Hope against hope and with nothing more than the Grace of God, Team Pantera Racing managed to take home a first place trophy in the 120 MPH class at the 2015 running of the Silver State Classic Challenge held in Ely Nevada. Three Panteras started and three Panteras finished. Mark Skwarek led the pack of cats by entering the 140 MPH class, Asa Jay Laughton in the 120 and Dennis "Mad Dog" Antenucci in the 110. It was all for fun until the awards banquet got the team excited.
Mark Skwarek took fourth in his class which doesn't earn a trophy but was a very respectable showing against the other finely prepared cars in his class. Mark was pretty near the third place standing considering the spread of time differentials. Mark's new engine and the Pantera overall ran very well and the team think's Mark will definitely return for 2016.
Newly elected Team Pantera Racing president Asa Jay Laughton was destined to take at least third place since only he and two ZO6 Corvettes were entered in the 120 MPH class. One Corvette finished with a time variance of 1.4679 seconds and the other with 0.7346 which are both very close finishes to on-time. However, in a surprising upset, Asa in the Racing Against Autism Pantera finished with a time variane of 0.2731 ensuring a First Place finish. Team Pantera Racing members and a small group of other underdog fans were elated at the win.
Mad Dog finished with a time variance of about 10 second from perfect time.... for the 115 MPH class. Unfortunately, being in the 110 MPH class it gave him an actual time varience of 147.8224 and put him in last place. Unphased by the loss, Dennis was simply out to have fun on course (having won a share of trophies in years past) and just happened to find his foot a little heavy.
The Team was joined by Peter (The German) Menyhart from The Whitehorse Ranch, David (The Pope) Adin from Durango Colorado who showed up in the Yellow Pantera to hang out with the boys, and once again Paul from Katch Environmental. John (JB) Bentley who drove in 2014 again brought the Team Pantera Racing headquarters RV for the duration of the event.
Not only did everything seem to go smoothly for Team Pantera Racing this year, the entire event was a great success. Of the 95 cars that started, 94 finished. The only DNF was in the unlimited class and only because the driver felt the engine was not performing and stopped his race. The weather was also beautiful for all days of the event. 2015 will go down as a great year for racing in the Silver State Classic Challenge.
Check out more photos in the gallery in the following links:
http://www.teampanteraracing.com/index.php?option=com_g2bridge&view=gallery&Itemid=57&g2_itemId=6858
http://www.teampanteraracing.com/gallery2/main.php?g2_itemId=6812
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