2NR: What was the fastest E.T. from the first event?
Frank: Well, I think the fastest cars were Richard Van Wellos, 'Z man', and his 240Z, and Johnny Alameda, who drove a Fiat 600 with a rear-mounted 13B. Both those guys were running in the mid 11s. Back then, 90 percent of the racers were old-school RWD rides, like 510s, RX-2s, 3s, first-gen RX7, Cosmos, and some Corollas.
2NR: Hondas weren't running back then?
Frank: Well, that's the thing. There were only a few, but once Oscar Jackson's turbocharged '84 Civic officially ran in the 13s in 1990, that really seemed to set everything off. That was the catalyst with all the FWD racers pushing to break records. You would see their times drop at every event, and the RWD guys were slowly giving up the spotlight to the FWD guys. Once word spread by the second event or so, it was about 90 percent FWD cars, and only a few of the RWDs. Attendance was up, and all the vendors and companies who were a little reserved about supporting the first few events began fighting for a presence at the track. I quit my day job as a computer programmer and organized Battle events full-time.
2NR: Did computers pay well back in those days?
Frank: Hell yeah. I was a 19-year-old kid making about $52K a year. ...But I blew it all on racing and blowing up engines. I probably disappointed my parents, but here we are, almost 20 years later; I'm married with a kid, a house, and have had a very fun 20 years. I must be doing something right.
2NR: Your turn. How did you first get into cars?
Ken: Well, growing up as an Asian American kid from Cerritos, I basically had friends who were either Filipino, or other Asian Americans. The Filipinos were into music - DJ-ing or going to clubs, and the other Asian Americans were into bodyboarding, skating, or working on cars. Like Frank, when I was 14, my older brother used to take me street racing in his Datsun 200SX on nitrous. A couple years later, I was heavy into the club scene, so between my interest in cars and partying, and seeing how car guys were cruising in front of the clubs, "showing off" their cars, talking to girls and listening to music, I thought, "why not put all this together?"
2NR: What were you driving at the time?
Ken: With the money I saved from DJing and working at Wells Fargo as a merchant teller, I was able to buy a new Supra when they came out in '92. I dumped all my money into it, and a week later it got stolen by a gangster "friend" of mine who was so high, he didn't even know he took my car.
2NR: Did you get it back?
Ken: No, but when the insurance company covered the losses, I debated whether to dump my money back into another car, and be paranoid that it would get ripped off, or put it toward this plan I had of creating a club-type car show for the import scene.
2NR: And that's when you started Showoff?
Ken: Yeah. I remember printing up fliers and passing them out at the Palmdale events Frank was running, back in 1994.
2NR: And was it a hit like Battle?
Ken: More or less, but on a personal note though, it cost me my girlfriend. She was pissed that I was putting so much time into it that she broke up with me. But that only made me think, "Fuck it. I've got nothing to lose, now," and want to do Showoff even more. I began scoping out venues for the first one, and that was pretty much it.
2NR: So, you had flyers before a venue?
Ken: Yeah, well the flyers only mentioned that there was going to be an event and provided an address for shops and car owners to get vendor info and to pre-register for the show.
2NR: Who was your first reply from?
Ken: It was from a car show contestant. R.J. DeVera, actually.
2NR: R.J., huh? He really is O.G., after all.
Ken: Yeah. I still have his original entry form that went into a proposal I used to help lock down the venue. His and all the others I got back in the first few months: vendors, shops, race teams, DJs...