Written by Lloyd Moore
Picture by Lloyd & Darren

Oh yeah! It’s time to rock & roll once again as Atco Raceway in association with NHRA, Summit and Lucas Oil kicked off their third Sport Compact drag racing series of the year. Although it’s NHRA’s third such event, it’s Atco’s first for the season. We don’t know how excited you are about this event, but we at DivisionOne were bouncing off the walls with excitement and anticipation in the way team Toyota would respond to the problems they had at Englishtown New Jersey. Although they made history in Englishtown when Toyota broke the 200mph for the imports, they still didn’t run up to their full potential because of broken parts. This weekend however was a new one, with a new playing arena. The new playing ground was Atco raceway and team Toyota with all their broken parts and hearts mended, came out in force fully prepared to enter the arena’s stage to do battle and settle some unfinished business.  The Bullish racing team was one of the Toyota teams that fell short when they encountered a blown tranny in George’s car and a failed line-lock system in Ara’s car.

Mark Mazurowski with his 94 Supra from team Titan, and Christ Rado with his 2000 Celica, from the World racing team were both side lined at E-town with tranny and clutch problems, while Grant Downing of team Venom suffered when he had to shut down because of problems in the motor. With all problems hopefully solved they were ready to rock and roll for this event.   A couple of guys that were missing from E-town, such as Vinny Ten from Performance Factory, and Jimmy O’ Conner of Venom decided to show up for this one.

Although we were happy about the Toyota’s, we were just as happy about the number of beautiful, hot and sexy, half naked girls that would be there as well.

Day one didn’t started out, as everyone would’ve preferred because of Mother Nature’s rainy onslaught the night before the event. Saturday morning when we got up, we couldn’t believe it was still raining so heavy due to the fact it started raining about 10pm  Friday night. The rain poured down on our roof in blind fury with out any signs of easing up. We started thinking of just throwing in the towel and call it a lost day, and hoped that Sunday would a better day. We kicked off our shoes and grabbed a bowl of the good stuff (Tony the Tiger Frost Flakes), while watching the stress relief channel (THE CARTOON NET WORK). Yep! It’s the best relief a guy could get, next to that other thing. The rain came down heavy until 1pm when it started drizzling, and at about 1:30pm minutes to two, Mr. Sun showed his golden face. With all the equipment still packed and ready to go from the night before, we sat there pondering whether to go or not, as we watched the rain come to a halt. The car has been cleaned just incase we do decide to go, while doing that we decided to call Jason from World Racing on the mobile to find out what was going on at the tracks.

Lloyd: Hey J what’s up, how is the weather out there?
Jason: It’s all cleared up and they are drying the tracks as we speak. Are you guys coming?
Lloyd: We don’t know because it’s a little late to come that far, plus the traffic may be a factor.
Jason: You guys should come down because we got the car up and running.
Lloyd: That’s all you have to say bro!
Jason: Are you guys coming?
Lloyd: yeah we’re coming what time the track closes
Jason: The track is closing about 9pm.
Lloyd: See you guys in a few hours.

We left Brooklyn NY at 3pm and arrived at Atco gate at 5:20 to be exact. When we got there we had a little problem getting in because some idiot (me) didn’t submitted the request form to NHRA on time, that’s why our name was left off the guest list. Although we ended up paying the admission fee it was not a problem, because we were quickly reimburse by Edwin Mangune, director of sales and marketing of the sport compact racing series for NHRA. Day one wasn’t crowded as you could see in the back ground as Rado car passes in the return lane. Mother nature surely did a number on this day event, but although it wasn’t crowded, the drivers and their prospective team put on a show for the few fans that were on hand.

Lets start things off with the street class, and how our YOTAS feared against its competitors. In the first, round Ari Yallon and his RX7.com ’93 Mazda took the first slot with a 10.473@140.91mph, and John Shepherd and his ’91 Eagle Talon took the number two slots with a 10.546@139.94mph. Steve Flaim and his 95 Supra held the number three slots with a distant 12.926@115.74mph, while Omar Sanchez and his 94 Supra held the fourth slot with a lousy 13.681@94.09mph. Toyota still didn’t start out strong in this class but promises to step it up, as it gets closer to crunch time.

