Ryan Pederson Becomes First Stick-Shift C6 Corvette to Run a 6-Second Pass During TX2K at Texas Motorplex
Although we’re almost used to seeing 6-second and 7-second runs from drag-and-drive cars, it can still require a good amount of money, time and broken parts to get there.
Add in the manual transmission option, and it gets harder still. But some still choose to do battle with the third pedal intact, and the records and victories become a little sweeter.
Sick the Magazine has new merchandise for 2024, including Sick Summer offerings! Don’t wait for the event and stand in line; get Sick Summer swag - CLICK HERE!
Ryan Pederson and the Speedy Peedy team fields one of the quicker Corvette stick-shift entries in the country, with his twin-turbo 2007 C6 model normally in the 7-second range and competitive in most of the bigger stick-shift classes.
Making the tow from Wisconsin to Texas for the annual TX2K event, Ryan would be fighting for a spot amongst the proven 6-second rides of Jonathan Adkins, Nick Cole-Mann and Joel Grannas.
Early on, the track would prove tight enough on traction that most stick-shift entries were suffering from tire shake, and thus most of the top runners were in the 7-second range, if not aborting passes because of the conditions.
But eventually cars started figuring out the surface; first for Adkins and his ‘Grubbworm’ ’97 Camaro with a 6.99 at 211 mph pass. Then Cole-Mann’s ’91 S-10 dropped a 6.82 at 212 mph.
Pederson and crew were finding themselves stuck in the sevens, and the Corvette had exercised second-gear a little too hard, forcing it to retire. Thankfully, the crew carries a spare, so the swap was made and they headed back to the lanes for the final qualifying session of Thursday.
Lined up with Adkins, Pederson would finally crack off his first 6-second pass, a 6.99 at 199 mph, becoming the first C6 Corvette to do so. But it came with a damage report, as a puff of smoke near the end of the run signaled the bad news. “Torched the (cylinder) head on the passenger side; working on tear down and will be ready to go for the rest of the week,” was the report from the team.
Watch the run below:
TX2K will continue through Sunday for qualifying and final eliminations, and we’ll have more on the event coming up!
Written by Derek Putnam. Photos courtesy of Ryan Pederson, Motion Raceworks, TBM Brakes and Precision Turbo; video courtesy of Flo Racing.
If you have thoughts / feedback / ideas, please e-mail us at derek@sickthemagazine.com