George Ioannou & his Solara from the Bullish camp was the first to set the stakes as he laid down a 6.941@ 204.85 mph to take the number one spot.   Jeorge Lazcano Representing Puetorico drove his 300ZX to a 7.592@ 180.43 to grab the seventh spot.  Matt Scranton & his Turbonetics Celica wasn't far behind as he grabbed the second spot with a solid 7.039@ 188.96 mph. At number three George's team mate Ara Arslanian and his Solara stopped the clock with a 7.108@ 199.91 mph.  The Honda boy Stephan Papadakis took the fifth spot with a 7.269@ 158.71 in his new rear wheel drive AEM sponsored Civic.

The K & N Filtered sponsored triple rotor RX7 driven by Abel Ibarra took the fourth spot with a7.245@ 190.40 mph.  Adam Saruwatari brought his Acura NSX to this neck of the woods for the first time and took the number six spot with a 7.586@ 176.24.

At number eight was Manny Cruz's Cougar stopping the clock at 7.684@ 180.43, and at number nine was Matt Hartford  driving his kick ass four banging Summit Racing Cavalier to a 7.747@ 179.37 in a field loaded with heavy hitting six shooters & rotaries. That rapped up the first qualifying round.

After that HKS debuted their V8 twin turbo drag Supra all the way from the land of the rising sun. This was it's first time in the USA. It's first pass was good but wasn't impressive, due to the fact that turbonetics Celica ran 6 sec with it's v8 with a 200+ trap speed, and they are running just as hard with their new v6 power plant compared to the 8.197@ 163.04. After all this was HKS so we all had higher expectation, but we also took into consideration that it was their first time running the car here.

In round two the outlaws kept jockeying for position.  Adam Saruwatari & Abel Ibarra, piston verses rotary were the  first to square off in the second round of  qualification. Both cars started off with some wicked burn outs that got the little crowd that were on hand for day one charged. Abel  & his K&N  RX7 ran a better time than their round one qualifying time, so did Adam & his NSX who made it very interesting as before with another neck & neck, wire to wire race until about mid track when Abel started pulling away to stop the clock at 7.109@ 193.07 to Adam's 7.534@ 176.10.

Matt Scranton 7.841@ 120.05 & Manny Cruz 7.891@ 151.36 lined up for the first time, but the standing didn't changed for neither as both ran a slower time than in round one.

It was Ara Arslanian (Solara) & Jorge Lazcano (300ZX) turned to slug it out, but after the Z broke at the line Ara decided to take an easy win as he cruse to the finish line with a 9.705@ 95.45 saving the best for sunday.

These two don't believe in saving anything for another day, because they came to race and that's exactly what they did. It was Toyota vs Honda, George Ioannou up against Stephan Papadakis, a east vs west west show down. It was George first who flexed his muscled by laying down a monster burn out with the Solara, but Stephan quickly answered back with a monster burn out off his own. This race was a very tight one from start to finish with Toyota escaping the Honda's grasp with a narrow 7.030@ 202.48 to the Honda 7.101@ 195.17 mph.

 Grant Downing & team Venom made a second attempt with the Toyota Tundra as they lined up against Matt Hartford & his Summit racing Cavalier. Grant was able to make a pass to the tune of 8.824@ 188.91. It was a far cry from it's 6 sec capability, Matt showed why he is so dangerous as he blasted to a 7.747@ 179.37 mph to close out day one of qualification.

This is where it get tougher as we're about to kick off day two & the one qualifying round for the day. George Ioannou and his 2jz powered Solara from team Bullish decided he wanted a stronger hold on the number one slot, and he did when he wowed the capacity crowed with a 6.817@ 205.47. Matt Scranton and his V6 twin turbo Turbonetics Celica took note as he stepped up as well and laid down a 6.900@ 202.45. Jorge Lazcano took the third spot with a healthy 7.091@190.62 bumping Stephan Papadakis to fourth, Ara Arslanian to fifth, Abel Ibarra to sixth. Adam Saruwatari from sixth to ninth although he bettered his time with a 7.496@ 178.99 pass as Matt Hartford took the seventh slot with a 7.391@ 184.55 in his four cylinder power house Cavalier. Grant Downing took the eight spot by driving his Venomous 2jz twin turbo powered Tundra to a 7.486@ 194.46, bumping Manny Cruz to the tenth spot, and out off the show. Jose Torres could have made the show with his 98 RX7 if he didn't red light because he ran an impressive 7.198@ 189.90 mph. After the qualifying round the boyz from Japan decided to make a second exhibition pass for the fans as they try to better their time from the day before while trying to reach the 200+mph mark. They came out the box with a huge burn out to the crowd's delight, and finish it off with a 6.956@ 199.37 as the crowd came to their feet to applaud their efforts. It was the fastest time they ever ran. Before the beginning of the elimination rounds there was a break in the action so we could check out the bikini contest along with all the other activities that was going on around back.

