Hot,Hot,Hot

Ah, Texas. More to the point, ah, Ennis, Texas. Small in stature, swollen with tradition. Ennis, where, on our last visit, a waitress at the local pizza house decided she’d prove to a fellow Super Street staffer and me that she was really pregnant by pulling up her shirt to show us her swollen, tattooed belly (mere moments after she put our food on the table). Ennis, where you need to join a club before they’ll serve you a drink in a restaurant. Ennis, where every summer night is a cruise night, regardless of the type (or condition) of the car you drive. Doesn’t sound like a place where you’d expect to find some of the hottest import racing in the country, does it?

Well, right yourself in that saddle, buckaroos, because Texas Motorplex Raceway (located in the aforementioned swollen town of Ennis) has hosted its share of wild 1,320 runoffs, and the most recent NIRA Import Showdown only added fuel to the proverbial drag race fire. We ain’t talking about a little weenie-boy wanna-be race, either. The NIRA Showdown was the full bug. It had everything an import drag race maniac could ever ask for, and more.

Along the Way
For those of you who are geographically challenged, Ennis is about an hour and a half south of Dallas (considerably less if Howard is driving). Brent and I roll into Dallas the day before the big event with high expectations. In addition to the usual cast of bad boys that make import racing Texas-style a treat to watch (Jotech, Carboy, RX7.com), Jojo Callos is going to make the drive from SoCal to represent the West Coast in his Civic hatch. So needless to say, Brent and I waste no time in getting out of Dallas and on the road to Ennis.

After all, we want to see if our favorite pizza waitress has had a boy or a girl (Brent would like to go on record as saying that his visit to Ennis last year was the first time he had been in the area, and that he had not passed through briefly eight months prior—as the local legend has it). With Brent shouting, “Legal ramifications be damned!” we race toward Ennis.

We arrive at the hotel only to find that the NIRA staff has abandoned us. Having spent two nights in Ennis already, the wimps decide to ride up to Dallas for a taste of the big-city nightlife. No big deal. Brent and I have business of our own to attend to. First stop: the pizza joint. Brent rushes in, nearly knocking over an elderly couple trying to exit (turned out to be the mayor of Ennis). Brent searches the dining area in vain. She’s nowhere to be found. He looks in the kitchen, the restrooms, the walk-in refrigerator. Nothing. I have to pull him off the host, who suggests that he’d be better able to help Brent if he had the name of the young woman. “I never got her name, you moron!” Brent screams as he shakes the man by the apron. I drag Brent out. I wouldn’t say he was crying, but water was welling up in his eyes.

From there, we head to the only eating establishment in Ennis that serves Mexican food. As luck would have it, we’re told we have to join a club before the waitress (who was not showing any outward signs of a pending pregnancy) will bring us any liquid libation. Brent and I vow to carry our Unicard with us whenever we leave California.

After dinner Brent insists on looking for the pizza waitress at the happening hot spots around Ennis. We enter the bowling alley and somehow I get talked into bowling a few games. Brent is the magazine’s ace bowler. Whenever we have bowl-a-thons with those other rags, we send Brent up last. Not tonight. I proceed to wipe the floor with his pizza waitress-less carcass. We notice that we have yet to see anyone from the race scene. We figure Jojo, Kenny, and the rest of the boys have turned in early to get a good night’s sleep before the big race (Yeah, right!—RJD). It’s late, about 7 p.m. The town of Ennis is rolling up its streets. We head back to the hotel to try to get some sleep. In the morning, we find out that neither of us could sleep because we were giddy with pre-race excitement.

Race Day
Up early and off to the track. The woman at the gate doesn’t know if our all-access season-long NIRA credentials allow us entry. She says she’ll have to get in touch with someone in charge. As she walks away from our car she calls for Rakesh on her walkie talkie. Rakesh? In charge? Rakesh, for those of you who don’t know, is our little office whipping boy. So the thought of this woman getting permission from Rak to allow us on the grounds is high comedy.

We are finally allowed to pass through the gates of Rak. We make our way to the tower to get photo passes and check out the air-conditioned hospitality suite (you know, the one where Howard spent all his quality time last time he went to Texas). We head outside for the rest of the day, taking it all in. The crowd gets larger as the morning goes on. As is most often the case, the crowds come running to the stands whenever the big dogs run. Kyle Puckett has no problem drawing a crowd thanks (in part) to his ability to light up the tires on his 300ZX. That and the fact that he runs 11s. The Power 6 final has Kyle pitted against Ben Blalock and his ’98 Supra. Kyle walks away victorious with an 11.91 run.

