So I have gotten several PMs and lots of calls and texts over the last 3 months from everyone you can think of wondering how this all came about, and how am I and the chicago garage involved. Well here is the whole story.
Rewind to about 2007ish. Back in the CSVT days before the merge happened with TCG. I was watching several corvette videos online and came on this one where a handful of cars were just mixing it up on an old airstrip somewhere down south(some southern state). So I couldnt help but feel the big want to do this. I had no idea how, where or when. But I knew I wanted to do this. So I started googling local airstrips to me. I also put up a thread on CSVT asking if people would be interested in participating and paying to get into it and the replys were all.....HELL YEAH. So I started the search looking for a place. I called probably 25 different airfields from WI all the way down to IN and everyone in between. The majority of the feedback I got from the airfields were they were either too busy, or hell no its too big of a risk. I had a few that were interested, but after checking with their insurance companies and lawyers, they quickly turned to no. This went on for weeks. I finally got discouraged and gave up.
Fast forward to early October 2012. I started seeing lots more of these airstrip attack videos coming out from the texas mile, mojave mile all the way to the silver state classic. And I got the bug again now to start the process of figuring out how to get something like this going. So I thought about how should I approach this again. Last time it didnt work just cold calling places. Plus I would face the same questions and default answers as last time. So instead of calling airfields, I called a few companies that manage these airstrip events already. They seem to know whats up, and have overcame those NO's that I was unable to.
So on the phones I went. I managed to get ahold of the person that created and still manages the Mojave Mile. He was very nice and professional. I asked him several questions about how to overcome these issues with the local airfields and how to actually put an event like this together. He pretty much blew my head off with information. I quickly realized that this would need to be MUCH bigger than I was prepared to undertake, to make it safe, fun and to get people talking about how awesome it was.......not how amateur it was. At that point I switched gears and started courting him in the hopes that he would take his winning formula out here to the mid west for us and make it happen. He was not interested in taking command, but more as a very expensive consultant. I kindly declined and he wished me luck.
That was a very informative series of conversations with him, but I still only had an idea of what was needed to be put together and the amount of money that would be needed to secure the resources upfront. I didnt have either the time or money to do this. So I kept on looking for similar events and promoters that I could possibly contact to assist or even take over to get this going.
Fast forward another week of banging my head on the keyboard and finding nothing. By happenstance, I found this video someone posted from one of the georgia wannagofast events. The video showcased exactly what I was looking for, along with so much more I didnt think we would be able to do. So I found the wannagofast website and shot the email. Not an hour later, I got a reply back from Blake. He and I exchanged numbers, and I made the call. We talked about what I wanted to do, and how this area had nothing like this ever. I also introduced him to the chicago garage forum. Showing him that we tons of active members that would eat this up, along with lots of other local forums that would be on board in a second. He was cool, knowledgeable and seemed really interested. I explained that we wanted someone to come up here and make this happen, but we could help in anyway possible. He loved the idea of a chicago race, and at that point we decided to go on the warpath looking for a location. I hit the phones once again, but since Blake told me what to say to these places, and how to over come their issues, it was much easier to get some real interest.
I found two local locations that were in money trouble and willing to play ball with us. But both were not as long as we wanted. Blake also went off on his own and started searching and calling. Well Blake was the winner. He found Bult Field and was able to talk the owner into a soft deal. Both Blake and I looked at the location online, and it was perfect. So I filed my two locations for a rainy day, and we proceeded with Bult.
The next steps were to get the chicago garage folks involved seeing as how I was kinda using the site as a bargaining chip to get the interest from whoever decided to take this on for us. I had already mentioned the plan to Mook a few weeks back before I found Blake. He was super interested, but very skeptical if this would ever happen. I guess Im not the first person that has tried to do this in our area. So I filled in Mike with everything that was happening up to this point, and he told the rest of the troops. I got the green light to rep the chicago garage to Blake, and off we went.
