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Inaugural Advanced Clutch Technology Mid Summer Nationals LACR, Palmdale, CA July 28-29, 2001  Race Results (PDF format)Spectators: 9,879 Racers: 221  Through snow, hail, rain, winds and lightning, the weather for the 2001-racing season has been anything but cooperative for the racers, sponsors and fans. After the 2001 Advanced Clutch Technology Mid-Summer Nationals, you could now add record heat to the list that's challenge the top import and sport compact racers in the world. The Industry Support Despite the 110-degree temperatures in the shade at the 147-degree temperatures on the track, the industry and its supporters came out in force to show their support for the "By the Racers, For the Racers" organization. A record number of 76 companies were represented in just over 50 display spaces. "It was almost like a sneak preview of all the companies that you go to see at the SEMA or SEMA IAS shows," said IDRC Sales Manager Kelvin Tohar. Although the manufacturer and tuning shop support level just missed the target (projection was for 80), the event was only able to attract half of the spectator and racer attendance projection of 20,000 and 500 respectively. "It was just too hot," said Operations Director Wayne Kiang. Wayne went on to say "We didn't lose any measurable attendance to competing events. It was just the blazing sun and heat that had a good number of Southern California's fans and racers waiting for our Nitto Tires International Finals in December." The IDRC Experience For the racers, fans and vendors that were in attendance, the events excitement level matched the record temperatures. In addition to the IDRC championship drag racing, the crowd was also treated to live concert performances by one of Southern California's premiere bands Cacawates. Even the KROQ 106.7FM crew gave the band a big thumbs up as Ernie, Juan, Paco and Julio rocked the crowd with their punk, rock and alternative fusion of sound that best described as just "Cacawates". While the concert, break dancing competition and VIP tent scored big, problems with a missing DJ and inadequate sound equipment hampered the Ultimate Body Contest. "Although we have now produced over 25 import and sport compact events, we always keep an open mind to improving the show. In this case, we should have had a better contingency plan for a missing DJ. We learn from our mistakes and the mistakes made by our competitors. Our policy is to never make the same mistake twice. December's Ultimate Body Contest will be worth the wait and once again earn its World Famous designations," says National Director Michael Ferrara. IDRC Championship Racing-Toyo Tires Pro Class Before the race, the IDRC's press released asked "Can Team Toyo's Abel Ibarra and Efren Vazquez, Keystone's Marcos Acosta or Venom's Jimmy O'Connor defeat the Hoyos Racing "import killer" Focus piloted by Matt Hartford?" The odds-on pre-event answer was "No." When Acosta could not get his replacement engine management system in time and the Venom truck was still working out the kinks, it seemed that the Hoyos Racing Ford Focus would have an easy day. In a freak incident that reminded us all that it's called racing for a reason, the number-four qualifier Ron Lummus and his Magnaflow Bug upset the mighty Focus. How did it happen? On Sunday after 3pm, the ability of the left lane to handle the powerful cars came into question when the Y's Engineering/KAAZ RX-7 got way out of shape while racing in the Nitto Tires Turbo Magazine Quick Class semifinal. Unaware of the lane advantage in the right lane, the Hoyos Racing team selected the left. Coming into the beams, the light turned green before Matt Hartford had the car at full boost. The result was that the suspension never got fully planted and the wheels started to spin. Matt tried his best to pedal the car back down the track, but it was too late as Ron Lummus stole the win. The disappointment in the Hoyos Racing camp was only exceeded by the excitement in the Toyo Tires/Flaco Racing camp as the door was open for Efren Vazquez and the Toyo Tires R-100 to close the gap in the IDRC championship point's race. Lummus met Efren in the final but Ron's luck had run dry and Efren took home the win and closed the gap to just 19 points, down from 58 points. In three appearances, Efren has managed three wins. With double-points opportunities at the Hurricane Nationals, Long Horn Nationals and International Finals, this championship is far from being decided. IDRC Championship Racing-Apex Integration Outlaw Class As predicted, Stephan Papadakis and Ray Lochhead were the favorites in this class as they met in the final. Unfortunately, it was never meant to be a fair fight. Nor-Cal's Ray Lochhead and his SR7.com RX-7 had nothing but major problems getting the new Jerico 5-speed transmission to shift. Even a teardown and reassembly with Abel Ibarra on Saturday didn't solve the