Jackson Racing Battle Of The Imports - The Battle For Fontana

To even out the playing field for the FWD racers, the Pro-Import Quick Class was divided into FWD and RWD classes. At the top of the totem pole was Russ Matusevich qualifying first with a 6.964. Following close behind was Rob Hornsby in his '71 Ford Pinto (6.984). The next four qualifying spots were captured by VW-power. Doug Gonzales, Lloyd Mosher, Craig Gibbs and Marty Staggs qualified third, fourth, fifth and six respectively. Turbo Joe Morgan was at it again, as his 7.614 was good enough to qualify in the number seven position. Brian Mapes rounded out the field in his '66 Bug.

Unlike the FWD Pro-import and Pro-street class, the underdogs were ousted in the first round. All top four qualifiers advanced to the next round. The semi-final round pitted Doug Gonzales, the number three qualifier, against Russ Matusevich, the number one qualifier. Doug barely edged Russ out and advanced to the final round. The other semi-final round squared Marty Staggs against Lloyd Mosher. Marty took the early lead and never looked back, taking the easy win. The final round was the battle of the Bugs. Doug Gonzales in the '63 Bug facing off against Marty Staggs in the '61 VW. Doug took the win by a scant .009-seconds, what a close race.

Although the Pro-Modified class only had three qualifiers, it gave spectators a taste of high-powered, back-halved warriors in action. All three of the qualifiers were sporting the Mazda logo. At the top of the chain was Jim Johnson in his '85 Mazda RX-7. If the car looks familiar (it should), as it was owned by Ray Lochhead at one point. The number two qualifier was coincidentally, Ray Lochhead in his '93 RX-7. Adam Saruwatari filled the last qualifying spot. Since there were only three racers, Jim was given a bye run while Adam faced off against Ray. Both racers eclipsed a 6.5-second run but Ray edged out Adam by .017 seconds. The final squared off old school against new school. Jim produced like a pro and took out Ray and went home $3,000 richer.

The next stop for the Jackson Racing Battle train is October 1, 2000 in Joliet, Ill. at the multi-million dollar Route 66 Raceway and Import Tuner will be there to cover all the action.