Danny Popp's L28 Camaro- a 2012 OUSCI Preview

We've been saving the preview of defending OPTIMA Ultimate Street Car Invitational (OUSCI) Champion, Danny Popp, for one of the last for the sold-out 2012 OUSCI, presented by Royal Purple and K&N Filters. For those of you unfamiliar with Popp beyond his OUSCI participation, let us once again share a portion of his resume.

Popp is a seven-time SCCA Solo/ProSolo National Champion and five-time NASA Roadrace/Time Trial National Champion. He has won ten Divisional SCCA Championships, 18 Regional Championships and one NASA Regional Championship. He has competed in the Tire Rack One Lap of America three times, finishing as high as third place overall in 2005. He is also a two-time record-holder for the Tire Rack OLOA skid pad and holds NASA track records for the TTU class at Putnam Park, the VIR North Course and Mid-Ohio, where he also holds track records for TTS ST1. In addition to winning the 2011 OUSCI, Popp also won the Grassroots Motorsports 2007 Ultimate Track Car Shootout.

The car Popp is competing in this year is the Lingenfelter L28 Camaro, which Popp tell us produces 681 horsepower and 588 lb.-ft. of torque. This car won the OPTIMA Faceoff at Road America with Popp behind the wheel, but Danny is the first one to point out the car's 4,050 curb weight with driver puts him at a distinct disadvantage against several of the other top contenders.

Even with that hefty weight, the L/28 Camaro still managed to run an 11.4 at 128 mph in the quarter mile and has posted best lap times of 1:31 at the Gingerman short course, 1:17 at Putnam Park and 1:39 at the Road America short course. That doesn't even take into consideration all the miles accumulated on countless autocross courses, as well as multiple runs in Speed Stop competition, both at Holley's LS Fest and the Road America Faceoff.

It is safe to say the Lingenfelter L/28 Camaro is well-sorted out and ready for the 2012 OUSCI. Even with Danny's impressive resume and the L28's proven capability, Popp declined to rank any of the events as a "1" on a scale of one to five, in terms of what he felt his chances of scoring points might be, including the Detroit Speed Engineering/JRI Shocks Road Rally.

Even though he did rank every other event as a "two" and he is running in a car that may not be as fast as his Corvette was last year, we think Popp may be underestimating his chances. If you'd like to read a little more about what has been done to the L/28 Camaro, check out this story from TopSpeed.com. You can watch all the TV coverage from the 2012 OUSCI and all the other Ultimate Street Car events for free, anytime on the OPTIMA Network on Roku.