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5th Annual Nitto Tires NT-555R Import & Low Rider Summer Slam Nationals Englishtown, New Jersey June 30, July 1, 2001  Race Results (PDF format)
Records Broken at the Best Sport Compact Event Ever Spectators: 26,141 Racers: 651 over two days Show Cars: 1000+ Neither Saturday's record heat nor Sunday's severe thunderstorm forecasts prevented the 2001 Nitto Tire IDRC Summer Slam Nationals from delivering the most exciting import and sport compact event to date. A record crowd of over 26,000 filled Raceway Park in Englishtown, New Jersey for the IDRC's ultimate event experience to date. For those in attendance on Saturday, the record temperatures made for elevated track temperatures that produced a non-cooperative racing surface for the ultra-high horsepower cars. Despite the serious challenge, Siguel Racing from Puerto Rico made history by setting the IDRC World Record for Quickest Elapsed Time in the Toyo Tires Pro Class with a 7.440-second blast that checked in just under the 180mph mark (179.90). Although there were at least 10 cars that had personal bests in the 7s, only one pair manage 7-second times in the first two rounds of qualifying. On Sunday, the weather forecasts were for severe thunderstorms. It wasn't of question of if they would hit, there was only a question of when the storms would hit. A rapidly moving low-pressure system pushed in some cooler weather. About five or 10 degrees cooler that Saturday, the track was more capable of handling the 250,000 horsepower in attendance. At the 11am final qualifying session, history was made once again. This time, Matt Hartford and the Hoyos Racing Focus claimed the title of World's Quickest Sport Compact with a 7.411-second dash that gave the Ford the IDRC World Record for Quickest Elapsed Time. Siguel's record only lasting a brief 17 hours. The rest of the Pro Class also stepped it up as six of the cars qualified in the sevens. The seven spot was filled by Marcos Acosta with an 8.0-run and the final position went to Venom Racing's Tacoma that edged out Dave Buschur's Talon by just .004-seconds to earn the final spot. Toyo Tires Pro Class 
Three cars with mainland U.S. addresses took on five of Puerto Rico's best. Team USA's AEBS Focus didn't make the cut as the car was off it's usually consistent 7-second pace. Team Puerto Rico alternate Jorge Rivera took over Marcos Acosta's position when Acosta was a no show for the Quarterfinal round. Rivera wasted no time in becoming the seventh car in the eight car field to run in the sevens with his 7.943 run against Siguel Racing in the first round. This was the quickest and fastest Pro Class ever. Unfortunately, Siguel's holeshot advantage (0.90 seconds) was enough to give him the win despite the off-the-mark 8.002-second elapsed time. The margin of victor was just two hundredths of a second, making for one of the most exciting races in the history of the class.
In the quarters, Matt Hartford took out the Venom Tacoma, while Orlando Torres upset Rafaelito when neither car could get it going in one of the slowest pro races to date. Jorge Lazcano took the 300ZX past Jorge Juarbe when his car had problems off the line. Before the semis, a brief shower hit just after 3pm and this put the program on hold for about 80 minutes. After the track was dry, a round of bracket cars helped reprep the track as new glue was laid down on the jet-dried surface. By the semis, both Matt Hartford and Orlando Torres had trouble putting the power to the pavement, but Matt got to the finish first. In the other Semi, the V6 of Lazcano upset the favorite Jose Torres in the Siguel Mazda. Lazcano laid down a 7.57 putting together an all V6 final. Unfortunately, Mother Nature came back and drenched the track surface with rain, lighting and thunder before the finals of the Pro and Quick classes could be run. This episode of Puerto Rico versus USA would end in a technical draw with both teams splitting $6000 and gaining 70 points each in the championship. When will this rematch take place? IDRC is already working at a feverish pace to find the sponsorship needed to bring Lazcano's 300ZX and the Siguel Racing RX7 to Maple Grove Raceway on October 21st for the biggest and best East Coast Finals in the history of the IDRC. Tickets are already available on-line at www.importdrag.com and it's highly recommend that you purchase your tickets now as it could be a sell-out. Nitto Tires Turbo Magazine Quick Class If the best Pro Class action in the history of the sport wasn't enough, the Quick class featured the QUICKest field ever for an East Coast event. Event title sponsor and class sponsor Nitto Tires was proud of this