Hot Night, Hot Cars-Rt. 66 Mopar Night Race Your Ride

Joe Zolper

Friday night was not only hot temperature wise, but Route 66 had hot cars making hot hits! The night's theme was Mopar Night. Any Mopar vehicle could compete for fastest ET in a special race. The prize? Tickets to an upcoming Route 66/Chicagoland Speedway event. The racing was competitive with Victor Cervantes winning with an ET of 10.247 in his 2006 Jeep Cherokee SRTA.

The runner-up was Tony DeMaio in his 2017 Dodge Challenger Hellcat.

Speaking of Mopar, if anyone has been paying attention to social media, there is an upcoming grudge match between Garage Squad/Prison City Choppers owner Joe Zolper and his wife, Jenny. It seems, ever since Joe built Jenny's car, she has been faster. Joe tried to go faster in her car and did not. Obviously, Joe has been taking a beating and decided to break out his 1969 Plymouth GTX pro mod in an effort to claim "Fastest in the Family".

Joe has not had the car out in six years and with all his other commitments, has been working long hours to prepare it. On his only run of the night, Joe made a good burn-out and was on a good run. As he neared the stripe at the top end, a wisp of smoke could be seen coming from underneath the car. I later learned the bad news. The engine broke two push rods! The good news is that Joe is a mechanic extraordinaire and will be able to fix it. I spoke with Jenny afterwords and she was disappointed for Joe that the engine broke, however, with a wink and a glint in her eyes, stated "It's good for me!" There's not too much competitiveness in the family!

Another family out for the night, was the Harris family. It looked like a Harris family reunion with Dad, Dave, driving his car...

...daughter Kim Harris-Panozzo driving her's...

...and other daughter Leslie Harris-Kranz crewing for Rocky Ausec in the Solid Rock Mach 1 Mustang

Rocky made one good hit in the Nostalgia Alcohol Funny Car One Evil Mach 1 Solid Rock

Another Mustang to visit Route 66 Friday night, was the one driven by Orlando, Florida's Randy Seward. Randy is on a 10,000 mile trek called the "Pony Express" to race at 47 different race tracks in 65 days. Here he is racing against Kim Harris-Panozzo.

The 8-second Mustang is powered by a 331 C.I. twin turbocharged engine estimated to be putting out 1,300 H.P.

The night also brought out the Junior Dragsters of Cooper Hamelen and Jake Coomer.

There were plenty of race cars including Joe Malfeo' Nova, Bruce Boyle's Camaro, Bil Umhofer and his return to the dragster, Tim Kirman's TS car amongst the many.

There was also quite a few street cars taking advantage of this Race Your Ride.

Last but not least, there was Greg King's Nostalgia Funny Car. This night the car was to be driven by Route 66 Track Announcer (and former racer), Greg Nickleski. This car was built on the Velocity Channel's Garage Squad. The plan was to make two passes and go from there. Unfortunately, a brake line started leaking. The delay, caused by the time needed to make the repair, would only allow time for one run. The car was started, made a burnout and the the engine stopped. It was decided not to run the car this night, however it was a good effort to get this car down the track! Better luck next time.

PS Just one more image, an enhanced, over the top processed pic of Kim Harris-Panozzo's Camaro.

To see all the images from the night, please click here.

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