2002 * Event 1
* Event 2
* Event 3
* Event 4
* Event 5
* Event 6
* Event 7
* Event 8
* Event 9
* Event 10
* Bonus * Top 4 * Final Standings
Third final appearance in a row for Ralph Savarese as he gets the win in 2002 Cartek
Corvette Challenge Event 6
| Event 6 Winner
|
| | Front: Bob Trieschmann, John Mackey, winner Ralph Savarese,
runner-up Corky Heisler and Dennis Kazimir and Rear: Sponsors Frank Schear, (Mr Mojo)
and John Panuzzo
| |
Event 6 of the 2002 schedule was held on Saturday August 31, 2002. The forecast called for
rain all day the prior Friday and Saturday at Old Bridge Township Raceway Park in Englishtown, NJ. The weather was
not a factor like the storm that Savarese is brewing. For the third Cartek Corvette Challenge final in a row,
Ralph Savarese was present. Unlike the prior two, this time, Savarese would taste the
sweet victory. After getting the bye into the finals, Savarese came to the line with an
11.80 dial on the car. His equally potent opponent would be Corky Heisler from Pittsburgh
PA. That is right, Corky came down from Pittsburgh. Corky dialed 11.18 and would concede
the head start to Savarese. Another pair of 85 Corvettes in the final. Both drivers
leaving with cautious lights would decide the race at the top end. In a double break-out
final, Heisler at 11.124 was not as good as Ralph's 11.778 as Savarese broke out by the
smaller margin and took the stripe for the win. Savarese, inarguably the hottest Corvette
Challenge driver after 6 events has closed the points gap from 9 points at the end of
Event 2 to just 1 point after points leader Edgar Perez went out in the second round, also
in a double break-out race against Tom Finzel of Clinton, MD. Finzel hit the tree hard
with a .529 light and Perez broke out trying to catch him.
Savarese joked after the event saying of his three recent finals appearances, "I have
to stop getting my picture in the E-town paper & on the net with AWFUL RT's under it."
Ralph's lights in the finals have been on the conservative side though I would not call
them terrible. On a more serious note, Savarese had these comments of the Corvette
Challenge, "I think our series (Cartek Corvette Challenge) is one of the best in the
country. Great turnout, great track, great sponsors & prizes, great atmosphere and
most of all great people. Win or not, it's always a lot of fun." Congratulations again to
Ralph. This is Savarese's second career Corvette Challenge victory as he also won Event 7 of the 2001 season. Ralph was also the winner in this years
Top 4 Event held July 31st which featured a showdown of the
top points getters for 2002
This was Corky's 2nd trip to Englishtown this year. His first, in March, did not fair
him as well. Corky had just finished putting the engine in the and had it make it's maiden
voyage at E-town. The numbers were not impressive at all, but he met Ralph and John Mackey
and was impressed with both their 11 second C4's. Heisler especially liked the rollbar in
Mackey's car and made a separate trip in June to visit Neverlift Motorsports for the same
rollbar. After missing the next 4 events, Heisler was ready for Event 6. Heisler
immediately felt his day would go better after meeting with Savarese, Mackey and John
Panuzzo. His first run left not only himself but Savarese astounded as he ran an 11.22 @
121 MPH fresh off the trailer. He follow it up with an 11.21 and the day just got better.
Not only better ET's but winning round after round in eliminations. Heisler said "I kept
on going round after round. I was in awe of this days events. Then in the semi-finals, I
saw an 11.13. In the final an 11.12 was the icing on the cake, even though I came in 2nd
place to Ralph, who deserved the win with a ever so slightly better reaction time." in
retrospect of the day. After having time to digest it all and recollect himself, Corky
said about the series, "It was one of the best days of my life. I ran my best times to
date, the car ran great, won some money, and trophies, and met some great people from the
Challenge and the (Corvette)forum." We thank you for making the trip from Pittsburgh to
race with us Corky.
The lone semi-final competition, as Savarese sat out the round with a bye, brought us a
very valuable reminder. Rich Shuleski of Parsons, PA dialed his '96 Grand Sport in at
12.20 against Heisler. The drivers reaction time was off by only .038 second with Heisler
getting the advantage. In a double-break out result, Shuleski broke out by more than
Heisler and Heisler was awarded the win. The lesson learned is that although
Shuleski's driver side window read 12.20, the dial on the official board read 12.30. Had
the official dial been set correctly, the outcome of the race may have been very different. It is important that we check the dial on the board or just above the
"christmas tree" before we fully stage. It is the driver's responsibility to check.
Shuleski stated the "track was well prepped" and he was happy he was able "to go a few
rounds again after getting used to the car again, after all the mods in the off season" of
which an LT4 hot cam was a primary part. Shuleski would also like to thank his friends at
Morgantini Racing in Wyoming, PA for making his GS a
great set of heads, the other primary component of this 11 second LT4. Shuleski managed to
get the LT4 engine to run an 11.99 ET during time trials. Shuleski is a previous winner of
the 2001 Cartek Corvette
Challenge Event 4 and you can read about that at www.corvettechallenge.info/2001round4.shtml.
Rich's Grand Sport is also featured on the flyer for the series that was produced by Old Bridge Township Raceway Park.
Shuleski commented to organizer Edgar Perez, "It's great to hang out with everyone at the
track. It's always a pleasure seeing everyone. You guys are doing a great job with the
series." Thank you Rich and your wife Jaymie for all of your participation.
