2025 Pictures

Driftless Glen Distillery and restaurant, Merimac Ferry Ride

Habitat for Humanity Fund Raiser at Waynes

Here's a video from my PDR where you can see Ray’s E-Ray spank me

When Bruce P sent out an email on May 6 asking OCC members if there was any interest in drag racing, I jumped at the chance. I have wanted to do this for a very long time, but it would be too daunting to go by myself.

A date of July 15 was set for the event at Great Lakes Dragaway in Union Grove, WI. This was a Tuesday and a “test and tune” night, so it would less crowded and less intense. It was a hot day with temperatures in the upper 80s.

Four of us, Ray M (C8 E-Ray), David B (C7 Z06), Bob K (C7 Z06), and myself (C7 Grand Sport) met Ray’s friend Bobby G (and his Tesla) at Great Lakes about 30 minutes before they opened so we could be first in line. Bobby G has raced recently and has some nice video equipment. You can see his video of us on YouTube here
https://youtu.be/DoXd-VyjZ74?si=3Y5lzD53S4YLj2yO

The Dragaway requires long pants, closed shoes, shirts, and a helmet if your car is quicker than 14 seconds in the ¼ mile. Ask Bob K how much it was to buy pants at their store ;-)

The first stop after paying your $60 entry fee is “Tech Inspection.” For newer cars like ours, nothing was inspected. I imagine that older vehicles and rods that appear somewhat homebuilt are looked at a little more carefully. All we did is fill out a form and then had a number chalked on the windows. We were numbers 1001 through 1005. Newbies, like me, had an underscore chalked below the number so the crew would know we had no idea what we were doing :-)

We pulled into the “pit area” (several rows of asphalt separated by grass). Since this was a Tuesday, there never were a lot of cars here so there was plenty of room. Once we were ready, we donned our helmets and drove slowing to the staging area.

There was no line in the staging lanes, so we were ready to race.

I didn’t plan on doing a burnout beforehand as I have all season tires, so I drove around the “water box.” It’s polite to drive around if you don’t do a burnout so you won’t drip water at the starting line. [fun fact: it’s easy to drive around the water on the left lane, but there’s no room to drive around on the right lane at Great Lakes, so you have to drive through; I was told since the track was built in 1952, there just wasn’t room and they never expanded the staging area]

Once you are near the starting line, you need to stage. There are two sets of double-yellow lights on the tree. When you trip the first one, you are pre-staged. Moving forward a foot or so lights the second set of lights and you are staged. Etiquette dictates that once a car is pre-staged, you wait for the other to pre-stage, and then you stage and the other car stages.

At this point, the Christmas Tree begins it countdown. There are three single yellow lights followed by a green. Everyone tells you to go on the last yellow, and they are correct. It takes your brain a split-second to react and send messages to your feet, so if you wait for the green to go, you’ll leave late. The amount of time between the green and your car moving is called reaction time. My best reaction time for the evening was .172 seconds. If you leave too early, you earn a “red light” and you lose the race. If you wait for the green light, you’ll likely have a 1 second reaction time (poor).

I did not use launch control on my C7, which is stock. I just wanted to see how I would do without the Vette “thinking” for me. I tried to roll into the throttle rather than stomping it so the tires wouldn’t spin. If your tires are spinning, your car isn’t moving.

During my five runs of the evening I tried to figure out the best time to go (start of the last yellow, or middle of the last yellow, or just when) and how quickly to stomp the go pedal. While I’d like to say I figured it out, I didn’t.

If you care, I used different modes during my run – Tour, Sport, Track, Track|Sport1, Track|Sport2. The mode didn’t seem to make much difference for me.

Once you leave the starting line it’s a matter of keeping the accelerator glued to the floor in an automatic. I did want to ensure I didn’t hit the wall or the car in the other lane :-)

You cover a quarter mile pretty quickly (for me, 12.5 seconds), and once you pass the finish line you need to brake smartly to slow down enough to make the turn and head back on the “return road” to the “timing shack” where they will hand you your time slip.

My goals for the evening were:
1. not hit the wall
2. not hit the other car
(sort of kidding about these two)
3. not embarrass myself
4. have a good RT
5. not break the Grand Sport

For my 5 runs,
My RT (reaction time) range was .172 - .438
My 60’ range was 1.975 – 2.086
My ET range was 12.512 - 12.649
My MPH range was 112.31 - 110.48

Anyway, I was pretty excited that I didn’t break anything or cause any problems, and my times were relatively consistent.

This was a blast. I may have to do this again. I would encourage you to give it a try if you’ve never done it. Do your homework by reading info and watching videos on drag racing. It’s much better to go with someone else too.

I was the slowest of the Vettes out there. David and Bob’s Z06s were in the 11.4 second range. Ray’s E-Ray was 10.9 to 11.0 seconds. Bobby G’s Tesla was mid 10 seconds. Later in the evening, his friend with a Tesla Plaid showed up… and it made Bobby G look slow!

Afterwards, my wife asked if we still have any tread left on the tires.

Gary Locklair
2019 Sebring Orange Grand Sport coupe