(Words By Jim McIlvaine and Photos by Kaleb Kelley) OPTIMA’s 2023 Search for the Ultimate Street Car, presented by Advance Auto Parts, visits some pretty iconic tracks. Just this year alone, the series has already visited Laguna Seca, Road America and most-recently, Daytona International Speedway. That leaves just one more event at VIRginia International Raceway to decide regular season championships and invitations to the SEMA Show and the OPTIMA Ultimate Street Car Invitational (OUSCI).

When we last checked in on the points situation after Road America, we indicated it looked like the cut-off for making it into the OUSCI would come in above 800 points, which is up significantly from the 781-point mark last season. With another event in the books, that trend looks to be continuing. By the way, that total is based on a competitor’s best-two finishes in the seven-stage qualifying series.

The top finisher in each class at each of these qualifying events will earn an invitation to Las Vegas and if the top finisher has already been invited, that invitation will go to the next-highest finisher in that class. Once all the event invitations are awarded, each class will receive three additional invitations and then ten at-large invitations will be awarded, regardless of class affiliation.

We had some interesting developments take place at Daytona, which has an impact predictions, points and invitations, starting with the No-Limit Engineering GTT Class for trucks, vans and SUVs. In the weeks leading up to Daytona, it looked as if Fran Marchand’s ’50 Chevy pickup was the only truck registered to run, which would’ve resulted in an automatic invitation. However, Marchand had registered for other events, but not shown up, so it was possible no truck would receive an invitation in Daytona.

Henry Crawn and Tyler Hawker both noticed that possibility and found their way to Daytona, as did Marchand. Crawn ended up grabbing his first class win and the Vegas invitation, which changes the forecast for the truck class going forward. If Marchand makes it to VIR for the final qualifier, he could grab the final GTT qualifying spot from Thayer McDonald, with Wesley McFarland’s ’74 GMC C10 and Jeff Glowniak’s ’72 F100 grabbing the other two. The other five trucks on the GTT roster for VIR without invitations at this point would have to win their way in at the event, because they wouldn’t have enough points to grab an at-large entry.

There are currently four entries in the Geaux Moto GTC Class for compact cars at VIR, with Andrew Scott’s Probe and Doug Wind’s Neon looking for an OUSCI invitation. Saroja Day picked her invitation up at Daytona and Dayton de la Houssaye locked his up a while ago. Based on how they’ve run in the past, Wind is likely to grab the invitation at VIR, if he makes it. He was signed up for Daytona, but did not show. If Wind is a no-show at VIR or struggles, Andrew Scott’s ’94 Probe will be waiting to pounce. If Wind comes through, Scott’s Probe would likely join Pierce Hathaway’s ’16 Miata and James Garfield’s ’21 Civic Type R in grabbing the final three glass entries.

If Matthew Hamson’s ’89 Mustang runs at VIR in the GTL Class for non-compacts that weigh less than 3,200 pounds, it would be his fifth event of the season and could be the one that lands him an invitation for Las Vegas, but others could play spoiler. We thought Hamson might grab the invitation at Daytona, but Bob Ellsworth’s ’70 Challenger swooped in and snagged it. If Hamson gets the VIR invitation, the three class invitations would likely go to Josh Cummings’ ’16 Porsche GT4, Ricky Lammi’s ’77 Datsun 280Z and Al Radonski’s ’08 Corvette. If someone in GTL grabs the class invitation at VIR in their first appearance of the season, it would likely bump Al Radonski out of the final class invitation. Radonski turned in a solid 403-point weekend at Daytona, but he’d likely need better than that at VIR to grab one of the final at-large points invitations.

Looking at the GTS Class for late-model sports cars and all-wheel drive sedans, we can still see Tim Grant’s ’08 Corvette grabbing the OUSCI invitation at VIR. From there, we project the three class points entries to go to Brandon Hurst’s ’21 Tesla Model 3, Matt Bacon’s ’17 Corvette, which ran well at Daytona and Jason Trantham’s ’21 Corvette.

In the Viking Performance GT Class for late-model musclecars, our prediction of Austin Barnes grabbing the class invitation at Daytona came true. While we’d like to hold steady with our prediction that Luke Vigneault’s ’11 Challenger will get the invitation from VIR, we’ve heard rumors CB Ramey could show up in the GT Class with his Camaro. Either way, class invitations are likely to go to Jake Jackson’s ’18 Camaro, Kong Chang’s ’17 Mustang and Brian Reilly’s ’18 Camaro. If Luke Vigneault doesn’t win his way in at VIR, he’d likely grab an at-large points invitation.

The Classic Car Liquidators GTV Class for pre-1990 entries had 20 cars turn out at Daytona, with Mike Dapkus’s ’69 Javelin grabbing the invitation behind Jason Bottenfield’s class win. We thought Jason Smith’s ’87 Camaro would get the invitation at Daytona, but Smitty’s Custom Auto didn’t make that event. The Smiths are signed up with 27 other entries for VIR and Jason could grab his invitation there, if he can hold off fellow third gen owner, Wayne Atkins and another stacked field of contenders. If Smith prevails, the three GTV Class points invitations are likely to go to Tom Farrington’s ’66 Chevelle, Wayne Atkins’ ’85 Camaro and Chris Porter’s ’86 948, which had a strong run at Daytona.

If those invitations go as projected, that would leave the following 10 drivers with at-large points entries:

1. Lane Farka 2018 Camaro GT (-)
2. Bob Foster 2012 Corvette GTS (+1)
3. Garrett Randall 1970 Corvette GTV (NR)
4. Chris Pokorny 1992 Mustang GT (-)
5. John McKissack 1966 Fairlane GTV (+1)

Last Five In
6. Sean Aldinger 1969 Camaro GTV (NR)
7. Ed Michalak 1969 Camaro GTV (NR)
8. Alex Kim 2020 Camaor GT (NR)
9. Thomas Marquez 2015 Impreza GTS (-1)
10. Scott Timmons 1967 Camaro GTV (NR)

First Five Out
11. Chris Brown 2016 Mustang GT (+3)
12. Scott Bowers 1984 Mustang GTV (NR)
13. Colton Johnson 2011 Mustang GTV (-1)
14. Tony Phillips 1955 Bel Air GTV (-1)
15. David Yadon 1984 Camaro GTV (NR)

We’ll once again take this opportunity to remind the reader these are only projections and a lot can happen in Virginia. Several drivers moved into the projected field, based on their performances at Daytona and several others could do the same at VIR. The cut-line for at-large points entries still appears to be holding above 800 points right now, so cars that don’t have 800 points yet need to get them at VIR and a driver like Chris Brown, who moved up to 807 points at Daytona will be hoping invitations fall the right way at VIR and he moves up and off the wrong side of the points bubble.

Find out whose bubble gets burst when the final round takes place October 6-8th at VIRginia International Raceway. If you can’t attend in-person, be sure to watch the livestream coverage on the OPTIMA Network, a free download on all your favorite streaming platforms, including Roku.