Bradenton Motorsports Park presented by Brian Crower welcomed thousands of racers and race fans October 5-8, 2023 for the 14th annual FL2k event. The newly expanded stands at the track were filled to near capacity on Saturday as enthusiasts saw some of the fastest street cars in the country click off incredible elapsed times.
The Bradenton Motorsports Park’s annual FL2K normally signals the winter race season in the Sunshine State, but the event was greeted with Florida’s familiar summer-time heat and humidity that both fans and racers alike had to contend with. The heat nor the rain that befell Bradenton on Saturday deterred fans from piling through the gates in anticipation of the action that was to happen this weekend, however, as epic racing and even record-breaking runs made Florida ground-zero for fast street cars.
The quickest of the Street Car Shootout contenders saw Danny Coots and his super-clean Mustang set the pace with a 6.93 elapsed time, but he had to bow out due to engine issues after the fourth qualifying round. Travis Mangum took the Elite class win (7.17 to 7.21), along with Michael Chambley in True Street (on a massive holeshot 7.91 to 7.80), Shane Garcia in Pro Street (8.27 to 8.31), and Dean Molson Jr. in Super Street (8.78 to 8.88).
Outlaw Stick Shift is where the quickest H-pattern, manual transmission-equipped cars run and it should be no surprise that class record holders Jonathan Atkins and Joel Grannas found themselves in the finals. Atkins and his Camaro edged out Grannas and his Supra in the final round, 6.83 to 6.98. Sport Stick Shift saw Bryant Rogers win on a holeshot as well over Alex Martinez, 9.12 to 8.98 and Karl Goin took the Street Stick Shift win over Steven Berube, 9.86 to 14.58.
FL2k brings in some of the quickest front-wheel-drive machines anywhere, and Carlos Olivio set the pace with a wicked 7.85-second effort. In the finals, though, it was Nicole Elff who grabbed the win over Yerral Vargas-Lopez, 8.13 to 8.74.
The fifth-generation Toyota Supras were featured in their own class at FL2K with Michael Botti qualifying number one with an 8.26 at 172.65 mph. He would take that performance and improve on it on his way to the finals, where he defeated Bradley Dillon, 8.13 to 9.00 for the class win.
All-Wheel-Drive vs Dual-Clutch Transmission cars were pitted against each other and separated into two classes. Cesar Savinon drove his Nissan GTR to the Street win over Mike Dorcik and his GTR in a race decided by reaction time. Both drivers clocked 8.414 e.t.’s, but Savinon left first, .083 to Dorcik’s .157.
In the AWD vs DCT Pro class, it was the GTR of Asier Torres who drove to a staggering 7.34 time at 202 mph for the win over Daniel Rodriguez and his ’93 Civic’s 9.78.
One of the most popular classes is the Extreme 28s vs Tres Cuarto class and Brett LaSala’s Mustang was the car to beat with a 6.45 run at 218.34 mph to take the top qualifying spot. In a battle of small-block Coyote power versus big-block Chevy, LaSala took the win over Garrett Mitchell’s Mullet El Camino with an incredible 6.33 at 224 mph over Mitchell’s off-the-pace 12.11.
