Optima Invitational’s Bitch’n Race Trucks
Top 25 and Can Tow the Other Cars!
(Click to see any picture full size)
I give you a bitch’n five-pack of race inspired (ok, they’re pretty much full on race cars except for the Blazer) of 70s Chevy C10 trucks!
As I said, the Optima Invitational was a diverse event, filled with the coolest and fastest cars from SEMA, and not just late model Camaros and Mustangs. I’ve seen some great looking C10’s bagged and laying frame in Arizona, but I haven’t seen any that could hold their own at the local SCCA autocross!
In a social media experiment (or maybe I just don’t have much info) I’ll try and get the owners to fill-in the details on their trucks. I’ve got some Facebook or email contacts, so wish me luck! -UPDATE! Got info from Rob MacGregor and Curt Hill.
Pictured up top and right here is Phil Gerber’s 1970 Chevrolet C10:
Phil yank’n and bank’n on the autocross
Phil drove to a #12 finish and was the “Top Truck” in the competition. Congratulations on some skilled driving and a great looking truck!
Next, pictured above and with his hands in all the other trucks is Rob McGregor’s 1969 Chevrolet C10:
Rob runs No Limit Engineering featuring all the go-fast parts you’d need for your C10 truck. It showed when Rob finished 15th overall.
Here’s what Rob had to say about his truck and the other haulers…
The second truck in the pics is mime, it’s really a 69, with a 68 nose. It’s tough to tell mime and Chris’s apart (look at the bed/cab seam, mime is one piece) My 69 is an all tube chassis, based on our Wide Ride IFS, with a torque arm out back. To run wide five late model hubs, I had to make the wheels. I made two sets, the others are on the black truck. I run a 6.0 LQ9 with CP pistons, Comp Cam…. approx 415 hp to the ground – low for Optima. The cab is chopped 1 1/2″, 2″ were cut off of the bottom of the rockers, The bed was shortened 7″, and welded to the cab, and all four wheel openings were raised and widened. We run a 335/30/18 on all four corners.
The Black truck of Summers and Sons is built on a set of stock rails, with our No limit Wide Ride IFS, and our FatBar 4 bar out back. Both Summers ans I used a Quickchange rear axle. The black truck has an air shifted auto built by Bowler Trans (mine has a TKO-600) They also have a built 6.0L.
Chris Smith’s truck is the prettiest. lol. He hates when we say that. He’s running a stock style IFS with RideTech arms and our C-10 rack and pinion and our FatBar 4 bar out back. This is the fastest truck on air ride. The motor is a 400+” SBC, dry sump, and sounds bitchen. 600+hp.
Hill’s blazer runs our rack and pinion, and some of our rear shock mounts, and was built to be a cruiser. They worked really hard to prep for Optima, and we helped them get it set up.
This was a great year for trucks. We had a blast all year, and Optima was the cherry on top.
Next is Brad Coomer’s bad in black 1970 Chevrolet C10:
Brad’s hammering it on the autocross. The exhaust exits out the side and throws road debris on photographers…
With support from Ridetech, No Limit and Goodguys, Brad drove his way to a 24th place finish. Again, the trucks running strong!
After some hard shake down laps on track, a loose water hose or some similar kind of gremlin had the potent Chevy spit’n up coolant. No worries though, the truck was repaired and never looked back.
And wrapping up the photos up top is Curt Hill’s 1972 Chevrolet Blazer:
WHOA! Curt let it all hang out on the road coarse!
Curt runs Hills Rod and Custom and builds a tight handling truck! Pushin’ hard, Curt would up 23rd overall in the race.
Curt got back to me about this truck… it was his customer’s FRESH build!
Why this truck? Why not!? How many Blazers do you see slammed on the ground and on a race track still having the quality to be a show car as well?
How’d you get started customizing trucks? Brett, the owner of the blazer, decided to buy it instead of a 55 Chevy. He wanted to be different and loves the Blazers.
Who got you into the hobby? My first car was a 1954 Chevy and my dad got it for me. It didn’t run so I had to learn how to do custom work to get it on the road.
Any other good stories from the race to tell? Nothing like driving a very expensive customers car that I built and getting sideways in the corner and almost hitting the wall. All I remember is that the wall looked very close to the hood of the blazer and I had to drive out of it.
Not pictured up top is Chris Smith’s 1967 Chevrolet C10:
Chris’ day wasn’t all great! The cone he’s dragging here didn’t think so anyway!
Chris had better runs, no doubt, because he finished 16th overall in the Optima competition. Trucks certainly had a good showing on the track.
So if you know these guys, let them know about this story so we can “fill in the blanks” about their trucks and what makes them, “My Ride is Me”.
Congratulations on a great effort by all the truckers and see ya next year! I’m hooked!
See all of the 2012 Optima Invitational Stories & Pictures here
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