Danny Popp is no spring chicken when it comes to the Optima Batteries Ultimate Street Car Invitational. The Lingenfelter-sponsored racer has been a contender in this competition for several years, and this time, luck and skill came together to reward the man with a massive Overall Winner trophy to take home. Popp has seen success before at the OBUSCI, having won before at the 2011 event.
Popp’s path to victory was blazed by his 2003 Z06, packed with upgrades courtesy of Lingenfelter. It was a neck-and-neck fight, with Brandon Ranvek’s 2006 Mitsubishi Evo ranking just one point below Popp. Third place went to Betim Berisha in his 2011 Porsche 911TT.
Up against a field of more than 100 rivals (as well as a new venue, the Las Vegas Motor Speedway), Popp definitely had his work cut out for him, but he was able to rise above the stress and anxiety. He even managed to secure a win in the BF Goodrich Hot Lap Challenge, as well as take second place in the Ridetech Street Challenge Autocross.
Lingenfelter’s vice president of operations, Mike Copeland, agreed that the event represented one of the tougher challenges of the year: “The lessons we learn in this series contribute to the development of our own performance parts line. Being able to compete against some of the best performance cars in the country on the nation’s most prestigious racetracks helps us research and test how new component technologies will perform under a multitude of challenging conditions.”
Congratulations are in order for Popp, his team, and the folks at Lingenfelter who made this achievement possible. Check out more from Lingenfelter by visiting their website and Facebook page.