Northeast NHRA Sport Compact Nationals Report

[2rismo]

(courtesy of modified.com)

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Atco Raceway - Atco, NJ, May 15-16

Story By: Peter Tarach Photos By: Peter Tarach and Stew Lawson

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The unmistakable, obnoxiously loud exhaust notes were a constant reminder of the strong rotary presence typically seen in New Jersey. The hometown rotaries put on a great show and in typical rotary fashion some huge spills ensued which were a great crowd pleaser but resulted in some long delays.

Eliminations began late Saturday and one of the highlights included Cesar Febus in his 300ZX making an astounding 7.72 @ 152 mph pass to secure the number one qualifier in the Modified Class. Paul Efantis in his Lucas Oil Octane Booster Toyota Solara also made a great qualifying pass at 7.80 @ 184 mph. In Pro RWD, Steph Papadakis jaunted down the _ mile at 6.77 @ 204 mph. Furthermore, George Ioannou in the Street Glow/Bullish Racing Toyota Solara and the Turbonetics team of Matt Scranton and Tirso Sanjuan, all made high 6-second passes in spectacular fashion. The bar was definitely set high in Pro RWD and tight racing was expected in Sunday's eliminations.

Nelson Hoyos and his GM Racing Chevy Cavalier showed Saturn Motorsports Lisa Kubo he too can run 7s when he clicked off a 7.85 @ 188 mph in the Pro FWD Class. The Mopar Racing Hot Rod Class SRT-4 driven by Mike Crawford set a new MPH record while capturing the number one qualifier at 8.31 @ 181 mph. Not to be outdone, the other Mopar Racing car, Scott Mohler's Dodge Neon set the All-Motor MPH record with a 10.05 @ 136 mph. Team Castrol Syntec's Jojo Callos and Mopar Racing's Shaun Carlson debuted their new Pro FWD rides and made some preliminary passes to collect some data

The rotaries were back at it on Sunday and a pretty serious wreck occurred when a local rotary hit the wall hard and got airborne and landed upside down, which meant a trip to the hospital for the driver. Thankfully, he escaped with only minor injuries. After the mess was cleaned up the racing got underway. Some heavy hitters were upset in the early rounds including Pro RWD's Steph Papadakis and Modified's Paul Efantis who both got off course mid-track and had to shutdown early.

The purple Toyota Solaras were head-to-head in the final round for Pro RWD and after both cars got loose, George Ioannou managed to keep on it and straighten the car out for the victory over the boss, Ara Arslanian.

One of the closest races to date occurred in the Pro FWD in which Nelson Hoyos and Lisa Kubo were neck to neck all the way down the track. Kubo edged Hoyos out for the win by a mere 5-tenths running 7.95 @ 189 mph to Nelson's 8.00 @ 182 mph. Another close contest saw Scott Mohler run a 10.05 @ 135 mph while the 2nd gen RX-7 driven by Jesus Padilla ran another stellar 9.99 @ 132 mph to squeeze out the victory. What a race!

An unlikely final match up in Modified paired two rotaries together. Jose Ramos Jr. and his '81 Corolla broke after the 60-ft. line but his counterpart Carlos Perez red-lighted instantly giving the win to the broken but not beaten Ramos Jr.

The Hot Rod final pitted Honda vs. GM. The County Line'93 Civic driven by Gary Gardella had been running consistently all day despite some minor issues. GM Racing's Marty Ladwig and his Pontiac Sunfire on the other hand were chasing engine gremlins all day and during the final Ladwig had to let up after the 1000-ft. mark. Gardella cruised to victory with a respectable 8.65 @ 157.03 mph to Ladwig,s disappointing 9.69 @ 114.52.

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That's some fast times for the FWD & brigades!! Damn!

Adrian