OPTIMA Batteries Announces Winner of 2014 Ultimate Street Car Invitational Event By SEMA Editors Danny Popp and his ’03 Chevrolet Corvette Z06 claimed the 2014 Ultimate Street Car Invitational…

[Pamela Hirschhorn]

OPTIMA Batteries Announces Winner of 2014 Ultimate Street Car Invitational Event

By SEMA Editors

	Danny Popp and his ’03 Chevrolet Corvette Z06 claimed the 2014 Ultimate Street Car Invitational victory.

After two days of competition and challenges from past champions and newcomers alike, Danny Popp and his ’03 Chevrolet Corvette Z06 claimed the 2014 Ultimate Street Car Invitational victory. Popp also won the OPTIMA Ultimate Street Car Invitational in 2011, and his name will now be engraved on the traveling trophy for another year after a close win (less than one point) over Brandon Ranvek’s ’06 Mitsubishi Evo. Betim Berisha took third overall driving a ’11 Porsche 911TT.

A total of 103 vehicles ultimately competed in the event, held for the first time at Las Vegas Motor Speedway over the weekend of November 8–9. They faced a series of competitive driving events over the weekend, including the Wilwood Speed Stop Challenge and the Ridetech Street Challenge Autocross during the day on Saturday. Later that evening, competitors faced public roads on the Detroit Speed Road Rally Challenge, which ended with the Showtime Motorsports participant reception at the new Shelby American headquarters in Las Vegas.

The high-speed BFGoodrich Hot Lap Challenge took place on the 2.4-mile road course all day Sunday. The road-course action was paced by the Red Line Oil Camaro, which set a baseline lap time for all the competitors to challenge. Driven by experienced road-racing champion and OPTIMA PowerPro Brand Ambassador James Clay, the ’14 Roadster Shop Camaro was then put to work as a camera car, following the competitors as they ran the course and capturing the excitement for television. Each vehicle’s overall quality and craftsmanship was reviewed by the group of judges during the Lingenfelter Performance and Design Challenge, which required two days to complete.

When scores were finalized at the end of the last day, Popp had acquired more points than any other competitor. While Popp was named the overall winner, the individual event winners included:

Wilwood Speed Stop Challenge

First Place: ’06 Mitsubishi Evo RS (Brandon Ranvek) 
Second Place: ’11 Porsche 911TT (Betim Berisha) 
Third Place: ’12 Porsche 911 Turbo S (Larry Woo)

Ridetech Street Challenge Autocross

First place: ’06 Mitsubishi Evo RS (Brandon Ranvek) 
Second place: ’03 Chevrolet Corvette Z06 (Danny Popp) 
Third place: ’65 Chevrolet Corvette (Brian Hobaugh)

BF Goodrich Hot Lap Challenge

First place: ’03 Chevrolet Corvette Z06 (Danny Popp) 
Second place: ’10 Chevy Camaro (Ryan Mathews) 
Third place: ’13 Chevrolet Camaro (Bryan Johnson)

Lingenfelter Performance and Design Challenge

First place: ’64 Buick Riviera (JF Launier) 
Second place: ’59 Chevrolet Corvette (Alan Palmer) 
Third place: ’64 Chevrolet Corvette (Dan Livezey)

The 2014 OPTIMA Ultimate Street Car Invitational event will be broadcast on the MAVTV Network on November 21, at 8:00 p.m. (EST). The 2014 OPTIMA Ultimate Street Car Invitational was presented by K&N Filters. This year’s event sponsors were BFGoodrich, Detroit Speed, Lingenfelter Performance Engineering, Ridetech, Wilwood Disc Brakes, Snap-On tools, Jet-Hot Coatings, Red Line Oil, Showtime Motorsports and the MAVTV Network.