There is plenty of off-track action as well. We walk to the SCCA track and find it filled with racers who like their racing curvy. Next, we walk through the manufacturers’ midway in search for all things curvy. Brent, still reeling from his pizza waitress experience, doesn’t feel like playing with others so he heads off to the grandstands to shoot more cars. Lucky thing he does. He arrives just in time to see a beautiful red Supra get loose at the end of the 1,320. The driver walks away from his high-speed encounter with the wall, thanks to the safety equipment he had installed (five-point harnesses, rollcage). Watching him walk away from the crash I realize why the NIRA tech inspectors are such hard asses.

At the end of the race day it was Jojo and his Civic from Cali against Kenny in the Jotech Civic. Jojo walks away with the big dollars and the equally important golden handshake from NIRA race director Craig Lieberman. Brent comes back from the stands and reminds me that we haven’t resurrected the NIRA Prize Patrol as planned. We scour the pit area for unsuspecting winners. See the accompanying Prize Patrol piece for all the exciting results.

The sun is setting now and Brent, RJ, and I are shooting madmen. No, we’re not shooting madmen, we’re shooting feature cars like madmen. It’s that extra added bonus of going to a NIRA event: You know we’re gonna be there looking for cars to shoot. It’s dark as we pull out of the racetrack. The woman who thinks Rak is in charge is long gone, so we escape without incident. We cruise through Ennis debating whether we should eat before we head back to Dallas. The thought of eating in Ennis gets Brent thinking about the pizza waitress again. He reclines the passenger seat all the way and stares at the roof of the car as if it has a sunroof. Best to head for Dallas before Brent decides we need to check out the bowling alley again. NIRA—always an adventure.

The Fastest Guns Have a Duel in Texas
The boards are flashing: 10.85 to 11.14. JoJo Callos and his ’94 Civic hatchback have just locked up the win for NIRA’s Pro Front Wheel Drive finals against Kenny Tran. JoJo’s small entourage is jumping for joy. I guess JoJo’s buying dinner tonight. It’s been a hot day in Ennis but the racing has been spectacular. Both JoJo and Kenny, each running 10-second passes throughout the course of the event, have contributed greatly to excitement. Let’s look at each individual and his fast gun.

JoJo Callos
JoJo drove 24 hours straight from California to make this event. Along with his pit crew personnel Jason and “Pee Wee” Mike, as well as Sparco Racing’s very own Mike Morita, the four made the non-stop trek from L.A. in no time. Much is to be attributed to Jason, who found some “energy pills” at one gas station that enabled him to drive halfway to Texas before giving up the wheel. JoJo’s Civic is powered by a 1.8L turbo motor and puts out horsepower figures in the high 500s. JoJo promised 10-second passes in Texas and that he did (10.63 at 141, 10.84 at 140, and 10.85 at 137). This was also the first event where the Civic tried on the much discussed wheelie bars. JoJo tells me that he felt no difference, but also expressed that the slicks he was running on were on their last legs. In regards to Texas, JoJo said that it was “a cool and friendly place” and followed up with “but it’s too damn hot.” When I asked him about Kenny, JoJo remarked that he was very proud of him.

“He’s progressed so fast…Imagine running 11.90s then suddenly jumping to 10.60s—that’s a big accomplishment.” JoJo doesn’t want to forget to thank his sponsors for getting him there. They include JG, Tanabe, Sparco, Versus, and Mainstream.

Kenny Tran
Kenny is the local fave. He has one of the few Hondas in the mid-west that can run a 10-second e.t. (the other is Carboy’s Civic/Integra). He built his vehicle as a promotional piece for his shop, which he owns and runs. It’s called Jotech and is located in Dallas.

Kenny’s Civic also runs a 1.8L turbo VTEC motor and his best time this weekend was a 10.80 at 133. He credits his success to the dedication of his crew who have had too many sleepless nights. In the time to come, Kenny and his Jotech crew plan to try the wheelie bar deal and then make the trip to JoJo’s homeland of California to show them that Texans can run with the best of them. When asked about JoJo, Kenny builds him up as some sort of mentor. “[JoJo] has helped me out a lot. He’s a super cool guy, and if I had to lose to anybody, I would rather lose to him than anybody else.” Kenny also has his people and sponsors to thank. They include JG, ACT, STR, Team Dynotech, Revhard (by the way, Kenny would like to express the fact that he needs a bigger turbo—Myles, did you get that?), and New Concept Autobody.

Until the next showdown in Texas, I guess everyone will just be polishing their guns. Something tells me it’s going to be JoJo and Jotech all over again.

NIRA Prize Patrol—Texas Style
Where has the prize patrol been? It seems that the Super Street slacker staff has been too busy trying to cover every aspect of the always fabulous NIRA events to hand out prize patrol swag. But not in Texas. So what was the prize? Come on, it’s Texas. So it had to be cowboys and Indians, of course. This time we made participants work for their prizes.

Everyone had to answer a battery of highly intellectual questions.