The third stop on Optima’s Search for the Ultimate Street Car, presented by Advance Auto Parts, visited Las Vegas Motor Speedway on April 25-26, 2015, which is also the venue for the Optima Ultimate Street Car Invitational (OUSCI) held the Saturday following the SEMA Show. More than 50 competitors from around the country converged on Sin City, chasing one of four qualifying positions awarded to class winners.

In the hotly contested GT class, defending OUSCI champion Danny Popp took the top spot in his 2010 Camaro, followed by fellow fifth-gen driver Ken Thwaits. Since both had already qualified for the 2015 OUSCI, the qualifying spot was awarded to Third-place finisher Jordan Priestley in his 2011 Camaro. A pair of imports won the GTL and GTS classes, with Brandon Ranvek’s Evo and Thomas Smith’s Subaru winning their respective classes. In the GTV class, Mike Maier took home the victory in his Mustang.

The $3,000 bounty available to the first Mustang or Challenger newcomer who can beat Ken Thwaits’ Camaro in the GT class went unclaimed for a third straight event, leading some within the series to begin questioning whether there are any Mustangs or Challengers capable of knocking off Thwaits’ Lingenfelter-powered Camaro. The rules are fairly liberal in that regard, with the two biggest limiting factors for street-legal contenders being 200 treadwear tires and the driver not being a professional racer.

The next stop in the Search for the Ultimate Street Car is scheduled for June 6-7, 2015, at the new track at the National Corvette Museum in Bowling Green, Kentucky. Competitors can register online at driveoptima.com. Fans of the series can also watch episodes of the TV series every Friday night on MAVTV at 8 p.m. ET.

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