Everyone knew what was coming up next so they hurried back to the front. I made a quick pit stop at the DV1 tent for some fresh batteries and to down load some pics because both of my memory disc was about filled. Before I head back to the war zone I took a couple of snap shot of our tent and the DV1 cars that were on hand representing for the club. I made a quick down load and left strict instruction with my partner Darren to send it to my family in case I didn't returned. Back on the action front line, I knew it was going to be dirty so I dug deep where I could get the best shot without getting hurt. As the cars rolled from beneath the tower I noticed Adam Saruwatari rolling to the burn out box. But how could this be when he didn't make the show? Not that I was upset because I wanted to see it run anyway, but I got to understand that he was filling a spot for Abel Ibarra who ran into problems on his last qualifying round. This was supposed to be a one and done for the NSX because he was going up against the #3 qualifier in Jorge Lazcano and his 96 300ZX. What was supposed to be a win for Jorge turned out to be a lost at the very start as he red lit. He had a reaction time of 0.161 and a 7.295 ET with a trap speed of 193.05 to Adam's R/T of 0.306 stopping the clock at 7.564@ 179.40 mph to take the win.

This two match up had the true die hard fans who stick around for elimination standing & cheering. Some were cheering for Papadakis and his rear wheel drive v6 twin turbo NSX power plant Civic, and some were cheering for Ara and his hard charging 2jz powered Solara. Knowing this was going to be exciting they stayed standing, and it was as everyone suspected. Like grasshopper the AEM Civic was the first out the hole with a R/T of 0.523 to the Bullish Solara 0.597. The Civic had the lead for a good part of the race, but at mid track the Solara started flexing and showing it's bullish ways as it powered pass the civic to a good two car length to stop the clock at 6.898@ 202.24 to the Civics' 7.088@ 181.86 mph.

The crowd keep standing as the next two heavy hitters rolled to the burn out box. It was Grant Downing and his twin turbo 2jz powered Venom Tundra and Mad man George Ioannou with his single 2JZ turbo powered Bullish Solara time to show who was the baddest 2jz in town. The two didn't disappoint at first as they both lit up the track and the crowd with huge burn outs. As they backed up to the staging lane the Tundra had to be pushed off the track, taking away some of the hype. George quickly turned the groans to cheers as he made history by making the quickest run in the history of sport compact racing. The 60' time was an astounding 1.072, and at the 660 clock he was already going 163.29 mph and finish the quarter mile in 6.786 sec @ 205.35 mph. That run had everyone at the event buzzing for a few second until Matt Scranton and his Turbonetics v6 twin turbo Celica, was supposed to line up with Matt Hartford Summit racing Cavalier with a very potent four cylinder. This was a classic case of David and Goliath, but it didn't happen due an head gasket problem. Scranton didn't disappoint as he quickly erased George's record as he laid down a 6.745@ 203.46 mph to become the new king.

In round three it was George & Ara of Bullish Motor Racing time to show who was the bigger boss. Ara bush whacked George with a 0.545 R/T to george's 0.645, but he couldn't hold off George as they both cross the line side by side at 200 + mph with George as the winner with a 6.883 ET@ 204.42, to Ara 7.221@ 200.32 mph.

George held up his end and won his round and it was Scranton's turn against Saruwatari and his NSX. Unfortunately Scranton didn't even get a chance to compete due to mechanical problems thus prevented him from backing up his sub record pass allowing the NSX another free pass to the finals with a 7.566@ 179.73 mph. One thing we could say about the NSX, it is consistent.

 After Ara & George finished having fun with the ESPN camera crew we told them that Matt Scranton didn't made it and he was going up against Adam's NSX. He was a little disappointed, not that it was Adam but because it took away from a very tight and close race knowing that both himself & Scranton just made history just seconds apart.

After some prize give away by Street Glow, followed by some trick riding by the boyz from Under Ground riders it was time for the final round of elimination.

As both cars rolled to the burn out box the remaining crowd came to their feet once again and started cheering for their prospective team. The first to lit up the track was George as he stayed in the throttle all the way past the 60 foot mark to almost half the track leaving a long trail of smoke behind him. This had the crown cheering even louder. Adam wasn't about to be showed up by George, so he answered with a huge burn out of his own that also wowed the crowd as well. This was Show Time! Now both cars are fully staged waiting for the tree to drop, and all of a sudden Adam disappeared out of the picture with a wicked R/T of 0.446 which had the Honda crew jumping to George lazy 0.715. At first it looked as if Adams luck was about to continue when George drove around him to take the win with another solid 6.810@ 204.60 to Adam 7.578@ 178.59 which had the Bullish crew pumping their fists and high fiveing each other for a job well done.

Although the race was over the show wasn't because it was the boys from the east time once again to try and hit the 200 + mph. Seemed as if George & Adam got them in the show time mood because they came out hard with a huge burn out which had the remaining crowd cheering and clapping. They didn't disappoint the crowd at all with a hard launch which lift one of the front wheel off the ground blasting its way to the fastest time it ever ran. 6.893@ 193.13 mph. Although they didn't reached the 200 mph they were very pleased at the time they ran with only two days of tuning in the west. Mr. Tanaka and the whole crew even took some time out to take a few picture with myself and my big friend Paul, and a solo shot with Roger.Yep! There  it is folks, the story of the BIG SHOOT OUT IN OLD BRIDGE TOWN.

It ain't over yet cause they'll be heading back here soon, and we will be all over it so we could tell it like it should be told. We hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I did writing about it. As we come to a close enjoy these few extra picture of the winning circle, and some of the car show. Happy trails to yew all.