This past weekend (June 27-29, 2025) was the annual Optima Search for the Ultimate Street Car event at Road America. This track is legendary. Four miles around, huge speeds, beautiful facilities, and mechanical attrition.
This is a tough venue to race at. The sheer size of the track and the speeds means equipment is taken to the max. If you can survive an Ultimate Street Car event at Road America, you’ve built a good car.
The past!
The last time we had the Buick at Road America was back in 2021. The car was on a fresh engine, fresh transmission, and I’m pretty sure we were running Bridgestone RE-71Rs. That event, I finished 8th in GTV and scored 347 points. The car ran flawlessly. I scored 78 points in Design and Engineering, 66 points in the Autocross, 48 points in the Speed Stop (Peak Performance Challenge now), and 55 points in the Hot Lap challenge with a best lap of 2:53.
The current!
Fast forward to this past weekend, and I once again finished eighth in GTV, but I collected a personal record 401 points, despite some mechanical gremlins. The breakdown was 83 points in D&E, 79 points in Autocross, 69 points in the Peak Performance Challenge, and 70 points in the Hot Lap challenge, with a best lap of only 3:03.
How did I get better but go slower? A lot of factors, but primarily better autocross and Peak Performance times that left me in about the same place in class, but higher overall in the event. Overall placement in the event is what determines points. GTV was faster this year than in 2021 as a whole when compared to the rest of the field. Rising tides lift all boats and all that. There were also format changes since 2021 that played to the Buick’s strengths, and lastly, attrition. This year was really about who survived. Of 23 entered in GTV this year, only 11 took the checkered flag at the end of the afternoon on Sunday. Exploded hoses, leaks, and complete engine failures were scarily abundant this year. It was tough to watch. I was not exempted from troubles, either. The struggle bus did make a short stop in our pit.
Friday
Unloading, tech, and the Road Rally were Friday night this year, and as usual, those elements were unremarkable. The remarkable part was I had lots of help this year. My girlfriend, Jenni, and my kid came along. We rode three wide in the regular cab truck the eight hours (with stops) from Louisville to Elkhart Lake. The kid carted several cameras around all weekend and caught all kinds of stuff I’ve never been able to capture at one of these events before. The kid also took a photography and media arts course in school last year, so they actually know how to use a camera, and the results are pretty good. Almost all the photos and video in this article were taken by them.
The Road Rally was a trip to Autozone to take a selfie and then back to the track for us. A cadre of folks took the alternative – participation in a parade in nearby Plymouth. The fun really started on Saturday.
Once done with the required bits, we took advantage of the free evening to head into Elkhart Lake proper and show the kiddo Seibkins and the Stop In, the local racer bar. The interior is completely covered with stickers from teams and sponsors. The beer is cold and the sandwiches are awesome.
Saturday
At dawn on Saturday, we were facing a much altered schedule. Normally, Saturday is autocross day with road course practice in the afternoon. This year, we did the Peak Performance Challenge during the day, then our road course practice, then we did a late autocross on the Road America Kart track after the practice session. The schedule seemed daunting on paper.
The Peak Performance challenge was the biggest improvement for me compared to 2021. I have historically struggled with the segment. Despite having a car famous for drag racing, I’ve never been able to hook at these events, and my braking has never been especially precise or responsive. But this year was different. Using some new rear coilover brackets from UMI performance, I was finally able to fix the instant center problems I created when I lowered the car years ago. Two nights at the local drag strip over the previous two weeks also allowed me to figure out shock adjustments and tire pressures to make my new Vitour P1 tires hook. Pulling a 1.9s sixty foot on a no-prep night and hitting 94 mph in the 1/8 mile was the result of that testing and had me confident the car could do the job. New C-Clip eliminators and careful installation removed all the slop from the rear axles, which eliminated some pad knockback and vague pedal feel. The result was an ability to hook the car off the line and also precisely place the car in the stop box.
And it all worked. After the morning session, I was solidly mid-pack. I’ve historically been in the bottom third, so this was a huge improvement. They changed the course slightly and sent us out again in the afternoon. I had made a small shock adjustment and ended up in the top third. Very, very good.
Then came road course practice, and as I accelerated up the hill from Canada Corner to begin my first timed lap, I blew a charge hose coupler. With the car now 350+ horsepower down, I exited via pit lane and began preparations for the autocross. Foreboding: not getting a time in practice will come back to bite me later.
The autocross was fun. I had reset the hose and cinched everything down as much as I could and hit the course. I think by the end of the evening, I was sixth or seventh, having shaved full seconds off each of my four runs.
