The final was as anti-climactic as they get, as a wounded Ara drove around the burnout box, waited two seconds after the green and limped to a 26-second e.t. George did a huge burnout but putt-putted to an 11.66 to take the win.
With records tumbling like dominoes, it was no surprise to see the bar raised in Modified. What may have been surprising to those not in-the-know was who would end up in the book.
Cesar Febus and his white, late-'80s vintage 300ZX had displayed hints of its potential in Dallas. His 7.99 in the first qualifier was expected, but Matt Hartford's 7.79 was a back-up run short of a new record. The likelihood of a Hartford record was lessened when Febus blasted a 7.678. It became a race to back it up.
In the first round of eliminations, Hartford dropped a bomb, rambling to a 7.665, but he was light at the scales. Febus, in the next pair of cars, grabbed the glory with a 7.707. Hartford didn't see the 7s for the rest of the event, which meant that Febus had the e.t. record at 7.678 and Hartford re-set the mph record with a 179.97-mph trap speed.
Hartford won the event, but runner-up Stephan Papadakis made out like a bandit. Steph is the points leader in the class, but Hartford has strung together a bunch of wins, and after a late start is making a charge for the title.
After qualifying with a blistering 8.13 at 181.50 mph (his best is 8.12), Steph faced Vinny Ten and his wicked Supra, who tore off an 8.040 in qualifying. Vinny cut a .443 light to Steph's .498 and ran an 8.27 to Steph's 8.36, but Vinny was DQ'd for crossing the outer boundary line.
In the semis, Steph lined up with record holder Cesar Febus, but was spared the guillotine when a loose oil line sent Febus to the sidelines after the burnout. This put Steph in the finals, which greatly reduced the points gained by Hartford. Steph was unfortunate enough to stall his AEM Drag Civic after the burnout and not get it started. It was dark and the track was cold, but Steph knows how to coax traction out of the Civic. We thought he had a better shot than it looked like on paper. We were right. Hartford got way out of the groove and had to lift, running an 8.85, which we think Steph could have covered.
Street Tire and All Motor were once again without the superstars. This meant the Wally was up for grabs. There was a familiar sound in Street Tire-Supra dominance. Paul Efantis really turned it up in his Mk4 Supra. The Toyota qualified first with a 9.86, ran 9.45 in the semis and 9.59 in the finals to take the cash. In All Motor, Scott Mohler qualified on top with a 10.63. He stood alone in the 10s during eliminations, running 10.70, 10.65 and 10.62 on his way to victory lane.
Every once in a while, we are asked how much faster can these imports run. At E-Town, both the number of inquiries and the knowledge of those asking multiplied dramatically. Our answer has always been: "Never underestimate the innovation of the import racer." But we have to admit 8.50s in a FWD unibody is plain sick. How much faster can they go?
The last 2002 event is at Pomona and we think the Pomona officials will have the track as sticky as flypaper. We know the racers have nothing to lose and all winter to fix broken cars. We're looking for fireworks.