Since the Rampage wasn't done, and GRM was asking for former challenge cars back for the 15th challenge, I decided to bring the black Shadow back again. It had been there in '08, '09 and again in '13 when it finally took the win. I didn't really want to bring it back as it was, so I decided to change it up and shoot for the $1000 class. In that class, we compete against all entrants and they award the $1k win to the highest placing $1k car. Long story short, I stripped off much of the good stuff and ended up with a stock T-II/568, questionable dampers on all four corners, no gauges, no nitrous and very heavy autox wheels with old rubber.
The result: 3rd in the drags with a 12.16 @ 111, 9th in the autox, 6th in the concours. This was good for 4th overall out of 55 entrants and we did win the top fishing $1k car.
Best part of the weekend was that I took my son Sean, who is almost 11. I entered the car under his name, we wrote up the vehicle info sheet as if it was his (ex: Occupation: 5th Grade Class Representative. What would you do differently if you were to rebuild this car? Make the drivers seat higher...), had him turn in all the forms, talk about the car during the concours, ride shotgun during most of the autox (until we got caught!) and generally just hang out. Since it was his car, at the awards banquet, Sean's name was the one called to pick up our hardware. I'm pretty sure he liked being in the spotlight for a bit. He even made a very brief speech after grabbing the drag race award. It was hysterical! He also had the chance to meet Al Unser Jr., which was pretty cool. In the end, I'm sure he's been converted...he's already talking about going for the win with the Rampage. :-)
Couple of pics and a few video links.