But in another foreboding thing, I somehow managed to injure my left foot. You see, the Buick has fully manual brakes. This was a choice. The stock electric booster failed years ago, and vacuum boosted brakes didn’t work on this turbocharged car, so I went manual. But now that the brakes work, the act of stopping the car is only limited by grip and how hard I press the pedal. These new Vitour tires grip, so I’m able to push harder on that pedal than ever before without lockup. And I hurt my foot doing it. Like, really hurt. Bad enough I almost threw up a couple times. A handful of ibuprofen knocked enough of the edge off that I could sleep, and by morning, I was able to shove my swollen foot into my driver boot and hobble around on it well enough. I did have to skip the autocross walks going forward.
But the good part was the schedule that looked so daunting on paper ended up being quite manageable. The Speed Stop and autocross were so well managed and run that we ended up with merciful breaks at several points during the day, and got done with the day well before the 9pm the paper schedule showed. It left us plenty of time to make the hour drive back to the hotel and get a good meal at greasy spoon next door before retiring at a reasonable hour.
Sunday
Sunday morning was our first timed competition road course session. After the drivers’ meeting, I pulled one of the officials aside to relate my plan if I lost another charge hose. The goal was to get a time. If I blew a hose, the car would be fine, just slow. They were fine with me completing a lap if it happened and would even cover me with white flags as I limped my way around. More foreboding.
Just past the start-finish after beginning my first timed lap, boom, another coupler failure. The car’s max speed in this condition is about 80mph. I did complete the lap with a time of 3:33. Not good, but I got a number on the board. After getting back to my pit box, I also noticed my fans weren’t working. Not good.
The charge pipe failure was due to a failed cheap clamp. My paddock neighbor, Kong of King Kong Cars, had clamps, and I replaced the deformed piece of not good stuff with one of his higher quality spares, and shoved a new fuse into the fans and off I went to the autocross.
The middle of the day was another autocross on a different piece of asphalt. This one much smaller. But it was technically tricky, and I used that to my advantage, coming out of the gate with podium worthy times. By the end of the session I had slipped to 5th in class, just a few thousands behind the fourth place car. All very good.
Now, in between the autocross sessions, the fans failed again. This time, replacing the fuse didn’t fix it. After some troubleshooting, I figured out the relays themselves were cooked. Not good. I spun off in the truck to nearby Plymouth and hit all three auto parts stores. None of them had the relays I needed. Back in the paddock, I hotwired the fans and went out.
The afternoon road course session was do or die. I did not die, but I was also unable to really do. First off, not getting a good time in practice and a really slow time in the morning session left me gridded dead last, behind some newer drivers. What happened after passing two cars was a C6 Corvette in front of me wasn’t watching their mirrors, and didn’t realize I was filling them up. On the longer straights, their C6 Corvette Z06 was slightly faster than me (I actually turned the boost down to try and prevent more charge pipe blowouts) so I couldn’t get by them in the allowed passing zones, but I caught them every corner and spent a considerable amount of time coasting behind them. Dive bombing folks in corners at a time trial is bad mojo, so there was not much to be done. The result was a 3:03 time, with top speeds a good 10mph lower in most places compared to 2021, despite a car that was working better in almost every way.
After three laps, I noticed stuff getting hot and (rightly) figured the fans had quit again, plus it was clear by then the driver in front of me was too focused on what they were doing to see me and point me by. There wasn’t enough time to drive through pit lane to create a gap and then get another flyer, so I headed for the pits (the fans had in fact, quit again).
And now, the last resolution of foreboding. As I was helping guide a friend onto his trailer, I tripped on the ramp and cranked my right ankle. Enough I could barely walk. Thankfully, it only hurt when I put weight on it, so I managed to drive us all home. A trip to the Immediate Care center and an X-Ray the next day presented the good news I hadn’t broken anything and prescription doses of Ibuprofen made the pain manageable. I should be fine in a few days.
The Wrapup
All in all, the event was great. The attrition was sad to watch and my own mechanical and physical ailments were annoying but hardly show stoppers. With a 401 point showing, we’re now in the game for Vegas, but only just. As it sits right now, you need ~800 points to be in the top ten for the class, which is about the cutoff for getting into the Optima Street Car Invitational. We have one event left at Summit Point this year. We’re going to fix the fan wiring the right way and replace all the charge coupler clamps with name-brand units and have a go. Keep tabs on this space for the news!
Huge thanks to Optima Batteries and all the series sponsors for making these events happen. A big shoutout to Boost Crew Motorsports for all their help over the years. EBC brakes deserves another shoutout. They don’t currently sponsor me, but they did in the past and I’m still using their products.
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