2009 East Coast Supercharging Corvette Challenge Event 10 Winner Rob Farley 2009 American Racing Headers Pro 8 Shootout Race 4 Winner Michael Conway 2009 Cartek Performance Engineering Pro 10 Double-Index Race 5 Winner David Harris 2009 Anger Management Racing Pro 11.50 Race 4 Winner Rob Farley
What is the East Coast Supercharging Corvette Challenge Drag Racing Series?
It has happened to all of us. You stop at a light in your nice clean shiny deep breathing
Corvette and look at the car next to you. All of a sudden you feel like Top fuel driver Tony Schumacher staring down Funny Car driver Ashley Force Hood as you each wait for the light to go
green. It goes green and you are off. Then you realize you want to do this all the time
and legally. So where do you go? What do you do? How do you compete? The Corvette
Challenge is the answer.
Bracket Racing
Drag racing is simple to figure out. You line up next to someone, wait for the light to go
green and drive as hard and fast as you can for ¼ mile. Whoever gets to the finish
line first wins. This model is simple until you figure out that if you modify a car and
spend just a little more money on it, then you will always win. This scenario or "flaw"
opens the door for Bracket Racing. Bracket Racing is when you drag race against an
opponent you each are racing in your "bracket" so to speak. This bracket is also called a
"dial-in". Basically each driver has to honestly predict what amount of elapsed time (ET)
is needed for the car to travel the ¼ mile. To keep it honest, you cannot go faster
than you predict or you lose in what is called a "breakout". What this does is equalize
the cars and shifts the race to the driver's ability to predict a time and react to the
starting lights.
The Tree
The starting lights are affectionately called the "Christmas Tree" because there are so
many lights and in varying colors. The car with the slower dial in will be given a head
start. The faster car will have to wait for his Christmas tree until the slower car has
made up the difference in the dial-in ET. Example. I dial my car in at 13.50 seconds and
my opponent at 12.50 seconds. My opponent is 1 second faster than I so I will get a 1
second head start. That means if we do everything the same we will cross the finish line
at the same time.
Reaction Time
The amount of time it takes for the driver and his car to react to the green light is
where you can win your race. If it takes you one half (.50) second to react to the tree,
and your opponent takes 1 full second (1.00), then you will be .50 quicker to the finish
line. This, in a nutshell, is Bracket Racing. There are many lessons to learn but the key
takeaway for now is that the fastest car will not win. The better driver will win. Which
is how you and I can play in multimillion-dollar sport that Bernstein and Force play
without going broke.
Competition
What the Corvette Challenge does is allow you to participate in series of races that are
Bracket Races as described above, but with an entire field filled with Corvettes. Think
about it, all vintages all styles all colors. Here a C5 can race a C1. Think of it as a
very fast Car Show where you can see these works of art and experience what is under the
hood at the same time.
Schedule of Events for 2009
The season is broken down into Events of which we have 12 for the season. Events are
held at Old Bridge Township Raceway
Park, Englishtown, NJ. At each event driver's participate in a single round elimination
race. That is if you win you go on to round 2. If you lose, you are done for the day and
can now spectate and root for your favorite driver, Corvette, vintage, color or club. If
you manage to go the entire Event undefeated (6 or 7 rounds), you are the Event winner. You will be
featured on our web page until the next event. You will also win a few prizes. Then you
can come back to the next event and try all over again. It is that simple. Come out race,
play, and watch and have fun.
More competition: Points Champion
If that is not enough then you can join our Points Championship Program in which you
accumulate points in effort to become the next Corvette Challenge Champion for the season
just like Tony Schumacher, Cruz Pedregon and Jeg
Coughlin or Raceway Parks own Eddie Krawiec the 2008 NHRA pro champions. Points
Championship is optional. Earning points is easy. Once you sign up for points ($40 fee to
Raceway Park) you will be awarded points each time you earn them with your car number.
Every Points driver will be awarded 1 point for participating in the 1st round of an
event. This is called the "Staging Point". Even if you lose, you will leave with 1 point
for the day toward the championship. Now if you win you will be awarded another point. So
if you lose 1st round you will have 1 point. Win 1st round you will have 2. Each
subsequent round you win earns you another point. Sorry no "staging point" is award for
the subsequent rounds. So if you win 7 rounds you will leave with 8 points. Simply put you
will always have one more point than the number of rounds you win. The points are added to
your previous Event performances and you will be ranked against all other drivers. Points
drivers race for trophies, jackets and year-end cash and prizes as well. Most importantly
the top points drivers at mid season (to be announced) participate in a special Wednesday
night race and the Top points driver as of September (to be announced) will be invited to
participate in the National Bracket Finals. Only races 2 through 11 of the season are
point's races.
You can race Heads-Up too! Three Heads-up Index Classes.
The Corvette Challenge also runs three series' within the series. The Pro 8 Shootout, Pro 10 Double Index and Pro 11.50 Index classes are each heads-up drag racing on a pro tree for the hard-core racer. Each class has the drivers start at the same time and race to finish, heads-up. The classes are divided into performance levels that are regulated by the performance capability by a hard index rather than extensive engine rules. Pro 8 Shootout is an 8.50 Index, Pro 10 Double Index has a 10.00 and 10.50 index and Pro 11.50 an 11.50 index. Drivers can race in the Corvette Challenge bracket class in addition to the one Pro class to double up the racing on any given day. The Pro classes are limited to 5 dates each. Drivers can also choose to run for a championship in these classes. Visit www.corvettechallenge.info and click on the class link for complete rules.
Spectators and supporters are welcome.
You can come out to meet new people, watch the racing and friendly competition. Many
drivers bring their spouses for support or even their entire families. Clubs bring members
to race and members to cheer, support and maybe even engage in a little friendly "trash
talking". Even Corvette owners who choose not to race still bring their Corvettes to
support the Series.
This is what the Corvette Challenge is about. We hope that you can make it to at least
one of our events if not all for the coming year. And remember to "Save the Wave".
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The starting lights are affectionately called the "Christmas Tree" because there are so
many lights and in varying colors. The car with the slower dial in will be given a head
start. The faster car will have to wait for his Christmas tree until the slower car has
made up the difference in the dial-in ET. Example. I dial my car in at 13.50 seconds and
my opponent at 12.50 seconds. My opponent is 1 second faster than I so I will get a 1
second head start. That means if we do everything the same we will cross the finish line
at the same time.