So Blake contacts me a few days later...late OCT 2012 I believe it was. He tells me that Bult is onboard with a verbal, and to round up some cars for a prerun/photo shoot. At that moment I was literally shitting myself. Just the simple thought alone that we were going to get the chance to run on the runway, even for an hour or two. This was literally fulfilling my wish to do this. Forget about getting the actual event together. This was going to be awesome. Blake and his LOVELY fiance traveled to Chicago to wrap up Bult, and also meet us at the location for a face to face and to get the footage he needed to make the fliers and video.
The test day was just about the most perfect day you could ask for. The weather was like 50's, and there wasnt a cloud in the sky. Myself, eagle, Carter, eric and cobraj(jason) left my house around 9:30ish in the am on the day. We basically hit the highway and had a 4 car race/rally all the way down there. Hitting speeds that rhyme with oneporty.... Eagle and I swapped leadership roles on the highway depending on traffic. That part alone was a BLAST@! So we are almost down there, and as we are exiting the ramp to get to some normal roads, I see a perfect black C6 Z06. I raced up to him as we turned off and confirmed it was Mario from the corvette forum I recruited. We flagged him down and all stopped to take a quick break and grab some food/drinks. Then we we all started leaving, we see Mook and Greasy flying by too so we all connect and make the train for the last few miles to the airstrip. As we turned in to the private field, I was just thrown back. The house on the property is a super-mansion. The grounds are neat and all the pavement was brandnew concrete. There was TONS of room everywhere to park cars and whatever else you can think.
So this is where I finally got to meet that sexy beast Blake. lol. Manscaped to perfection I might add. Both he and I got to meet Bult. BTW, Jim Bult arrived fashionably late by flying in and making this crazy mid air maneuver landing right in the middle of all of us. Pretty fucking cool. So at this point it was picture time. As im sure all of you have seen them, we lined up the cars and got that out of the way. After all that boring stuff was done, we hit the airstrip. We lined up in two side by side lines, and took a parade lap for the video. Once we came back around, it was time to fucking RACE. Me and Typhoon (ZR1) were up first. Both him and I did a dig, and he spanked the shit out of me. During that first run, it was a strange feeling to shift into forth and stay in it. My car was just about out of gear in forth at the half, showing 145 on the speedo.
After that first run, the flood gates were open. Guys were dig and roll racing, hot lapping and taking breaks. Even with all those coolers all over the place on my car, it was very hot. Oil temp was like 240. I had to stop and pop the hood for a few to let that thing cool off. I think most everyone that day got like 7 or more passes. And that was in like an hour and a half. The runway was awesome, and the return was great too.
So after all the hooliganing was over, it was time to get to work..........for Blake. LOL. I tried to offer help, but this is Blakes show now. I did my part getting the right person/company interested and sold, now it was on him. He would be the person putting out the money and taking the return as expected. I was just excited to be a part of this history making event. Blake was nice enough to alloy TCG to sponsor along with all the other usual suspects that sponsor his other events. But he was also able to accept some local sponsors too because of the size of this event. Several local guys will be there with some pretty awesome shop and customer cars, so watch for them to dazzle and set records.
So since the photo shoot, I have been trying to get the word out on this event with several deleted threads from other forums that dont allow non-sponsors to push products or events like this. No matter, word of mouth took over and it went national.
There were some bumps in the road for getting registration off the ground, but once it happened, this event sold out in record time. Not to mention, this is the first TWO day event for wannagofast and it still sold out both days in record time. This was meant to happen here. And Blake/Wannagofast are putting something together that is worlds more professional and fun then I ever had dreamed of.
There will be hundreds of cars, and thousands(s) of spectators onhand to witness this awesome event. I know that most of the core members here will be heading down there friday night to stay locally and party. Then partying again saturday night also down there.
I couldnt be happier that people are now setting up their cars future mods/setups for this event. I had hoped that this would also curb some of the hardcore street racing that has taken lives in the past. Maybe people will hold those grudges for events like this one?? Maybe.
And if you get burned or you dont make the showing you wanted in June, then have no fear. Im sure Blake has something special on the brain for a possible fall event.
So now you have all been schooled. I hope this thread has not stepped on any toes with Blake or TCG. I dont see how it would, but I really wanted to get this story out so everyone would know.
