River City Raceway, San Antonio (Marion), Texas
November 10-11, 2001

Race Cars: 201
Show Cars: 102
Spectators: 3,675

Complete Race Results
IDRC Long Horn Nationals... the Greatest Race of All Time Hartford, Papadakis, Kelley & Shepherd Shatter Records





If history measured the success of a race solely by the performance of its racers, then the 2001 IDRC Long Horn Nationals would go down in history as quite possibly "the Greatest Race of All time." Nearly every racer in competition set a personal best elapsed time as five world records were also set. Was there something in the air? Maybe, but the awesome bite of one of the quickest tracks in the country also helped.

Toyo Tires Pro Class

A "no show" by the Team Toyo RX-7 of Abel Ibarra and teammate Efren Vasquez' R-100 was a major disappointment to the fans. Despite this absence, Toyo Tires got major value from the event. In a flash, the Toyo Tires Pro Class would see a new class elapsed time record as Matt Hartford and the Hoyos Racing Ford Focus would run 7.09, 7.08 and finally a 7.07 at 195 mph to set new elapsed time and mph records. By the way, the victory also secured Hartford as the 2001 Toyo Tires IDRC Pro Class champion meaning he'll need to figure out where to spend his $25,000 bonus. As for the championships runner-up, Efren's absence has left the door open for ten separate racers to have a mathematical chance for the additional $7500 up for grabs to the championship runner-up.

Apex Integration Outlaw Class

Stephan Papadakis would face Pepe Loco (Carlos Montano) in this hotly contested final and chase for the championship. Steph's 8.23-second blast would be too much for the Loco. After winning the final, Steph and Matt asked for the IDRC to set up a special match race and the IDRC quickly accommodated its racers. With this event's result, now three racers have a chance at the Apex Integration Outlaw championship (Steph, Pepe Loco, and Carlos Gonzales).

Pro Vs. Outlaw / Steph Vs. Matt / FWD Vs. RWD / Four Vs. Six

The story of one race, a one-second head start and just a hundredth of a second margin of victory. As Steph and Matt rolled through the burnout box, it was obvious that something special was about to take place. The burnouts removed doubt from anyone's mind that both of there racers would be holding the pedal to the metal. As the cars crept to the staging beams, the crowd's antiperspirant was put to the test as the heat was on. Silence fell over the crowd and eyes widened to capture it all. Steph left first on a solid 400-light and Matt left just one-second later with a like 400-light. As the cars bit into the pavement, horsepower propelled the human-guided missiles to terminal velocity at the finish. The crowd stood on its toes to see the win light in a too-close-too-call finish with a margin of victory of just a hundredth of a second. The light flashed on Matt's side, but both racers were winners to the crowd as each set a class record. Matt set both an elapsed time and mph record (7.07 at 195mph) while Steph set a class record for mph and a world record for FWD elapsed time (8.12 at 180.00mph).

Nitto Tires Turbo Magazine Quick Class

Import drag racing's original heads-up racing class has also proven to be the most exciting and competitive of all classes this IDRC season. Before the Long Horn Nationals, there were four racers in contention for the 2001 Quick Class Championship. After the event, there are still the same four in contention with the point spread even closer that before. For one of these awesome racers, his season may have literally gone up in flames. During Quarterfinals, Sean Glazar's Eclipse had an engine fire at about the 1000-foot mark. Acting quickly, Sean deployed the fire system that temporarily extinguished the flames that quickly re-ignited. Once the car stopped, Sean jumped out of the car and over the wall as the track's safety team extinguished the flames. Fortunately, Sean did not sustain any injuries, but the Eclipse that had won the race could not continue. On initial inspection, the Extreme Motorsports' team is doubtful that the car will be able to compete at the December 1st and 2nd Nitto Tires IDRC International Finals Presented By Toyota.

