{"id":34098,"date":"2020-02-02T10:00:18","date_gmt":"2020-02-02T15:00:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.dodgegarage.com\/news-api\/?p=34098"},"modified":"2024-03-25T11:23:09","modified_gmt":"2024-03-25T15:23:09","slug":"a-place-for-the-evil-ones","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/racing\/2020\/02\/a-place-for-the-evil-ones.html","title":{"rendered":"A Place for the Evil Ones"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

It is true, even the bad kids need a friend or a place to\ncall home sometimes. Generally, a friend of the bad kid is more than likely,\nyes, another bad kid. They kind of stick together, don\u2019t they? Well, let me tell\nyou a story of some outcasts that found strength in numbers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Straight out of the New Testament, a group of demons is\nreferred to as a legion, and thus, the Legion of Demons was born. I have\nmentioned a few times in the past that the 2018 Dodge Challenger SRT\u00ae<\/sup> Demon was born with a\ntarget on its back. Everyone wanted a piece of an SRT Demon: the naysayers wanted so\nbadly for the SRT Demon to fail and keyboard warriors abroad sat biting their nails\nwaiting for them to hit the tracks and not perform as promised. When the SRT Demon\nwas announced, many of the higher-ups involved with the project flat out stated\n\u201cThe Demon CAN run a 9.65, but you probably aren\u2019t going to without a lot of\npractice.\u201d And they were right. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Dodge<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

When all the SRT Demon owners started hitting the track for the\nfirst season, it was apparent that running a 9.65 was going to be no easy task.\nIn fact, for a long time, there were only a few people to even break down the\n10.0 wall. The Ford and Chevy fanboys were having a hay day. The SRT Demon wasn\u2019t\nas simple to make a perfect run in as everyone thought it would be. Many less-than-stellar attempts were made across the country every time an SRT Demon owner\nstaged up to the tree. Of course, being such a limited production, seeing an SRT\nDemon at the track was, and still is somewhat of a rarity, so you better\nbelieve everyone with a camera or phone had it out to capture the pass. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Dodge<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Anyone who owned an SRT Demon realized it was going to take some\nseat time to really get these cars dialed in, but there was one problem. We\ncould not seem to escape the scrutiny and prying eyes of a digital world. We\njust didn\u2019t seem to fit in; we couldn\u2019t find any friends. Enter Byron Godbee, a\nman totally in love with everything the SRT Demon was and represented – so much so,\nhe bought two of them! You see, he bought them to fulfill his desire to\ndrag race and he wanted to race it as much as possible. That became a bit of a\nchallenge pretty quickly as the SRT Demon got separated into its own class in most\nof the HEMI\u00ae<\/sup> racing events. Meaning, sit around and wait for the SRT Demon’s turn to\nrun. If you were lucky, you might get a few runs in. So there stood a handful\nof SRT Demon guys at every event, last in line to run, only getting two or three\nruns in, not running 9.65. And it wasn\u2019t because the car wasn\u2019t capable; it was\nbecause there just wasn\u2019t enough seat time. For several months, Godbee tossed\nthe idea around and bounced some ideas back and forth with some other SRT Demon\nowners. He wanted to create an SRT Demon car club. SRT Demon owners are spread out thin\nacross the country, so it had to be something extra special. Much like a fraternity\nthat included SRT Demons only. Period. It had to be cool enough to draw SRT Demon\nowners to trek across the country to meet up. This had to be an exclusive club.\n\u201cBut what exactly will the club do?\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Dodge<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Well, for starters, create an SRT Demon-only event where the attendance is controlled and limited to only SRT Demons so they can learn the cars without the judgmental eyes of the world. Get nearly unlimited runs and seat time with the best track prep in the biz. That should get people interested, right? Yea, it did! A club was needed. Much like the Viper Club of America, a club for the outcasts that no one understood or wanted to associate with. Together, it could be a family with strength in numbers. The first and only SRT Demon-only club was created. Legion of Demons. A gathering of SRT Demons, a place to call home. Let’s show the world, and the haters, what an SRT Demon can really do. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first item on the agenda for this group of ruffians was\nto create a private event to allow SRT Demon owners to come and learn how to drive\ntheir car. No cameras, no judging, no competition and no excuses. The mission\nwas to get as many cars as possible into the 9s and hopefully some close to\nDodge\u2019s claimed 9.65.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Dodge<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The First Gathering<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