In the modified class Toyota wasn’t in the top, three spot either. Carlos Gonzalez with his Mazda RX-3 led the pack with a blistering 8.162@163.10mpn, and Luis Torres and his Mazda held second with AN IMPRESSIVE 8.450@157.64. The third spot was secured by Nelson Hoyos and his Bothwell Motor sports Chevrolet stopping the clock with a 9.021@162.68mph. Jimmy O’ Conner from the Venom team show cased his Supra for the first time and stopped the clock with a 9.832@154.50mph.  Jose Mendez was having some problems with his 1.8L-powered corolla, so he only managed to crawl to the finish line with a brutal 13.530@60.55mph.

Things were more to our liking in the Pro series as Grant Downing and his 2Jz twin turbo powered Tundra truck from the Venom camp held down the number one spot with a 7.462@181.34mph. Although Toyota is leading, the margin is very slim because this is a very fast class because from one through nine are capable of running seven second. In the number two slots was John Lingenfelter with his 2001 Summit Sonoma powered a by a 4-cylinder 2.2L ECOTEC GM motor with a single turbo set up. Its best time before this event was a 7.443 at a trap speed of 183.77mph. Today in the first round of qualification, it ran a 7.471@182.40mph, very close to its best time and the day just begun. This is very impressive for a four cylinder of any kind. In the number three spot was Jorge Lazcano with his 300zx with a time of 7.516@176.92mph. The fourth, the fifth, and the sixth spot were held by Toyotas. Holding down the fourth spot with a time of 7.576@183.74mph, was George Ioannou of Bullish motor Sport with his Solara. The fifth spot was held by George partner and founder of Bullish Racing Ara Arslanian with his Solara stopping the clock with a time of 7.712@184.65mph.

Representing for team Puerto Rico was Rafael Rolda with his1.8L ae86 Corolla. He managed to secure the number six spot with a time of 7.745@164mph, bumping his partner Jorge Rivera, know as Chivy King 10.233@113.02mph out of contention. Can you say tight squeeze? Who do you think will win since everyone are running a few tenths difference. As we ponder this lets move to the first round of the Pro V8 series.

There were only two competitors Matt Scranton who ran a 7.455@165.16mph with his 00 rear wheel drive Celica powered by a V8 twin turbo Tundra motor, to qualify first. Craig Paisley and his 02 Tundra with a heavy dose of NOS ran a 7.726@174.24 to secure the second spot just incase anyone else tried to sneak in on the action. Since there were only two cars in this field there wasn’t much to be discuss. They only made one pass on Saturday and it stood for all three rounds of qualification. In the final, both drivers came out well rested and ready to put on a show. Both drivers lit up the place with big lengthy burnouts in order to shake of the overnight rust. The big burn out was the best part of that race because Paisley shut down at the line and had to be pushed of the track. Matt tried to make a show of it but his Celica got a little loose and he had to back off the throttle and cost to his third win of the year with an 8.708@118mph.  That concluded the Pro V8 class, but we still have the remainder of the Street tire, Modified, and the Pro series, which is getting heated with every round.

In the street series, the RX7.com Mazda was sitting pretty in first, until the second round he was booted by big daddy Mark Mazurowski of titan Motor sport driving his 94 supra to the number one spot with a 9.760@152.25mph. John Shepherd with his Eagle Talon retains the two spot with a 10.336@144.62mph. Vinny Ten from Performance Factory debuted a red 95 supra to grab the fourth spot with a time of 10.916@136.69mph. Marko Djuric another Supra that didn’t ran in the first round came from no where to secure the fifth spot with a10.954@105.53mph. Where is Steven Flaim? Well he didn’t run this round but he’ll be back in the third and final qualifying round. Omar Sanchez did promise to do better and he did when he ran a 12.816@122.59mph.  It’s evident that this round is starting to heat up as it’s getting closer to crunch time. This was the last run of the day for this class, so while everyone is gearing up for Sunday lets go check out the modified class.

The standings stood the same from one through three, except for Nelson Hoyos8.792@169.74mph to further tighten his grip on the number three spot. Christian Rado of World Racing ran his Celica for the first time and landed in the fourth spot with a 9.280@165.34 bumping Jimmy O’ Conner all the way to the ninth spot. Jose Mendez and his corolla stepped it up from the 13sec run he made earlier to secure the number six spot with a 9.471@141.42mph to end the day. Just like in the modified, the standings didn’t change much except for the 10.771@106.71 Michael Improta and his drag Tercel made and the 7.351@185.75mph John Lingenfelter ran to take over the number one spot from our Toyota.  That run however was a new record for John and his Sonoma as it had everyone talking about it as they left the event that day. We were so impressed we were thinking of an exclusive on the pages of Inside Scoop.