With the number one qualifier Sean Glazar out of the race, Brent Rau would face Gary Gardella in the Semi's as Mike Crawford challenged local Phong Tran. Rau would launch hard but break before the finish as Gardella took the win. Crawford would run a 9.26 to get lane choice for the final. In the final, Gardella would play the staging-game card to get past the quicker Crawford. Gardella would run a 9.39 as Crawford could only manage a 10.18 due to the damaged transmission. A lesson was shown to all. When it comes to racing, friendships end once the racecar enters the burnout box on the drag strip. At that point, it becomes survival of the fittest, where speed, power, reaction and cunning will decide the victor. Any advantage that a racer can take will be utilized to get to the finish first. It's a combination of being ruthless and showing no mercy every time the light turns green. That's competition and it's not for the meek.

Importdrag.com All-Motor Madness Presented By Import Tuner

Its 11s or bust as all eight qualifiers made the field with 11-second timeslips. Number one and two points leaders from Maryland Fred Ellis and Scott Mohler made the trek to face up against the Toyo Tires Bullet driven by Scott Kelley. Ellis would be beater in the quarterfinals by Troy Smith's VW. Mohler would get by Jason Parker to meet Texas' quickest All-Motor car in the Semis. Cottores Gee and the Hocus Pocus Civic of Houston, Texas had run an 11.27 in qualifying while Mohler's best time had been an 11.22. Mohler would better Gee to face Scott Kelley in the final. Coming into the final, Kelley had run a class record 10.93-second elapsed time, against fellow VW Troy Smith. Into the finals, Kelley's VW would be puffing a slight amount of smoke as both cars rolled to the beams. As it would turn out, that would be the VW's last breaths as Mohler's Neon would set a personal best 11.06 as Kelley's Bullet fell by the 60-foot mark.

APC Street Class Presented By Sport Compact Car Magazine

APC brought out the flamed-semi with trailer and the crowd loved what they saw in this awesome class. It was the last chance for the Texas duo of Steve Kan and Ari Yallon to slow down the hard-charging John Shepherd. John had already traveled to six different IDRC events with the same outcome, a class win. Now, John Shepherd would try to make it seven in a row. Once again, Toyo Tires would have some bragging rights as John set a new class elapsed time record on radials with a blazing 9.89-second pass on Toyo Proxes RA-1s. Ari Yallon had said he had some tricks up his sleeve and he was ready. Ari's previous best on radials was a 10.30. For this event, Ari stepped it up to a 10.07-second performance on his BFG Drag Radial T/As. In the final, Ari would get the holeshot on Shepherd. Shepherd would charge hard and by the finish, John would better the rotary by just .06-seconds.

The Bottom Line

While the racing was top-notch, attendance was below IDRC's projection. Part of this was probably due to the Weather Channel's forecasts for thunderstorms during the sunny day. Andy Luk from Hyper Racing of Houston, TX noted, "I think Texas race fans have been misled by many race-event producers in the past. This made many fans reluctant to come out for the Long Horn Nationals. Now that the IDRC has proven to deliver the goods, I guarantee the San Antonio events will get sold out during the 2002 season." National Director Michael Ferrara went on to say "The IDRC is committed to the racers and fans of Texas. This year, the weather and weather predictions challenged the race fans. For 2002 and beyond, we are dedicated to this market and we believe that Texas can reach over 10,000 mark, as we have already done at LACR, Moroso, Phoenix, and Englishtown."

IDRC Championship Decided At the Finals

The Nitto Tires IDRC International Finals Presented By Toyota is just around the corner. On Saturday and Sunday, December 1st and 2nd, the IDRC will transform Los Angeles County Raceway into horsepower central. The championships of the Quick, All-Motor and Outlaw class will be decided as racers have one final chance to make the 2001 record book. Just about every racer that's been ever featured will be in attendance for the biggest race of the year. Over 3600 tickets will be given away at Southern California Toyota Dealers while IDRC TV commercials have already started airing for about 1000 total spots on MTV, ESPN, TNN and the Comedy Channel. The number of So-Cal IDRC promotion teams has tripled to reach the target of 20,000 spectators over the two-days. For anyone looking to see the best race of the year, be there for THE finals.