Hey guys, Troy and I just flew down to Los Angeles for the third Scion Performance Challenge at the Pomona Dragstrip. The last event was two years ago and I didn't quite win it, so I returned with a renewed spirit and more enthusiasm than ever.
Read about the 2004 Scion Performance Challenge:
http://www.scionlife.com/features/f_041201/
Watch the Fuel Show's news clip on this event:
There were over 40 journalists attempting to qualify for 32 spots in the competition. We were going to be racing race-spec Scion tCs that were pulled from duty as the Toyota Celebrity Challenge of Long Beach vehicles. Each car was identically prepped with superchargers, cages, racing clutches, coilovers, upgraded brake systems and steel roofs. The cars still wore graphics from the Celebrity event! I think I could smell William Shatner's sweat in the tweed headliner!!
We were on the track by 9AM with fresh bagels and orange juice in our bellies. The weather was perfect for racing. The sun was casting a long shadow over the track, but the temp was up to nearly 80 already. Gentlemen, start your engines!
Wait a second! They weren't ready to let us hop into those coupes just yet. Pro racers Kenny Tran and Christian Rado took a few minutes to give some advice about the cars, the track and the sequence of events that composed a drag race. Many of the competitors had never raced a car before, let alone on a track! The cars had enough power to spin the tires excessively, even with the surface treated with a super-sticky traction agent. Reving the engine to the limiter and dropping the Centerforce racing clutch wasn't going to achieve optimal results. You had to ease the car up to speed in order to maximize the traction. Traction was of the ultimate importance since we were only racing the eighth-mile and not the full quarter.
It was time for the first passes down the track. They could sense my eagerness, so I was belted into the first car and quickly lined it up in the staging lane. I drummed my fingers impatiently on the steering wheel as I waited for my first opponent to get staged. The lights blinked... two yellows and my left foot was already rising to engage the clutch. Yes! It was a decisive victory for me, almost a half-second ahead of the other car. I ran a 9.85 @ 75.66MPH on my first run, with a .075 reaction time.
As I returned to the pits and relenquished my car to the next driver I overheard someone mentioning my time. As I watched race after race I realized that my time was pretty good. Most drivers weren't breaking the ten-second barrier. By the time everyone had taken a practice run I had the fastest time. That sure surprised me. But, to put me back into my place the two pro drivers, Tran and Rado, took a pass on the track. Kenny Tran beat my time by a few hundredths of a second. Well he IS a professional, after all. So technically I was the second fastest of that round.
The next round of races would actually count as our first qualifying run, so as the racing began I decided to sit back and watch. The track official explained to us that during qualifying you were allowed to red-light as you left the start. That means that you were not disqualified for leaping the green light. About two-thirds of the racers had completed their first qualifying round when I approached the car. I ran my hand down its smooth surface, talking to the car just like in Days of Thunder. I think it might have helped. My second run was a 9.76 @ 74.99MPH, an improvement of almost a tenth of a second. Of course, I jumped the gun by about a tenth of a second, so in competition I would have been finished. But this wasn't competition, so once again I was in the pole position.
As all drivers finished their first qualifying runs the pro racers belted in for their qualifier. I felt pretty confident that my time was going to be a tough one to beat, but my stomach was tied up in knots anyway. As the taillights shrank in the distance, as did the nasal drone of the exhaust, the reader boards lit up with each pro drivers' results. Christian Rado bested my 9.76 with a 9.75! Again I was in second place, losing to the professional by a measly hundredth of a second, less than an eye blink.
The second round of qualifying approached. I had been careful to drive car #24, a Black Cherry Pearl tC, on both of my first runs. I was pretty sure that I had gotten lucky by choosing a car that might have one or two more horses under the hood. But as my turn neared I realized that I was stuck driving a different car this time. That's OK, I had a really sweet qualifying time and I could afford to test another car. This time I was in a white tC and I was certain that my luck would run out.
On this run I wanted to concentrate on launching the car with a good reaction time that would prevent the red bulb from laughing in my face. In 2004 I made it to the third round of eliminations before I disqualified myself by dropping the clutch too early and triggering the laser beam before my light turned green. Well, I still red-lighted the car, but it was just five hundredths too early. I was feeling the tree out and I was much more at ease with the speed of the lights. I earned a 9.79 @ 75.09MPH, so I proved that it wasn't my lucky #24 car that was pulling the good times. It was actually me!
The competition ladder was drawn up according to the fastest qualifying times. Christian Rado was number one and I was number two. (Did I mention that less than an eye blink seperated our times? Oh, I did? Oops, let me continue...) The showdown was about to begin. We would be racing heads-up eliminations. That simply meant that whichever car crossed the finish line first was the winner and would continue into the next round. The other driver would apparently stew in his own self-hate as he came to the realization that he wasn't worth dirt.
The story goes much faster now. Round one highlights included me winning with a 9.84 @ 75.54 vs a 10.45 @ 73.58. Christian Rado was eliminated by his own car as second gear decided that it was too tired to do any work that day. Troy was eliminated, but since it was his first time ever racing he still felt victorious.
Round two was here and I was really freaking out. My heart was racing, I was sweating and my hands were shaking. I was not built for this kind of pressure! I had studied the ladder and I realized that if I could beat the next driver I had a really good chance of winning the whole thing. I suited up and strapped in. I pulled the car into the staging lane and staged it as slowly and carefully as I could. As I waited for the lights to trigger my adrenaline I reminded myself that if I red-lighted again I would beat myself up about it for at least another year.
I focused my entire being on the third yellow light. The moment that light winked on I was going to pull my left foot up slowly and smoothly pull away from the line. I focused. Focused. Then, I blinked. I don't know why. During the split second that my eye close and re-opened the third light become a yellow ball of fire and I freaked out. My left foot yanked up and my right foot slammed down. Bad combination. The tires shrieked as the car slowly pulled away from the line. I had screwed up and I only had eight more seconds to make up for it.
The other driver was just a few inches ahead of me on the strip, travelling nearly the same speed. But then I started gaining slowly... inch by inch I was closing the gap! As the finish line approached I held my breath and looked up at the reader boards on either side of the track. Damn! I lost. I limped the car back to the pits to fester in my own shame.
The timeslip told the story. I had slept at the green and was penalized with a .262 reacton time. The other driver was obviously better at not blinking and earned a .209 reaction time. I was already five hundredths of a second behind the guy before our rear tires crossed the line! As we raced down the track and passed the 60-foot mark and I was just .025 seconds behind, and at 330-feet I was a 0.49 seconds down. When I lost I was only .012 seconds behind and travelling almost 1 MPH faster. Another 100 feet and I would have won. But we weren't racing the 1/8-mile-plus-an-extra-hundred-feet race. And I lost. But I lost fair and square.
I learned that Kenny Tran had also been eliminated in the second round. That left journalists and Scion employees to finish up the racing. Steve Haag, Scion Corporate Manager, managed to make it to the finals. He ended up finishing in second place when Dave Devera from thespeedlounge.com eliminated him. Dave had qualified directly behind me in third place, so there was no sure thing at all.
After the racing ended Scion treated us all to a catered lunch where prizes were awarded and bellies were filled. Everyone relaxed in the shade and planned the strategy for their next big Scion race. 2007, here I come.
See my timeslips here:
http://www.scionlife.com/gallery/?photo=34811
View all of the images from this event here:
http://www.scionlife.com/gallery/eve...na_ca-10202006
Scion Performance Challenge 3.0 Results
