Import Car Racing News

Well I did not go to the Battle (in Palmdale, California) but my friend at JG did and he provided the results. Dr. Charles with his JG/Pit Crew tuned Civic Si h/b with a turbo Prelude engine won the quick eight compettition with a 10.5 and 10.7 in the quarter. Jeremy's JG tuned Prelude powered CRX, driven by Shaun (he had the 12.8 second NA red Si-R powered Civic) ran a 12.2 and won the normally aspirated class. David Shih took the fastest mile per hour category with a 140mph run! What a great Battle. Three of JG's cars win and I still cannot believe that Jeremy's NA CRX ran a 12.2 which when corrected for sea level is an 11 second quarter .

The Battle of The Imports-October 26, 1997

I attended The Battle on October 26, Sunday, the final day. I showed up around 12:00 pm and waited in a HUGE line for about an hour to get in. I have been going to the Battle since it first began and never have I seen it this crowded before! The stands were packed! There were some very impressive runs, and as usual Adam Saruwatari was there with his pit crew and gorgeous RX-7. Everyone may jock his car, but that is with good reason. His best run was a 9.6 (something) @ 137 mph! His car was so fast that after this run he could not race again because he had to renew his NHRA liscense! It was very disappointing, but to see him make that run was definitely worth it. All the mag's were talking about him breaking into the 9's and he backed up their talk. Stephan Papadakis made an 11.03 run which at the time was the fastest Honda run, until Tony Fuchs and his Integra showed up. He ran an 11.02 beating Stephan by 1 tenth! Tony and his Integra couldn't not stay with consistent times, unlike Stephan's car which ended up winning the Quick Eight. Apparently a red Civic hatchback tripped the lights with around a 1.6 60 ft. time (which is impossible) and made a 10.86 run, which gave that car the lowest Honda E.T. A Honda Pro CRX ran mid 11's and other than that not much else was very exciting. Viet Lam's Civic Si wasn't there, which was unfortunate since he has consistently been running mid to low 10's and would have blown away Tony Fuchs who probably won! I didn't stay the whole race so I'm not sure. The booths were packed with all the usual nonesense, and I didn't get to take part in a Greddy raffle which might have been earlier that day, on Saturday, or maybe didn't happen at all. It was a good Battle, but one thing that did bother me was the fact that I saw one turbocharged 92-95 Ford Escort and a new 98 Ford Escort ZX-2 or whatever it is running. I cannot understand why the Battle of the IMPORTS would let a domestic car race, no matter how fast it is. Anyway maybe I am just being to picky? The above times may not be completely accurate down to the tenth, but I will be sure to talk to Stephan in the next few days and confirm them.

The Battle of The Imports-March 1&2 1997

I attended The Battle on Saturday March 1 from 2:00 p.m to 5:00 p.m at the LACR in Palmdale. The weather was perfect and I was ready to see Tony Fuchs in his Drag turbo-powered Acura Integra, Adam Surawatari in his 500+hp RX-7 and Ron Bergonholtz in one of the cleanest Turbo/NOS Integras I have ever seen.

Ron from Wicked racing made some awesome low 12 second runs and I expect that on Sunday he will break into the 11's! (Ron's fastest time to date is an 11.81). Just when Tony was pulling his Integra with it's lexan hatch, windows, and it's crazy aluminum wing the car made a horrible sound and was pulled of the track. Apparently the car had made a mid 10 second run earlier, but the clutch broke so I was deprived of seeing the car run. Adam Surawatari raced his 93-95 RX-7 which is by far the nicest RX-7 I have ever seen with it's amazing paint job and gorgeous engine. I believe it ran a high 10 second quarter mile while raising the front end off the ground!

Defiinitely one of the highlights of The Battle was a Tub-bodied 600 cubic inch corvette which ran a 7 second quarter mile at 192 miles per hour! One guy, who has appeared in Sport Compact Car with his Turbo powered 1.6 liter SOHC VTEC 1996 Civic Hatchback ran a mid 12 second quarter mile. This specific car gave me hope for my Turbo SOHC VTEC engine which is now often being replaced by the DOHC VTEC engine.

The pits were filled with cars and tons of vendor booths. Neuspeed brought a huge yellow semi truck which they used to tow an enormous yellow car carrier. In front of this monster was the Neuspeed Honda Accord which was unbelieveable! This car must dominate on the Track!

This Battle of the Imports was not the best one to date, and I was hoping to see a special car such as the GReddy Skyline or the Top Fuel 300ZX Dragster. It was still alot of fun and as usual worth the $10 admission fee!

Pomona Import races-September 8 1997

I didn't have much time to watch the races at Pomona since I was racing, but I did see some fast cars. Viet Lam of Wicked racing ran a 10.70 at 133 mph in his Civic Si h/b with a turbcharged Prelude VTEC engine. Stephan Papadakis in his 91 Civic Si h/b runnning a similar set up, and also from Wicked ran an 11.30. I have seen Stephen run in the high 10's but he seemed to be having problems.

Tony Fuchs from Cyber racing in his turbocharged 1.8 LS engine couldn't break into the 10's. Adam Saruwatari ran his gorgeous RX-7 and posted his usual awe inspiring 10.40 at 135 mph. A 700 hp Nissan Skyline GT-R was there. As far as I could tell it was running street tires and ran a 10.70. I didn't see every run any of these cars made so they could have run lower times later on in the day.

Some guy had a new Type-R, and couldn't run anything better then a 15.1. I couldn't believe this guy, I asked him how he like the car and he said it was slow! What do you want from a stock normally aspirated car. It can run with turbocharged Eclipse's and looks 10 times better then most cars on the street. Anyway Pomona was fun but way to hot! It was well over 95 and sitting in the starting lanes waiting to run for over 45 minutes was enough to make me lose 4 pounds!