FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE *** 03-18-02

BFGoodrich Tires IDRC Firebird Nationals
10-Second All-Motor Stars Steal the Show

The Count that counts: 5616 fans / 171 Racers / 30 Show Cars

(PHOENIX, AZ) After a record-setting season opener at Los Angeles County Raceway (over 15,000 in attendance), the IDRC and event title sponsor BFGoodrich Tires rolled into Firebird International Raceway on March 16th and 17th to deliver the IDRC's famous BIG SHOW! The biggest crowds ever gathered for a sport compact event in the state of Arizona were treated to the IDRC's second-to-none world championship drag racing, the Meguiar's Movement One car show, the SR-1 Team Drag Challenge presented by Super Street and the 2002 IDRC Starter Girls Verena Mei and Flo Jalin.

The IDRC experience was in full effect as Adam Saruwatari and the Venom Tacoma, now driven by chassis builder Grant Downing, squared off in the final round of Importdrag.com Pro Class competition. Adam took a holeshot advantage to the 1000-foot mark where the Venom Tacoma make its strike to the finish line first. Both cars running side by side seven-second times. Adam set a new personal best of 7.771 at 171.84 mph while securing enough points to take the Pro class lead in the IDRC's $186,000 national and western divisional championships.

The Apex Integration Outlaw Class had the crowd on its feet after Steph met Stephanie for the first time in competition. The fastest front-wheel-drive in the world faced the fastest female in all of import and sport compact drag racing during qualifying. The result of this practice run was a victory for Steph, but no one would know what GM Racing would have in store for the competition on Sunday. In Sunday action, Stephanie met Ron Lummus in his wicked turbo bug. Ron and Steph left the start at the same time, but Ron would edge out Stephanie with a 8.85 to her 8.89. This put Ron against Steph for the final. Steph would get the win as Ron would break on the line. Still, the semifinal finish was enough for Ron to take the Outlaw class lead in the IDRC's $186,000 national and western divisional championships

In Quick Class action, the crowd was treated to no less than four different 9-second rockets. Mike Laskey proved his 9-second timeslips weren't a fluke at LACR as he blasted to 9.40s. Mike Carl made the trek from Washington to run 9.80s while Venom and Jojo battled for the number one position with 9.36 and 9.13 elapsed times, respectively. In the final Jojo would face Bruce Mortensen and the Venom Civic. A problem at the line would cause a repeat result of LACR. Jojo wins and Jojo takes a commanding lead in the c

At the season opener, a pack of Bugs slaughtered the Hondas left and right. After a meeting of all of the IDRC's All-Motor racers, the IDRC developed a rule revision to level the field. Did it work? Most definitely. Now, six racers were into the 10s with three of them being Honda and three being VWs. Both the semifinal and the final would pair VWs against Hondas. All-Motor National Class elapsed time and mph record holder Shawn Geers would be upset by Bisi Ezerioha in the quarterfinal round. Bisi would also be the first single-cam Honda into the 10s. The VW of Doug Gonzalez would meet Erick Aguilar's Civic in the final. During Saturday's qualifying Erick's Honda became the quickest and fastest All-Motor Honda in the world. Now, running a best of 10.68 he would face the veteran Gonzalez who was running 10.71s. When the light turned green, Erick got the holeshot and Doug dropped the ring and pinion. Chalk up one for the Honda camp. The result of this event has Shawn Geers in the lead by just two points in the IDRC's $186,000 All-Motor class national and western divisional championships

In the BFGoodrich Tires Street Class, Ari Yallon beat out the hard-charging Ryan Carwin and his Celica. Ari also managed this victory on a set of BFGoodrich G-Force T/A Drag Radial tires. This accomplishment puts Ari in the running for the BFG Three-for-Three challenge. If Ari secures victories in this class at the BFGoodrich Tires IDRC Summer Slam Nationals and the BFGoodrich Tires Compact Car Invasion, the Ari will be presented a $10,000 bonus from BFGoodrich Tires. Ari also has a commanding lead in the IDRC's $186,000 Street class national and western divisional championships

The SR-1 Team drag challenge presented by Super Street was won by Vicious Racing. The IDRC presented the team with $1000 for the being the quickest crew in Arizona.

Regarding the event, IDRC National Director Michael Ferrara said, "We never expected the Arizona market to take off so quickly. With planned promotions through Arizona Mills, local car dealerships and more in store for our October 12th and 13th event in Phoenix, we are expected the crowd and racer participation to double. Firebird International Raceway will soon day hold our biggest events in the West. We would really like to thank all of the racers, fans, media, sponsor and tracks continuing to make IDRC number one in all categories."

The IDRC's next stop will be the IDRC Lone Star Nationals at River City Raceway in San Antonio, Texas. This is the track that has set more world records than any other in the IDRC schedule. All of the top racers have already confirmed appearances and the event is looking to bring over 10,000 to Texas to establish a new state record for events. Find out more at www.importdrag.com.

For more information, contact IDRC at:

IDRC, Inc.
21405 Brookhurst Street
Huntington Beach, CA 92646
(714) 593-0280 / (714) 593-0281 fax
info@importdrag.com