American Muscle Cars Hit Historic Track– Action Gallery!
The 2025 Optima Ultimate Street Car Series heads to historic Laguna Seca Raceway to see who’s the fastest of the fast!
Eight stops make up the regular season of OPTIMA’s Ultimate Street Car series, presented by AutoZone, and the series needs that many to make sure it visits as much of the country as possible. A competitor’s best two events count toward their season-long point total, so for West Coast competitors, the stops at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca and Thunderhill Raceway Park are critical.
AI Quick Summary
The 2025 Optima Ultimate Street Car Series at Laguna Seca saw intense competition. Duke Langley dominated his class, while veterans like Brian Hobaugh and Bob Sobey excelled. Notable wins include Hayley Weller's debut and Chris Ramey's LS-swapped Porsche. Next stop: Pittsburgh.
This summary was generated by AI using content from this MotorTrend article
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Do well, and you can win your way into the OPTIMA Ultimate Street Car Invitational (OUSCI) in Las Vegas or earn enough points to get there. Struggle, and what might’ve already involved two trips of substantial distances just to get to the tracks can turn into three or more trips of even farther distances. The next-closest venues are in New Orleans and Road America in Wisconsin, so if a competitor wants to stay west of the Rocky Mountains, they need to make the most of these opportunities.
Seasoned veterans in the series know that well, and Duke Langley is a perfect example. Competing in the Nine Lives Racing Lucky 7 Outlaw Class, Langley needs two solid finishes to earn one of seven spots in the Las Vegas final. Any mechanical issue that prevents him from completing any of the competitive segments would mean a trip to at least Road America from his home in Umatilla, Oregon, just to earn the right to make a long haul to the season finale in Las Vegas.
Langley left nothing to chance, topping the seven-car class with a “perfect” 400 for the weekend. That should set up an epic showdown later this season, as defending class champion, Danny Weller, already notched a 400-point weekend in New Orleans. Weller attended Laguna Seca, but only as a crew member for his wife, Hayley, who made her series debut. It went very well for Hayley, as she won the QA1 First Timer’s Award, which includes a full refund on her entry fee, and she earned the Summit Racing Spirit of the Event entry to the OUSCI.
In other classes, the weekend served up a mix of dominant performances and tight competition. Past OUSCI champion, Brian Hobaugh’s ’73 Camaro easily covered the Speedtech GTV class for vintage entries, posting 480 out of 500 points with a 14-point gap going back to second place. The margin of victory was even larger for Bob Sobey’s Nissan GT-R in the After Dark Speed GTS class, where he scored an incredible 497 points out of 500, gapping second-place Brandon Hurst’s Tesla Model S by 17 points.
Chris Ramey’s LS-swapped ’68 Porsche 912 has been a couple years in the making, but it finally hit the track at Laguna Seca. Ramey is a past OUSCI champion, who knows how to drive a car, so it should be no surprise the Porsche won the GTL Class and took home the coveted Anderson Composites Competitor’s Choice award. Ramey barely held off a challenge from Mike Rovere’s ’08 Corvette to win the GTL Class for lightweight entries.
The largest margin of victory on the weekend was in the Geaux Moto GTC Class, where Jordan Filip’s ’03 Corolla posted 408 points and a 19-point advantage over Matt Davis’ Pontiac Vibe. Every other class saw much tighter competition. The Blazers driven by David Carroll and Hondo Miller in the No Limit Engineering GTT Class for trucks were back and forth all weekend long, before Carroll finally pulled away Sunday afternoon on the Falken Tire road course time trial.
In the GT class for late-model muscle cars, it was even more of a battle. Matt Ramirez’s ’04 Mustang posted a 490-point weekend, which would’ve been good enough for the win in any other class, except GTS, but defending GT Class champion Dave Schotz was also running this weekend.
Whenever any competitor posts a score of 490 points or better, that immediately puts them on the short list of contenders for the OUSCI title, so there’s no question Ramirez’s car is in elite company. However, Schotz found a way to edge him out, picking up 494 points en route to his first class win of the season.
