Day Five-Audiovox takes us out of the boxMarch 8, 2002Doughnuts are good. Coffee is good. The first cigarette of the morning is good-at least for Jason and Arnold, the resident lung donors. For Gary, the resident chimpanzee, the first Number 2 movement of the day is good. Dammit, life is good! We finally started the last leg of our trip that would take us to the racetrack and the World Import Challenge. Despite the forecast for clear skies, there were some spots of drizzle along the way, but most of those came from Gary's mouth as he slept. Yes, there were some dark clouds and even a few sprinkles, but we placed our faith in the hands of that kooky "Good Morning America" weather guy and he didn't let us down. As we arrived at the event, spots of sunshine poked through the clouds and the weekend began to shape up. Trials were under way and there was a rumor the Trekkers were to make a victory pass down the 1320, at which point we got excited and started thinking about unbolting the airbox and the muffler for a few extra ponies. Fortunately for the track officials, time restrictions and better judgment prevented us from running our 3-min. quarter mile. We parked the RV in its temporary home for the next three days, grabbed our cameras, and went to work.
High Point: Grabbing our stuff out of the crowded RV and moving into a comfortable hotel room.
The World Import Challenge-Houston, TexasMarch 8-10, 2002The race was actually in Baytown, Texas. We're not sure if Baytown is a neighborhood, a township, a county or a wholly owned subsidiary of Texas, so we just referred to the whole event as being "in Texas."
Friday afternoon brought out the first round of qualifiers. Some spectators decided to skip school and work and were in attendance at the pre-race extravaganza, along with the various manufacturers who occupied the midway and those crazy old ladies that served hot dogs and pretzels at the concession stand. We grabbed some shots of the shakedown and qualifying runs, and rubbed palms with some of the other racers, friends of ours that we haven't seen in a while. Plans for the evening were made, and Steph rocked an 8.34 e.t. at 168 mph. No matter how many times we see his car run, we still get a tingly feeling in our loins as Steph (or Mr. Papadakis, for those who don't know) gets closer and closer to breaking the 7-sec. barrier. Kenny "The Tran Man Can" Tran also posted his fastest time ever, so we were sure to get ourselves invited to his party that night-we knew that he would be buying, drinks would be flowing, and girls would be, um, showing? (I can't think of anything else that rhymes.)
The Texas crowd was very supportive of the local racers. Not to say that their local racers aren't nationally recognized-Kenny Tran and Ari Yallon, for starters-but they seemed to cheer a bit louder and jump a bit higher when Texas natives broke the staging lights at the track.
Without getting into an ESPN-style commentary on the race action that weekend, we'll just say that it was very exciting and we saw something that we haven't seen in a long time: Stephan "Webster's Dad" Papadakis didn't win his class. I think he had transmission problems. Meanwhile, our fellow Trekkers, Team Bergenholtz and Team A'PEXi, managed to almost forgo the whole race by failing to make their qualifying runs on time. They were too busy eating Chicken McNuggets and sleeping in the back of the Bergenholtz trailer. Side note: The next time you see Ron Bergenholtz, tell him that he looks exactly like an older version of professional skateboarder Willy Santos. He'll get a kick out of it. Another side note: If you invite Jensen Oda to pilot the A'PEXi Civic at a race event, make sure you check the track for traction consistency. His anger turned into fear when he realized how close he came to doing a switch kickflip backside smith grind on the dividing wall and he walked around the entire event shaking his fist.
Between-race entertainment was provided by a bunch of Ruff Ryders on bikes called "The Hooligans." They proved they could do endos and one-footed wheelies before DMX and his gang even started rapping. They even did a routine where two girls placed themselves in awkwardly compromising positions on an ATV while the driver proceeded to do a one-handed wheelie and wave to the crowd at the same time. We're not so sure the crowd's cheers were in appreciation of his skills as an ATV operator.
High Point: Gary gives an interview in the tower regarding the state of the import performance industry. The phrase "hoochie mamas" is used several times, much to the dismay of the interviewer.