Nitto Tires IDRC East Coast Nationals

The 2000 season has proven that IDRC events bring out the A-List racers who, in turn, bring out their A-Game when it comes to on-track performance. For instance, at IDRC's Lone Star Nationals, nine of the top qualifiers shattered their personal bests.

On May 14, the Nitto Tires IDRC East Coast Nationals kept the trend alive providing some jaw dropping e.t.s and door-handle-to-door-handle race action. A surprise to most was the number of West Coast racers attending this event. After the Houston IDRC event, Lisa Kubo was atop the IDRC season points standings with Leevon Eisele and Roger Scalise occupying the number two and three spots respectively. When Lisa Kubo wiped out the bottom-end of her engine at the IDRA Battle of the Imports event in Palmdale, Calif., Leevon and Roger, who had not planned on making the costly trip, hot-shoed it to Pennsylvania on a mission to move up in the standings. Although Jojo Callos was far behind in the points race, he still wanted to let his JG-sponsored Civic loose on the East Coast. As a sidenote about good sportsmanship: These three West Coast Quick Class racers ran a convoy out to the event to ensure that if problems were to arise no one would be left stranded. During the trip, Jojo had a flat on his trailer and luckily for him, Leevon's spare tire was the same size wheel and bolt pattern; and after a quick R&R the trio was once again "Eastbound and down." It should be noted the cars in the convoy carried different sponsors, engine builders and tuners, yet the common goal of competing was enough make them a team-at least until the cars rolled off their trailers. The trio made it to Pennsylvania on schedule, duked it out on the strip and then packed up their rigs for the return trip to California.

The Quick Class field was comprised of 9-, 10-, 11- and 12-second cars. The only 9-second passes in the Quick XVI were pulled off by Honda-powered vehicles from the West Coast and Texas. Jojo Callos took the Number One qualifying spot with a blistering 9.84 at 145 mph. Number Two qualifier Kenny Tran ran a 9.87 at 144 mph while Number Five qualifier Ed Bergenholtz blasted a 9.69 at 151 mph in eliminations. Hometown favorite Chris Rado in his redesigned Acura Integra garnered the Number Three spot on the ladder. Signal Auto came out to represent and Ryuhei Kida was able to qualify the chop-top Civic in the Number Eight spot with a 10.59 at 134 mph.

Mitsubishis are normally strong competitors in the East, but this time the Honda badges outnumbered and overshadowed the Diamond Stars. Only three 4G63-powered racers would qualify. Brent Rau from Farmington, Minn. turned in a 10.39 at 134 mph but later ran into drivetrain problems that eliminated him from competition. Sean Glazar and his all-wheel drive Talon are notorious for tearing up the East Coast. This time Sean gave the Talon a break and tried out Extreme's newest creation-a 4G63-motivated Mitsubishi Mirage. Sean filled the last qualifying spot, but we think his new front-drive will be able to run with the big boys in the very near future.

The Apex Integration Outlaw Class and East Coast go hand in hand. With so many vehicles built to Outlaw specs on the right coast it's always a good bet that the competition will be stiff. Rotary-powered miniatures dominate this class, which usually consists of a gang of Toyota Starlets, Corollas and Mazda R100's with roots that stretch to Puerto Rico. The one car that can duel with the Wankel in this class is the piston-powered AEM/GReddy-sponsored Civic piloted by Stephan Papadakis.

Steph's car has been dominating the Outlaw class and at Maple Grove he gave the crowd something to really cheer about. As outlined in our Lone Star Nats race coverage in the July '00 issue, Steph was on the verge of cracking into the 8s as he easily nailed a blistering 9.05. Upon arrival at Maple Grove, rumors swirled that Steph had tweaked the suspension a tad and the car was ready to run where no front-drive had gone before. As predicted, the Nuformz-built, AEM/GReddy-sponsored Civic stopped the clocks in a physics-cheating 8.93 at 164 mph on its first pass. This historic run was backed up by an 8.98 at 166 mph the next time the car went down the track.

The Toyo Tires Street Class is as close to street racing as it gets. This class is based on a streetable vehicle complete with registration and insurance as well as street-legal tires and a full exhaust system. Ari Yallon, who pilots the Rotary Performance rx7.com Mazda is the dominant force in this class. The RX-7 turns out 10.0-second e.t.s on street slicks with little drama and 9.6s on slicks. This event was no different for Ari than the Lone Star Nats, he was able to qualify with a 10.07 at 138 mph and take the street class win with a 10.52 at 140 mph. The RX-7 was running an old clutch and could be a swap away from 9s on street-spec tires.

The JE Pistons Pro Class added some heat to another East versus West rivalry. West Coast Pro champion, Abel Ibarra brought his Pro FD out to the East to square off against some hard-charging East Coast Pro cars. Abel scorched a 7.90 at 170 mph in the elimination round which earned him a spot in the finals. Abel also brought out his newest creation, a three-rotor FC piloted by Sammy Benitez. The car is still undergoing its share of shakedown testing, but we expect it to generate big numbers soon. Marcos Acosta, came out to represent the East in his three-rotor MX-3. The car was able to qualify with an 8.35 at 162 mph. The finals pitted Abel against Marcos and a red light by Marcos lit the win light for Abel. The IDRC East Coast Nats proved to the car's first class win.

Maple Grove Raceway has kept the IDRC's streak of ground-breaking race action alive. The next stop on the tour is Island Dragway. See you there.