The series heads back east to Pittsburgh at the end of the month and won’t return west until the October weekend at Thunderhill, with three events in between. Will some West Coast competitors get too anxious and make the long haul east to secure their spots in Las Vegas or their points for a championship run? We’ll find out as the season moves on. You can keep up with the series at www.DriveOPTIMA.com.
All the cars that compete in this series must be street-legal and run at least 200 treadwear tires. One of the five segments worth up to 100 points is a road rally, which, on this weekend, took competitors to a nearby AutoZone location.
One of the knocks against EVs are their range, so it’s ironic that one of the few vehicles that was driven to and from this event—from Utah—was Brandon Hurst’s 2022 Tesla Model S. He was at about 60 percent state of charge when he left the track with his tire trailer in tow and figured he’d get a couple hours in before stopping for dinner and a charge.
Bob Sobey’s Nissan GT-R has an automatic invitation to defend its OUSCI title, and Brandon Hurst’s Tesla punched its ticket earlier this season. That meant Tony Prutch’s podium finish at Laguna Seca earned his ’21 Corvette a trip to the SEMA Show
You’ll see a lot of engine swaps in this series, mostly of the LS or K variety, but John McKissack took the road less traveled with a $500 2.3-liter Duratec out of a Ford Ranger going into his ’71 MG BGT
AutoZone sponsors the Get in the Zone award, which pits two closely matched competitors against each other for a $50 AutoZone gift card. Last year at Laguna Seca, Giovanni Acosta’s ’20 GT500 and James Pierce’s ’17 Camaro both scored 343 points. They both scored better this year, but Acosta came out on top with 398 points.
Top Ten Overall
- Bob Sobey 2013 Nissan GTR GTS 497 points
- Dave Schotz 2022 Chevrolet Camaro GT 494 points
- Matt Ramirez 2004 Ford Mustang GT 490 points
- Brian Hobaugh 1973 Chevrolet Camaro GTV 480 points
- CB Ramey 1968 Porsche 912 GTL 472 points
- Brandon Hurst 2022 Tesla Model S GTS 470 points
- Mike Rovere 2008 Chevrolet Corvette GTL 467 points
- Nick Relampagos 1970 Chevrolet Camaro GTV 466 points
- Efrain Diaz 1969 Chevrolet Camaro GTV 450 points
- Tony Prutch 2021 Chevrolet Corvette GTS 449 points
2025 OPTIMA Ultimate Street Car Schedule
February 21-23rd Sebring RacewayMarch 28-30th NOLA Motorsports ParkMay 2-4th Weathertech Raceway Laguna Seca- May 30-June 1st Pittsburg International Race Complex
- June 27-29th Road America
- August 15-17th Summit Motorsports Park
- October 10-12th Thunderhill Raceway Park
- October 17-19th Barber Motorsports Park
- November 2-7th OUSCI Las Vegas
- QA1 First Timer Award - Hayley Weller 2023 Chevrolet Corvette
- Anderson Composites Competitor’s Choice Award - CB Ramey 1968 Porsche 912
- Operational Speed Supply Most-Improved Driver - Tony Phillips 2020 Subaru BRZ
Born and raised in Southern California I started as the technical editor for Popular Hot Rodding (PHR) magazine where I learned the business before moving over to work with Nick Licata, at Camaro Performers, as his tech editor. At PHR I built a 1968 Camaro called Bad Penny that was one of the earlier pro-touring cars that actually ran the track hard. We won the first Optima Ultimate Street Car Invitational in 2008 and placed well several other years. At Camaro Performers we started several project cars and did a ton of tech. Eventually I was made editor of Vette magazine for a short time before being slotted to run Super Chevy magazine. Running the brands was fun, but I've always enjoyed being a technical writer more. So after more than 15 years I'm back to writing tech content, this time for the HOT ROD network. I enjoy being with my family, shooting, and working on my latest car, a 1969 Camaro called Tri Tip.
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