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Name: Mike Ventorino Location: Armonk, NY 10504 Gender: Male Age: 28 Occupation: Real Estate
About:
I am a dreamer at heart. Never satisfied with living in “the now”, always thinking about the “soon to be!”, I often find myself asking questions… Why be happy with a 350 hp SUV? Why not get a 425 hp muscle car? Why leave it stock? Why not start a car club? Why just WATCH Bullrun on TV, why NOT race it myself? Bullrun to me is the epitome of automotive competition. It isn’t a ¼ mile race with no turns, it isn’t a 500 mile left turn only race, it isn’t a 24 hour non-stop multiple driver race, It isn’t an off-road rally race, what it IS is a combination of all of them! Two guys in a fast car, one driving, one navigating, the trip being the reward rather than the destination… there is nothing better! My family is car people, so every car in our garage is Bullrun ready, and I am choosing the car [probably] LEAST suited for the job. The Challenger doesn’t have the range, refinement, all-wheel-drive, or reliability that it’s Bavarian stable mates have… But what it is lacking in all of those, it makes up for with what I like to call the “American Hat-Trick”: Power, Aggression, and Self Sacrifice! I owe a great deal of thanks to my beautiful [sometimes] supportive wife Jackie without whom my dreams might never come to fruition. I am doing this as an example for my daughter Samantha to learn from. Just because you CAN do something you want in life, doesn’t mean you always DO, and if you DON’T, you’ll always wonder WHAT IF I HAD! Weather I make it on the Bullrun TV show or I wait on the waiting list for the ACTUAL Bullrun for years, I will be taking the first step in realizing a major goal in my life.
Mission Statement:
Together we probably drive a combined total of 100K+ miles a year from property to property, office to office, job to job… We are in the Northeast, so we have 4 seasons and plenty of weather: rain, snow, sleet, ice, heat, fog, we drive in it all… Some would say that is the shitty part of a job… We say it’s the only part we look forward to! Our team mission in competing in Bullrun is to have a blast doing what we love most… Driving!
About My Team:
Mark and Mike first joined forces when Mark [a contractor] did work for Mike [a blue collar WASP] at his house. Mark noticed that while in most home studies people put things like BOOKS on shelves, hang [classy] ART on the walls, and rest tumblers of scotch on designer FURNITURE; Mike puts die cast models of classic Mopar muscle cars on the shelves, car paintings on the walls, and has steering wheel coffee tables to rest his beer… Mike doesn’t call it a study, it’s his Mopar Muscle Man Cave! Mike noticed that while Mark drove a Ford Excursion [AKA “the bus”] as a daily driver, he sometimes caught him in a Z06 recounting stories of his days in the pit crew of a drag racing team traveling the country… Since they have joined forces, they formed the Sub16 Car Club; a club whose only restriction is that your car’s power to weight ratio is below 16. A win in Bullrun [which is anticipated] will greatly boost Sub16’s status/legitimacy. If we get picked to be on the TV show and win, the prize money will be split THREE ways: 33% goes to Mark so he can put a nice down payment on the NEW Z06/ZR1 he’s been eyeing [Vette guys are NEVER satisfied only owning ONE], 33% goes to Mike so he can pay off his car loan and hopefully get Helen all Hurst’ed out, and 33% goes to Helen/Sub16 to get the wheels off the ground!
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My Ride:
Make: Dodge
Model: Challenger SRT8 Year: 2009 Color: Black Engine Size: 6.1 Liter HP/TQ: 500/450 Max Speed: Faster than I've gone 0-60: 4.7 seconds MPG: Hahahahaha!
Team Setup:
Team: Team Challenger
My Role: Driver My Team Member: Marko Hunt
My Biggest Strength:
I possess a Magellan like senses of direction. My middle & confirmation names are actually Tom & Tom, my parents & Jesus found it quite apt! I once thought I was lost, but when I pulled over to get my bearings I found that I was in fact AT my intended destination. I possess a knowledge of the inner workings of an engine so vast that SOME SAY the M division of BMW was named such in honor of me. After finding out the human heart has only four chambers I sought the aid of a cardio thoracic surgeon who would transplant ANOTHER heart into my chest cavity WHILST leaving their current [fully functional] hearts in place, thus making an eight “cylinder” cardio vascular system. VIVE, VIDE, V8! I possess the ability to drive anything with a motor and wheels both accurately and fast [when called for]. I once drove out of midtown Manhattan [east side] in rush hour, while the UN was having their General Assembly [and President Bush was in town], on the Friday of a long weekend, in under 15 minutes! True story… The car: My 2009 Dodge Challenger SRT8... In the 70’s the Challenger arrived just in time for the oil embargo. This iteration showed up on the scene just in time for $5 a gallon gas and “the Great Depression II”… Some might call the Challenger the harbinger of death for muscle cars. I call her HELEN! She’s named after my grandmother… A beautiful full figured woman that is an imposing force even when silent, if you piss her off however she is LOUD, POWERFUL, and AGGRESSIVE! The car is less than a year old, so reliability shouldn’t be an issue. It has a few Mopar performance/suspension upgrades installed by Mopar techs, so that will give us more of an edge without limiting drivability/reliability [AKA she can THROW DOWN in a challenge if needed]. She has the room to not feel CRAMPED on long journeys [such as Bullrun], which means Mike and Mark won’t try to kill each other! Therefore I would have to say team Challenger’s BIGGEST STRENGTH is our total LACK of anything resembling a weakness!
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