STREET/RACE Issue 1, Winter 2016 | Page 71

JUSTIN KEITH opinion, that’s where a lot of this explosion of street car people came from the last several years. Combine a great platform like the LS with a bunch of awesome aftermarket products and it’s pretty impressive what you can come up with. And while it isn’t always cheap, it doesn’t have to break the bank. Not to mention you can pick up a used Camaro or GTO or even Corvette for a good price these days and have a car that’s only a few modi- that come to our races and they’re on us about track prep or whatever, and I don’t think they realize that isn’t our deal. We are an event that comes to town hoping to bring people out to the drag strip that don’t normally come out. We want to provide a fun, safe place to hang out and roll or drag race. We try hard to make our events laid back and enjoyable. It’s more about having fun than competition or anything else. IT’S UNBELIEVABLE THE LEVEL OF PERFORMANCE YOU CAN ACHIEVE WITHOUT SACRIFICING RELIABILITY OR DRIVABILITY. fications away from being pretty damn fast, yet still daily drivable. It’s a really fun time that we’re living in. If you look at the new Mustangs or new Corvette Z06s, I mean, you can bolt a few parts on those cars and a set of drag radials and run in the nines. It seems like we’re experiencing a bit of a street car revolution right now and you have a front row seat with Street Car Takeover. I do, but I also don’t know that people completely understand our events. We have hardcore racers Guys like me who grew up racing on the street, going to TX2K and things like that, we look at something like a NMCA national event or a NHRA national event and we just see a race. We don’t look at it as something we can take our car to and have fun. With Street Car Takeover, you don’t have to worry about fitting a certain class or running a certain time or whatever. It’s about going to the drag strip and having fun. We attract everyone from the young guy who LS-swapped his Fox Body Mustang and has a total of $5,000 invested in it to the mid-life crisis guy who just bought a brand-new Dodge Challenger Hellcat that normally only goes to cruise nights. Do you fear that you’re going to toe over the line with your own car? Go from having a true multi-purpose hot rod to a full-on race car? Yeah, I mean, I’m aware that I’m trending that direction, but I know what’s important to me and that’s to have a car that is fun. I think that’s some of what the hardcore drag racing industry has lost over the last several years—it’s so expensive, and it’s so much work and it’s so hard that it’s not as much fun as it used to be. I’ve been saying it a lot, especially now that we meet so many people at Street Car Takeover events, but you have to remember that there is always going to be someone faster. So, why bother trying to be the fastest guy in town? Why let that be the goal? No matter what you do or how much you spend, you’re never going to be the fastest, and even if you are—it won’t last forever. So, I think the focus has to be on enjoying your car. You have to make sure whatever you’re doing with your car or whatever the goal is that you know it’s about having fun and being happy with it. Going 200 miles per hour in the half mile will probably be pretty fun. I sure think so (laughs). WINTER2016 71