killer field that consisted of four in the 9s, 11 in the 10s and just one in the 11s. In addition to the consistent Honda qualifiers, there was also representation from Mazda, Nissan, Toyota, Mitsubishi and Dodge in the field. In an ironic twist, Hondas were extinct by the seminal round. The Nissan SE-R of Jamie Farrer got a by run due to a weight DQ of Dan Cokic and a no-show in staging by Jimmy O'Connor and the Venom Civic. Brent Rau's Eclipse faced off against the Forward Motion Neon. The Neon pulled past the Eclipse as Brent was in search of the Gremlins keeping the car out of the 9s. Not only did the Neon run its personal best so did the Echo Unlimited Civic of Gary Gardella as he blasted into the 9s, while the All-NOS CRX of Ramon Torres was elated with their first pass in the 10s (10.969 @ 126.83mph). Apex Integration Outlaw Class Vinny Ten made his return to competition known by taking the number one spot in qualifying. The remainder of the field was filled by four Team-Puerto-Rico entries and three mainland cars. Ten defeated fellow-Team-USA competitor Juan Lopez in the quarterfinals, while Pepe Loco, Gary Moysouret and Carlos Perez also got by their competition. In the Semis, no shows by Ten and Pepe Loco produced an early final. In this final Gary Moysouret blasted to a near-class-record 8.155 ahead of Team Puerto Rico teammate Carlos Perez. Importdrag.com Street Class Presented By Sport Compact Car RWD vs. AWD, Mazda vs Mitsubishi…let the rivalries begin. The top four qualifying positions in this field were shared between the top Mitsubishi and Mazda racers in the world. John Shepherd and Jeff Hill filled the number one and three spots while Ari Yallon and Steven Kan took the two and four spots. By the semis, John eliminated Steven and Ari sent Jeff home. The ultimate fight was on as John met Ari in the final for the first time ever. Reaction times were nearly identical and the race was fender-to-fender until the eight-mile trap where it appeared Ari missed Fourth. John drove around and took home the class win. Importdrag.com All-Motor Class Presented By Import Tuner Magazine Despite an absence of the big-name West Coast dominators in this class, the local talent faired well in filling the ladders in this growing class. Scott Mohler and Fred Ellis would use their 11-second power to get past most of the field. Scott would suffer breakage by the Semis and this led to a final of Fred Ellis versus Upset-King Brain Mosholder. Ellis would blow the doors off Brian in the final as his luck dried up in the upset department. Trouble at the scales The All-NOS Honda of Ramon Torres had their best qualifying run of the sessions disqualified because they did not have the vehicle drive to the scales under its own power or by a supervised tow from an IDRC official. This bumped them out of the one of the 16 spots in the ultra-competitive field. The team was fortunate enough to get back in the field when one of the qualified cars was unable to make the call for the first round of eliminations. The Mitsubishi of Dan Cokic also had trouble from the scales when they were DQ'd for missing the scales after their quarter-final run. This should serve as a lesson to all IDRC racers, hit the scales no matter what under your own power. You don't want to lose a race due to an unauthorized tow. If the car is broke, find an IDRC official, then get an authorized tow. Record-Breaking Season With five-out-of-five of the fourteen 2001 IDRC events already completed, the IDRC Championship Race has proven to be THE one to watch. With all of the 2000 champions in jeopardy of losing their crowns, there's still time for any racer to come out and make a move in any of the five championship classes. The next IDRC race takes place this weekend at Bandimere Raceway in Golden, Colorado. This record-setting event with be followed up by the biggest and best import and sport compact event to hit the West Coast. The IDRC Mid-Summer Nationals is projecting a sell-out crowd in LACR on July 28th and 29th. The World's best drag racing will be joined with a packed 80 vendor manufacturer's midway, live concert performances, international break dancing competition, VIP hospitality tent, Ultimate Body Contest and a special display of some of the actual cars used in Universal Picture's The Fast and The Furious. This event will also feature the only West-Coast appearance of the World's Quickest (7.411) and Fastest (187mph) Sport Compact---the Hoyos Racing twin-turbo V6 Ford Focus. A limited number of discount two-day passes are available on-line, as are the first 500 tech cards for racers in classes for first-timers or Pros. |
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