On Sunday morning things heated up once again with the street tire series as the line up was shaken up as Albert Diaz decided to throw his 94 supra in the mix with a 10.380@139.94mph, as he seized third bumping the RX7.com Mazda the former leader further down in the standings to fourth. Steven Flaim got new life and return with an improve effort to secure the eight spot with an11.961@124.72mph leaving Omar out in the cold between two Hondas. Steven celebration was short lived when he found out his first round of elimination opponent was the Titan motor sport supra. As both cars came to the line Steven held his head straight probably hoping for a mechanical failure, like two broken axels, four flat tires, and a blown motor just to be sure the Titan supra cant move, but no such luck. The light on Steven side hit green first as floored the supra as much as he could, but it wasn’t enough as the Titan supra blew his door off to stop the clock at 9.417@157.56mph, a new national sub record run that was a few tenth quicker than his number one qualifying time, to Steven’s 12.791@124.68. John shepherd and his Talon knock off his first round competition with a 9.909@148.31 showing everyone he mean business. Next up was Marko Djuric and Albert Diaz, although cars run mid to low tens they are both nine second cars, but this race wasn’t evident because neither cars ran up to their full potentials. Diaz was the first to leave the line with an reaction time of .760 to Djuric .801, but Diaz missed a shift which allowed Djuric to take the easy win with a 12.55@63.59mph to Diaz 15.544@115.14mph. The final for the first round of elimination was Vinny Ten and Ari Yallon, Toyota versus Mazda.  The Mazda got Vinny out the hole with a R/T of .647 to the Toyota 1.149. Although the Mazda took a big early lead, he had to hang on for dare life as the Toyota put on chase which fell short by a few feet while the Mazda took the win with a 10.287@137.63 to the Toyota 10.031@143.44 in a losing effort.

In the second round of elimination, it was time for team Toyota to get very serious and handle their business. They have already lost because of slow reaction time, and this was no time to be sleeping at the light. The first challenger to step to the plate was John Shepherd and his 91 Eagle Talon.  He has been showing his competitors why he was number two in qualifying as he makes quick meals of them. Representing for Team Toyota was Marko Djuric and he knew his work was going to be a tough one, but he was ready for the challenge. As both drivers sat waiting for the lights you could see the level of concentration and determination on their faces. The instance the light dropped the Toyota jumped out of the hole with a reaction time of .584 to take the win with a 9.802@143.67mph, to the Talon .746 reaction time and a 9.932@147.10mph. That was too close for comfort but we’ll take it. We expected a dogfight from Ari Yallon and his Mazda as he went up against Mazurowski and his titan supra. Ari got clutch happy and couldn’t hold the car long enough for the light as he tripped the beam too soon and fouled  out by means of a red light. He knew he lost so he let off the pedal and rolled to the finish line with a 12.534@79.07mph, while Mazurowski cruse to a easy 10.835@96.90mph win.

In the final round of elimination two Toyota stood big and bold, like two heavyweight boxers waiting for the bell to sound so they could knock fist. This is what it came down to; a no hold bar between two Toyota, a win, win situation for Toyota fans. In the left lane stood the heavy weight champion, Mark Mazurowski and his Titan tar ripping supra. In addition, in the right lane were Mark Djuric and his 93 supra. Djuric knew the best way to beat Mazurowski was to get him with a holes shot. Djuric plan worked to perfection as he left the hole with a reaction time of .588 and cross the line two cars ahead of the Titan supra with a 9.725@135.50 and lost.  How could he lose when he clearly crossed the line first? The fans including our crew were trying to figure what went wrong. Although the car started smoking prompting Djuric to ease off the pedal and slowing down the car, there was no way Mazurowski should have won, but after further investigation we found out that he was disqualified after being warned for running nines with a roll bar instead of a full roll cage. Mazurowski had a .767 reaction time and a 9.680@156.87mph to secure the win for his crew. We were still happy because Toyota already had two win for the event although some might say the first one doesn’t count, but we don’t care it’s still a win so lets move to the Modified series.

When we left round two of the modified qualifying, runs Team Toyota were still in contention. Christ Rado was holding down the fourth and Jose Mendez was holding down the sixth spot. Jimmy O’ Connor was at number nine, but it wasn’t all bad because they were still on top of the AEM Honda driven by Stephen Papadakis at the tenth and final spot. In round three things changed as the AEM Honda decided to raise the bar by running an 8.601@170.39mph to take the fourth spot, and knocking Rado to the eight seed. The one and two spot were held by Mazda, but not for long as the Venom supra took the two spot with an impressive 8.210@163.96mph, on only its second run which had the Venom crew jumping for joy in the pit area. Jose Mendez stepped things up to retain the sixth spot with a 9.016@144.23mph. Things were looking great for team Toyota until the first round of elimination when the Venom supra was eliminated by Marcos Acosta and his Mazda because of a blown motor. Stephen Papadakis eliminated Nelson Hoyos with an 8.513@170mph. It would be a much tighter race if the throttle cable on Nelson’s car han’t broken.

