About two weeks ago I attended the first Runing the Runway at the Smiths Falls Airport. Neat event
The premis is that this is a FLYING Quarter Mile. You have about 1/2 mile to get going and then you enter the measured 1/4 mile and then you have a little less than 1/2 mile to stop.
As you can imagine this is designed for high end cars (Porche, Lambo, Ferrari, Corvette, Shelby, etc.). Anyone can enter but you must pre-register for $150.00 and you get a guaranteed 3 runs. All the money goes to local charities. The is also a program where you can pay $20 and do a ride along with one of the cars.....again charity. Funny thing is there were a lot of people sho signed up to go fast and then when they were on the track asked the driver to slow down.
Anyway a PORCHE twin turbo won with a quarter mile speed of 261 KM/HR, a Cadillac CTS-V came in second with a speed of 257 KM/HR, then there was a twin turbo Corvette at about 256 and in fourth place.....wait for it ........ a Chrysler NEON at 246 KM/HR and a Dodge Calibre ran at 241 KM/HR.
There were 3 bikes entered as well but the timing on the bikes was intermittent because the lazer being used to time them had difficulty picking them up but one bike a Suzuki was clocked at 255 KM/HR.
This was a fun day and will be re-run next year but with more participants allowed.
PS. One of the organizers in his LAMBO DIABLO had trouble finding 5th gear because he said he had never had higher than 4th before .... his best speed was 235 KM/HR.
We asked if we could go out next year and do some real STAND START Quarter Miles ..... I know my Plymouth is capable of 150 MPH or 240 KM/HR so I would have beat about 90% of the field.
NEON's RULE ...... a $10,000 NEON beat a Ferrari California, a bunch of LAMBO's and a buch of Corvettes and Shelbys
After talking with the organizers about doing some STANDING start 1/4 mile stuff the general opinion was that they would like to do it but there are some logistical issues that need to be worked out.
The runway is long enough but there is no access to a side road at the end of the runway. What this means is that the race would take place, the timing would be done and then the track would be closed for the two cars to return to taxi way. This limits the number of cars and causes the spectators to wait a long time before the next run.
Additionally, since 1/8 racing is available at a commercial track they are worried about affecting the income at that facility. Capital City Speedway, just outside of Ottawa has 1/8 mile drag racing on Friday nights, Drifting competitions on Thursday nights, and regular stock car racing on Wednesday nights. They have the land to expand the 1/8 mile to 1/4 mile and there is some talk of expanding this facility to full on 1/4 mile drags. The problem with that is the City of Ottawa would need to approve and those are the folks that banned smoking OUTSIDE in parks and other public places. These folks also stopped the construction of Landsdown Park because a Robin was nested in a tree by the park.
Think about bashing your head against those folks.
No rules at the moment. If it licensed and can be driven on the street you can run it. Remember you will be asked to sign a waiver before you run and if you don't sign the waiver then you don't run.
Currently it is designed for those high buck really fast guys that have HUGE top-ends. A couple of guys brought out twin turbo charged Z06 corvettes and one guy brought out his twin super charged corvette. These Corvettes did not perform very well because they really could not get good traction. The funniest thing was the number of cars who were running through the quarter right against the rev limiter and still could not exceed 245 KPH.
Who would spend $400,000 US on a Ferrari California and not spend another $45-$50 to take the rev limiter out or to have it raised higher in 6th gear. Same thing with a BMW M3. Nissan Skylines and GTR's did not do well either for the same reason. One Mitsi EVO did real well on the first run but was unable to come back for run 2 and 3.....me thinks he will be going back to the dealer to see if his 10 year warranty is any good on his 3 month old EVO.
Like I said before it was a hoot and we stayed right by the end of the quarter the whole day.....yes we toured the pits, talked to the organizers, talked to some of the sponsors, and looked at other cars in the cruise in category but when the cars were running we were back at the end of the quarter.
