
|
| 11
| 8
| 12%
|
| 12
| 21
| 32%
|
| 13
| 24
| 36%
|
| 14
| 11
| 17%
|
| Total
| 66
| 100%
|
| (above) dial-in times for 1st round.
|
Congratulations to the drivers that made the ladder in round 4. The ladder means each
driver won 3 rounds. This week's ladder featured 9 drivers of which 2 were in their first
4th round of the season. Again you will have seen how this series is open to all to win.
Good job drivers.
Cash and Prizes awarded drivers courtesy of our sponsors.
- Event winner Rob Farley went home with $200 cash and gift certificates for a free
dyno tuning session at Cartek Racing and a $100 gift certificate from Pro Torque and the
Event Winner Shore Motorsports sponsored Trophy. Shore Motorsports is located in Howell,
NJ and can be reached at 732-370-2067 or on the web at www.shoremotorsports.com. Cartek
Racing is in Garwood, NJ and can be reached at 908-317-4496 or on the web at www.cartek.net.
- Runner-up Ralph Savarese went home with $100 cash, a $50 gift certificate from Pro
Torque, the "Money Back Runner Up Award" for $20 cash from Boweryboy Racing and the
event Runner-up Vette Doctors sponsored Trophy. The Vette Doctors are located in
Amityville, NY and can be reached at 631-841-0779 or on the web at www.thevettedoctors.com. Pro
Torque, in Bohemia, NY can be found at www.protorque.com or by calling 631-218-8700.
- Eric Fischer was the sole semi-finalist and won $50 cash.
- All winners of the first round were awarded a trophy sponsored by CFM Racing. With 66 cars making 1st round Chris Coriell, Frank
Schear and Mike Moran gave out 33 trophies.
 Brent Grigsby from Sewell, NJ won the Closest to Dial Award sponsored by
Walden Farms by running a 12.202 on a 12.20 dial. Unfortunately, Brent could not go home
with his prize as it was not at the track but the prize consisting of a beautiful gift
package from Walden Farms filled with low calorie low carbohydrate products will be
shipped to his home. Unfortunately for Grigsby, he did not win this round as his he left
the line early with a red light. You can purchase Walden Farms products at local grocery
stores or on the web at www.waldenfarms.com.
 Glenn Schaul from Highlands, NJ won the "Ohh so Close Award" sponsored by Zaino
when he was edged out in the 1st round by a mere .0028 second. Although he lost in the
1st round by the smallest Margin of Victory, Glenn got to drive off with a Zaino starter
package that includes Z1, Z2, Z6, Z7 and a polish pad. Zaino products can be purchased
online at www.zainobros.com or at
Shore Motorsports on Route 9 in Howell.
- David Outten from Vienna, VA won the Almost Perfect Award sponsored by Marotta
Racing when he took himself out in the 1st round with the red light closest to .500.
David's light was .487 and for that he earned a $50 gift certificate to the Raceway Park
Souvenir store donated by Lenny Marotta of Marotta
Racing.
- Mike Romain from Brick, NJ won the "John Panuzzo Jr. Memorial Trophy" donated by Team Panuzzo Racing for the best winning reaction time in
the 1st round in his Black 1999 C5 Corvette. Mike had the honor of being PERFECT with a
.500 light and a win. As you know Mike also qualified for our Quick 4 race and was
runner-up in that event. Congratulations Mike.
Points Standings after 5 events
The Points standings shuffled again though the points leader remained the same. Jack
Schwarzwalder fell victim to a red light in the first round and that opened the door for
the two finalists in Event 5 to catapult over him. Savarese with another runner-up showing
moves into the 2nd spot with Farley using his win to move up into the number 3 spot.
There was some shuffling and the final results should show some new drivers in the top
10 when final points are posted. See side bar on left for current listing
Cartek Corvette Challenge helps Toys for Teens & Tots
The 50/50 raffle was held at the track and the racers hopeful of winning the money while
helping out a worthy organization put together $338. Wayne Paul, Raceway Park official
seen all over the track but at the head of the staging lanes at the end of each event, was
the lucky winner collecting $169 while the other $169 was donated to the Toys for Teens
& Tots fund. Special thanks go to Jaymie Shuleski and Mariana Trieschmann making the
rounds to collect the money. The 50/50 will be held at each of the Cartek Corvette
Challenges this year. Please see Jaymie or Mariana in the staging lanes if they do not
find you first. You do not have to be a racer to participate. Raceway Park officer, Tim,
thanks the Corvette Challenge racers and fans for supporting the Toys for Teens and Tots.
To date we have donated almost $800 to the organization. Thank you for your continued
support.
More photos by Alina & Kathleen Perez (sorry most are of
Edgar) | Mike Moran's Photos | Misc Pictures on Corvetteforum.com | VIDEOS by
EuG
Thank you to our sponsors
The Corvette Challenge gives thanks to all of its supporting sponsors for whom without
this series cannot be possible. Thanks go out to
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modified: September 17, 2006 - 1:44 am
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