In the second round Jose Mendez, keep hope alive as he took out Marcos Acosta with a reaction time of .526 and stopped the clock at 9.014and speed of 145mph to Acosta .583 and 9.209@149mph. The sky still looked a little gray for team Toyota because the AEM Honda is on a wrecking rampage as it took out the number one qualifier Carlos Gonzales. Although Carlos ran a quicker time of 8.265@162.92mph to Stephen 8.473@172.67mph, he lost at the line with a lousy .850 reaction time to the Honda .505. The final stage was set once again for Toyota to taste victory and who best to get it against than the reached Honda. Jose knew this race would be won at the line and he had the chance to lock this round for team Toyota. We didn’t know what to think of the Honda’s burn out, but it seemed weaker than normal. It could’ve been a set up but Mendez kept his game face on as he did a John Force burnout. Both cars rolled to the line and started staging. As the RPM bounced violently off the rev-limiter, the tree dropped and the Corolla drilled the Honda with a reaction time of .449 to the Hondas .552. Either the Honda was hurt or just knew it had no chance of catching the Toyota it started to slowing down and Coasted through the light at 15.619@51.85mph. Mendez noticed the Honda slowing and he was already far ahead he started to slow as well and cruse to an easy victory stopping the clock at 11.023@102.57mph. Although we got three out of three this far it still wasn't enough, nothing short of a clean sweep would be suffice.

LET’S GO Toyota! Yes lets go to the Pro series where our Toyota are very strong and are in very good standings to sweet this NHRA series and obtain our total goal, which is domination of our classes. When we left the second qualifying round the Summit truck took the number one spot with a blistering 7.351sec pass bumping the Venom truck to the number two spot. Nothing had changed from then to now, since they didn’t run again until the elimination rounds. The first two cars to step up to the plate for the Pros were Manny Cruz and his twin turbo Cougar and Ara Arslanian of Bullish racing. Just like the races before this and the ones that follow, the reaction time is the key especially when the competition is so close. Ara was the first Toyota to fall victim because of the reaction time. Manny jumped to the lead with a reaction time of .632 to Ara’s 1.041 almost a full second. Although the Toyota ran down the Cougar and clipped the clock with a 7.980@162mph, it wasn’t good enough because the Cougar was already heading to the second round with a 8.240@159.71mph it’s best run of the whole series. John Lingenfelter made a quick snack out of his challenger Orlando Torres with a 7.389@185.79mph to Orlando’s 11.946.

Grant Downing and his Venom Tundra was more than happy to defend Toyota but his competitor was a fellow Toyota, an ae86 1.8 powered Corolla driven by Rafael Roldan. Although Rafael had a good reaction time of .660 he got a little loose at the line and had to slow down to a 9.999@101.68. Even if Rafael were running his best, he wouldn’t be able to beat grant or his reaction time of .473 stopping the clock at 7.397@185.75mph. This race should've been a much closer race between George Ioannou  ToyotaSolara of Bullish and Jose Torres driving his Siguel racingRX7. From the drop of the light the Toyota had a jump on the Mazda with a reaction time of .591 and ran away for the win with an easy win at 7.227@186mph to Siguel .906 reaction and a time of 8.211@175mph. That run was George fastest run ever and it put Toyota in an even better position for an all out sweep. In the second round Grant got a solo run due to a fluid leakage from Manny car. One would’ve thought that Grant would make an easy pass, so instead he blitz the clock and wow the crowd with a 7.316@187mph, he also took the title as the fastest truck of the whole event.

This was the most exciting race of the day as the Solara and Sonoma made huge burn outs having all the audience standing and applauding in anticipation of a tight and exciting race. It was Team Toyota against the equalizer. Both driver brought their weapon of speed to the staging lane, and as the light dropped, the Sonoma took the lead with a reaction time of .497 to the Solara .529. This time a quick reaction time wasn’t enough as the Solara re group to grab a 1.049 sixty foot and sling shot around the Sonoma eclipsing the light taking the win with a 7.439@186.18mph to the Sonoma 7.546@187.87mph.
 

The time was getting dark and the wind felt a little chilly, just as those scene from an old western film whenever a big shown were to take place. The only thing was missing from this scene was a bar on the side of the track a tumbleweeds rolling through town. Team Toyota had done their job and gotten their revenge by eliminating all comers. There were only two challenger standing and they were both Toyota and they are both tuff, and both are winners. Still one has to fall because there is only room for one king in this realm. As they slowly rolled to the entrance of the pit, the crowd stood frantically once again in anticipation of another tight to the wire race between these two goliaths of speed. We don’t even remember who was the first one to the burn out box, but both did a huge burn outs that took them a good distance pass the 60foot mark. They both took their time backing up to the staging lanes and reset their positions. As both drivers were fully staged, you could feel the tension in the air as the light dropped The Solara quickly left the Tundra behind with a .495 reaction time. It seemed that Grant was sleeping at the line because he is much better than a .630. He tried to run down George, but it was all in vain, as he was forced to pull away from the center line as the Solara took the crown, even though he shut down the car it still managed a 7.755@148mph to the Tundra8.103@164mph. In the two NHRA, event Toyota rocked the house and blew the roves off. Who is next to challenge the greatest team yet? While you’re pondering a response, let us thank you on the behalves of Team Toyota and the DivisionOne crew. Most of these Toyota cars and trucks will be coming to the pages of the inside scoop soon, so until then we bid you fare well until the next event.