Login Register Sign up for the GRM e-newsletter

Login to post Forums » Grassroots Motorsports » Land Speed Racing in the Everglades 10/11/09 Milemarker-1
  • Rad_Capz

    Oct. 13, 2009 4:34 p.m. Rad_Capz New Reader

    I went to the Milemarker-1 race Sunday and entered with my 70 Firebird. The event was held at Dade-Collier airport. Organization was poor. Timing was by an officer with a radar gun. Tech and safety inspection was almost non existant. There were no classes or safety requirements for any speed.

    The track is perfect, A 2 mile smooth concrete airport runway still maintained although the runway is not used much. I did not see a single airplane howerever there was a helicopter and pilot which made me feel better that if there was an injury the person could be transported.

    The quality of cars there was very high with almost all cars being newer vehicles with turbos, superchargers or nitrous. The staging lanes looked more like a car show than a race area because all of the vehicles were so nice looking. Ford GTs, Ferraris, Porsche, Corvettes, GTOs, as well as the Tuner type cars were well represented. There was even a Mercedes going over 190 MPH !

    My car was by far the oldest car there racing and the only one with a carb. The only other PT- G machine type car there was a 1st gen camaro that was spectating. My car was one of only a handfull of cars that had any kind of rollover protection and one of only a couple with fire supression. There were a couple people with driving suits. Most of the cars were running in the 150-190 range according to the radar gun and peoples GPS and datalogging equipment. Several cars were running 190-220.

    here's a link to a thread with lots of pictures and videos from the event http://www.ls1gto.com/forums/showthread.php?p=6103461

    Heres another thread on the Corvette site. http://www.corvetteflorida.com/forum...t=35146&page=3

    If you go to you tube and search "Mile Marker 1" there will be tons of videos popping up the next several days as more and more people finish their editing. Please ignore the disappointment of one of the kids in one of the videos when he doesn't see my car take off like a rocket. LOL 2.41 rear and old school drivetrain just doesn't launch very well LOL I need more power!

    There will be another event by the same guys in January with real timing equipment and better organization I was told. They were just overwhelmed with the amount of people.

    There were over 200 spectators there and for them it was perfect. They got to walk right up to all of the cars in staging like it was a car show (and it could have been). Since it was so poorly organized the spectators had about 3 hours of "car show" to chat with the drivers, crews and owners who had no where else to go.

    After that they got to go right up to the start line and watch everyone make their first pass for a couple hours. By then temps were over 100 degrees and everyone started to fade away.

    It was a very different kind of race experience with almost all of the cars being almost silent at idle. My car was one of the only cars that even had a rumble to it. No open headers or any of the other sounds you usually hear at a race. Also almost every single car was a show quality car appearance wise. There were no clapped out race only type cars there. The pits and staging truely looked like a car show.

  • ronbros

    Oct. 13, 2009 6:05 p.m. ronbros Reader

    that Lexus SC 300 looks like Elitemotorsports out of Austin TX. if it is, its way faster than 200mph.

  • Spinout007

    Oct. 13, 2009 6:10 p.m. Spinout007 Reader

    Keep us updated about the Jan event, I would love to make a road trip of coming down to watch.

  • NYG95GA

    Oct. 13, 2009 6:18 p.m. NYG95GA SuperDork

    2 miles? Sounds more like a long dragstrip than a LSR track. How much shutdown area? No safety precautions sounds pretty scary, too. 2 miles goes by mighty quick @ 190 MPH.

  • Rad_Capz

    Oct. 13, 2009 6:38 p.m. Rad_Capz New Reader

    The course is 1 mile to speed up and 1 mile to slow down. Maxton, Texas and Loring are all about the same, Loring might be a bit longer. It's plenty long enough for most cars.

  • MrJoshua

    Oct. 13, 2009 6:50 p.m. MrJoshua SuperDork

    ronbros wrote:

    that Lexus SC 300 looks like Elitemotorsports out of Austin TX. if it is, its way faster than 200mph.

    Are we looking at the same car? The black one with the chute? If so-Its a Supra. If not-can you point me in the direction of the Lexus? I am interested!

  • ronbros

    Oct. 13, 2009 6:54 p.m. ronbros Reader

    Thank god we have wars !!!

    those old airports were all built for big bombers, during war times. even dade-collier just incase things got going in Cuba, or areas south.

    of course they tell us somthin different.

  • Rad_Capz

    Oct. 13, 2009 7:18 p.m. Rad_Capz New Reader

    ronbros wrote:

    Thank god we have wars !!!

    those old airports were all built for big bombers, during war times. even dade-collier just incase things got going in Cuba, or areas south.

    of course they tell us somthin different.

    The official explanation is that this airport was being built for the concord/SST flights and that when the supersonic flights were cancelled construction stopped on the airport. At that point environmentalists stepped in and an agreement was made that the partially constructed airport would remain and be preserved. It is stratigicly located close to Cuba though isn't it ? hmmmmmm

    There are marks on the runway from planes though so they may be still using it to train commercial pilots or emergency landings.

 
Tire Rack- Revolutionizing Tire Buying

You'll need to log in to post.