Heres to waiting another few months for this epic event to go down. Everyone, bring your big boy pants.
Rewind to about 2007ish. Back in the CSVT days before the merge happened with TCG. I was watching several corvette videos online and came on this one where a handful of cars were just mixing it up on an old airstrip somewhere down south(some southern state). So I couldnt help but feel the big want to do this. I had no idea how, where or when. But I knew I wanted to do this. So I started googling local airstrips to me. I also put up a thread on CSVT asking if people would be interested in participating and paying to get into it and the replys were all.....HELL YEAH. So I started the search looking for a place. I called probably 25 different airfields from WI all the way down to IN and everyone in between. The majority of the feedback I got from the airfields were they were either too busy, or hell no its too big of a risk. I had a few that were interested, but after checking with their insurance companies and lawyers, they quickly turned to no. This went on for weeks. I finally got discouraged and gave up.
Fast forward to early October 2012. I started seeing lots more of these airstrip attack videos coming out from the texas mile, mojave mile all the way to the silver state classic. And I got the bug again now to start the process of figuring out how to get something like this going. So I thought about how should I approach this again. Last time it didnt work just cold calling places. Plus I would face the same questions and default answers as last time. So instead of calling airfields, I called a few companies that manage these airstrip events already. They seem to know whats up, and have overcame those NO's that I was unable to.
So on the phones I went. I managed to get ahold of the person that created and still manages the Mojave Mile. He was very nice and professional. I asked him several questions about how to overcome these issues with the local airfields and how to actually put an event like this together. He pretty much blew my head off with information. I quickly realized that this would need to be MUCH bigger than I was prepared to undertake, to make it safe, fun and to get people talking about how awesome it was.......not how amateur it was. At that point I switched gears and started courting him in the hopes that he would take his winning formula out here to the mid west for us and make it happen. He was not interested in taking command, but more as a very expensive consultant. I kindly declined and he wished me luck.
That was a very informative series of conversations with him, but I still only had an idea of what was needed to be put together and the amount of money that would be needed to secure the resources upfront. I didnt have either the time or money to do this. So I kept on looking for similar events and promoters that I could possibly contact to assist or even take over to get this going.
Fast forward another week of banging my head on the keyboard and finding nothing. By happenstance, I found this video someone posted from one of the georgia wannagofast events. The video showcased exactly what I was looking for, along with so much more I didnt think we would be able to do. So I found the wannagofast website and shot the email. Not an hour later, I got a reply back from Blake. He and I exchanged numbers, and I made the call. We talked about what I wanted to do, and how this area had nothing like this ever. I also introduced him to the chicago garage forum. Showing him that we tons of active members that would eat this up, along with lots of other local forums that would be on board in a second. He was cool, knowledgeable and seemed really interested. I explained that we wanted someone to come up here and make this happen, but we could help in anyway possible. He loved the idea of a chicago race, and at that point we decided to go on the warpath looking for a location. I hit the phones once again, but since Blake told me what to say to these places, and how to over come their issues, it was much easier to get some real interest.
I found two local locations that were in money trouble and willing to play ball with us. But both were not as long as we wanted. Blake also went off on his own and started searching and calling. Well Blake was the winner. He found Bult Field and was able to talk the owner into a soft deal. Both Blake and I looked at the location online, and it was perfect. So I filed my two locations for a rainy day, and we proceeded with Bult.
The next steps were to get the chicago garage folks involved seeing as how I was kinda using the site as a bargaining chip to get the interest from whoever decided to take this on for us. I had already mentioned the plan to Mook a few weeks back before I found Blake. He was super interested, but very skeptical if this would ever happen. I guess Im not the first person that has tried to do this in our area. So I filled in Mike with everything that was happening up to this point, and he told the rest of the troops. I got the green light to rep the chicago garage to Blake, and off we went.
So Blake contacts me a few days later...late OCT 2012 I believe it was. He tells me that Bult is onboard with a verbal, and to round up some cars for a prerun/photo shoot. At that moment I was literally shitting myself. Just the simple thought alone that we were going to get the chance to run on the runway, even for an hour or two. This was literally fulfilling my wish to do this. Forget about getting the actual event together. This was going to be awesome. Blake and his LOVELY fiance traveled to Chicago to wrap up Bult, and also meet us at the location for a face to face and to get the footage he needed to make the fliers and video.
