NITTO TIRE IDRC SUMMER SLAM NATIONALS RECORDS BROKEN

By Michael Ferrara

DRO file photos by Jeff Burk for illustration only.

A record crowd of over 26,000 filled Raceway Park in Englishtown, New Jersey for the Import Drag Racing Circuit's ultimate event experience to date. For those in attendance on June 30th, the record temperatures made for elevated track temperatures that produced a non-cooperative racing surface for the ultra-high horsepower cars.

Despite the serious challenge, Siguel Racing from Puerto Rico made history by setting the IDRC World Record for Quickest Elapsed Time in the Toyo Tires Pro Class with a 7.440-second blast that checked in just under the 180-mph mark (179.90). Although there were at least 10 cars that had personal bests in the 7s, only one pair managed 7-second times in the first two rounds of qualifying.

On Sunday, the weather forecasts were for severe thunderstorms. It wasn't of question of if they would hit, there was only a question of when the storms would hit. A rapidly moving low-pressure system pushed in some cooler weather. About five or 10 degrees cooler that Saturday, the track was more capable of handling the horsepower in attendance. At the 11am final qualifying session, history was made once again. This time, Matt Hartford and the Hoyos Racing Focus claimed the title of World's Quickest Sport Compact with a 7.411-second dash that gave the Ford the IDRC World Record for Quickest Elapsed Time. Siguel's record only lasted a brief 17 hours.

The rest of the Pro Class also stepped it up as six of the cars qualified in the sevens. The seven spot was filled by Marcos Acosta with an 8.0-run and the final position went to Venom Racing's Tacoma that edged out Dave Buschur's Talon by just .004-seconds to earn the final spot.

TOYO TIRES PRO CLASS
Three cars with mainland U.S. addresses took on five of Puerto Rico's best. Team USA's AEBS Focus didn't make the cut as the car was off its usually consistent 7-second pace. Team Puerto Rico alternate Jorge Rivera took over Marcos Acosta's position when Acosta was a no show for the quarter-final round. Rivera wasted no time in becoming the seventh car in the eight-car field to run in the sevens with his 7.943 against Siguel Racing in the first round. This was the quickest and fastest Pro Class ever.

Copyright 1999-2001, Drag Racing Online and Racing Net Source