We had one goal during NHRA's season opener and first-ever stop at the California Dragway in Cow Country, Fontana (besides take pictures of cars, women, etc.), and it was to essentially run amok. After all, we were an hour away from civilization, which basically meant that any kind of morality was tossed out the window, along with the seeds and sticks-just ask Nads. Whether it involved the stickiest of the icky or, to quote Lil' Jon, "Skee, skee, skee, skee, skee," we came out of the event extremely satisfied. Nads, after disappearing for a couple of hours, ended the day happier than ever and smelling like he just rocked out at a reggae concert. Britton, despite being slathered in SPF 500 lotion, came out looking like he just got slapped by Rick James, all red in the face, and yet he still enjoyed his first-ever drag event as an SS staffer. And I finished the day happier than Nads, having the chance to chill inside the Models N Motion booth, spittin' what little game I have (which is basically zero) at April's cover girl Ramille, er, Roel, ah, whatever. Without a doubt, it was a great day to have an Extreme Autofest car show, which amazingly brought out the finest vehicles to Fontana. Oh snap! I almost forgot...there was a drag race, too! Man, I need to stop writing this crap in the middle of the night.
Pro RWD
George Ioannou, last year's Pro RWD champion, continued where he left off: inside the winner's circle. His Street Glow Bullish Racing Toyota Solara not only finished first in qualifying but also dusted the rest of the competition despite having software problems-random porn pop-ups are annoying. His teammate Ara Arslanian also impressed the crowd with a second place finish, even if he was a no show in the final round. Looking back at the whole weekend, the Pro RWD didn't have one complete race at all, with all the battles being won by either a no show or something breaking. It was a good thing we had three SS editors covering all this action. In other Pro RWD news, Abel Ibarra showed off his new '04 Mazda RX-8, and Brad Pedsonett debuted the Titan Motorsports Toyota Celica. Also, Matt Hartford came out with a Cadillac CTS-powered Cavalier.
Pro FWD
The crowd's favorite class had only four racers show up, which included Lisa Kubo, Jojo Callos, Nelson Hoyos, and Ed Bergenholtz. Lisa, with her APC-sponsored Saturn Ion, had a record-breaking moment in qualifying, flying through the quarter-mile in 8.02 @ 186.12 and backing it up with an 8.055 @ 180.79 in the final round against Nelson Hoyos and his '04 Chevy Cavalier, where these two dueled it out. Nelson vs. Lisa (insert your pseudo-comical The Simpsons joke here), and 8 seconds later, we had 2004's first Pro FWD winner-Ms. Kudrow, er, Kubo. Ed and Jojo (who drove his Hot Rod class Integra in order to gain points because his Sentra wasn't ready) obviously didn't fare too well, citing the fact that there were too many fine pinays at the Models N Motion booth. Yum!
Modified: Paul Efantis, now under the Bullish
Motorsports umbrella and driving a 2JZ-powered Toyota Solara, came through the pack like a bull in heat, horning everybody in the way while winning in style after beating down Carlos Gonzalez in his '73 Mazda RX-3. Carlos was so shocked he almost hit the wall and a group of journalists when he went sideways on his way to second place, which was evidenced by my overt pee stains. All in all, the Modified class sported some of the greatest burnouts of the weekend. Smoke was everywhere...wait, maybe that was just Nadsy Nads.