John Ens and David Schroeder Visit Bradenton for First Test on C7 Corvette and Prep for Peak Street Car Shootout at NHRA Route 66 National Event
After debuting a replacement C7 Corvette at last year’s PRI show in Indianapolis, the Canadian team of David Schroeder and John Ens were clear in their intentions to have a competitive nitrous entry ready for the 2024 season.
“The new car will require a bunch of passes before we put it in any competition,” said Schroeder, and that process began this week at Bradenton Motorsports Park in Bradenton, Florida.
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The new C7 Jerry Bickel Race Cars Corvette, which was built 11 cars after the team’s original C7 model Corvette, was acquired as a basic assortment of tubes and a body.
“We had a decent head start on the first C7, as it has seen some runs under the previous owner,” Schroeder admitted. “The new one is starting from scratch, but we kept our first one to help with visuals and measurements to help with.”
Filling the engine bay is the same 872 cubic inch Reher-Morrison engine that was in the team’s previous Corvette, but they have now added a fifth stage of nitrous to the mill.
With the car completely assembled and ready, Schroeder and Ens scheduled a two-day test session at Bradenton Motorsports Park to get the car lined out and find a starting point for their 2024 season.
The first day was cut short due to a broken rear end center section, and after the fix was made, the team started to chip away getting a baseline setting on day two.
The new car is about 100 pounds lighter than the old car, and they needed some runs to figure out a good baseline to get the nitrous-fed Corvette to make a solid hit in the first part of the track.
The final run brought in a 1.01 60 foot time, and a 2.80-second 330 foot time before Schroeder coasted the rest of the way. “We were pretty happy with the last pass,” said Schroder. “Our previous best 330 foot time with the old Corvette was a 2.72, so to be within striking distance of it after just a handful of runs on the new car is encouraging.”
The team plans to test again before making their official event debut as part of the Route 66 NHRA Nationals presented by PEAK Performance at Chicago’s Route 66 Raceway, participating in the Peak Street Car Shootout. Depending on results, they also plan to compete on Hot Rod Drag Week in September.
Written by Derek Putnam. Photos courtesy of Sick the Magazine, Schroeder / Ens and Robert Williams.
If you have thoughts / feedback / ideas, please e-mail us at derek@sickthemagazine.com