Q&A: Chase Lautenbach
of my best friends and he already
had a car show type deal set up in
Kansas City that he had done one
year but it wasn’t an official event
with a track rental and all that, so
we got together on what has come
to be known as Street Car Takeover
and just combined ideas to make it
what it is today, one of the fastest
growing street car events in
the nation.
In the street car world, the name Chase Lautenbach probably
rings a bell. If you don’t know him from 1320Video and his
infamous world-record setting 3DX Evo that made waves on
the Internet, you more than likely know him from Street Car
Takeover (SCT) - one of the largest growing street car events
in the country, traveling to over 13 cities nation-wide. From
daily drivers to some of the fastest street cars in the nation,
SCT offers the perfect event for almost any and every car enthusiast. We had a chance to sit down with Chase, one of the
co-founders along with Justin Keith, and him and ask him a
few questions to find out more about the history of Street
Car Takeover.
HO W DID STREET CAR TAKEOVER GET STARTED?
It actually all started when I was still working with 1320Video.
I came up with an idea to do and event with Kyle [Loftis] called
‘1320Video Invades (Name City),’ but after talking with Kyle
more about it, we decided he just didn’t have time to be one
of the people involved with running the actual event itself, but
if I could get it all together that 1320Video would be there to
cover all the action like they have since day one.
Starting to think about the event and what goes into actually
making one successful I knew it couldn’t just be me, and that’s
where Justin Keith comes into the story. Justin was and is one
44
STREETRACE
KIND OF THING, OR DID YOU THINK IT
COULD GROW AS BIG AS IT HAS?
I figured it would catch on, to be
completely honest. But I will say I
didn’t think it would grow this big
this soon. We have had events
already with over 300 cars in the
field racing and we are just now
starting our third season. It really
has been unbelievable and we have
no one to thank except the people
who support us, 1320Video and our
sponsors.
We also have lots and lots of
awesome people that are involved
with making Street Car Takeover
successful; Justin and myself couldn’t
do it alone, that’s for sure. We have
Garrett Mitchell, Garrett not only
SCT IS IN ITS THIRD SEASON NOW, BUT
WHAT PLANS AND GOALS DO YOU GUYS
HAVE FOR IT OVER THE NEXT FEW YEARS?
Well, as of right now we are doing
15 events around the country. In the
next five years I can see us going to
20 or so events and splitting into two
teams so we can do more then one
city at a time and kind of spread the
work load. We can’t wait to continue
to grow; our short-term goal for the
next year or two is to spread further
up north and make our way out west
as well. I want to invite everyone out
to the Street Car Takeover nearest
you. Doesn’t matter if your car is
stock or 3,000-plus horsepower; we
have a spot and a racing class for
everyone, dig or roll.
PHOTO: KEVIN COX
“I DIDN’T THINK IT WOULD
GET THIS BIG, THIS FAST”
runs all of our social media; he announces the events, too! The kid is
awesome. I have never seen anyone
work the crowd like Garrett. Behind
the scenes he is also a huge part of
the event, being one of our heads of
operations. Dalton McGuire, our favorite redneck! Dalton is one of our
race managers and you can find him
up in the staging lanes, making sure
everything about the racing is
running smoothly during the events.
WHAT IS SCT’S MAIN PURPOSE?
John Cundy, what can I say about
The main purpose of Street Car Take- John? He is kind of the glue that
over is to make a venue where the keeps everything together and
baddest street cars in the country running fluidly during the event,
can all come together and race for whether it’s in the staging lanes,
cash pots in a safe environment, tech lanes, in the tower, at the mermaking it as ‘street’ as possible. We chandise booth, driving the truck
pride ourselves in the fact that ev- and trailer, set up/tear down, there
eryone can compete too, if your car is literally nothing about this event
runs a high 13-second quarter-mile that John can’t do and for that we
time or a low four-second eighth- appreciate him. Kevin Cox is also a
mile, we have a spot and cash huge asset to our operation as our
prize for you.
lead photographer, putting himself
in front of 1500-horsepower cars so
WHEN SCT GOT STARTED, WERE YOU
you can see the action on our flyers
EXPECTING IT TO BE A COUPLE OF EVENTS
and social media.