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| IDRC Championship Heats Up At East Coast’s Island |
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE *** 09-07-01
Hartford, Montano, Glazar, Ellis and Shepherd Post Victories at the
IDRC’s 2001 Tri-State Nationals
Race Cars: 146
Spectators: 2,115
On Saturday, September 2nd, Island Dragway of Great Meadows, New Jersey
became ground zero for the IDRC’s 2001 Tri-State Nationals. The 10th
race in
the IDRC’s 15-race national series provided some top performances from
some
of the biggest names in import and sport compact drag racing.
Toyo Tires Pro Class
Matt Hartford and the Hoyos Racing Ford Focus team made the trek to
Island
with the hope of extending their leads in the IDRC $128,500
championship.
Matt qualified the Ford in the number one spot with a 7.707, just five
hundredths quicker than Sammy Benitez and his 90 RX-7 that qualified
with a
7.757. In the first round, Matt faced Marcos Acosta and the 3-rotor
MX-3
sponsored by Keystone/Driver FX. Marcos had beaten Matt at Atco and the
Ford
was hungry for revenge. The Ford pounded the 3-rotor in the Semifinal
as
Sammy Benitez had problems but finished first against Henry Montero. In
the
final, Matt pounded a sleepy Sammy (.477 to a .818 reaction time) with
the
wheels in the air until the 1/8-mile mark. With some top end shake and
a
pair of now bent wheelie bars, Matt let off, but Sammy continued the
charge.
Sammy rocketed to the finish with a 7.85, but Matt’s 7.94 was enough to
get
to the finish line first (thanks to the reaction time advantage).
After the win, Matt’s attention turned to the biggest championship race
in
import/sport compact drag racing, “The win was nice to have and we’re
looking forward to the $47,000 B&M Challenge at the IDRC East Coast
Finals
on October 21st in Maple Grove. But even a win at Maple Grove doesn’t
ensure
us a victory in the IDRC championship. The pivotal race for us will be
the
IDRC Long Horn Nationals in San Antonio on November 10th and 11th. As a
double-points race we need to finish ahead of Efren Vazquez and the
Toyo
Tires R-100 to capture the title. Otherwise, a win by Efren at San
Antonio
and the Finals could steal away our season. It’s our hope that our
team’s
hard work and dedication pays off with a championship for our
sponsors,”
said Hartford.
APEX Integration Outlaw Class
The self-proclaimed “Steph Killer” of Carlos Gonzalez from Dunnellon,
FL
made the trek with his turbocharged, alcohol RX-3 with the hopes of
gaining
enough points to take over the lead from last year’s runner-up Stephan
Papadakis. Pepe Loco and driver Carlos Montano of Paterson, New Jersey
had
other ideas about who should win at this event. Montano qualified with
an
8.480 while Gonzalez wasn’t too far behind with an 8.547. Working
through
the rest of the field the two met in the finals where Montano and Pepe
Loco
edged out Gonzales with a winning 8.543 to an 8.633. The victory for
Pepe
Loco moved him into third and put him in contention for the
championship.
The runner-up finish for Gonzalez put him just 10 points behind Steph.
With
this type of pressure coming from two consistent and strong performers,
Steph will definitely be challenged to step up at upcoming IDRC events
if he
wants to become one of the IDRC champions.
Nitto Tire Turbo Magazine Quick Class
“It doesn’t get any better than this,” says Operations Director Wayne
Kiang.
Judging by the most exciting class point’s race in the history of
import and
sport compact drag racing, it’s easy to see what is exciting the race
fans.
Before this event, three teams were in contention for the championship.
At
the conclusion of the Tri-State Nationals, four teams are now in
contention
for the richest class championship in all of import/sport compact drag
racing. The ultimate bragging rights of the Nitto Tires Turbo Magazine
Quick
Class champion is now within the reach of four drivers. The qualifying
round
had Brent Rau, Sean Glazar and Mike Crawford smiling in the number one
through three positions while Gary Gardella wished that he hadn’t
missed the
first round of qualifying as a broken axle in the second session kept
his
hard-charging Ecko Unlimited/DC Sports Honda from qualifying (after
running
9.20s at over 160mph a week before the event, Gary is currently the
quickest
and fastest Honda in IDRC competition). In one Semifinal pairing, the
Thermal R&D/Extreme Motorsports Eclipse of Brent Rau took out the Impo
Performance Civic of Saverio Leone. The other pairing, gave the win
light to
Sean Glazar and the Extreme Motorsports Talon when it took out the
Phatridz
Neon driven by Mike Crawford. The final would be all-diamond-star and
all-wheel-drive for the first time this season. Glazar would show no
mercy
for Rau as he crashed the gears past his teammate for the victory. This
victory moved Glazar into Forth in the point’s chase, just three points
behind Gardella and just 108 points behind Brent Rau.
Importdrag.com All-Motor Class presented By Import Tuner
Previously though to be just a West-Coast phenom, the All-Motor
explosion is
growing nationally. Today, 60 different drivers have competed in an
IDRC
national event’s all-motor class. This is second only to the Quick
class
that has just over 90 different teams. Maryland’s Fred Ellis has
emerged as
the national points leaders after a solid crusade within the East-Coast
events. Fred crashed the gears in his 11-second CRX to a number one
qualifying position. In the final, his CRX was too much for Craig
Nyce’s
Acura.
APC Street Class Presented by Sport Compact Car Magazine
Four for four? The big question in the APC Street Class was whether or
not
John Shepherd could take his Talon to a perfect four win from four
appearance record in the street class. If he could do this and qualify
in
the number one position he would be able to overtake the 2000 champion
Ari-Yallon. In qualifying, John got his part done recording a 10.13 at
142.06 mph. Jeff Hill and his Turbotrix Eclipse went deep into the 10s,
running 10.560 at 138mph. In the finals, both Diamond Stars would meet
for
the quickest side-by-side race of the season. Neither driver was sharp
on
the tree, but both cars laid down incredible times. John got their
first
with a 10.05 while Jeff finished a fender behind with a 10.18. If both
of
these competitors continue to step up their performances, we hope to
see a
side-by-side 9-second race by year’s end.
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
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