AIRSTRIP ATTACK
AND THEN THERE WAS ONE
Richard Fowler waits for the signal to launch his
Underground Racing-built Lamborghini Huracan and
unleash the fury of a 2,300-horsepower, twin-turbocharged
5.2-liter V10 on the tarmac. Fowler, who was clearly the
man to beat from the onset of the Oregon Airstrip Attack,
took top speed of the meet on both Saturday and Sunday
at 241.15 mph and 247.25 mph, respectively.
of the desert. From there we started to find better airports, longer runways,
but that’s how it all started. Just a bunch of street racers getting together.”
Fast forward to 2016 and Shift-S3ctor’s Airstrip Attack events are consistent
sellouts – drawing 150 cars (maximum capacity) and as many as 5,000
spectators over the course of a weekend. The events are now broken up
into two day events; trap speed competition on Saturday and a side-by-side
roll racing shootout on Sunday with cars paired up based on their performances the day prior. The most recent event at Oregon’s McMinnville
Municipal Airport, however, was ran as a two-day trap speed event due to
a few soon-to-be-introduced rules for the roll racing segment of the race.
speed component really gained some momentum after we reached out to
Race America and purchased a timing system – we wanted to know how
fast we were going. Once people started to see the actual speeds they were
running, that kind of became a competition in and of itself. Now, we use
those numbers to group cars up for the racing part of the event on Sundays.”
With cars ranging from 2,000-plus horsepower, twin-turbocharged Lamborghinis and supercharged Corvettes to Honda Civics and Mitsubishi Evos
with basic performance modifications, Shift-S3ctor Airstrip Attack events
bring out some of the most unique and eclectic cars and enthusiasts in the
entire country.
“Our goal has always been to simulate what is really popular right now – roll
racing,” says Haung. “That’s what it has always been about, but the trap
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