The inaugural Midwest Musclecar Challenge provides an opportunity to test the handling and road manners of your Musclecar in a safe, and controlled environment where you can comfortably explore the limits of your hot rod as well as develop your driving skills.
The event contains four-elements over a two day period at two of the Midwest’s premier facilities, Putnam Park Road Course, in Mount Meridian Indiana, and the Mid-American Air Center, located in Lawrenceville, Illinois. Participation is open to domestic, performance vehicles, of all years.
The four primary event elements include:
- Road Course
- Street / Highway Driving
- Autocross
- Speed-Stop Challenge
BFGoodrich Hot Lap Challenge
Road Course (Saturday)
The fun begins with the BFGoodrich Hot Lap Challenge. Putnam Park Road Course is a 1.87-mile, 10 turn, track designed with large, flat, and grassy runoff areas that will make even to most inexperienced hotrodder comfortable with pushing their car and themselves to go a little faster.
Run Groups
There are 3 run groups at the MMC – Novice, Intermediate, and Advanced. You can indicate which run group you prefer when you pre-register. That way you will be combined with people and cars of similar experience and speeds (no one gets run over…or unnecessarily slowed down). As the day progresses run groups are re-evaluated and re-grouped as needed to keep everyone comfortable and increase your track time potential.
Track Time
With a full day scheduled on the road course, we assure everyone plenty of track time. Multiple "short" 15 minute sessions will allow for plenty of time on track (somewhere around 50 to 60 total laps for the day). This format also gives you and your car frequently opportunities to take breaks and tune / adjust if needed.
Timing & Scoring
Every car is provided an electronic scoring transponder and every lap on track is recorded for you to reference. This allows you to monitor your progress throughout the day, find out what adjustments on your car worked the best, as well as see where you stand with other participants in the event. Morning track sessions are focused on driver instruction and test / tune giving everyone a chance to get up to speed. Only your fastest-single-lap will determine your ranking at the end of the day. This way you can spend most of the day practicing/tuning/learning to drive without the pressure to make every lap count.
Top Speed Award
Spectre recognizes the "Top Speed" achieved by the competitors (as measured by a radar gun at a specific point on the track) and issue "The Spectre Top Speed Award". The award will include a specially designed trophy or plaque and a certificate for Spectre Performance products valued at $500.
Tire rules
We understand that this is primarily a street car event and that the drivers have limited on-track experience, especially with sticky tires. That is why we have decided to have everyone run a 200 treadwear tire [or harder].
Bowler Performance Transmissions
99 Mile Cruise (Saturday Late Afternoon)
View MMC Bowler Cruise in a larger map
The track day is followed by the Bowler Performance Transmissions 99-mile cruise that will wind its way through the scenic byways of southern Indiana and Illinois. Utilizing primarily two lane highways and county roads, this element will highlight the road handling manners of the vehicles and give all the participants an opportunity to relax after a day at the track.
The only performance criteria for this segment is that you drive your car from Putnam Park to the Ribfeast to demonstrate that you actually have a street can and not a race car. There is no time criteria and the points award is minimal. If you break something at Putnam Park, tailoring your car to RibFeast will only impose a small points penalty.
FlowMaster American Thunder Rib Feast
Fun & Food (Saturday Evening)
Bowler’s 99-mile cruise concludes day 1 with the Flowmaster’s American Thunder Rib Feast. Socializing and bench racing are the two primary items on the agenda for that evening.
RideTech Street Challenge
Autocross (Sunday)
Day 2 promises lots of activity for the day and the Mid-American Air Center is the ideal location to continue the high-octane extravaganza!
The nearly unlimited size of the Air Center allows for the creation of a one-of-a-kind RideTech Street Challenge Autocross course that will thrill both the drivers and spectators.
The autocross track is approximately 50-60 seconds long for most cars. You will likely use 2nd for possibly 3rd gear and reach speed of up to 70mph in some spots. The runoff area is huge so you’ll be able to let it hang out without fear of running to anything solid.
