(Words by Jim McIlvaine, Photos by Kaleb Kelley) The third stop of the 2026 season of OPTIMA’s Ultimate Street Car series took competitors to their first West coast event at historic Willow Springs International Raceway. The full field was stacked with a variety of vehicles that spanned eight decades and competitive cars across a multitude of classes, including the After Dark Speed GTS Class, where Tony Prutch’s 2021 Corvette took home the class win, his first in the series.
Prutch was aided in this win by a 100-point score on the Gearhead Classics Design & Engineering Challenge, but that wasn’t what made the difference for him on this weekend. Over the past two seasons, Prutch’s Corvette has done consistently well in Design & Engineering, posting an average score of 97.2 points out of 100. The real difference on this weekend for Prutch came on the track.
Prutch has been locked in a tight battle for the points lead with Brandon Hurst and his 2022 Tesla Model S, which held a 12-point lead coming into Willow Springs. These two cars faced off four times over the last two seasons and in those meetings, Prutch’s Corvette held a 12.2-point average advantage in Design & Engineering, while the Tesla had a larger 25.5-point average advantage across the three timed events. When your average is 97.2 out of 100 and you need to find 12.6 more points, they’re going to have to come from some combination of the Falken Tire Road Course Time Trial, the Peak Performance Challenge and the Southern Roofing Autocross.
Hurst had finished ahead of Prutch in each of their previous four meetings, including GTS Class wins at the first two events of this season. However, the difference at Willow Springs came in the timed events. For the first time in the last two seasons, Prutch held a one-point advantage over Hurst in the timed segments. While second-place finisher, Frankie Trutanic’s 2017 Corvette held a five-point advantage over Prutch in those same segments, that was not enough to overcome a 21-point deficit in Design & Engineering.
Trutanic had been running in the Nine Lives Racing Lucky 7 Outlaw Class in recent years and Willow Springs marked his first return to an OUSCI title-eligible class. Based on how well his Buick performed in Design & Engineering in the past, we expect Trutanic will get back up to speed there quickly and present real problems for Prutch, Hurst and the rest of the field going forward.
So how did Prutch overcome deficits against Hurst in the timed segments that were as large as 35 points over the last two seasons? He hired Downforce Coaching. Prutch will admit his Corvette was capable of winning before this weekend, but he wasn’t driving it up to its potential. Downforce Coaching came in and worked with him on the Willow Springs road course specifically, but also brought him up to speed on using his onboard telemetry to identify areas for improvement on the Southern Roofing Autocross and Peak Performance Challenge.
The end result is a driver extracting more potential out of his car and a field that now has to contend with a car that performs as well on the track as it does off. In this series, that’s the combination it takes to win the Ultimate Street Car title. We’ll see if Prutch can make it happen in Las Vegas later this year! If you’d like to learn more about this series and how you can get involved in your street car, head over to www.driveoptima.com and check out a huge photo gallery from this event below.
Top Ten Overall
1. Tony Prutch                        2021 Chevrolet Corvette       GTS    489 points
2. Matt Ramirez                    2004 Ford Mustang              GT      488 points
3. Bryan Reilly                     2018 Chevrolet Camaro        GT      483 points
4. Nick Relampagos              1970 Chevrolet Camaro        GTV   473 points
5. Frankie Trutanic                2017 Chevrolet Corvette       GTS    473 points
6. Lisa Berry                          2015 Porsche GT3                GTL   471 points
7. Rick Ray                          1971 Chevrolet Camaro        GTV   466 points
8. Brandon Hurst                   2022 Tesla Model S               GTS    466 points
9. Terry Breezee                    2008 Chevrolet Corvette       GTL   456 points
10. David Carroll                   1974 Chevrolet Blazer           GTT   456 points
2026 OPTIMA Ultimate Street Car Schedule
March 13-15th G2 Motorsports Park
April 10-12th  NOLA Motorsports Park
May 29-31st   Willow Springs Raceway
August 28-30th Road America
September 25-27th Barber Motorsports Park
October 2-4th Weathertech Raceway Laguna Seca
October 9-11th Indianapolis Motor Speedway (sold out)
October 13-November 6th OUSCI Nevada
Operational Speed Supply First Timer Award- Walt Proenca 1969 Chevrolet C10
Anderson Composites Competitor’s Choice Award- Tony Phillips 1955 Chevrolet Bel Air
Operational Speed Supply Surgical Strike Award- Duke Langley 2002 Chevrolet Corvette
Gearhead Classics Snapshot Award- Andy Kitzman 1971 Plymouth Roadrunner
Summit Racing Spirit of the Event invitatation: Kyle Hanson 1979 Ford Fairmont
