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November
9th & 10th, 1999 — NOPI World Import Challenge
DAY 1:
Finally, a full 2-day event here in Texas. All the big names
were scheduled to arrive, with the Front Wheel Drives battling
for a $10,000 purse and us Rear Wheel Drive Imports fighting
for a mighty $2500 prize which was eventually reduced to
$2000. Some of the RX-7s in attendence were Steve Kan in
his Veilside-Single Turbo 3rd gen, Aaron Imler’s 3rd gen,
ProTech Auto’s 3rd gen, MZM’s 3rd gen, Marcus Williams/APEXX’s
3rd gen, Brian Cain’s Turbo II 2nd gen, Sean Ali’s Turbo
II 2nd Gen, and a few other RX-7s of which we didn’t catch
their names (sorry!).
Our plans were to leave the shop early Friday evening with
the RX-7.COM car in tow and arrive in time for plenty of
rest before the Saturday qualifying sessions. Unfortunately,
the car decided to start acting up and would not run consistently
on the street. After MANY hours of testing and tuning on
’Circuit de Garland’, the car was finally loaded up at 4am
Saturday morning and we headed out to Houston Raceway Park
located in scenic (and freshly scented!) Baytown, Texas.
As we passed the halfway point to Houston, our faithful
tow vehicle began a rhythmic tapping noise which was quickly
dismissed as "an exhaust leak, nothing to worry about".
Half an hour later our little exhaust leak had turned into
someone playing a snare drum under the hood. As we decided
to pull off the road, the engine finally decided it had
enough and promptly threw a rod which, as we discovered
later, split the crank into 3 pieces which collected in
the oil pan. So there we sat, middle of the night in nowhere
Texas on the side of the highway. Fortunately for us, we
have a great crew and great customers who were willing to
help. As we sent out our distress calls, Chuck (a crew member)
and Cesar Mora (a great customer) came to our rescue and
towed the trailer down to Houston as our crippled truck
was towed back to Dallas.
When we finally arrived at the track, the first rounds of
qualifying had already finished. We decided to get in a
few practice runs but our problem resurfaced again as the
PMC piggybox box started having electrical gremlins and
causing the car to literally shut off in the run. Exhausted,
somewhat defeated, and ready for some food and sleep we
headed back to check into our hotel rooms and start fresh
tomorrow. This, however, was not meant to be our day and
our hotel reservations had been cancelled. I won’t
even mention the place we ended up staying but I think I
still have a rash from that place!
DAY 2:
Sunday was a new day, and things couldn’t get much worse
than the rest of our weekend so we remained positive. Luckily,
though the car was running horribly, we were able to qualify
for the RWD Quick 8. Also qualified for the RWD Quick 8
was Steve Kan running better than ever. Houston has recently
become Steve’s lucky track as he made it all the way to
the finals at the last Houston Drag Wars. This time, he
was running very low 11’s looking to finally get that 10
second pass he’s been aiming for. As we continued to tune
our car, this time on ’Circuit de Baytown’, it quickly became
appearant that we were not going to be competitive in the
Quick 8 this time. The car would make a clean pass, followed
by several passes where the engine would literally shut
down. The problem was finally traced to the PMC piggy back
and the decision was made to load the car back on the trailer
and call it a weekend.
With Steve Kan qualified in the Quick 8 and Aaron running
strong, there was still a good RX-7.COM representation so
we stayed to give our support to Steve, Aaron, and the other
RX-7 contengency. In the Quick 8 there was Steve Kan running
11.0 @ 127mph, Ari’s RX-7.COM car, SGP’s 300ZX running low
11’s/high 10’s, three Powerhouse Supras, the Dynamic Turbo
Supra, and another car listed as a Del Sol(???). However,
due to mechanical problems, only 5 cars showed up for the
first round.
The first round pitted Steve Kan against his friend Gino
in the Powerhouse Supra. Both cars had been running low
11s and they’re both good friends which made it even more
fun. Steve ended up getting the better launch to take the
win from Gino and advanced into the next round. Next up
was Jared’s Silver Supra from Powerhouse who had a bye run
to advance automatically to the semi-finals. Since the next
two cars, SGP’s 300ZX and Bryce’s Supra, also had bye runs,
the decision was made to run them both together at the same
time. Unfortunately, this created some unnecessary confusion.
As the lights dropped, Kyle redlighted in his SGP 300ZX
and the win was given to Bryce in his Supra. So what caused
all this confusion? Well, Kyle and Bryce were also going
to face eachother in the semi-finals after their bye runs
so while the Powerhouse Supra crew had thought the agreement
was made to just skip the bye runs and jump straight into
the semi-finals, the SGP crew said they had made no such
agreement. Of course, you can imagine the debate this created.
To add to the confusion, the next round of eliminations
had already started as Steve was given a bye run and Jared’s
Silver Supra eliminated Bryce’s Supra. So the final was
set (or so we though), with Steve’s RX-7 versus Jared’s
Supra. Since Jared’s 9 second Supra encountering some problems,
it looked at those Steve had a chance to take home the big
paycheck.
Unfortunately, the previous issue with the SGP vs Bryce
bye run came to surface and the event organizers decided
to rerun the semi-finals. (Confused yet?) So for the second
round of semi-finals Steve was paired against Jared in what
would have been the finals and Kyle of SGP was paired once
again against Bryce’s Powerhouse Supra. This time, Kyle
with SGP didn’t redlight and beat out the Powerhouse Supra
of Bryce. Next up was Steve in his RX-7 versus Jared in
his Powerhouse Supra. For the first time the whole weekend,
Steve jumped the light by a few thousands of a second and
redlighted handing Jared the automatic win to meet Kyle
in the finals.
In the finals, RX7-less for the first time in so long I
can’t even remember, Jared made quick work of SGP’s 300ZX
with an easy 10 second run. It should be mentioned that
Jared’s Supra, an honest street car with full interior and
drag radials, ran a 9.9x @ 118mph pass in qualifying. 9
seconds out of a street car is impressive, but what’s even
more impressive is that he ran 119mph in the 1/8mile. This
means he basically shut down at the 1/8 and still ran 9
seconds...in a street car. So, hats off to Jared and the
crew of Powerhouse Racing. They definitely deserved the
win (this time!).
We also like to note the sportsmanship Kyle and the entire
crew of SGP showed us and Steve by offering to split the
winnings with Steve. Considering how Steve felt he was in
the finals, only to be forced to rerun a semi-final, it
was a nice gesture on their part. We’re proud to be involved
in a sport with such a competitive, yet friendly environment.
Long Live Motorsports!
Thanks to everyone that helped us set up for the event.
All of our friends and customers that came to support us,
and everyone with a RX-7 that ran at the event.
Thanks also to our sponsors, GReddy and Haltech.
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