Western Campus of Tri-C Geared Up for Day of Speed

May 02, 2014

Thursday afternoon, the Western Campus of Cuyahoga Community College (Tri-C®) hosted a Day of Speed. The cruise-in saw vintage, muscle and race cars taking up real estate in the parking lot near the Advanced Automotive Technology Center.

The main attraction was the dragster belonging to the P.B. Blaster race team. Driver Barney Barnhart said the car used a big-block Chevrolet engine to generate 952 horsepower. It finishes the quarter-mile in 7.6 seconds at about 175 miles per hour.

Barnhart races the car in divisional and national brackets at Summit Motorsports Park in Norwalk.

“If they are racing, we are there,” Barnhart said.

Students, many of them in the auto tech program, shuffled about, debating the merits of original versus modified engines, snapping pictures and geeking out over technical specifications.

Pat O’Brien Chevrolet displayed both convertible and hardtop 2014 Camaros, hoods open. Big 3 Racing brought a Plymouth Duster and Ford Mustang, both modified with fat rear tires and muscled-up engines for drag racing.

Parma-area residents took part, too, bringing vehicles ranging from a vintage Ford pickup truck to sporty Corvettes.

The event ran from 3-7 p.m., with intermittent rain forcing ragtops to be lifted and lowered and the dragster to be pulled in and out of its trailer.

Deejay Matt Kosyk, of Excel Entertainment, provided the music.