ChallengerFest 6 April 10-12, 2015

ChallengerFest's sixth annual event went off like a canon in Bowling Green, KY the weekend of April 10-12, 2015 with Billet Technology being our Title Sponsor. We were blessed again with gorgeous weather for the entire event with beautiful blue skies and highs in the 70s. This made for great racing and even better for hanging out and telling tall tales.

Parking lot photo courtesy of Wes E. - aka RT6Speed

Those attending ChallengerFest 6 arrived as early as Thursday afternoon to prepare for the event with the bulk of folks arriving throughout the day on Friday. I lost count of how many cars we had enter the car show, but we completely filled the Holiday Inn University Plaza, host hotel, parking lot. A lot more car owners seemed to come ready for some racing as a very high percentage of the cars present had some form of forced induction installed :) There were also seven Hellcat Challengers and a Hellcat Charger in attendance, which I believe is the most to attend any event as of this writing. I got a ride in one of the Hellcat Challengers and they are VERY nice vehicles.

The Billet Tech car show was great and gave participants time to just hang out, relax, enjoy some good BBQ organized by Mr. Cruzking, and enjoy some adult beverages.

Billet Technology Car Show Winners

Car Show	Prize/Sponsor	Winner

Stock
1st	BT $500 Cert	Jeff Kearns
2nd	BT $250 Cert	John Govenettio
3rd	BT $100 Cert	Colin Merry

Modified
1st	BT $500 Cert	Edsel Smith
2nd	BT $250 Cert	Ron Baker
3rd	BT $100 Cert	John Wall

Custom
1st	BT $500 Cert	Craig Belevender
2nd	BT $250 Cert	Greg Colum
3rd	BT $100 Cert	Brian Best

Furthest Driven	$250 BT Cert	Bill Meredith (again for 2015
Furthest Trailored	$150 BT Cert	Denis Roy (again for 2015)

Best of Show	$500 BT Cert	Craig Belevender
Best Engine Bay	$500 BT Cert	Michael Waters

Billet Technology staff, with assistance from Erik (Hemi31) from BFNY Performance, did the judging at this year's car show.

The weather was pleasant so everyone just setup camp in the hotel parking lot and exchanged tall tales about their cars until the final hold outs stumbled to their rooms in the wee hours of Saturday morning.

I hit the rack about 11pm and woke up at 2am wondering what I had forgotten. Checking lists and the car, I finally just gave up sleep and jumped in the shower about 6:15am to get ready for the great breakfast Holiday Inn University Plaza has. Egg and sausage omlet, hash browns, and delicious coffee had me powered up, and Malena and I headed over to the track to be ready for the gates to open at 8am. Everyone flowed through seamlessly, teched in, and got their positions in the pit to prepare their cars for some TNT and racing. We had open track time from 9am to 11am. The GForce Performance 6 Speed Shootout from 11am to 11:30am (ran a bit late but no biggie), and then we broke for lunch about 12:30.

At 1pm we ran the Modern Mopar Forum Unlimited Shootout followed by the AGP Performance Bracket Race at 2pm. We had open TNT from 3pm to 4pm when the staging lanes closed to ChallengerFest. Everyone had gotten all the runs in they wanted as the lanes were dead empty by the end of the day and the track announcer was asking if anyone else wanted to make passes. All in all a fantastic day at the track with beautiful weather, fast racing, a track that was well organized with a professional staff, and NO breakage!

OST Dyno provided track prep for the day's racing to help racers get the most from their cars. OST Dyno was on site with HRH Performance Engines to talk to everyone about their new engine program and to show off their turbo charged AWD Jeep that made some VERY quick exhibition passes on the track.

The GForce 6 Speed Shootout was a close one with Brian Best over taking Denis Roy who got the hole shot with Brian winning by a fender.

GForce 6Speed Shootout Winners

6 Speed Shoot Out	Prize	Winner	Time
1st	Gforce $750 cert	Brian Best	11.649@127.71
2nd	Gforce $500 cert	Denis Roy	11.775@117.95
3rd	Gforce $250 Cert	Howie Rumjahn	112.350@115.84

The Modern Mopar Forum Unlimited Shootout was exciting as well coming down to the wire between the seasoned pro Guy Dalton in his Magnum wagon that had run 10s most of the day against Andrew Hamilton in his Challenger that was also running 10s. Andrew knew he needed to get the jump on Mr. Dalton and got a bit aggressive and red lighted giving the win to Guy Dalton. Both just coasted to the end of the track to save the cars to fight another day. Kate Tout, a 19 year old woman with both Mom and Dad prodding her along in her racing, fought it out through the field and came in third in unlimited in her supercharged furious fuchsia Challenger.

Modern Mopar Forum Unlimited Shootout Winners

MMF Unlimited Shoot Out	Prize	Winner	Time
1st	$575 CASH	Guy Dalton	12.068@94.50
2nd	$475 CASH	Andrew Hamilton	11.109@108.79 (Red Light)
3rd	$375 CASH	Kate Tout	11.581@120.72

The AGP Performance Bracket Race had a field of over 40 cars enter! The entrants battled it out returning quickly to the staging lanes if they won a round. John Govenettio beat out the compeition in his beautiful Header Orange Charger.

AGP Performance Bracket Race

AGP Bracket Race	Prize	Winner
1st	AGP $500 cert	John Govenettio
2nd	AGP $300 cert	Howie Rumjahn (6 spd!!)
3rd	AGP $200 cert	Anthony Carter

We also had an award for the Best 60' of the day sponosred by Solo Performance Exhaust with one of their stainless cat back systems which went to Guy Dalton with a 1.45 60', as well as a Best Reaction Time award sponsored by Summit Racing with a $100 gift card that went to Craig Belevender, in a 6 speed manual no less, with a .002!

After the racing we all headed back to the hotel to relax and prepare for the Thitek Performance Cylinder Heads banquet. Good food and good friends. Doesn't get better than that.

After dinner we started the ChallengerFest awards follwed by the Racing4Vets charity auction.

Very generous vendors like Heidi from Billet Technology, The Drive Shaft Shop, Modern Street HEMI Shootout, and event attendees helped us to collect $12,631 for Racing4Vets at ChallengerFest 6, which is an event record! If you weren't able to attend, and are interested in helping to save the lives of service wounded vets, please consider making a donation directly to Racing4Vets. They really are a great organization and had six members in attendance who were very cool guys.

That's another ChallengerFest in the books. I think it was the best one to date and I can't wait to see how ChallengerFest 7 turns out. We're already in the planning stages so be sure to check the ChallengerFest FB page for event updates!