problems. Limping into the final round battle, Steph was able to get to the finish first to earn the victory. As for the $128,500 IDRC championship point's race, the win was much needed. Previously trailing Juan Lopez and the Lopez Production Datsun by 9 points, the victory at the ACT Mid-Summer Nationals gave Steph a nice 77-point cushion rolling into the halfway point of the season. IDRC Championship Racing-Nitto Tires Turbo Magazine Quick 32 The first ever Quick 32 turned out to be an East versus West challenge. Minnesota's Brent Rau, New Jersey's Gary Gardella and James Farrer and North Carolina's Mike Crawford came out west in search of gold. With the majority of the West Coast's best undergoing repairs, the East Coast assassins were removing the West Coast racers left and right. In the end, the ladder would have the East Coast racers face each other. First, Rau defeated Farrer in Round Two. Then Rau defeated Gardella in the most exciting race of the day. Brent Rau and the Thermal R&D Eclipse skipped the burnout and proceeded to stage at the tree. Gary Gardella smoked the hides and met Brent at the tree. When the tree went green Rau had an .184-second holeshot advantage (.626 r/t to a .810 r/t). Gary held nothing back and actually ran a quicker 9.881 to Rau's 10.053. Unfortunately, Gary needed to be a blink quicker as Brent was the first to the finish by just 1.2 hundredths of a second. In the final, the automatic transmission in the Phatridz Neon driven by Mike Crawford would be the saving grace. Although in the unforgiving left lane, Mike managed a 10.615 while Brent Rau slowed to a 14.985 due to mechanical problems. IDRC Championship Racing-APC Street Class Present By Sport Compact Car Magazine The IDRC was proud to announce its new street class sponsor as APC came out in force with their Semi and display. APC is not only building their own Quick Class competitor, the company is also backing a number of racers and teams. Once again the RX-7s of Ari Yallon and Steven Kan of RX7.com were the ones to watch in this class. Steven Kan qualified ahead of Ari Yallon and also looked to have the better running car of the pair on this weekend. In the final, Ari got the win light ahead of Steven and used this event to pull back into the points lead. Steven Kan also gained enough points to move ahead of Jeff Hill and move into Third. IDRC Championship Racing-Falken Tires All-Motor Class Presented By Import Tuner Magazine Points leader Bisi Ezerioha and his D15 CRX of RS Motorworks/Team Matrix had fought problems all week. Just making the event for one of the final qualifying sessions on Saturday. The mighty-mouse Honda destroyed the transmission case and put it out of competition for the weekend. Scott Kelley and the Toyo Tires Bullet VW Fastback wasted no time in Honda killing. This time, fellow VW race Troy Smith and his 1960 bug helped eliminate the Hondas and met Scott in the final for the first-even All-VW final. With both air-cooled engines running hot, Troy got the holeshot on Kelley. The Toyo Tires Bullet didn't surrender and ran a quicker 11.41 to Troy's 11.83. Perhaps more impressive than the victory itself was the 11.7-second qualifying pass that Scott Kelley made on Toyo Tire Proxes RA-1 radials during qualifying. IDRC Ford Racing Performance Products Bracket Competition While professional racers were coming from coast to coast and Japan in the heads-up classes, the local racers were filling the three brackets for all imports and sport compacts sponsored by Ford Racing Performance Products. In the Super Comp bracket that featured the quickest cars, Azusa's Eric Cardines and his all-motor CRX just couldn't hold off Phil Cameron of Riverside and his VW. In the Super Mod class, Palmdale local Gary Martin and his 93 Tercel got by the Integra of Luis Montes of Los Angeles. The biggest payouts were made in the Super Stock class. The final was the first ever to feature an all Ford Focus pairing and it paid off for the competitors. Dennis Hilliard of Tehachapi, California took the win over Carson's Rex Urasaki. All totaled, Dennis took home $500 from IDRC and another $1000 from Ford paid on the spot. Rex took home $200 from IDRC along with $500 from Ford. IDRC On the War Path Due to the success of this event, Advanced Clutch Technology of Palmdale, California, has already agreed to the 2002 sponsorship of the event. The ultimate import and sport compact event experience is on the move in the months August and September. August 11th and 12th will have the crew at Moroso Motorsports Park for the Hurricane Nationals. On Labor Day weekend, the IDRC will be in Hawaii for the Aloha Nationals and at Island Dragway in New Jersey for the Tri-State Nationals. The chase is still on and the action is heating up as the world's top racers and teams go after the biggest championship purse in the history of "modern" drag racing.       |
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