(Words by Jim McIlvaine. Photos by Kaleb Kelley) Six of seven events are now in the books for OPTIMA’s Ultimate Street Car series, presented Advance Auto Parts. While some points battles across the seven different classes are all but decided, others are anything but! We’ll take a brief look at who the top contenders are in each class and then try to predict who might get points invitations to the SEMA Show and OPTIMA Ultimate Street Car Invitational (OUSCI) at the end of the season.

The Nine Lives Racing Lucky 7 Outlaw Class points chase is one of the tightest battles in the series. Duke Langley’s ’02 Corvette currently holds a one-point lead over Jeff Gordon’s ’07 Cobalt SS (which won at Summit Point) and Danny Weller’s ’19 Camaro. The math also works for Jon Bickford’s ’20 Tesla Model 3 and Frankie Trutanic’s ’17 Corvette to make a run at the regular season crown at VIR in October. As of this writing, Gordon will be at VIR for sure, Langley won’t and the other three are up in the air.

In terms of who will be included in the “Lucky 7,” the list looks like this right now:

Duke Langely 2002 Chevrolet Corvette

Jeff Gordon 2007 Chevrolet Cobalt SS

Danny Weller 2019 Chevrolet Camaro

Jon Bickford 2020 Tesla Model 3

Frankie Trutanic 2017 Chevrolet Corvette

Jim Boller 2010 Chevrolet Corvette

Ronald Merlino 2004 Nissan 350Z

In the Speedtech GTV Class for pre-1990 vehicles, Chris Smith’s ’70 Camaro turned in another dominant win at Summit Point, but his son, Jason, changed the math at Summit Point in his ’87 Camaro. A competitor’s best two finishes count toward their season long point total, so with Jason’s 491-point weekend at Summit Point, he now has a mathematical chance of not only winning the GTV Class, but the regular season grand championship. He’ll need to beat his dad for that to happen and if Jason has a shot at both, then Chris, who sits well ahead of him in points has an even great chance.

Looking at the potential remaining invitations from the GTV Class for Las Vegas, we could see Jason Bottenfield’s ’69 Camaro grabbing the GTV Class invitation at VIR, which would then leave three guaranteed class invitations based on point totals. Those are projected to go to Ron Scott’s ’63 Corvette, Tom Farrington’s ’66 Chevelle and Mike Dapkus’ ’69 Javelin. Ten invitations are also distributed regardless of class and there are plenty of GTV cars in contention for those spots, but we’ll look at those at the end of this article.

For now, we’ll move to the No-Limit Engineering GTT Class for trucks, where Dustin Reed’s ’72 C10 holds a four-point lead over David Carroll’s ’74 Blazer and Stephen Dorrick’s ’05 Nissan Frontier is potentially within 10 points of the top spot with his win at Summit Point. Whether any or all show up at VIR (Dorrick will for sure), they’ll all square off at the OUSCI in November. They could be joined by Fran Marchand’s ’50 Chevy pickup, which is currently the only truck registered for VIR, that has not yet received an invitation to Las Vegas. The three class entries could then end up with Jeff Glowniak’s ’69 F100, Wes McFarland’s ’74 C10 and Logan Melson’s ’00 Ford Ranger.

In the After Dark Speed GTS Class, Bob Sobey’s ’13 Nissan GT-R seems to have a handle on the regular season championship, but is in a tight battle with Dave Schotz’s ’22 Camaro and Chris Smith’s ’70 Camaro for the regular season series Grand Championship. Sobey made the trip Eastward from Arizona to VIR last season, but already declared he will not make the drive this year. Smith will be there for sure, so it remains to be seen if Schotz’s Camaro will join him.

Tony Prutch’s C8 Corvette picked up the class win and OUSCI invitation at Summit Point and we project Aimel Baron’s C7 Corvette is likely to do the same at VIR. If that happens, the three GTS Class invitations are likely to be awarded to Scott Lezchuk’s ’20 Tesla Model 3, Jordan Cooke’s ’16 Corvette and Robert Foster’s ’12 Corvette.

Lane Farka’s ’15 Porsche GT3 holds a similar stranglehold on the Lingenfelter GTL Class as Sobey’s GT-R does in the GTS Class and with a 492 on the board at Portland, the math is out there for Farka to make a run at the Grand Championship, but he’s given no indication he’ll make that long haul from Utah to Virginia. While Ryan Mathews’ Corvette may win at VIR, we project the GTL Class invitation would go to Pat Duncan’s ’03 Corvette. That could leave the GTL Class invitations to Josh Cummings’ ’16 Porsche GT4, Al Radonski’s ’08 Corvette and Dan Bullis’ ’09 Corvette.

Darren Garvin’s ’73 Datsun 240Z picked up the Geaux Moto GTC class win at Summit Point, but he had already earned his invitation at Road America. That meant Tony Phillips’ ’20 Subaru BRZ received the invitation, which was a nice turnaround from the rough weekend he had with his ’55 Chevy Bel Air at Portland.

Tony’s BRZ is set to square off with John McKissack’s ’71 MG BGT at VIR and since Tony already has an invitation, McKissack will receive one, win or lose. After that, GTC Class invitations would go to Troy de la Houssaye’s ’09 Mazda MX-5, Jordan Filip’s ’03 Toyota Corolla and Adam Perling’s ’06 Miata.

Finally, there’s the Viking Performance GT Class for late-model musclecars. Dave Schotz has a commanding lead there, but a tight battle with Sobey and Smith for the regular season series Grand Championship. He hasn’t indicated whether he’ll go to VIR, but his car already came East for UMI’s King of the Mountain and will likely stick around at least through the SCCA Solo Nationals. James Thomas’ ’16 Shelby GT350 picked up it’s first class win at Summit Point and he’ll be back for VIR. He could catch second-place Matt Ramirez’s Mustang at VIR, but he won’t catch Schotz.

Thomas could still come away with his second class win in a row at VIR, but we project Tim Gordon’s ’10 Camaro will receive the GT Class OUSCI invitation. That leaves GT Class invitations for Brian Reilly’s ’18 Camaro, Jake Jackson’s ’18 Camaro and Chris Pokorny’s ’92 Mustang. With class invitation projections complete, we’ll take a moment to remind everyone these are only predictions of what could transpire and not set in stone. With that, we’ll share what we project will be the final ten points entries, as well as the five cars on the wrong side of the points bubble.

First Five

1. Sean Aldinger 1969 Camaro GTV 886 points

2. Scott Bowers 1984 Mustang GTV 880 points

3. Chris King 1969 Camaro GTV 860 points

4. Angela Payne 1969 Corvette GTV 841 points

5. Jason Trantham 2021 Corvette GTS 840 points

Last Five

6. John Lawrence 2017 Corvette GTS 835 points

7. Randall Garrett 1970 Corvette GTV 829 points

8. Kenny Ayers 1968 Camaro GTV 816 points

9. Michael Johnson 2020 Mustang GT 814 points

10. James Pierce 2017 Camaro GT 808 points

First Five Out

11. Mills Robinson 1967 Camaro GTV 803 points

12. Christine Crutcher 2004 Corvette GTS 798 points

13. Darren Voges 1969 Camaro GTV 787 points

14. Hector Curiel 2018 Camaro GT 781 points

15. Nathan Peard 1970 Chevelle GTV 771 points

It seems as if the cut-off for making it to Las Vegas is in the neighborhood of 800 points and there’s more than a few cars battling for those final few spots. How will it all transpire? Be sure to follow the Ultimate Street Car Association Facebook page for updates and head over to www.DriveOPTIMA.com, if you’d like to learn more about competing in this series in your street car.