(972) 530-3335 311 E. Buckingham Rd. Garland, TX 75040
NOPI Drag Wars - June 27th, 1999
Click on pictures to enlarge
Set as a make up date for the rained out March 28th event, we assumed
this race would be much smaller than previous events. Considering the
amount of events this season in the Texas area, combined with the fact
that this date was never listed on the original flyers we figured very
few people out make it out into the Texas summer heat. Fortunately, we
assumed wrong!
Pouring into the Texas Motorplex were 100's of racers and thousands of spectators making it one of the largest events yet this year. This event was also a turning point for the drag racing scene in Texas as we are now finally competing with the times run on the West and East coasts. Some of those in attendence were Jotech(Dallas) and Carboy(Houston) in their 10 second Hondas, PYR(Houston) and Hocus Pocus(Houston) with some of the fastest NA Hondas in the country. On the RWD front we had SGP(Houston) in their lightning fast 300ZX, Alamo Autosports(Dallas) in thier AWD Eclipse, Flauta Racing(Dallas) in their incredible rotary powered Starlet, Powerhouse Racing (Lufkin) with their amazing Supra, and of course of own group of RX7.COM cars lead by Ari's red '93, Brent Butcher's Black R1, Steve Kan's wild Laser Red Veilside R1, Eric Michel's Silver R1, Aaron Imler in his trick '94 RX-7, and Jon Drake's rare Montego Blue '95.
Luckily, the weather was great for the race. With random thunderstorms
occuring the entire week before up until Friday, the make up date for
our March 28th rain out looked to be in jepoary. With afternoon temperatures
rising well into the high 90's, track temperatures began to rise well
above 120 degrees causing some slippery track conditions which, as we
found, we get worse as the day went on.
After a few tuning runs, everyone decided to have a go at the Quick 8
qualifying. Unfortunately, all the previous runs were thrown out due to
some confusion by the Drag Wars staff. We still had three RX7.COM qualify
though as Brent Butcher backed up his previous 11.5 run with another mid
11 pass to qualify in the Quick 8. Steve Kan, also in a RP built single
turbo car, ran a low 12 to qualify. The final qualifying run paired the
two fastest Import RWD Quick 8 legal cars of the day as the Powerhouse
Supra lined up against our own RX7.COM car driven by Ari. As they crossed
the finish line, the Supra prevailed but Ari was close behind posting
his fastest ever run to date and setting the stage for an exciting Quick
8 competition!
| Ari's RX7.COM car | Powerhouse Supra | |
| R/T | 0.983 | 0.578 |
| 60' | 1.528 | 1.766 |
| 330' | 4.418 | 4.636 |
| 1/8 | 6.801 | 6.928 |
| MPH | 101.35 | 108.36 |
| 1000 | 8.899 | 8.870 |
| 1/4 | 10.657 | 10.495 |
| MPH | 129.03 | 139.06 |
After the first rounds of the Import RWD Quick 8, the Powerhouse Supra,
SGP's 300ZX, Brent's RX7 and Ari's RX-7 were all that remained. In the
semi-finals, the Powerhouse Supra was paired against the SGP 300ZX. SGP
had won the last event by defeating the Powerhouse Supra who was having
transmission problems so the stage was set for a rematch. Unfortunately
for SGP, the Powerhouse Supra had no transmission problems this time and
defeated the 300ZX to advance into the finals. The second semi-final race
was RX7.COM versus RX7.COM. This race was also a rematch as Brent's RX7.COM
car had taken the 1st place win at the last event by beating Ari. This
time, someone would go home with a 3rd place trophy and the winner would
advance into the final round against the Powerhouse Supra. Unfortunately
for Brent, he left the line a bit early and red lighted which gave the
automatic win to Ari.
The final round matched Ari's RX-7.COM car to the Powerhouse Supra. With
both cars running in the 10's, this was expected to be a close race. The
Supra definitely made more power but if the Supra were to make only the
slightest mistake, Ari would have a chance for a upset victory. Today
though, was the Powerhouse Supra's day. Though Ari got the hole shot with
a 0.535 light versus a 0.789 light and pulled a decent 1.600 60ft time,
the Supra had everything set to maximum and pulled ahead. Traction became
a problem for both cars and as the Supra nearly crossed into Ari's lane
twice, Ari lifted the throttle and cruised it home safely with a 11.6
@ only 100mph. The Supra made an amazing, record breaking run with a 9.91
@ 144mph. This is with a full bodied, full interior car with stereo, A/C,
etc. Simply amazing work by the Powerhouse crew, congratulations to them!
Thanks to everyone that helped us set up for the event. All of our friends and customers that came to support us, and everyone with an RX-7 that ran at the event.
NEXT EVENT:
NOPI Drag Wars Drag Racing School on July 24th, 1999 in Dallas, Texas
Car Specs - Ari's 1993 RX-7
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Car runs consistent 129-130mph when using nitrous. Nitrous is turned off near the 1/8 mile (more tuning is needed before we run it throughout the entire run). Without nitrous, the car runs a consistent 125-126mph. We are still using the stock Mazda rebuilt engine that was installed in the car before we bought it over 2 years ago. This is the same car we ran all last season with and all the events this year. We haven't put a new, ported motor in yet because the car keeps getting faster so now we're curious to see just how fast the stock engine can go. A ported engine with Haltech E6S will be installed in the near future.
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Car Specs - Steve's 1993 RX-7
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Aaron's '94 RX-7 
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Jon's '95 RX-7 |
Eric's Silver '93 RX-7 and Mark's Yellow R1 |