We have long wanted to get some cars together and do a shootout, and so last October on a cool day in Houston, Texas, at the 2005 Lonestar Shootout, we did just that. We picked eight owners and their cars from the list that had entered the show and wanted to be involved, and had them meet us at the show so we could pit them in a run-whatcha-brung-type of bracket race. We didn't want to see a bunch of race cars that guys loosely call street cars; we wanted real-world, drive-em-on-the-weekend, hit-the-road-type of cars.
Barry Barker, Robert Greenlee, Rusty Webster, Bobby Drake, and Brian Uccello, answered the call. Yep, that's only five and we wanted eight. We're not sure what happened to the other participants, but they never made it to the show.
Even though only five guys were able to make the call with their cars, we let them have at it. Those five guys are definitely true car guys. Sure, the cars were show caliber, but all the guys flogged the crap out of them on the strip. Not one of the competitors babied their car down the track. There was smoke, hard launches, and even a little friendly smack talk before the racing began. Even though the competition didn't begin until Saturday, some of them practically made round robin blasts down the track during Friday's time trials. On Saturday, during qualifying runs, one of the competitors had an issue with a starter that prevented him from starting his car. He took it home, changed the starter, and made it back in time for racing. The only problem was he was unable to make any time shots on Saturday so he would know where to dial his car in for Sunday. The rest of the guys are true testaments to the lengths enthusiasts will go to help each other-the remaining four offered to give him a bye run in the first round of competition so he could at least get an idea of what to dial in. fortunately, we were able to get a couple time trials in before we had to begin the competition.
For this, our first shootout, the five cars competing were a true representation of a street car. They were all registered, had street tires, full interiors, and were driven regularly. By regularly, we don't mean they jumped in them on Saturday night, drove to the local cruise night, and then back home. No sir, these guys informed us they all see frequent duty on the highway. They even drive them to work occasionally.
So here they are, the participants of the 2005 Mopar Muscle/Lonestar Shootout.