Getting your player ready...
Two competitors can make a “horse race;” this one, though, took 18 months to reach the “track.”
One hundred invited guests at Longmont’s Vance Brand Memorial Airport on Monday saw Scott Pruett, a professional race driver for 26 years, pilot the $375,000 Lexus LFA supersportscar to victory over an Eclipse 500 corporate jet. The attraction was sparked 18 months ago when Marc Arnold, an Eclipse charter pilot, while admiring the new, sleek LFA in the showroom of Stevinson Lexus of Frederick wondered aloud whether the sports car could compete with an Eclipse. “Let’s find out,” responded Kent Stevinson, and the bet was set – $5,000 to Longmont-based Our Center if the Lexus won, the same payoff to Veteran’s Airlift Command for a win by the jet. Shutting down an airport for such a promotion isn’t done quickly; in fact, it is done very slowly in the face of Federal Aviation Administration regulations. Stevinson and Arnold persisted, and there we were shortly after noon Monday. Stirring interest among the gathering was longtime auto dealer Stevinson, in a P.T. Barnum role. The spectators crowded toward the 4,800-foot runway as the jet, flying low, shot past the starting point at about 175 miles per hour. At that moment, Pruett kicked the LFA into action from a standing start. At the runway end, each was to make a U-turn and head back the same distance.The jet, of course, had the lead at halfway, but as Arnold guided it much higher into the air to make the 180-degree maneuver, the quick sports car was looping around and heading back. By the time the jet got turned and headed down the runway at 300 miles per hour, the Lexus, at about 170 mph, was nearing the finish. The Lexus finished two seconds ahead of the jet. The race was about a minute. As it turns out, there really wasn’t a loser. It was a “win-win stunt” from the start. With Lexus and Eclipse matching the Arnold/Stevinson bet, both charities collected. Our Center unifies community resources to help people move toward self-sufficiency; Veteran’s Airlift Command provides transportation to wounded veterans and their families for medical and other purposes.
