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It was pure luck that the Import Drag Racing Circuit's September 5 International Finals, held on Auto Club Dragway's strip in Fontana, Calif., fell on a day during a late-summer cooling trend in Southern California. Fontana in September will always be hot, but just days earlier the mercury was climbing into the triple digits and had been for over a week prior.
While organizers of the event had nothing to do with the weather, we thank them all the same for merciful 95-degree temps and keeping Mother Nature relatively at bay.
The mild conditions helped bring out a good amount of cars and drivers to take part in one of five classes or the Fun Run group, some 80 participants in total if our math is correct. Planned just weeks ago, the Finals had little promotion but still drew a strong competitor count. The pits next to the strip on Saturday were a sea of team camps that seemed to stretch for half of the parking lot.
The track surface was much improved over the last time the series was at Auto Club Dragway, with decent grip and much fewer oil downs. This kept racers flowing through the lanes and facilitated a schedule that, for once, actually finished slightly ahead of time.
After coming up short in June for the IDRC's West Coast Nats, Bisi Ezerioha in the All-Motor Bisimoto Insight was back on his game for the '09 Finals. He led all qualifiers in the class with a 9.735-second pass, a couple of tenths quicker than P2 Mike Michelson's KO Propo CR-X with a 10.022. Eric Darby, the guy who beat Ezerioha earlier in the year with his RX-7 and won the class, qualified fourth.
Ezerioha and Darby would face each other again in the semi, and Darby would even grab the hole-shot advantage with a .100 reaction to Bisi's .309, but after that the Mazda faded as the Honda sailed off to an easy victory.
The other semifinal match proved to be much closer, with Michelson drawing Joe Maestas and his Beetle. With amazing r.t.s from each - .088 from Michelson and a quicker .043 from Maestas - the VW just didn't have enough in the long run to hold off the Honda. Michelson won with a 10.033 at 135.18mph to his opponent's 10.275 at 128.68.
The pass would be Michelson's last for the day, though, as his K-series plant suffered a mechanical breakage in the semifinal race. Unable to make to call for the final, Ezerioha claimed the win, his second IDRC International Finals victory in consecutive seasons.
In Pro-Am All Motor, '09 WC Nats-winner Gerardo “Jerry” Guzman was again the guy to beat, leading qualifying with his Honda and a 11.082 run on the 1320. Less than two-tenths behind was Leo Gonzalez in his H-badged racer, and a further two-tenths back sat the '08 Finals victor, Mario Bermudez.
Guzman would again make the money round for a third IDRC race in a row, his opponent the second-qualifying Gonzalez, who had to bounce back from the chasing end of a hole-shot to take out Bermudez in the semis, 11.179 to 11.339. In the class closer, the two practically left at the same moment, Guzman with a .250 and Gonzalez with an incrementally quicker .235, but Guzman would end up winning the day with a 11.082 at 123.47 to Gonzalez's 11.154 at 126.08.
Pro-Am FWD looked like it would be Anthony DiNallo's to lose. The Civic driver from North Hollywood landed atop the qualifying order with an untouchable 9.599, more than a half second faster than Julio Alvarez in P2. Last year's Finals victor in the class Jeremy Bretschneider was also among the packed house in P/A FWD, vying for a win and qualifying mid-pack with a 10.544.
Bretschneider proved to be a nonfactor in the final outcome, as the class boiled down to the one and two qualifiers in the title round. DiNallo recorded the low r.t. of P/A FWD eliminations with a .114, but it didn't matter as he ostensibly broke amid the duo's pass, handing the win to Alvarez and his Integra.
Quick Class had the smallest field but was not devoid of close racing action. A glance at the qualifying order showed the top two racers, Los Landeros and Robert Hoffman, had times that were separated by less than two-tenths of a second.
In an abbreviated elimination bracket, Hoffman and the class's only other competitor, Greg Ramirez, faced off to see who would get Landeros, with Hoffman going down early - reacting with a .647 to Ramirez's .117 - only to respond with a 12.124-second pass to his opponent's 12.413. That's pretty much as far as he would go, though; in the class finale it was all Landeros, as Hoffman's Civic broke on the starting line.
Finally, in the bracket class, June winner Hideki Ueha and his Honda were back for more, conquering foes with some amazing reaction times. In Round 1, he registered a .068 against a red-lighting Ricardo Arroyo, only to be one-upped in the next set of passes by Frank Gonzalez and his Civic, who put in a .043 against a losing Rigo Cambron. In the same round, Ueha responded with a .031 against Dale Pixley, but ended up fouling out in Round 3; Gonzalez meanwhile advanced to the money round and won the group.
Bravo, IDRC, for another great event chock full of serious competitors and great racing. For more on the series and future races, please visit www.importdrag.com.
ALL-MOTOR
W/L Name/Car r.t. e.t. mph
W Bisi Ezerioha/2006 Bisimoto Honda Insight .245 9.690 145.30
L Mike Michelson/1989 Honda CR-X No time - broken
PRO/AM ALL-MOTOR
W Gerardo Guzman/1993 Honda Civic .250 11.082 123.47
L Leo Gonzalez .235 11.154 126.08
PRO/AM FWD
W Julio Alvarez/1996 Acura Integra .347 10.130 151.99
L Anthony Di Nallo/1994 Honda Civic .114 Broken
QUICK
W Los Landeros/1993 Honda Civic .391 11.504 100.49
L Robert Hoffman/2000 Honda Civic No time
BRACKET
W/L Name/Car r.t. dial in e.t. mph
W Frank Gonzalez/1994 Honda .169 12.90 12.930 89.49
L N/A .293 12.75 12.936 105.33
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