(972) 530-3335 311 E. Buckingham Rd. Garland, TX 75040
NOPI World Import Challenge - Oct. 9th & 10th, 1999
Click on pictures to enlarge
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DAY 1:
As we passed the halfway point to Houston, our faithful tow vehicle began a rhythmic tapping noise which was quickly dismissed as "an exhaust leak, nothing to worry about". Half an hour later our little exhaust leak had turned into someone playing a snare drum under the hood. As we decided to pull off the road, the engine finally decided it had enough and promptly threw a rod which, as we discovered later, split the crank into 3 pieces which collected in the oil pan. So there we sat, middle of the night in nowhere Texas on the side of the highway. Fortunately for us, we have a great crew and great customers who were willing to help. As we sent out our distress calls, Chuck (a crew member) and Cesar Mora (a great customer) came to our rescue and towed the trailer down to Houston as our crippled truck was towed back to Dallas. |
DAY 2:
Sunday was a new day, and things couldn't get much worse than the rest of our weekend so we remained positive. Luckily, though the car was running horribly, we were able to qualify for the RWD Quick 8. Also qualified for the RWD Quick 8 was Steve Kan running better than ever. Houston has recently become Steve's lucky track as he made it all the way to the finals at the last Houston Drag Wars. This time, he was running very low 11's looking to finally get that 10 second pass he's been aiming for. As we continued to tune our car, this time on 'Circuit de Baytown', it quickly became appearant that we were not going to be competitive in the Quick 8 this time. The car would make a clean pass, followed by several passes where the engine would literally shut down. The problem was finally traced to the PMC piggy back and the decision was made to load the car back on the trailer and call it a weekend.
With Steve Kan qualified in the Quick 8 and Aaron running strong, there
was still a good RX-7.COM representation so we stayed to give our support
to Steve, Aaron, and the other RX-7 contengency. In the Quick 8 there
was Steve Kan running 11.0 @ 127mph, Ari's RX-7.COM car, SGP's 300ZX running
low 11's/high 10's, three Powerhouse Supras, the Dynamic Turbo Supra,
and another car listed as a Del Sol(???). However, due to mechanical problems,
only 5 cars showed up for the first round.
The first round pitted Steve Kan against his friend Gino in the Powerhouse
Supra. Both cars had been running low 11s and they're both good friends
which made it even more fun. Steve ended up getting the better launch
to take the win from Gino and advanced into the next round. Next up was
Jared's Silver Supra from Powerhouse who had a bye run to advance automatically
to the semi-finals. Since the next two cars, SGP's 300ZX and Bryce's Supra,
also had bye runs, the decision was made to run them both together at
the same time. Unfortunately, this created some unnecessary confusion.
As the lights dropped, Kyle redlighted in his SGP 300ZX and the win was
given to Bryce in his Supra. So what caused all this confusion? Well,
Kyle and Bryce were also going to face eachother in the semi-finals after
their bye runs so while the Powerhouse Supra crew had thought the agreement
was made to just skip the bye runs and jump straight into the semi-finals,
the SGP crew said they had made no such agreement. Of course, you can
imagine the debate this created. To add to the confusion, the next round
of eliminations had already started as Steve was given a bye run and Jared's
Silver Supra eliminated Bryce's Supra. So the final was set (or so we
though), with Steve's RX-7 versus Jared's Supra. Since Jared's 9 second
Supra encountering some problems, it looked at those Steve had a chance
to take home the big paycheck.
 320x240 MPEG VIDEO 1.3MB - PLEASE SAVE TO YOUR HARDDRIVE |
Unfortunately, the previous issue with the SGP vs Bryce bye run came to surface and the event organizers decided to rerun the semi-finals. (Confused yet?) So for the second round of semi-finals Steve was paired against Jared in what would have been the finals and Kyle of SGP was paired once again against Bryce's Powerhouse Supra. This time, Kyle with SGP didn't redlight and beat out the Powerhouse Supra of Bryce. Next up was Steve in his RX-7 versus Jared in his Powerhouse Supra. For the first time the whole weekend, Steve jumped the light by a few thousands of a second and redlighted handing Jared the automatic win to meet Kyle in the finals. In the finals, RX7-less for the first time in so long I can't even remember, Jared made quick work of SGP's 300ZX with an easy 10 second run. It should be mentioned that Jared's Supra, an honest street car with full interior and drag radials, ran a 9.9x @ 118mph pass in qualifying. 9 seconds out of a street car is impressive, but what's even more impressive is that he ran 119mph in the 1/8mile. This means he basically shut down at the 1/8 and still ran 9 seconds...in a street car. So, hats off to Jared and the crew of Powerhouse Racing. They definitely deserved the win (this time!). |
We also like to note the sportsmanship Kyle and the entire crew of SGP
showed us and Steve by offering to split the winnings with Steve. Considering
how Steve felt he was in the finals, only to be forced to rerun a semi-final,
it was a nice gesture on their part. We're proud to be involved in a sport
with such a competitive, yet friendly environment. Long Live Motorsports!
Thanks also to our sponsors, GReddy and Haltech.
NEXT EVENT: NIRA Drag Wars on Nov. 14th, 1999 in Dallas, Texas.
Mark Jarvis's '93 CYM RX-7 
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MZM and Sean Ali 
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Brian Cain's Turbo II 
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Marcus William's RX-7 
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Jotech's Civic |
Storm blows in |