Youth versus Experience in the Dodge Viper Cup

History will show that one of the all-time Mopar® legends is the Dodge Viper—and of the many different generations, the 2010 ACR-X is near the top of the list.

Words: Roger Meiners

History will show that one of the all-time Mopar® legends is the Dodge Viper—and of the many different generations, the 2010 ACR-X is near the top of the list. The ACR-X is a pure racing car, meant for the track and outfitted with all the necessary performance and safety gear—roll cage, fuel cell, open exhausts and 40 extra horsepower. Dodge is hosting a series of races strictly limited to the 
ACR-X. Called Viper Cup, the inaugural ten-race season was last year and the series continues in 2011—beginning with the first race at Florida’s Sebring International Raceway May 13–15. Four more two-race events follow, with the finale at Daytona International Speedway in October.

By far, the youngest drivers in the series have been 25-year-old Ryan Schimsk of Austin, Texas, the 2010 Viper Cup champion; and new guy A.J. Morgan, Darien, Ill., the 21-year-old go-kart and midget driver who showed at Sebring that he will challenge for the title this year.

Schimsk got his track experience in Mazda Miatas, racing in the ultra-competitive series reserved for this entry-level sports car. The low-horsepower Miata is what is called a “momentum car,” meaning that the way to be competitive is to maintain speed in the corners because the cars don’t regain lost momentum very well. The added power of the ACR-X is a massive 640 hp layer of icing on the cake. While some drivers don’t make the transition to high power, Schimsk did just fine. In fact, he started off the 2010 season at Virginia International Raceway the fastest of all and scored a third and a win in the two races. He probably would have won both, but started Race 1 at the back because of a technical glitch with his Viper.

Schimsk’s main competition was the much-older Ben Keating, a Chrysler-Jeep®-Dodge-Ram dealer from Tomball, Texas, near Houston. Keating is a hard-charging Viper specialist on and off the track (he runs a Viper clearing house called Viper Exchange that locates cars for customers everywhere). The two drivers duked it out all season, until Schimsk took a big advantage by running the table with two wins in the penultimate round at Miller Motorsports Park near Salt Lake City. Ryan does not have a Viper Cup ride this year as his car owner, Cody Whitehead, sold the ACR-X at the end of the season. A.J. Morgan, too, is off to a good start in 2011, taking the hot-shoe role that Schimsk is vacating. He served notice last season by finishing second behind Indy Car driver Richie Hearn in the Texas round of the Viper Cup championships.

Morgan started racing go-karts in the World Karting Association at age 8, winning six Great Lakes and Midwest Sprint championships. He was WKA Grand National Champion in 2001 and also took the 2001 Great Lakes Sprint Series Championships by winning every race. He competed and won in the USAC Kenyon Midget Car Series—his first victory coming in 2004.

A.J. won the first Viper Cup race of the season this year by passing Ben Keating (Ben is baaack!) in the one hot lap allowed in the race, due to a start-line crash that caused a red flag and took almost all the allotted race time to clean up. In the second race, Morgan had clutch trouble and had to drop out while leading by a big margin, but he had the fastest lap in both races. Keating crashed in the first turn at the start of the race but carved his way back through the field to take third, dragging his undertray behind when it came loose on the last lap. It will be exceedingly interesting to watch the super-aggressive Keating go against the young rookie this year.

Will age and treachery beat youth and skill this year? We don’t want to bet on it.