Havliks Fastest Street Car Shootout brings different kind of racing to Iowa

CEDAR RAPIDS — Brian Havlik is astounded by the response.

When the co-owner — with his cousin, Jes Havlik — of HotRods By Havliks in Cedar Rapids was approached by Tri State Raceway in Earlville to organize a “different kind of race than what they normally do,” the Havlik cousins had the perfect idea.

A “fastest street car” event.

In 1992, Hot Rod magazine and the National Muscle Car Association held “The Fastest Street Car in America Shootout” outside Memphis, Tenn. It was an opportunity for owners of high-performance, street-legal cars to compete in an old-fashioned, straight-line drag race. This signature event garnered so much attention, it quickly morphed into a series that attracted car enthusiasts from around the globe through the mid-2000s.

“That was the start of a whole craze,” Brian Havlik said. “Every ‘fastest street car’ event from there on has basically started from that event in ’92.”

While the cars and technology are ever-changing, the Havliks wanted their race to serve as a tribute to the muscle cars of the 1950s, ’60s and ’70s that helped make that initial Memphis race so famous.

The result is “Havliks Fastest Street Car Shootout,” which will be held Saturday at Tri State Raceway. Gates open at 6 a.m. and the races start at 9.

“This is a racer’s race put on by racers,” Havlik said. “This is not a big corporate deal. I think that is why it has gotten a lot of traction like it has. ... This is what happens when the racers come together.”

Using little more than Facebook to get the word out, the event has attracted car owners from all corners of the country and even a 1979 Malibu from New Brunswick, Canada. Between 100 and 200 cars — such as 1960s-era Camaros, Chevelles and Impalas — are expected to be on the Tri State Raceway grounds, including an astounding 15 of the original 30 cars from the 1992 Memphis event.

“As soon as we got this out there, within a month or so, all of the hotels were filled up around there,” Havlik said.

The announcement has rallied much of the street car racing community. Not only are car owners pitching in to help transport each other’s cars to Earlville from all over the country, they are supplying and shipping needed parts in order to help get everyone ready to race.

Two weeks ago, the Havliks got a call from California, where 69-year-old Mike Hayden had an unassembled 1957 Chevrolet stored away. After eight weeks of work, Hayden realized he could not get the car ready for Earlville by himself. The Havliks jumped in with a plan.

“‘Just get it here. We'll figure it out. We'll get it back together,” Brian Havlik told Hayden. “Him and his wife threw everything in the trailer, just boxes of parts and pieces and stuff and then drove straight through from California all the way to Iowa to get it to us and we started.”

As of late Wednesday night, the resurrection of Hayden’s ’57 Chevy — which topped out at 229 miles per hour 25 years ago — is complete and humming again. The addition of Hayden’s car means the iconic “Tri Five” of 1955, ’56 and ’57 Chevrolet vehicles that were all involved in the beginning years of street car racing will be represented in Earlville.

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“All those cars have just kind of been sitting around collecting dust because there’s no real races for them where they would be competitive by today’s standards,” Havlik said. “Basically, we’re trying to get them back out of the garages and back on the track.”

Even with the focus on the tribute/reunion of the older muscle cars in what Havlik has termed the “Exhibition” class, today’s cars will be incorporated into some of the other classes. The 1980s-era “Nostalgia Pro Street” class uses wider tires, while the “Outlaw 10.5” class is for smaller tires. The “Super Street” class involves real street cars with some enhancements, while the “Unlimited” class is basically an outlaw class with larger tires and no rules.

“Just let it go,” Havlik said of the “Unlimited" class. “Bring whatever you have got and hope it is enough.”

Other than the "Exhibition," all classes will have $5,000 payouts for first place and $1,000 for second. Entrants will register on Friday and there will be a reunion of drivers and a group photo on the track with all the cars. After that, expect plenty of “bench racing,” where everyone will delight in old racing stories before the competition fires up Saturday night.

From there, who knows? A successful weekend just might open the door for more shows.

“I'd like to make it an annual (event),” Havlik said. “With the excitement, we might make it a series. … We have got a lot of things in the works.

“We actually have some opportunities to work with some other promoters and maybe make it a series where it might be like a north, south, east, west type of shootout.”