Knowing the insurance on his fleet of exotic race cars was null on void the minute they crossed into the staging area at Prince George Motorsports Park, Brent Marshall had to have been a little bit worried.
It was media day Wednesday at the city's quarter-mile drag strip and we had 10 cars from which to choose after the owner of Northland Chrysler Jeep Dodge gave us the green light to race. Ten cars and well over $1 million worth of inventory, it was a dream come true for everybody except Marshall, who showed no visible signs of panic. Despite the risk of letting rookie racers loose on the strip, he seemed only too happy to flip us the keys in the interest of promoting Northland's Friday Night Street Legal season-opening event this Friday at PGMP.
Having arrived at the track in my 20-year-old four-cylinder Toyota SUV, I knew I was in for a thrill and I wasn't disappointed. I got into an Audi R8, an all-wheel drive sports car powered by a V-10, 540-horsepower engine mounted just behind the seats. Lorry Gibbons, the promotions and inventory manager for Northland took the wheel and we topped out at about 180 kilometres per hour for a 13-second quarter-mile. We then switched seats and after two trips down the strip, all I could think about was how much I wanted to drive this Audi home, just to see how it handled corners. It was the fastest machine I'd ever driven, but there was still more to come.
CKPG camera operator Kevin Greenfield showed me how to work the stick shift of Marshall's lime green Dodge Viper Final Edition ACR, another 690-horsepower brute and one of just 30 that left the production line. Then it was my turn to drive, taking on a black Viper, with Northland Nissan general manager Peter Sia in the other lane.
Sia had a much better reaction time at the start light and hooked up with the pavement to take the early lead, but as soon as I found second gear and matted the accelerator, I felt an instant whiplash effect and got pushed back into the seat as my car surged into the lead with alarming ease. Two more shifts and I was into shutdown mode, satisfied I'd just tamed a mechanical beast. On a warm afternoon, it rewarded me again with a blast of cold air-conditioned air as a returned to the pits. What luxury.
I went out with Gibbons in another sweet ride, a brand-new Dodge Challenger and my final runs were with Marshall in his Mercedes-Benz SLS-AMG, appropriately dubbed a supercar. As if the gull wing doors aren't enough to impress you, a pedal-to-the-metal, 12-second pass certainly did the trick. Equipped with a 6.3-litre motor that pushes out 571hp, it's known as the most powerful V8 engine ever made. Not only is is fast, but the seven-speed automatic transmission makes for an incredibly smooth ride. I got it into fifth gear and the needle nudged the 200kph mark before I ran out of drag strip. Too much fun.
As it turned out, nobody hit the wall and no damage was done.
Now it's back to reality, driving my old but reliable beater. But the beauty of bracket drag racing is, in theory, that 1992 4Runner could make me the King of Friday Night Street Legal racing.
For $25, anybody with a vehicle that can pass inspection is allowed to race. It might take 20 seconds to cover a quarter-mile but that doesn't mater in bracket racing. The trick is to be as close to your dial-in time (the time you anticipate it will take to race a quarter-mile). Slower cars get a head start equal in time to the difference in the anticipated time for the faster car. Quick reaction times at the lights are critical and will be used to determine a winner if there's a tie at the finish line. Cars are disqualified if they run faster than their posted dial-in time.
"I've seen Volkswagen Beetles that run 20-second passes beat 10-second cars in bracket racing," said PGMP general manager Dan Vandenbrink. "It's pure consistency that makes the difference."
Street Legal Racing will be held every Friday night, with the exception of long weekends, until Sept. 9. Spectators admission is $8 and everybody is free to walk around the pit area to check out the race cars and meet the drivers. They might even take you for a fast ride. Last year's Street Legal nights drew 60 to 80 entries and Vandenbrink thinks that will grow to 100 per night this summer.
If Street Legal Night takes one street-racer off the road, Marshall is happy. He knows the dangers of outlaw racing. As a teenager he used to race his Mustang through the industrial streets and highways near Houston, where there was no drag strip.
"Here, anyone can race, it's very inexpensive and you can do it safely," said Marshall. "This is so much better than street racing. On the street, nobody has any idea what a car will do when you take it to the limit. None of us was prepared and it could have gotten ugly"
The International Hot Rod Association-sanctioned drag strip at PGMP will stage the first of three P.G. All-Out race weekends, June 11-12.
