Mojave Mile
March 6, 2003

On March 5th we set out for the Inaugural Mojave Mile Shootout put on by MKM Racing Promotions (Mike and Marsha Borders, LVCA members) at the Mojave Air and Space Port. The group consisted of Scott Mergele (08 ZO6), Angele Yumart (09 ZR1), myself (08 Callaway), and my pit crew consisting of Larry and Irene Duis and Lin. Later that afternoon Cathy Wilson (02 ZO6) caught up with us at registration and we all registered and went through technical inspection to insure we were able to meet the stringent requirements for us to run speeds in excess of 150 mph. Scott, Angel, and I were teched to run in the Super Sport Division (SS) limited to 205 mph and Cathy chose to run in the Grand Touring Division which was up to 165 mph. There was an unlimited division which had several vehicles including Big Red (a 1969 Camaro) that ultimately ran a run of 200.7 mph and several motorcycle divisions from 165, to 205, to unlimited speeds. We had a great time, even though it was chilly (good for speed), some minor spitting of rain (not much though), and of course the head wind ranging from 10-20 mph which is not that good for speeds. Mike felt that all the wind and cold asphalt limited overall traction and the overall speeds. I can honestly say that the event was flawlessly run, with over 90 motorcycles and cars and over 290 total runs. In the end we had the following top speeds:

Angel was 10th fastest car with a top speed of 180.5 mph
Roy was 18th fastest car with a top speed of 165.7 mph
Scott was 28th fastest car with a top speed of 162.0 mph
Cathy was 35th fastest car with a top speed of 156.5 mph

Note: I asked Larry to come along so he could point out my errors on the first two runs and he did a great job. He pointed out that hitting the rev limiter several times was not good for my top speed on the first two runs and breaking traction didn’t help either.

Roy & Lin Hoernke