For those unaccustomed to summer in Florida, peeling sweat-starched garmets off of your skin at the end of the day seems like a cruel freshman initiation ploy. The feeling of elastic relieving itself of its grasp on your skin is especially refreshing after a day in the sun. The combination of heat and humidity can make you feel like the flaming toes from an athlete's foot commercial. (Ew!-SC) As Joe and I rolled up on Moroso Raceway, our cocoon of temporary comfort was shattered by an open door and an onslaught of warm air and moisture. Within moments, we were contemplating effective means of combating jock itch. It became painfully obvious that we were from out of town as Joe and I seemed to be the only sissies yelping about the heat. Resigned to shutting our mouths, there was plenty of race action on hand to help us forget about central air conditioning.
Saturday's qualifying sessions went off without a hitch in spite of light, intermittent sprinkles. Old school rides of an early Datsun 1200, Toyota Corolla, and Starlet were well represented, all sporting various iterations of rotary nitrous or Toyota 3T-C turbo power. The mix of the older cars made for entertaining racing as the short wheel-based, back-halved cars blasted down the 1320.
Within the pro ranks, there was other drama unfolding. Jason Alvarez's Esslinger-sponsored ZX2 was in dire need of a replacement drivetrain after the driver-side axle failed, which damaged the trick sequential tranny and snuffed out the engine. Further down the paddock, Shaun Carlson was scouring the pit lane and southern Florida for an oil pump and geardrive. After making lightening repairs, Shaun decided that the Meguiar's Focus would not run due to other mechanical woes. Meanwhile, Craig Paisley consistently torched the tarmac with repeated 8-second blasts, and Abel Ibarra strung together more 7-second passes to the delight of the awe-struck crowd. The RJ Shimrock-driven Borla Focus laid down a blistering 7.9-second pass early in qualifying, but later broke during staging for a follow-up run. Still sorting an engine combination, Chris Rado of Team Toyo/World Electronics was unable to run, but made an appearance and followed the Moroso event up a 9.4-second pass at Englishtown a week later.