[DeTomaso] Fwd: Re: [TPR] 2012 SSCC Update from the field

[Asa Jay Laughton]

The following was penned by Dennis "Mad Dog" Antenucci regarding this 
year's running of SSCC:



Both your comments nailed the challenge of running a 40 year old car against a field that is 99% new production or purpose build race cars...

I love them all but to continue running and be compeptive at open track and open road race events with a 40 year old car is a major challenge...all you guys know what I am talking about...even Frankie! ;-)

Secondly, a few things about the guys who ran Panteras at Silver State this year and in the past.

JB did and has continued to do much more then run his Pantera at 130-150 mph for years at SS....he has also helped me and many others fix, repair, tow, install, rewire, motivate,kick me or do  what was needed to support the team...when he wasnt driving, he was navigating and when he wasnt doing either he was flying the 'chase plane' tracking entrys progress and DNF's and accidents for the race organizers....then this year he brought up "Cafe Finito"  for us to hang in all weekend...  JB brought fresh smoked sockeye salmon, chili, stroganoff, beer, booze, water and girls....okay kidding about the girls but you get the idea of how much he unselfishly gives back to all.....and also gives back to our adopted TPR MEMBERS who joined us. What typifies JB is his service to our team and the community where he serves as a police officer and to which he always humbly says
"There is no I in team"

Now X-Rookie Asa Jay blew us and me all away with his efforts and success...and yea you all know what an attention beotch I am...Once  described as the best promoter  in history second only to PT Barnum...okay yea, a legend in my own.mind ;-) but back to AJ who is now legend.

AJ  R&R'd  and rebuild his engine all the while working full time and spending allot of energy and time with his son who I think all of you know also has Autism. Like Rowdy in 2009, Bud in 2010 and JB in 2011 AJ exemplfied everything that is above and beyound the call of duty and real 'leadership' to get to Ely, start and finish his Pantera and also do all the work himself....and drive all the way from Washington, run all most a 110 mph average on a 95F day with a basic stock Pantera is very commendable. And the the mature way he handled the woman nacking into his quarter panel at gas station was waaay beyound words.

I have run all the ORR's and of course the challenge at SS is how dependable is your engine and cooling system on a long uninterupted run in heat..while 110 average doesnt seem that fast it is the fastest a rookie is allowed to run...the fact that AJ's engine ran perfectly is again credit to his proven mechanical  abilities and determination to get to the start and finish lines...

Third, we had Rich Hoppe in  his full race  dry sump Pantera race car. This previously Round Table Pizza is now a thing of beauty.

When Rich started the engine in Ely at tech everyone ran over to his pantera to see WTH was going on...that 700+ hp engine was/is wild. Rich had to completly rebuild the engine, chassis and suspension himself....he did the suspension and he made many mods (too many to list here) that are unique and gutted and redid the.cockpit all then wiring and plumbing etc...but where previous owner had cut panels or lightened the pantera frame he did not change anything except to strenghen and completly reinforced/welded and gusseted up the frame...again I'd deacribe Rich and his race Pantera as a Iron Man. Richie was last at SS 10 years ago and he won the Tpr IRON MAN AWARD then.

Richie averaged all most 138 MPH in spite of KILLING the engine at the START line (sorry Richie;-) and then after restarting the engine realising soon as he got through the gears and settled into WOT that he had not turned on his GPS and/or could not g.et it to work.... otherwisw he easily should of run 150-160 or more mph and no doubt will next year..this was his first orr in this Pantera so he has some chassis/suspension changes coming this winter. Still an amazing effort and it was great seeing himand his sheeit eating grin at finish line. His buddy Bill and he towed the Pantera from Phoenix and Bill was allot of fun.too..a Pinks 3rd round finalyst at Thunderbird raceway with many drag records to his credit.

