Third in the FWD class and seventh overall was Sportcar Motion’s EG Civic. As first-time visitors to Firebird Raceway and as the only team in the Shootout without some type of forced induction, owner Loi Song and driver Tim Kuo did an amazing job staying ahead of some of the more powerful competition. Expect to see a lot more of this car because it was chosen as Honda Tuning’s entry into the Castrol Syntec Top Car Challenge.
Eighth overall and second in the RWD class was local team AFI Turbo, whose beautiful widebody S2000 really suffered in the slippery track conditions. Driver Jeremy Renshaw showed tremendous car control by keeping this turbocharged beast off the walls. Had the event been blessed with the warm and sunny Arizona weather, there’s little doubt the AFI machine would have fared much better.
Ninth overall and third in the RWD was drifter-extraordinaire Forrest Wang in his S13 Nissan Silvia. This car actually started its life as a RHD Silvia from Japan, which Forrest imported to his native state of Hawaii before converting it into a LHD drift car. Unfortunately for Forrest, the greasy track conditions really didn’t favor his RWD platform or his “hang the tail out” driving style.
If not for the rain, Crawford Performance would have posted a time in the autocross and finished in the top three overall, rather than ranking tenth overall and fourth in class. Quirt may have been second-guessing his decision to park the car during the rain, but with plenty of other events on the calendar he did ensure that CP’s factory-backed Impreza STI would live to fight another day.
FX Motorsports Development was definitely our hard-luck competitor of the year. After winning the dyno competition and posting a competitive time in the autocross, they were looking like the team to beat. But a damaged crank bearing that wasn’t repairable in time for the drag event meant it was game over.
And we can’t forget about the Continental Tire demo car, UMS Tuning’s Mitsubishi EVO VIII. With a strong showing on the dyno, and a very solid performance in the autocross followed by a 12.125-second sprint down the dragstrip at 130.08 mph (the second highest mph in the competition!) and the street tire demo car was looking like a real contender. In fact, even after a hampered time attack result from a overheating issue, the UMS EVO would have scored enough points to finish third overall. On street tires. How bad-ass is that?