Roddin’ & Racin’ photographer Rod Loveless, myself and 15 other members of the media took part in the Mecum Collector Car Auctions Media Day event held at the sprawling Radford Racing School facility at Wild Horse Pass Motorsports Park in Chandler. The purpose of the media day was to not only promote the Mecum Collector Car Auction on March 28th – April 1st at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona, it also promotes the Radford Racing School. Radford Racing School is basically the formerly known Bob Bondurant School of High-Performance Driving that was started in 1968. Many of the skilled driving instructors have been teaching advanced driving and racing skills for over 25 years, including Chief Instructor Danny Bullock who’s been with the school for 25 years. Danny was our host from the school and provided great information about Radford Racing and the many different courses from teen driving and racing classes to full-blown advanced racing courses. He also mentioned that the main courses are for advanced driving skills for the average person. They have Team Courses where 10 or more students from the same company will take part in several hours to multiple-day courses. Except for their Carting courses and the open-wheel advanced racing courses, all courses feature driving the amazing and thrilling 797 horsepower Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat and Dodge Chargers. The Radford Racing School has courses starting at less than $500.00 and go all the way to multiple-day advanced driving or racing courses. Rod and l were both very impressed with the professionalism we saw there. John Kraman the main TV commentator from the Mecum Auctions group and Chris Jacobs a roving TV commentator at the Mecum auctions and was the host of the Overhaulin’ TV show provided information about Mecum Auctions. They explained how Mecum has become the leading collector car auction company in the world. Annual sales are now over $800,000,000 and they sell close to 35,000 vehicles. The Mecum Auction on March 28th to April 1st at State Farm Stadium in Glendale Arizona has grown to 5 days in just their 5th year here.
The auction will feature up to 2000 vehicles and countless Road-Art (Automobilia) items crossing the auction block.
As part of our Media Day fun, we all got to drive a Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat on a short slalom course and an Autocross course. The final event of the day, was a white knuckle two lap ride along with one of thevery skilled instructors as they drove the Hellcats at full speed around the Radford Racing School’s road course. Those Dodges are absolutely amazing and except for a brake pad upgrade, they are 100% direct from the factory. When in use, they are actually serviced twice a day and if anything major ever goes wrong, they are simply serviced under the Factory Warranty. 2023 is the last year for these 800 horsepower Hemi-powered monsters. Dodge has not announced what will replace them, but stay tuned hopefully it will be just as thrilling as the Hellcats are. The Radford Racing School is the official and only racing school for the Dodge Hellcats and each new owner receives a free driving course when they purchase one. Here are the important numbers: www.radfordracingschool.com 480-403-7600 and www.mecum.com 262-275-5050.
