It was quite the challenge: maintaining a speed limit above 80 miles per hour but below 124 miles per hour over a 90-mile stretch of a highway in Nevada.
“It is the opportunity to speed legally for once in your life,” marvelled Doug Seal.
“Not that anyone of us would speed,” he added.
Seal was in the driver’s seat of a Dodge Viper while his son, 28-year-old Brent Seal, served as the navigator.
Doug Seal is the dealership principal for Willowbrook Chrysler.
The father/son team was in Nevada a few weeks ago for the Silver State Classic Challenge.
The four-day event wrapped up on May 19 with the Seal’s winning their division in the Open Road Challenge.
“It is a timed event so what you are trying to get as close to exactly 110 miles per hour for 90 miles as possible,” Doug explained.
“You can’t maintain exactly 110 because you hit corners and hills, so you have to figure out what speed you have to go to hit that exact number at the end.”
And going above or below the speed range would result in disqualification.
While Doug drove the 2010 Dodge Viper ACR, Brent was in the passenger seat monitoring his father’s speed.
Driving an average of 110 mph over the 90 miles would translate into a time of 49:09.
“As we came closer to the end, within the last 10 miles, there are times for every mile, so we were adjusting our speed as we came to the finish line,” Doug said.
“By the time we got to the last mile, we were within a second of where we wanted to be.
“And as we came to the finish line, he started counting down the seconds and I had to get the speed right so we crossed the finish line exactly as he got to zero.”
The Seal team averaged 109.9934 miles per hour which meant they were just 17/100ths of a second off a perfect time.
Second place went to Paul Shoquist, who was in a 2013 Chevrolet Camaro. He finished with an average speed of 110.0243 and 65/100ths of the target.
As beginners, they were limited to the 110mph division, but should they enter again, they can move up. The divisions rise go up in increments of five miles per hour up to 180 mph.
“I felt pretty safe with my dad driving,” Brent said.
“I told someone after I don’t think I could have navigated for anyone else.”
The four-day event also features a shootout, a half-mile drag race on a different highway.
“It was a rush,” Brent said.
“I kind of compare the shootout to bungee jumping, an adrenaline rush.
“And the rally was more like climbing a mountain: it a longer period of time and more things can go wrong.
“(But) they are both pretty amazing adventures.”
Both Doug and Brent did a car racing training course at Mission Raceway a few years back and they attend an annual car show together each year. But this was the first time they did anything like this.
“It was a father-son bonding thing, an adventure we could do together,” Brent said.
“He took me along to join him and it was just a good time to spend some time with my dad and have a big adventure together.”