You don’t carry the name “Hemi” and not race the damn thing, do you? No, you don’t. No matter how pretty, no matter how restored, no matter how new…if you are the proud owner of a Hemi-powered anything, you owe it to yourself and to your car to find a track and to let that mother eat! ChallengerFest 7 was packed full of racing, even with one day having to be called on an account of hail, and just like our initial impressions last year, there is no such thing as a car too pretty to hit the track. If there was a car that showed but didn’t go, we didn’t notice it, and there are some stunning showpieces that fogged out the burnout box. Whatever flavor of late-model Mopar you liked, it was there, from Todd Roberts’ low-11 second Chrysler SRT8 to the monster Jeep Grand Cherokee known as “The Brick”, which was running mid-8s at well over 160 miles an hour. And if you needed any more racing, pairing off with the Modern Street Hemi Shootout added an entire series to the table. MSHS used Beech Bend as this year’s season opener, and even with the one good day of racing on hand, you couldn’t have asked for better conditions or better competitors. Hellcats, six-speed gearbangers, carnage and tire smoke…oh, my indeed. It’s a lovely day when all you hear is pissed-off Mopar echoing throughout the countryside!

Click on a photo below to check out the scene at Beech Bend!