FATHER AND SON TEAM WIN THREE AWARDS AT ATLANTA DRAGWAY TUNERFEST
By Tim Glover
Photos
(June 19 - Commerce, GA) Thousands of fans enjoyed the 2004 edition of the
Hayes / Mopar Tunerfest Shootout, presented by Hayes Family Dealerships and
ImportAtlanta.com. The show featured a variety of activities, with racing
action, a car show, the vendor's midway, burnout contest, bikini contest, a
chassis dynomometer to measure real horsepower, a disc jockey and a sound
off contest to see whose machine had the loudest stereo, and much more.
Many vendors came to give technical support to their customers and to
display their latest wares. Hayes Family Dealerships had a large group of
new performance Dodges and Chryslers on hand, and also had a display of
Mopar Performance Sport Compact parts and accessories for sale. Jeff Steer
from Knowledge Performance had two of his highly modified Hondas on display,
one with a trick turbo setup. Torque videos were available in the house.
Several vendors had high performance parts for sale. Peter Hageman, a local
Scion (descendant of Toyota) car dealer, had two different models on
display, an xA and the very distinctive xB. The DynoJet Automotive chassis
dyno was set up on the grounds, offering free dyno pulls to anyone
interested in seeing how much power their car really delivers to the rear
wheels.
When Buford, GA residents Jimmy Clark, his wife Kathey, his son Blake and
Blake's girlfriend Shelley Picha came to the track today, they had no idea
they would leave with three trophies. Jimmy's wild looking street legal
(lethal?) dual carb, 1000 hp supercharged 502 big block powered Chevy Pickup
won a Top Five Wild Trucks / SUVs trophy in the car show. Son Blake entered
his daily driver '71 Chevelle in the Street Legal competition and won two
awards, Quickest Street Legal ET and closest to 11.00 seconds with his
11.700 second pass. Clark was thrilled with this Father's Day experience,
and said they were going to the Year One Cruise In at Braselton after the
Tunerfest was over.
All race track competition winners received a cash award in addition to a
trophy. Other on track winners were David Thai from Alpharetta, GA, who
earned the fastest speed award with his '96 Honda, at 125.26mph. Ken Wilson
('91 Civic - Atlanta, GA) had the best reaction time at .505 seconds. Adam
Dismuke's '03 VW GTI went closest to 14 seconds with a 14.015 second pass,
and was actually tied for that ET by another racer, but won due to a better
reaction time. Shawn Robertson of Norcross, GA took his '95 Civic to a
13.165 second pass to win the closest to the thirteen second mark award.
Paul Smith ('98 Corvette - Alpharetta, GA) went closest to a 12 second ET
with a 12.060 pass.
Another interesting car on the track was the '79 MG Midget belonging to
Daniel Rodriguez. He swapped a 1.2 liter RX-7 Wankel engine into his car,
placed a Holley 700 cfm double pumper upstream and cranked out high 12
second passes on the 221 hp motor. He said he will use the nitrous oxide in
the future to make it even quicker after he sorts out the rest of his
combination.
The fastest car on the grounds was the Mopar backed 2004 Neon driven by Mike
Crawford. Crawford and team mate Sean Carlson were there to sign autographs
and also judged the burnout contest. Crawford blistered the track during
his exhibition passes, running 8.50s at 169mph on the quarter mile course.
Even more impressive is he accomplished this with a modified SRT-4 four
cylinder engine and front wheel drive!
Pritchett Tire Company from nearby Commerce, GA sponsored the burnout
contest, where the winner received a $500 credit toward a set of new tires.
Brooks Rezmer ('96 S10 - Lawrenceville, GA) made the largest smoke screen
with what was left of his rear tires to win the first place trophy and cash
award. The left front turn signal on David Sparr's '93 Civic fell out
moments before he destroyed the transmission during a second burnout, good
enough for an honorable mention.
In addition to the burnout contest, another crowd pleaser was the Bikini
Contest. Five contestants, Christi Novack, Emily Giragosian, Nikki Basista,
Seana and Atlanta Dragway's own Jennifer Bruce walked the runway on the back
of the Mopar trailer. When all the cheering was done, Christi Novack came
away with the first place award.
As usual, the car show was very popular, with well over one hundred highly
detailed and / or customized machines. Ferrari style doors seem to be more
popular, featured on nearly a half dozen cars.
The Best Overall Car Club award went to Jamel Allen, Steve Kubon, Eddie
Moreno, Tim West and Josh Nixon of Team ECI. Their cars were simple, neat,
clean and bad to the bone. The loudest machine in the SLAP Sound Off
contest was the '80 Corolla wagon belonging to Roy Rose of Rose Auto
Accessories in Blairsville, GA. Rose's machine emitted a deafening 178.8
decibels today, 28 more than the closest competitor. The highly modified
wagon weighed 7000 lbs, with four inches of concrete in the floor and the
roof. Multiple latches made sure the door stayed in place, and even the one
inch thick plexiglass side window couldn't take the sound level, cracking
under the strain.
When the promoter asked the crowd if they wanted more next year, the answer
was a resounding yes. He said that was good, because they were already
planning next year's show.
