What’s cooler than taking your classic musclecar out of its comfort zone of boulevard cruising and drag racing, and putting in through its paces on the curving twists and turns of a race track? If you’ve never tried it before you’re seriously missing out!
If you feel like trying it out, and you’re located somewhere in the Midwestern United States, you could always enter a little event called the Midwest Musclecar Challenge! Solely dedicated to both classic and modern musclecars, divided into two classes (Pre-’81, Post-’82) and three driver classes (Instructor Advanced, Intermediate and Novice). You can expect to compete against everyone from the average enthusiast, the big name racers like the Unsers and everyone in between!
Bowler Transmission had teamed up with Royal Purple, among others, to bring the event to the Midwest, where entrants from all over compete against themselves to hone their skills at put their cars to the test on some of the fiercest tracks in the Indiana/Illinois area. The Midwest Musclecar Challenge is a family event, and everyone who attends has a tendency to help each other out
For 2015, participants entered the two-day event on May 29-30th, filled with good times, great weather, an excellent atmosphere and very impressive machinery. That Friday was the Hot Lap Challenge, held at Putnam Raceway Park, the 1.8 mile road course.
It was quickly followed by the 30-mile Centerforce Cruise, to further prove the vehicles’ reliability and endurance. Of course, it does state in the rules that “this is not required for any points it is purely a social part of the event to hang out and relax afterwards.” But it does add some street cred to the vehicles.
Saturday was the autocross event, held at the Terre Haute, IN Airport, followed by a Speed Stop Challenge afterwards, testing the cars acceleration and braking capabilities between a specific distance.
You can check out this year’s event results by clicking here. You can also scope out the 2015 rules, to give you a general idea of what you can expect for the 2016 event, here. See you next year!
Rick Seitz is the owner and founder of AutoCentric Media, the parent company to Timeless Muscle Magazine, and has a true love and passion for all vehicles. When he isn’t tuning, testing, or competing with the magazine’s current crop of project vehicles, he’s busy tinkering and planning the next round modifications for his own cars.