At an unrelated track day in October 2018, in his quest to\nhit 9.65 totally stock, Godbee managed a 9.86. We are talking bone stock on the\nfactory tires. This was the fastest anyone had raced a stock SRT Demon up to that\ndate. Godbee knew that he was on the right path in getting the highly targeted\n9.65 and that an SRT Demon-only private track event would be the perfect way to get\ncloser to that goal. It wasn\u2019t just for him, it was for all the other people on\nthe same quest. Godbee got organized\nwith his thoughts and intentions and set up the first-ever SRT Demon event, Legion\nOf Demons – The First Gathering. It was on the books for just a few months out\nin January 2019. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not only would it be a private track day free of criticism,\nbut Godbee gathered several other 9.65 warriors to give some classes at the\nevent to anyone with less experience in their SRT Demons. The First Gathering\nattracted 48 SRT Demon owners and cars to its first-ever event. The results? ALL 48\nSRT Demons that attended the event ran faster than a 10.0. Pooling the knowledge\nand working together with a common goal, they were able to get nearly 40 SRT Demons\ninto the 9s for the first time. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Dodge<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

For Godbee, the results of The First Gathering were just\nadditional bits of validation that the SRT Demon CAN do what Dodge claims, and that\nthe Legion is just what they needed to get there. The logical next step was a\nfollow-up race event to further push what they had just started. The event was\nheld in July 2019 in Norwalk, Ohio. The third and final event for 2019 was in\nNovember in Clay City, Kentucky. This event allowed others with a Mopar\u00ae<\/sub>-powered\nrocket to come race, as well. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first event for 2020 was held in January in the big state\nof Texas and it was a huge success. Each event building on the last, sharing\nknowledge, sharing tips, teaching and learning. Five stock SRT Demons pulled off 9.5X time slips.\nPrior to this, only two people in the world had even touched 9.5s in their stock SRT\nDemons. There, another six SRT Demons managed to pull off 9.6s – again, stock\nSRT Demons. With the weight verified after each run. A dozen cars running as fast\nor faster than what Dodge was able to do with a professional driver, unlimited\ntesting funds. As fast or faster than the naysayers said they could run. There\nwas even an owner from the UK who made the trek to the Texas event! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Dodge<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Based on what I\u2019ve told you so far, the Legion of Demons\nclub sounds like a drag racing series or a racing club. Godbee is very excited\nwith the success of getting so many stock SRT Demons to run their cars as fast as\nDodge. But he has many more plans for the club than just these race\nevents. Plans are currently in the works\nfor a lot more events with a lot more variety. Godbee is a big believer in the\ncar, the platform and the owners, and he wants to see all shine as much as\npossible. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Right now, I don\u2019t think there are any SRT Demons running road\ncourse or autocross. Many people, including Godbee, believe with a little fine-tuning,\nthe SRT Demon could be great at those types of performance, as well. So the Legion\nplans to have both autocross and road course events this year, as well. They are\nalso planning on attending some car shows and cruises\/rallies as a group.\nShowing up in hordes to take over! Of course, they still plan on keeping with\nthe drag strip tradition to see just how far they can push these cars to show\nthe world that they picked the wrong guy(s) to pick a fight with. The club\nstarted out strong with three events in the first year and a very successful\nfirst event for 2020. They also plan to keep pushing the \u201ccontinued education\u201d\nteaching, showing more and more people how to get the most out of their car,\nand hopefully continue to learn more and share more. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Dodge<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Like I said, strength in numbers! Godbee is confident they\ncan get a stock SRT Demon to run a 9.4. To be honest, I think they will do it. Work has also started on getting some \u00bd mile\nand standing mile events as well for those that have interest in literally pushing\ntheir car to the edge of its performance limits. Godbee and team will continue to find ways to\nmake the Legion of Demons something truly special, truly exclusive and truly\none big family. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have to applaud Byron and team for putting something so\ncool together, helping show the world that the SRT Demon is a force to be\nreckoned with. Look for lots of events coming in 2020 for SRT Demon owners, and\neven some for \u201cFriends of Demons\u201d, aka, any Mopar hotrod. I personally can\u2019t\nwait to see where it continues to go and can\u2019t wait to get to one of the events\nwith my SRT Demon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For info, cruise over to www.legionofdemonsracing.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It is true, even the bad kids need a friend or a place to call home sometimes. Generally, a friend of the bad kid is more than likely, yes, another bad kid. They kind of stick together, don\u2019t they? Well, let me tell you a story of some outcasts that found strength in numbers. Straight out of the New Testament, a group of demons is referred to as a legion, and thus, the Legion of Demons was born. I have mentioned a few times in the past that the 2018 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":38,"featured_media":34105,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[575],"tags":[526,528,605],"class_list":["post-34098","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-racing","tag-challenger","tag-drag-racing","tag-srt"],"acf":[],"custom_fields":{"post_thumbnail_image":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/legendsfeature.png","icon_selection":"article","external_link":"","featured_article":[],"upload_background_image":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34098"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/38"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34098"}],"version-history":[{"count":21,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34098\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34464,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34098\/revisions\/34464"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34105"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34098"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34098"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34098"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}