Today's event featured 71 cars making first round. Don't miss the next Cartek Corvette
Challenge event on Saturday September 21, 2002. Please note this event is an AM event with
gates opening approximately 9 AM.
Some statistics from Corvette Challenge Event 6
| Time
| #
| %
| 
|
| 11
| 3
| 4%
|
| 12
| 27
| 38%
|
| 13
| 35
| 49%
|
| 14
| 5
| 7%
|
| 15
| 1
| 1%
|
| Total
| 71
| 100%
|
| (above) dial-in times for 1st round.
|
Congratulations to the drivers that made the ladder in round 4. The ladder means each
driver won 3 rounds. This week's ladder featured 9 drivers of which 4 were in their first
4th round of the season. Again you can see how this series is open to all to win. Good job
drivers.
Cash and Prizes awarded drivers courtesy of our sponsors.
- Event winner Ralph Savarese went home with $200 cash and gift certificates for a
free dyno tuning session at Cartek Racing and a $100 gift certificate from Pro Torque and the Event Winner Shore Motorsports sponsored
Trophy. Shore Motorsports is located in Howell, NJ and can be reached at 732-370-2067 or
on the web at www.shoremotorsports.com. Cartek Racing is in Garwood, NJ and can be
reached at 908-317-4496 or on the web at www.cartek.net.
- Runner-up Corky Heisler went home with $100 cash, a $50 gift certificate from Pro
Torque, the "Money Back Runner Up Award" for $20 cash from Boweryboy Racing and the
event Runner-up Vette Doctors sponsored Trophy. The Vette Doctors are located in
Amityville, NY and can be reached at 631-841-0779 or on the web at www.thevettedoctors.com. Pro
Torque, in Bohemia, NY can be found at www.protorque.com or by calling 631-218-8700.
- Rich Shuleski was the sole semi-finalist and won $50 cash.
- All winners of the first round were awarded a trophy sponsored by CFM Racing. With 71 cars making 1st round Chris Coriell, Frank Schear, (Mr Mojo) and Mike Moran gave out 37 trophies.
 Steve Row of Gaithersburg, MD won the Closest to Dial Award sponsored by
Walden Farms by running a 11.998 on a 12.00 dial. Please notice you do not have to win
the round (Row broke out)in order to win this prize. Unfortunately, Steve could not go
home with his prize as it was not at the track but the prize consisting of a beautiful
gift package from Walden Farms filled with low calorie low carbohydrate products will be
shipped to his home. You can purchase Walden Farms products at local grocery stores or
on the web at www.waldenfarms.com.
 John Policastro of Saddle River, NJ won the "Ohh so Close Award" sponsored by
Zaino when he was edged out
in the 1st round by the smallest margin of victory. That number is the MOV number on
your time slip. Although he lost in the 1st round by the smallest Margin of Victory,
John earned a Zaino starter
package that includes Z1, Z2, Z6, Z7 and a polish pad. Policastro missed his name being
called so he did not pick up his package and will be pick it up on his next visit to the
track. Zaino products can be
purchased online at www.zainobros.com or at Shore Motorsports on Route 9 in Howell.
- Mike Wicks of Harleysville, PA won the Almost Perfect Award sponsored by Roybuilt
Racing when he took himself out in the 1st round with the red light closest to .500.
Mike's light was .480 and for that he earned a $50 gift certificate to the Raceway Park
Souvenir store donated by Roy Johnson of Roybuilt
Racing .
 Artie Sabatino of Union, NJ won the
"John Panuzzo Jr. Memorial Trophy" donated by Team Panuzzo
Racing for the best winning reaction time in the 1st round. Artie was quickest on
the tree in the 1st round when his RT was .509 taking the win when his opponent broke
out by .002. Oh did I mention his opponents name is just above here winning the "Closest
to Dial Award". Congrats Art.
Points Standings after 6 events
The Points race is now as tight as it was on day one with Savarese trailing Perez by just
one. There was some shuffling within the top ten and one driver fell off as Tony Pugliese
fell out and Vic Gandhi came in. The top 10 battle continues to heat up with six drivers
having enough points to be in the 10 spot but Joe Conover gets it by virtue of the tie
breaker. Points standing can be seen on the left of this page and points scoring rules can
be seen at www.corvettechallenge.info/2002rules.shtml
Cartek Corvette Challenge helps Toys for Teens & Tots
The 50/50 raffle was held at the track and the racers and spectators hopeful of winning
the money while helping out a worthy organization put together $320. The winner received
$160 while the other $160 was donated to the St. Peters church in Jersey City to Sister
Grace for the Toys for Teens & Tots fund from the Cartek Corvette Challenge. Special thanks go to Jaymie Shuleski
and Mariana Trieschmann making the rounds to collect the money. The 50/50 will be held at
each of the Cartek Corvette Challenges this year. Please see Jaymie or Mariana in the
staging lanes if they do not find you first. You do not have to be a racer to participate.
Raceway Park officer, Tim, thanks the Corvette Challenge racers and fans for supporting
the Toys for Teens & Tots. To date we have donated $911.50 to the organization. Thank
you for your continued support.
Multimedia
Final Video (1.2 MB)|  Pat O'Brien's 233 Photos (if your car was there, Pat got
pictures of it) | Edgar's Photos | Photos by Gabe, (MrNuke) |
We couldn't do it without our sponsors
The Corvette Challenge gives thanks to all of its supporting sponsors for whom without
this series cannot be possible. Thanks go out to
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modified: September 17, 2006 - 1:44 am
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