1994 Honda Civic EG Hatch - Jojo Callos Pulls Off The Texas Miracle In Houston

Faster cars, lower e.t.s and bigger prize money marked the Lone Star State's last big import drag race of the Millennium in October, outside Houston. Billed as both a Nopi Drag War and the World Import Challenge, the event attracted more competitive racing teams to Texas with its $10,000 front-wheel-drive Quick 8 purse than at any other Texas event in 1999.

In February 1999, the field of cars in Texas was trying to beat the Wrightouch team from Hollywood Florida, whose driver, Garry March, was pushing a '92 Eclipse to a 10.68 second quarter mile. Back in the day, 10.68 was hard to beat. And so was a Pentium II 450...how things change.

Since then, Wrightouch has dropped from competing in Texas Drag Wars. The Texas field has seen a close competition between Kenny Tran of Jotech Motorsports and Jackey Yeung of Carboy, a Houston team. Both teams field Civics. Jotech, from Garland, Texas, has gone from running 10.9's to 10.1's this year, pulling ahead of Carboy for the time being. That's a figurative battle of "civic pride" for the two highest-profile import drag racers in Texas - Dallas and Houston. But this time around, Tran faced some stiff out-of-state competition in the FWD Quick 8, which might have better been called the Honda Civic Quick 8. With $10,000 in cash up for grabs a road trip was in the cards for a number of Southern California racers.

Jojo Callos of Long Beach, California was one such traveler. Jojo, without question the biggest winner of the 1999 race season, smelled a big payday. But his race to the winner's circle was much more than a quarter mile long-it took the Texas Miracle to pull it off. During qualifying Jojo experienced valvetrain failure which took out the bottom end. Looking for a spare motor, Jojo's plight was announced over the PA system and to his surprise a number of people approached him offering their stock engines. Jojo would like to thank them all for their kindness. Jojo has raced a lot in Texas and has made some friends, more than he thought. Sean Williams, a Houston-based racer also experienced cylinder head problems but his bottom end was intact. Sean knew one of Jojo's friends and used him as a mediary to offer the built 1.8-liter GSR block. Not wanting to risk Sean's engine, Jojo looked for other avenues but came up with nothing and took Sean up on his generous offer. Since Sean was in need of a head, he asked for help in finding a new head in return and a deal was struck. Jojo's crew Jason Dienhart, Ben Higacio, Kareem El-Sherif and Mike (aka Peewee) swapped the blocks in the pits late Saturday. Another of Jojo's new friends lent him a head. Tony from Endless Racing was building a motor at his shop and offered the engine's head. The 1.6-liter-derived head was mostly stock, running factory valves. The only addition was heavy-duty retainers. Jojo was quick to stress that he does not spin his engine past 8200 rpm and does not suggest anyone do so without proper valvetrain mods. He certainly was not going to subject the borrowed head to such abuse.

After wrenching through the night in a supermarket parking lot of all places Jojo and company secured the head, buttoned up the Honda and jumped back into the wars. The original plan called for some dyno tuning late Saturday but time ran out. The combination was fine-tuned at the track on Sunday. Jojo said he babied the car and credits its impressive performance to track preparation and his Tanabe suspension, which tag-teamed for a best-ever 1.53-second 60-foot. "I was primed to really run a big number. It's a shame that my race engine got hurt," said Jojo. "I've done a lot of racing this year and it paid off in competition but I have to thank those who helped me get to the track without their help I would have been a spectator."

Once back on the strip, Jojo faced some stiff competition. Tran was the top qualifier for the FWD Quick 8 (10.103@141.28), but John Brown of Boca Raton, Florida, took both the fastest time of the day-a blazing 9.959 seconds-and the top FWD speed of 146.53 mph. Tran's time marked over a half-second improvement from his Quick 8 finish in June. In the end when the chips were done, Jojo's 10.299 at 139.21 was too much and capped off one of the most amazing comebacks we have ever witnessed.

Two other drivers on the move are Kyle Puckettt and Ben Blalock. Pucket, who drives a Navy Blue Nissan 300ZX from SGP Racing, had shown the crowds many mid-11-second runs in practice or qualifying this year. That changed this go-round as Puckett put it all together in competition, winning the Turbo Magazine Quick 8 at 11.130 seconds and placing second at 11.064 seconds in the RWD/AWD Quick 8 to Blalock's Supra. Blalock and the Powerhouse Racing Team from Tyler, Texas have seen their Supras go from low 10s to high nines this year - and one of those Supras is even said to be an air-conditioned street driver. Blalock posted the lowest time in the RWD/AWD Quick 8 at 9.987 seconds, and won that class with a more casual 10.311-second e.t.

On the domestic side of things, Tim Fountain continues to remind import fans that if you have a taste for Detroit displacement and pushrods then you can pretty much milk them to go faster than everyone else. Fountain won the Domestic Quick 8 yet again with a time of 9.644 seconds. He also took the top speed of the day at 154.61 and the lowest time of the Quick 8 at 8.851 seconds. Fountain's weapon of choice? A 1967 Camaro.

But this event wasn't just about racing. The import drag culture in Texas is also about fashion, dancing, music, neon lights, dash-mounted television sets, illegal races on Westheimer, trunk-mounted aquariums and 57 motorcycles parked in front of James Coney Island. As such, a mosh pit formed around the DJ booth in the parking lot, motorcycle competitors and show cars turned out in large numbers and TV cameras captured images of the bikini-clad "Jotech Girls" in addition to those of the drag strip.

Take it or leave it, import drag racing can only continue to grow on a nationwide basis in the year 2000. The young and the young at heart will continue to soup up whatever they can get their hands on. The staff at Turbo would like to congratulate Jojo for his rocking of the cashbox, Jotech and Carboy and all the Texas racers for putting Texas on the import drag racing map in a big way in 1999 and John Brown for entering into the coveted nine-second club. We hope to focus on the Texas scene in 2000, see you then.