The test day was just about the most perfect day you could ask for. The weather was like 50's, and there wasnt a cloud in the sky. Myself, eagle, Carter, eric and cobraj(jason) left my house around 9:30ish in the am on the day. We basically hit the highway and had a 4 car race/rally all the way down there. Hitting speeds that rhyme with oneporty.... Eagle and I swapped leadership roles on the highway depending on traffic. That part alone was a BLAST@! So we are almost down there, and as we are exiting the ramp to get to some normal roads, I see a perfect black C6 Z06. I raced up to him as we turned off and confirmed it was Mario from the corvette forum I recruited. We flagged him down and all stopped to take a quick break and grab some food/drinks. Then we we all started leaving, we see Mook and Greasy flying by too so we all connect and make the train for the last few miles to the airstrip. As we turned in to the private field, I was just thrown back. The house on the property is a super-mansion. The grounds are neat and all the pavement was brandnew concrete. There was TONS of room everywhere to park cars and whatever else you can think.
So this is where I finally got to meet that sexy beast Blake. lol. Manscaped to perfection I might add. Both he and I got to meet Bult. BTW, Jim Bult arrived fashionably late by flying in and making this crazy mid air maneuver landing right in the middle of all of us. Pretty fucking cool. So at this point it was picture time. As im sure all of you have seen them, we lined up the cars and got that out of the way. After all that boring stuff was done, we hit the airstrip. We lined up in two side by side lines, and took a parade lap for the video. Once we came back around, it was time to fucking RACE. Me and Typhoon (ZR1) were up first. Both him and I did a dig, and he spanked the shit out of me. During that first run, it was a strange feeling to shift into forth and stay in it. My car was just about out of gear in forth at the half, showing 145 on the speedo.
After that first run, the flood gates were open. Guys were dig and roll racing, hot lapping and taking breaks. Even with all those coolers all over the place on my car, it was very hot. Oil temp was like 240. I had to stop and pop the hood for a few to let that thing cool off. I think most everyone that day got like 7 or more passes. And that was in like an hour and a half. The runway was awesome, and the return was great too.
So after all the hooliganing was over, it was time to get to work..........for Blake. LOL. I tried to offer help, but this is Blakes show now. I did my part getting the right person/company interested and sold, now it was on him. He would be the person putting out the money and taking the return as expected. I was just excited to be a part of this history making event. Blake was nice enough to alloy TCG to sponsor along with all the other usual suspects that sponsor his other events. But he was also able to accept some local sponsors too because of the size of this event. Several local guys will be there with some pretty awesome shop and customer cars, so watch for them to dazzle and set records.
So since the photo shoot, I have been trying to get the word out on this event with several deleted threads from other forums that dont allow non-sponsors to push products or events like this. No matter, word of mouth took over and it went national.
There were some bumps in the road for getting registration off the ground, but once it happened, this event sold out in record time. Not to mention, this is the first TWO day event for wannagofast and it still sold out both days in record time. This was meant to happen here. And Blake/Wannagofast are putting something together that is worlds more professional and fun then I ever had dreamed of.
There will be hundreds of cars, and thousands(s) of spectators onhand to witness this awesome event. I know that most of the core members here will be heading down there friday night to stay locally and party. Then partying again saturday night also down there.
I couldnt be happier that people are now setting up their cars future mods/setups for this event. I had hoped that this would also curb some of the hardcore street racing that has taken lives in the past. Maybe people will hold those grudges for events like this one?? Maybe.
And if you get burned or you dont make the showing you wanted in June, then have no fear. Im sure Blake has something special on the brain for a possible fall event.
So now you have all been schooled. I hope this thread has not stepped on any toes with Blake or TCG. I dont see how it would, but I really wanted to get this story out so everyone would know.
Heres to waiting another few months for this epic event to go down. Everyone, bring your big boy pants.
