AUTO TRADER MAGAZINES IDRC CHAMPIONSHIP DRAG RACING

2002 IDRC Toyota Aloha Nationals

Mainland Racers Post Tough Competition For Hawaiian Islanders

BFGoodrich Tires Street Class

The street class craze is no stranger to the 50^th state of Hawaii, as three different makes of cars claimed the top three qualifying spots. The number of cars that try to qualify for the BFGoodrich Tires Street class goes up each year as the IDRC returns to Hawaii Raceway Park. After all the smoke clears, the top qualifying spot went to Brandon Nasu in his 1993 Toyota Supra with a 12.32 @ 111.93 mph, followed close behind by the 1997 Eagle Talon of Matthew Christofferson and Rick Nakama’s 1994 Nissan 240SX. Tony Yeh, who made the trek all the way from Torrance, California with his 1994 Mazda RX7 could not get his clutch dialed in as he only managed a number seven qualifying spot. As eliminations kicked off, total class domination by the number one and two qualifiers, Brandon and Matthew, blazed a trail all the way to the finals to meet each other. Tony Yeh went out early in the first round as he broke the rear differential on his RX7. The finals showed Brandon’s Supra laying the smack down on Matthew’s Talon as he crossed the finish line almost a full second quicker.

Falken Tires Quick Class

The fastest import cars from Hawaii were all present and made up the Falken Tires Quick class. With four cars qualifying in the 10s and the remainder in the 11s, the eliminations were full with side by side racing action. The number one qualifying spot went to Garrick Tengan with the only non-Honda in the eight-car field, a 1972 Toyota Carina. The second qualifying spot belonged to Kazu Yamaguchi with the Speedline Racing Honda Civic. The rest of the field kept close and included Gary Castillo from Westminster, California piloting Lenny Higa’s Hypersports Honda Civic. Matt Higa’s 1320 Performance Honda CRX made the trek from Maui just for the Toyota Aloha Nationals as well. The quarter-finals of eliminations boasted huge upsets as the feared Toyota of Garrick Tengan went out early due to problems with the car and the second favorite Kazu Yamaguchi eliminated due to a broken axle after the burn out. This left the door wide open for the remainder of the Falken Tires Quick class field and the two furthest-traveled competitors capitalized as Gary Castillo and Matt Higa found each other in the finals. After the smoky burnouts from both cars, Matt found out that he was no match for Gary and the Hypersports Civic as Gary crossed the finish line almost a full second before Matt.

Importdrag.com High Tech Class

Even the domestic guys came out to play as the High Tech class makes its only appearance each season in Hawaii. Three Fords, three Buicks and two Chevys made up the eight-car field. Henry Tabios Jr. and his 1986 Ford Mustang secured the number one qualifying spot with the only 10 second E.T. in the High Tech class. Followed not far behind in second and third were the 1987 Buick Regal of Dean Hirata and the 2000 Chevy Camaro of Drew Pumarejo respectively. Similar as in the BFGoodrich Tires Street class, we find the number one and number two qualifiers squaring it off in the finals. The result was that Henry Tabios Jr.’s 1986 Ford Mustang proved too much of a hurdle for the rest of the field to contest with and with that he takes the class win and the title of High Tech class winner for 2002.