Memorial Day Weekend; it’s a feast for speed freaks. At Indy, Dario Franchitti splashed his way to an emotional win in the 500. Down NASCAR way, Casey Mears won the Coca-Cola 600 under Charlotte lights. And before most people on the West Coast had awakened, McLaren’s Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton obliterated the Formula 1 competition on the streets of Monaco, sweeping the top spots on the podium.

With all that action, who needed to get away from the TV?

We did; we had some fun of our own planned. On the 15,500-ft. north runway of the Naval Air Station Lemoore in California’s San Joaquin Valley, with the assistance of the U.S. Navy, we staged another big performance contest — a test of unbridled acceleration from a standing start to 200 mph. Six supercars, with one simple mission: to hit 200 mph as quickly as possible. Call it the World’s First Supercar Drag Race.

Some of you may recall the Standing Mile test we did at NAS Lemoore for our September 2005 issue. This test is different. No race cars or motorcycles this time, just six very potent cars — some stock, some heavily tuned, but all on DOT tires — each with a claimed top speed in excess of 200 mph. Each is a car you could conceivably see on the street. And one of them, to our giddy delight, is the almighty Bugatti Veyron 16.4. Just to see that technology-packed 1001-bhp supercar slingshot down the strip was reason enough to make the 250-mile drive to Lemoore.