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Apex Integration IDRC East Coast Nationals Maple Grove Raceway May 20, 2001  Race Results (PDF format) Despite a game seven playoff for the Philadelphia 76'ers and overcast skies,
racers, show cars and spectators came in record numbers to Maple Grove
Raceway on Sunday, May 20th for the Apex Integration IDRC East Coast
Nationals. The crowd was nearly double last year's figures to see the Apex
Integration Integra make a run at the world record for a front-wheel-drive
and to witness the world premiere debuts of the Hoyos Racing Ford Focus and
the Buschur Racing Pro Class Eclipse.  Apex Integration was hoping to compete in the Apex Integration Outlaw class,
but an expired competition license for driver Tarzan Yamada didn't allow for
competition. Instead, Tarzan would make licensing runs while attempting to
break the current record. With the crowd on the edge of their seats for
every run, the Integra was just an instant away from setting a new world
record. The twin-turbo, four-cylinder ingested 104 octane unleaded fuel on
the way to its best pass to date, an 8.61-blast at 164mph. David Buschur rolled his new Pro Class Eclipse off the trailer and no one could find a flaw with this new masterpiece. The racer that had earned recognition as the man to build and pilot the first Diamond Star into the 12s, 11s, 10s and 9s was now challenged with the task of being the first into the 8s. With 700 horsepower on tap from the four-cylinder 2.0-liter, David's Eclipse broke into the 8s with consistent 8.50s while qualifying number one in the Pro Class. According to David, "8.50s is really the best time I expected this car to run off the bottle. To run 8.50s on just its second trip to the track says a lot about the people involved with this car. Now, I just want to find out the limit without the juice. Once I spray it, I know it'll run in the 7s."  The Nitto Tires Pro Final was a true David and Goliath battle. The Hoyos
Racing Ford Focus has literally blown its windows out during testing on
Saturday where the car hit over 187mph, becoming the world's fastest sport
compact. On Sunday, the car had trouble finding the proper clutch set-up as
it qualified in the number two spot. Going into the finals, the big question
was "Would the Hoyos Racing team be able to find a clutch combination that
would help the 1400 horsepower Goliath driven by Matt Hartford past the
ultra-consistent, reaction-time assassin David Buschur?" When the light
turned greed, David had Goliath with a .451 reaction time to a .583. By the
330-foot mark, Goliath's horsepower took over as the clutch combo delivered
a 7.59 for the win.  In the Nitto Tire/Turbo Magazine Quick class, a story that sounded more like
the original script to Rocky was played before the crowd. Gary Gardella and
the Ecko Unlimited Civic had major problems during qualifying when the
experimental 26x10 slicks did nothing but obliterate pairs of axels. The
team's qualifying performance was only enough to earn the first alternate
spot in a 16 car field. When number two qualifier Sean Glazar couldn't
continue due to a faulty injector clip, Gary jumped into the competition
field and with smaller slicks had a victory running 11.07 in the first
round. In the quarters, Gary put another 11.14 together for another victory.
In the semis, Gary and the team stepped it up for a 10.366 performance. A
loss by number one qualifier Brent Rau in the Semis set up a final with
Louis Perea and his 85 Mazda up against Gary in the finals. In a
side-by-side 10-second showcase, Gary edged Louis when the Mazda missed a
shift.
In the Apex Integration Outlaw Class, everyone would have to wait until Atco on June 3rd as Vinny Ten's Supra had a defective nitrous solenoid that wouldn't let the car come up on boost. With the World's Quickest Outlaw unable to make the field, Pepe Loco faced Lopez Productions in the final. Just a bit too trigger happy, Juan Lopez red-lit and handed the victory to Carlos Montano and Pepe Loco in the final. The Importdrag.com Street Class presented by Sport Compact Car featured some of the closest racing to date. Dominated by six all-wheel-drives after favorite Brad Daley's Supra lost a driveshaft in qualifying, number one qualifier Jeff Hill met John Shepherd in the final. Shepherd was caught sleeping at the tree, but Hill was unable to run the 10 that he needed to beat out the 10.57 of Shepherd. In addition to incredible racing action, the Apex Integration East Coast Nationals also set a record for a Movement One car show. This Movement One car show had over 170 cars surrounding the packed manufacturer's midway.  Advanced Clutch Technology, Apex North America, Apex Integration, Car Trenz,
Competition Graphix, DEFI, Ford Racing, Fox Marketing, Impo Performance,
Import Tuner, J&R Customs & Performance, Koolart USA, Koyo Cooling, MGR
accessories, Motion Mania, Podium Performance, SPI, Sport Compact Car, Turbo
& High-Tech Performance, Speedvision, Strictly Foreign Auto and USAC are
just a few of the companies that were represented in this record-size
manufacturer's midway. The event will be televised on Speedvision. Air times
can be found at the IDRC's website, www.importdrag.com.
The IDRC's next stop is event number four of 14. This will be the Advanced Clutch Technologies Spring Nationals at Atco Raceway, New Jersey on Sunday, June 3rd. A killer racer card including David vs. Goliath II will be on hand for an incredible show. |
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