Dave Shih: All my friends back then thought Archie was god and everyone wanted to be him. And my friends said nobody from NorCal can take him on, and I wanted to do it, so I did. That's what started it all for me.
Archie: How well organized the races were, whether on the track or on the streets. Everyone was able to race all night long and had no problems at all. Getting our cars ready for race weekend, going city to city battling anyone-those where the good old days.
Tony: All the friendships and, of course, all the hot import models. It was fun going to Battle of the Imports to see who was the fastest. Myles and I always helped each other at the street races and at the track.
Frank: The rivalry between Cyber, Redline and Precision. The camaraderie out at the events. Being a part of history as front-wheel drives broke into 14s, 13s, 12s, 11s, 10s and 9s. All these moments happened at Battle.
SS: What do you consider your lasting impact on the industry?
Archie: That all of us-Myles, Junior, and Tony-started something that was a weekend event and turned it into what it is now: big! I know not a whole lot of these racers nowadays know me like they know the rest of the guys, but everyone knew the red CRX with the yellow bumper from Split Second Racing. That in itself is enough of a lasting impact.
Junior: Redline Racing, along with the other pioneers, forever changed the notion that imports didn't belong on the track. Imports were now something to be reckoned with.
Myles: When they thought that a 100 cube Honda motor could not run such a big turbocharger. They said it couldn't be done. My motto is, "We can't find out unless we try." This is how I became successful building turbo manifolds. I have a degree in criminal justice; who would have thought I could design turbo manifolds that the Chinese and other manufacturers would one day copy?
Tony: We just paved the way for import racing and helped other racers go fast with our research and development. When we went out and raced, it was all about friendship and fun. We made a lot of good friends out of it. Now it's all about corporate sponsorships. It wasn't about that back then. We did it all for fun. We just didn't put tens of thousands into our cars to just win 50 bucks. There were bragging rights and just plain fun.
Frank: That I founded sport compact drag racing. Shaped and molded all of the competitive classes used today by other racing organizations. But a lot of credit should definitely go out to the people sitting here, who I call the original racers who really made a good foundation for what we see today. Everything from the concept of putting a different engine into a car to not listening to someone telling you, "Oh, this is the turbo that you need for that size engine." All that stuff was being done in the early '90s. It's unfortunate that a lot of the new guys out there perhaps never heard of Junior or Archie or Tony. I'm sure everybody wants to know where the roots were.
SS: What are you doing now and what have you been doing since we last saw you in the industry?
Tony: I own a car repair shop called Mid-Valley Auto Repair. I love fixing cars. I've just been working and building cars for time attack and drifting.
Myles: I'm managing the motorsports department for DCH Autogroup in Temecula, California. People are going to start hearing about DCH Motorsports because we'll be building a few cars for time attack, drag and rally. I've traded my racecars for two beautiful daughters, Katelyn and Makayla. It's the best accomplishment I've done, better than any records I've broken.
Junior: I'm a senior systems analyst at JPL/NASA. To this date, I continue to focus on my family and career. However, in my spare time, I continue to build new projects of my own. The most recent being an AE86, which was featured in the November 2006 issue of Import Tuner magazine.