(Words by Jim McIlvaine, Photos by Kaleb Kelley) OPTIMA ran their Ultimate Street Car Invitational (OUSCI) at the SEMA Show in Las Vegas for the 17th time and Bob Sobey’s 2013 Nissan GT-R emerged victorious for the third consecutive time, but how does that happen? Five different segments make up the competition and the top contenders obviously must complete all five, but they also have to be consistently good across all five segments.
The road rally is pretty simple- cars just need to complete the route without getting pulled over, but there’s always a few that struggle, most often because the car had mechanical issues earlier in the competition and couldn’t start the rally. When it comes to the Design & Engineering Challenge, the car needs to be completely built and finished, inside and out. That may seem obvious, but some areas, like the trunk, are often overlooked, even in six-figure builds.
Other areas covered in Design & Engineering include all the basic features you’d expect to find in any other street car- functioning wipers, lights, turn signals, horn, etc… Missing just one of these elements can be devastating to a Design & Engineering score, but that is intentional and helps weed out the race cars with license plates, that may no longer have a functional horn or ditched their stereo to save a few pounds.
Even after navigating those obstacles, competitors still deal with the reality that this field is full of some of the best-built cars, being driven by some of the most-talented drivers in the country. Certain cars really excel in specific segments, even if they don’t contend for the overall title. The top five cars in the Design & Engineering competition were inside the top-10 overall, but that also means five others were not.
Efrain Diaz’s beautiful ’69 Camaro finished just inside the top-25 overall in 24th place, but grabbed ninth in D&E. Further back, Ken Kelley’s incredible Hellcat-swapped AAR Cuda finished 44th overall, but grabbed the 7th spot. Even further back was Mike Owen’s incredible ’70 Chevelle. Owen’s Chevelle had a mechanical issue that prevented him from finishing the Falken Tire Road Course, but he grabbed 8th in Design & Engineering before that happened.
Those “wildcards” alone may not make the difference between winning and losing the overall title, but this scenario ends up getting repeated in each of the three timed segments on the track. Three Teslas competed in this year’s field, but only one finished inside the top ten overall- Jordan Priestley’s 2021 Model 3. While the other two Teslas finished outside the top-10 overall, they both finished inside the top-10 on the Peak Performance Challenge and Scott Lezchuk’s Model 3 also finished inside the top-10 on the Classic Car Liquidators Autocross.
Across the three timed segments there were 10 instances where cars outside the top-10 grabbed top-10 points in those segments. The top contenders obviously all have the goal of finishing as close to the top of the standings as possible. At the same time, each position on the track is worth a point, so ideally, they’d like to see as much gap between their closest competitors as possible. How does this play out on the track?
Timed competition starts with the Peak Performance Challenge at the SEMA Show and Dave Schotz’s ’22 Camaro turned in a very respectable 11th place finish. However, Sobey’s GT-R won that segment, Chris Smith’s ’70 Camaro finished second and Lane Farka’s Porsche GT3 finished third. After one segment, Smith is a point behind Sobey, Farka trails Sobey by two points and Schotz is already down ten points.
The competition was much tighter in Design & Engineering, where Smith’s Camaro won, Sobey finished second, Schotz was third and Farka was sixth. That tied up Smith and Sobey, while Farka lost four more points to the leaders and Schotz lost another point. By the time the OUSCI reached Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Dave Schotz’s Camaro needed to be nearly flawless to make up the gap against Sobey and Smith, while hoping as many cars as possible would finish in between those two and Farka.
Schotz topped that group of four on the Classic Car Liquidators Autocross, but received no additional help against Farka and only four points between his car and Sobey’s. Meanwhile, Smith’s Camaro finished eighth in the Autocross, giving up two to six points to the other cars in the top-four. The standings heading into the final event, the Falken Tire Road Course time trial, showed Sobey in the lead over Smith by two points, with Farka three points back and Schotz just seven points behind.
Schotz did what he had to, winning the Falken Tire Road Course, but he didn’t get enough help from others in the field. Sobey finished third, leaving the margin between the top two at five points. Meanwhile, Farka’s Porsche ran four spots behind Sobey and Smith’s Camaro ran six spots back of the leader.
The results show how consistently good a car needs to be to contend for the title. Jordan Priestley’s Tesla barely finished outside the top-10 in just two segments (11th and 13th) but that was enough to drop him to fifth place overall. Smith and Farka both finished inside the top-10 in every segment, but not high enough to catch Sobey. Schotz and Sobey were the only two cars to finish on the podium in four segments, but that ten-point gap in the Peak Performance Challenge proved to be too much for Schotz to overcome elsewhere.
The series now takes a few months off, before Sobey moves into uncharted waters, seeking an unprecedented fourth consecutive Ultimate Street Car title.
The journey begins at Sebring in February. You can join them in your street car, just head over to www.DriveOPTIMA.com, read up on the rules and get registered!
2025 OPTIMA Ultimate Street Car Schedule
Sebring International Raceway Feb. 21-23rd
NOLA Motorsports Park Mar. 28-30th
Weathertech Raceway Laguna Seca May 2-4th
Pittsburgh International Race Complex May 30-June 1st
Road America June 27-29th
Summit Point Motorsports Park Aug. 15-17th
Thunderhill Raceway Park Oct. 10-12th
Barber Motosports Park Oct. 17-19th
OPTIMA Ultimate Street Car Invitational Nov. 2-7th
Top-10
1. Bob Sobey 2013 Nissan GT-R
2. Dave Schotz 2022 Chevrolet Camaro
3. Lane Farka 2015 Porsche GT3
4. Chris Smith 1970 Chevrolet Camaro
5. Jordan Priestley 2021 Tesla Model 3
6. John Falkner 2021 Chevrolet Camaro
7. Ryan Mathews 2002 Chevrolet Corvette
8. Mike Rovere 2008 Chevrolet Corvette
9. Matt Ramirez 2004 Ford Mustang
10. Brad Larsen 2016 Chevrolet Corvette
