Secret Street July 2005
Friday Night of July 22, 2005
Recalled by James Gosteli
Secret Street is a program being put on by Race City Speedway to convince street racers to bring their races to the safety of the tracks and off the streets of Calgary. We desided to head down to Race City to give it a go. For many of us, this was our very first time racing on the track. We didn't know what to expect or what we were doing.
We met up at a Tim Horton's so that we could all be together when entering the race city gates. Rick couldn't bring his GSR since the distributor died the night before. He brought his SRT4 instead and Damn is that thing fast. Mark and Darcy showed up moments later and we were set for Racing.
 Meeting up at Timmy's |
 Rick's SRT-4 |
Upon arriving at Race City Speedway, we got our cars in line for tech. The line was moving pretty quickly so we didn't have long to wait. My GSR failed tech for bad rear tires. Rick was nice enough to take me to his place to borrow his stock MX-3 tires. We quickly grabbed 2 of his wheels and swapped them onto my car. Darcy and Mark passed the tech easily enough and were already prepped to go. I quickly got my car through tech and before long I was lined up in the staging lanes with everone else.
 The Tech Line |
 Darcy and Mark waiting |
 James' didn't pass tech at first |
My Fiancé, Brother-in-Law Simon, and Rick went up to the stands to get good seats. Simon brought his digi-cam to take videos and Darcy gave his camera to Rick for some added footage. There were a lot of beefy muscle cars in the staging lanes. The rumble from their engines was deafening. It was so loud, I couldn't tell if my car was running or not and had to check the RPM to make sure.
 This chick's car was bloody fast |
 Beaten by a girl |
 Speedy Truck |
Mark and Darcy were the first from our group to get to the race lanes. Since we were all new to the track, it took a bit to figure out how things go. Mark wasn't quite ready on the first race so his launch was a little slow. Things improved as the night went on. For my first race, a guy in a brand new 2005 Mustang challenged me. He was probably just looking for an easy win to make himself look good.
 Mark and Darcy's first race |
 New 2005 Mustang Coupe vs James' 1992 MX-3 GSRze |
 Rick lurking through the pits |
 Mark and Dary's second run |
There were a few delays as the night went on. Someone in the stands had a heart-attack and the race was put on hold until an ambulance came. Some mustang blew oil all over a section of the track and that had to be cleaned up. It was pretty dark by the time our second round came up. Mark and Darcy were always pretty close when racing eachother. Darcy's weight advantage with his RSR probably always put him in the lead. I did't get a lot of good races with my MX-3. I had a pretty close match with a speedy ZX2 who's driver had an unbelievable reaction time. I've really got to work on that. Kyle Jones showed up in a gutted Suzuki Swift and put a few people in their place.
 Kyle embarrasses the Mustang driver |
 James looses by a hair to a speedy ZX2 |
 Mark vs Darcy again... |
 This guy obviously didn't see a point to racing James |
 A view of the pits |
 Darcy and Mark waiting to Race |
 Mark's car is almost ready for a bath |
 Big motor |
As the night went on the number of cars racing dropped considerably and the waiting times were very short. Darcy and I managed to go head to head close to the end. At around 12:30am they put the gates up and that was the end to our fun. It was a lot of fun and definitly worth the money spent. It's nice to not have to worry about traffic, police or endangering others. All of us have a nice collection of paper slips to study with our race times. It really helps us know what we need to work on.
 1/4 mile time graph |
 1/4 mile speed graph |
Darcy found an online calculator that figured out what our 1/4mile time would be if we were at sea-level. Calgary is at a very high altitude of 3609 feet above sea-level. That explains why are numbers are lower than what we have heard from other MX3ers from around the world.
- Darcy's best time would be 16.49s
- Mark's best time would be 17.32s
- James' best time would be 15.47s