At the beginning of the 2000 season, the International Drag Racing Circuit gave the import drag racing scene a huge boost by announcing its $60,000 Championship Points Series. Throughout the campaign, the all-new points series enticed every top dog from around the country, and event after event produced the most exciting heads-up racing we've ever witnessed.
As the season finale approached, the race for the gigantic purse was still wide-open with everyone involved packin' a balls-out battle plan for the last crusade of the 2000 championship.
The stage for the final and conclusive stop of the IDRC tour-none other than the notorious altitude and testing conditions of LACR in Palmdale, Calif. Fortunately, neither kept spectators nor racers away and the bleachers were packed full during the entire weekend as thousands of hardcore fans came out to see import drag racing legends such as Abel Ibarra, Craig Paisley, Lisa Kubo and Ari Yallon make history by becoming the first-ever official IDRC National Series Champions.
The most competitive action could be found in the Nitto Tires Turbo Magazine Quick Class. More than 50 cars attempted to qualify for the exclusive 16 positions.
Lisa Kubo and her Nitto Tires Civic qualified in the number one position with a track best of 9.614 at 153 mph. Jimmy O'Connor and his Venom Racing Civic were not far off the pace with a 9.799 qualifying run at an astonishing 154.79 mph. Jojo Callos, Russ Matusevich, Kousuke Kida, Kenny Tran, Leevon Eisele and Dave Hickman filled the remainder of the top half of the qualifying field.
In the first round, the entire top half of the qualifying field advanced to the quarterfinals. The pressure was on the three teams for a chance of winning the series championship.
Kubo, the points leader came up first against Kida and the Signal Auto/Tanabe Civic. Leaving the line with identical reaction times, it looked as though Kubo would take the victory. Unfortunately, Kubo's shift linkage had other ideas and Kida went on to advance into the Semi-finals. Now the pressure was on Leevon Eisele and his Tenzo R-sponsored Civic to perform.
Sitting number two in the IDRC points chase, he would have to step up the power to take down the almighty Jojo Callos and his JG Lightspeed Civic. Unfortunately, Callos had other plans, as he made easy work of Eisele to advance to the Semis.
Now it would be up to the number three man in the point's standings to see if he could topple the queen. Kenny Tran stepped up to the plate against the always-dangerous Jimmy O'Connor.
O'Connor coiled up and struck at Tran, unleashing a class track record 9.575-seconds sending Tran back to Texas with a third place championship finish. Unfortunately for O'Connor, this record-setting performance came at the expense of an engine.
Team Venom would make a valiant attempt, but would not be present on the Semi-final round. The final round set the stage for a truly international conflict. Japan's Kousuke Kida in his Signal Auto/Tanabe Civic would face USA's Russ Matusevich in his AEM-sponsored, first-generation Supra.