By Tim Glover
Photos
(June 19 - Commerce, GA) Thousands of fans enjoyed the 2004 edition of the
Hayes / Mopar Tunerfest Shootout, presented by Hayes Family Dealerships and
ImportAtlanta.com. The show featured a variety of activities, with racing
action, a car show, the vendor's midway, burnout contest, bikini contest, a
chassis dynomometer to measure real horsepower, a disc jockey and a sound
off contest to see whose machine had the loudest stereo, and much more.
Many vendors came to give technical support to their customers and to
display their latest wares. Hayes Family Dealerships had a large group of
new performance Dodges and Chryslers on hand, and also had a display of
Mopar Performance Sport Compact parts and accessories for sale. Jeff Steer
from Knowledge Performance had two of his highly modified Hondas on display,
one with a trick turbo setup. Torque videos were available in the house.
Several vendors had high performance parts for sale. Peter Hageman, a local
Scion (descendant of Toyota) car dealer, had two different models on
display, an xA and the very distinctive xB. The DynoJet Automotive chassis
dyno was set up on the grounds, offering free dyno pulls to anyone
interested in seeing how much power their car really delivers to the rear
wheels.
When Buford, GA residents Jimmy Clark, his wife Kathey, his son Blake and
Blake's girlfriend Shelley Picha came to the track today, they had no idea
they would leave with three trophies. Jimmy's wild looking street legal
(lethal?) dual carb, 1000 hp supercharged 502 big block powered Chevy Pickup
won a Top Five Wild Trucks / SUVs trophy in the car show. Son Blake entered
his daily driver '71 Chevelle in the Street Legal competition and won two
awards, Quickest Street Legal ET and closest to 11.00 seconds with his
11.700 second pass. Clark was thrilled with this Father's Day experience,
and said they were going to the Year One Cruise In at Braselton after the
Tunerfest was over.
All race track competition winners received a cash award in addition to a
trophy. Other on track winners were David Thai from Alpharetta, GA, who
earned the fastest speed award with his '96 Honda, at 125.26mph. Ken Wilson
('91 Civic - Atlanta, GA) had the best reaction time at .505 seconds. Adam
Dismuke's '03 VW GTI went closest to 14 seconds with a 14.015 second pass,
and was actually tied for that ET by another racer, but won due to a better
reaction time. Shawn Robertson of Norcross, GA took his '95 Civic to a
13.165 second pass to win the closest to the thirteen second mark award.
Paul Smith ('98 Corvette - Alpharetta, GA) went closest to a 12 second ET
with a 12.060 pass.
Another interesting car on the track was the '79 MG Midget belonging to
Daniel Rodriguez. He swapped a 1.2 liter RX-7 Wankel engine into his car,
placed a Holley 700 cfm double pumper upstream and cranked out high 12
second passes on the 221 hp motor. He said he will use the nitrous oxide in
the future to make it even quicker after he sorts out the rest of his
combination.
The fastest car on the grounds was the Mopar backed 2004 Neon driven by Mike
Crawford. Crawford and team mate Sean Carlson were there to sign autographs
and also judged the burnout contest. Crawford blistered the track during
his exhibition passes, running 8.50s at 169mph on the quarter mile course.
Even more impressive is he accomplished this with a modified SRT-4 four
cylinder engine and front wheel drive!
Pritchett Tire Company from nearby Commerce, GA sponsored the burnout
contest, where the winner received a $500 credit toward a set of new tires.
Brooks Rezmer ('96 S10 - Lawrenceville, GA) made the largest smoke screen
with what was left of his rear tires to win the first place trophy and cash
award. The left front turn signal on David Sparr's '93 Civic fell out
moments before he destroyed the transmission during a second burnout, good
enough for an honorable mention.
In addition to the burnout contest, another crowd pleaser was the Bikini
Contest. Five contestants, Christi Novack, Emily Giragosian, Nikki Basista,
Seana and Atlanta Dragway's own Jennifer Bruce walked the runway on the back
of the Mopar trailer. When all the cheering was done, Christi Novack came
away with the first place award.
As usual, the car show was very popular, with well over one hundred highly
detailed and / or customized machines. Ferrari style doors seem to be more
popular, featured on nearly a half dozen cars.
The Best Overall Car Club award went to Jamel Allen, Steve Kubon, Eddie
Moreno, Tim West and Josh Nixon of Team ECI. Their cars were simple, neat,
clean and bad to the bone. The loudest machine in the SLAP Sound Off
contest was the '80 Corolla wagon belonging to Roy Rose of Rose Auto
Accessories in Blairsville, GA. Rose's machine emitted a deafening 178.8
decibels today, 28 more than the closest competitor. The highly modified
wagon weighed 7000 lbs, with four inches of concrete in the floor and the
roof. Multiple latches made sure the door stayed in place, and even the one
inch thick plexiglass side window couldn't take the sound level, cracking
under the strain.
When the promoter asked the crowd if they wanted more next year, the answer
was a resounding yes. He said that was good, because they were already
planning next year's show.
posted by David @ 11:14 PM
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