Brainerd Raceway 2000

DRM C500/RSR wins the autocross event at Brainerd Raceway in Minnesota

June 3rd 2000
By Doug Rippie

The Suburban Corvettes of Minnesota Club hosts an annual event at Brainerd Raceway. The event is packed with 3 days of fun with the first day, Friday, devoted to high speed lapping of Brainerd's famous 3-mile track with the longest straightaway in the United States. We also had some fun running our World Challenge car owned by Scotty White on Friday and drove lap after lap with our C500/RSR right on its tail.

Here I am sitting on my DRM C500/R race car
Built for Scotty White currently competing
in the SpeedVision World Challenge Series.
The red Camaro in the background is another
DRM modified car owned by Gary Wilson.

Saturday began with a low speed autocross, well some might say that it's really a low/high speed autocross since we saw speeds over 90 miles an hour on the course. The day ends with drag racing, a trackside party and awards banquet. On Sunday the club hosts a high speed autocross that uses a standing start with 1 full lap around the track. The C500/RSR hits 164 miles an hour at the turn-in point on turn one which is a banked enough that we can go through at over 155mph.

The National Anthem is played before the parade lap to begin the day.

On the low speed autocross the C500/RSR won first place in class and had the fastest time of the day. A Chicago car owner Steve Melnick drove 10 hours to Brainerd to show the Minnesota group DRM's latest creation. They were very impressed with the Corvette and were especially excited to learn that the C500/RSR conversion is fully street legal and passes emissions.

Click on Photo below to enlarge
Doug Rippie, Steve Melnick and the C500/RSR	BIR event chair Mile Miller and his wife Evon
Deb Moran off-roading in Jim Kinsey's Z07	Inside DRM's World Challenge car
Ron Marks, club president hands out a trophy to Bob Lundee for 1st in class	Receiving an award is Larry Zmuda for 1st place in his class