Let me also thank our Bro's who came up and supported us...Peter-theGerman who came up and supported me and the team in every way on every day, running after parts when JB lost his regulator and alternator. Following me back to Vegas after the BOBO who drive my trailer down to finish line decided to RACE the truck and trailer down to finish line...then when that guy driving my tow rig got on a hill he then made matters wors by 'ridding' the brakes instead of slowing down and down shifting so because he was a dumb ass he cooked the brakes onthe Titan.

Not sure who was the bigger dumb ass...him or me.Me for allowing someone I dont know to drive my rig or him for not following clear directions to go slow and pay attention.

  But back to Peter - the German who is a retired master mechanic among many other skills who checked out my riga and got it and the driver cooled down and then followedme back  safely to Vegas.

Then we had 3 non-pantera owning race friends who raised some eyebrows joining Team Pantera Racing and that was Brian Leary&  Luanne Yoder in his Corvette Z06,
Stan "Moonshine" Martin in his race Mustang who averaged 135 mph and George Suennen who averaged an amazing 170  mph in his '90 Porsche 928S4 and Robert and Mary Armstrong in their cool 2011 Dodge Challenger...like Mark and Jim proved out in Nebraska with their well prepared Noble all our race friends are all great racers first and racers second.... And glad they were all there to be with us and hang together.

Couple closing notes....
1.  Jim Perutto is still King of the SilverState road...his fast 217? Mph  record was untouched but in this run  in his race prepared Malibu his windshield/supports broke at 200+ mph and he had do deflect broken glasss pieces that wrapped around steering wheel and blew out side windows...in spite of that "challenge" he still got the cup car safely stopped...yeeeea, insane! ;-)

2.  Our friend John Tiemann once again ran his Ford GT to a 170 average humbly calling the run, just another Sunday drive!  ;-)

3.  As earlier mentioned our other great friend Charlie Friend running his tube frame chassied Corvair from Hell averaged 180 mph! Amazing until you remember how many.times Charlie has done.this.again.and again...who once flew F100 fighter bombers in Nam...a retired USAF col. Charlie has to be 70+ years old and has run and raced every orr event fro here to Mexico.

4.  Our buddy, Steve "Irish" Donegan FINALLY trophied at 2nd place in the sloooow 100 mph class in his 2011 Italian red Nissan 370Z.......;-)
maybe now we will see him move up to a blistering fast 105...just kidding ya Irish..ya know I love ya.Bro.

5.  FINALLY yea my run...I dropped back in class to a 135-165 GS division class group...thinking.it wise to slow down as I am blind, deaf and dumb....but once I got on the horse I was breaking out of my class within 2 minutes....by mile 45 I had caught up with and passed a slower Corvette on a.sweeper turn...soon as I saw him my foot buried the throttle into the floor pan until I blew by him...not sure how fast I was going but I am sure it was at legal speeds (yeeea) but he heard me before he saw me qhich was cool because we talked at lenght at awards dinner...on my run he saw me early and quickly signaled me to pass which I gladly did at 200 mph or....so it seemed like ;-)))).............then just outside narrows/canyon road on a blind hill I caught up to 2nd corvette by by then I was averaging closer to 145mph instead of the 135 mph bracket I had signed up for... so finally I un-glued my boot to the throttle pedal and backed off on speed the last 25-30 miles finishing with a 140 average which was ironic as that was my original starting and winning speed back in '97. The Pantera again ran perfectly...oil temp was up a bit to +/- 200 probably due to a later start and hotter ambiant temps...and water stayed at a cool 180 but it took 10 minutes at WOT to get it from 150 to 180F...those rumble (tractor) strips in center straights "at speed" apexing across then on sweepers and hills  is still a pucker factor experience I did mot enjoy at all but overall it is a great road and we had perfect race conditions meaning no rain or head or cross winds.

THANKS to all of you including Rowdy and the Midwest and right coast racers for all your support this year. Soon as I get more feed back on award nominations I'll announce to all  before I had into DARKEST Africa end of October...okay its notAustralia but it is dark.

LOVE YOU KNUCKLEHEADS

Mad DAWG looking for a job in America
TEAM PANTERA RACING






bob Radefeld<bob at radefeld.com>  wrote:

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