We are able to run 2 cars on the autocross at the same time so you will get LOTS of track time here. Again, every run will be recorded (you will get a time slip for every lap so you can tune your car and yourself). Only your fastest time will determine your final ranking, so there is no pressure to make every lap count. Theoretically, if the full roster of cars makes every lap you should get about 24 runs for the day.
Baer Brakes
Speed-Stop Challenge (Sunday)
The Baer Brakes speed-stop challenge is an exciting event as well, as we test the limits of acceleration, braking and driver skills all at the same time! The “stop box” is the ultimate proof of mechanical functionality and driver talent.
Registration for the event will be limited to the first 60 entries.
The format is as follows:
- Accelerate from the starting line for approximately 800 feet to the brake zone marker cones
- Stop within the confines of the 40 foot long x 20 foot wide stop box.
The object is to get to the stop box [and stop within it] as quickly as possible. This is a test of both your acceleration abilities and your braking abilities. Think of it as a drag race where you have to stop completely within a designated box!
Each participant gets as many runs as time allows to optimize their times.
Mothers
Car Show
We know there are lots of guys who have a keen interest in this kind of event but don’t want to subject themselves or their car to an all out track assault. The car show portion of the MMC is designed to give hotrodders a way to participate without putting their car on the track.
Although there won’t be any “trophies”, we WILL select 5 cars from this group to be featured on the Mothers Car Show that is being filmed at this event!
Pre-registering for the MMC car show gets you a goody bag [with all the swag inside!] 2 Flowmaster RibFeast meal tickets, and a prime parking spot while you are watching the track activities.
Midwest Musclecar Challenge
Award System
The 3 competitive portions of the Midwest Musclecar Challenge are the BFGoodrich Hot Lap Challenge, the RideTech Street Challenge Autocross & the Baer Brakes Speed-Stop Challenge.
Each of the three timed events utilizes electronic timing equipment to determine the finishing order from a culmination of multiple laps, or runs. Each competitor is allowed to drop the worst run and the finishing time is calculated on the remaining “best” times.
After the finishing order has been calculated, points are to the top 20 finishers on a 25 point scale descending scale. Positions are awarded in two point increments from 1st to 5th, and one point increments from 5th to 20th.
The non-competitive portion of the event, the 99 mile Bowler Performance Transmissions Cruise, awards 10 points to ALL participants who complete the cruise.
Awards Time
After the RideTech Street Challenge Autocross and the Baer Speed Stop Challenge ends, we have an awards ceremony.
In addition to the segment winners we crown an overall Midwest Musclecar Challenge “King of the Hill”.
In addition to the product prizes this person will receive a beautiful lettermans jacket with the MMC logo on the back and their mane and date on the front so you can show off your accomplishment to all your friends!
Example of Points for 3 Competitive Events: |
|
Finishing position |
Points awarded |
| 1st place | 25 points |
| 2nd place | 22 points |
| 3rd place | 20 points |
| 4th place | 18 points |
| 5th place | 16 points |
| 6th place | 15 points |
| 7th place | 14 points |
| 8th place | 13 points |
| 9th place | 12 points |
| 10th place | 11 points |
| 11th place | 10 points |
| 12th place | 9 points |
| 13th place | 8 points |
| 14th place | 7 points |
| 15th place | 6 points |
| 16th place | 5 points |
| 17th place | 4 points |
| 18th place | 3 points |
| 19th place | 2 points |
| 20th place | 1 point |
 |
| Any ties are issued the same points score and the positions will be adjusted accordingly. Example:
2-way tie for 1st – both participants are awarded 25 points, the next place finisher is awarded the third place points of 20. 3 way tie for 3rd – 1st place 25, 2nd place 22, 3rd – 5th place 20, 6th place 15, etc. The overall event winner is determined be compiling the points from all the events, while each individual event winner receives $100 in cash. |
