Since the beginning of the import scene, our cars have always been seen as the underdogs. Anyone can take a pushrod V8 motor and make a ton of power, but to take a little four-banger and go fast is like persuading a white girl to dance with our big-headed Chinese editor, Jonny; it's tough. When the underdogs start to win, you can't help but give it up for the little guys-and that's exactly where our story begins.
Last year at our Arizona Super Lap Battle Qualifying round we found our current Limited FF Record holder, Tage Evanson. Tage is the true definition of underdog: He's a self-funded privateer who now has a few sponsors, but only after he broke the Limited FF record. However, one of his new sponsors, Hasport, a powerhouse in the Honda market, lent him a helping hand by dropping in a K24 after he blew his old B-series. Literally finishing the swap the night before the competition, there wasn't a lot of time to do anything to the motor, so the internals all had to stay stock. With the new setup it was going to be interesting to see what kind of times Tage would run and during his practice sessions, Tage ended up turning out 1:07 lap times. In the final session, with the cool nighttime desert air, Tage turned it up and was able to take the third fastest time of the day with a 1:05.463 on Nitto NT-01s. This was a mere .003 second away from the ultra-fast GST Subaru Impreza. To put his time in perspective, the JDM Godzilla R35 GT-R from Cobb Tuning was hitting 1:06.289, which was a remarkably fast time in itself considering it only had a few bolt-ons. For a Civic to be able to post a faster time than a GT-R is no small feat. Rounding out the top spot with a blistering time of 1:04.924 was a Full Race-sponsored STI driven by Mike Speck, a local instructor at Firebird Raceway.
On the Street class side of things, JC Meynet made the trip out to Arizona to show off his Street Class Subaru STI. Over the winter he made some tweaks to find some more power and managed to squeeze the biggest Yokohama Advan Neova tires under the stock fenders. With his refined setup he busted out an impressive 1:07.519, which by itself is a fast time, but add in the fact that this was done on street tires and you can see what a full-interior, street-driven car can do.
With the first round of Super Lap Battle qualifying in the books, this year's Finals coming this November 12th at Buttonwillow Raceway are shaping up to be another record setting event. Word on the street is that the Tomei/Cusco WRX built in Japan will be at our next qualifying round, but you'll have to pick up the next issue to find out.