StreetGlow duo expects to shine again in 2004

National Dragster, Mar 12, 2004

PRO RWD

To sum up the first season of Pr D RWD competition, one has only to utter the word "StreetGlow." In its first full season of NHRA Summit Sport Compact Drag Racing Series competition, Ara Arslanian's StreetGlow-backed Bullish Motor Racing Toyota Solaras claimed five Pro RWD victories, clocked the first side-by-side 200-mph passes in sport compact history (in Englishtown in May), set both ends of the Pro RWD record (6.78 and 205.47 mph), and raced to a one-two finish. George Ioannou drove his purple car to four wins en route to the Pro RWD crown, and teammate/team owner Arslanian scored his first career NHRA victory at Oregon's Woodburn Dragstrip and recorded a second-place finish.

The purple-clad duo knows the rest of the PI-O RWD competition will be gunning for the top spot in 2004. This is evident in the Scranton brothers' debut of a second Toyota Celica, Abel Ibarra's new Mazda RX-8, and the Orlando, Fla.-based Titan Motorsports Celica.

"I welcome new competition with open arms," Arslanian said. "We need it, the sport needs it, and the fans need it. We need to have more side-by-side racing to give the fans what they come to see: good competition."

Added Ioannou, who earned the Turbo Magazine Driver of the Year award, "L think 2004 should be good for the StreetGlow Solaras. We've added Mike Kim from the Saturn team, so we're ready to go. We made some driveline changes to the car, and we're making better power.

"Our goal is to put on a good show and win that championship again in 2004," said Ioannou. "It has been a really busy off-season for us. We learned a lot from our mistakes in 2003; I hope there are no new mishaps this season. We should be putting up consistent 6.70s at the start of the year."

Third-place finisher Matt Scranton picked up right where he left off in 2002, winning the first event at Moroso Motorsports Park; however, after 11 straight NHRA sport compact victories, Scranton's silver Turbonetics Celica failed to earn another trip to the winner's circle. The former NMCA champion struggled with the change to the V-6 engine, but he hopes the addition of a second Turbonetics-backed Celica in 2004 - to be driven by Tirso San juan - will give the team the additional data it needs to return to championship form.

"The main reason we're bringing out the second car is to double the exposure and increase our knowledge," Scranton said. "It will give us twice the knowledge every time we make a pass and each time we test. We will have more numbers to go by. Any changes from one car to the other, we can compare the data. And from an exposure standpoint, having Turbonetics on the primary car will hopefully solidify some solid backing on the second car so we can go after more sponsorship dollars.

"We're going to run a 2JZ powerplant in 2004," added Scranton. "We1 plan to run mid-6.60s in the 210-mph range. Initial tests on the dyno have produced 1,540 horsepower. We feel we can easily run low 6.60s with that kind of power."

At the second StreetGlow Extreme Rush at Texas Motorplex, Ibarra made sport compact history when he clocked the first six-second pass with a rotary-powered car. he drove his K&N Filters/Toyo Tires Mazda RX-7 to a 6.95-second run. Ibarra will campaign a sleek Mazda RX-8 in 2004.

"The RX-8 is coming after the Toyota boys," Ibarra said. "It has one purpose and one purpose only: to be a Toyota eater. I've got some surprises for everybody in the Pro RWD class. We're going to do some damage in 2004."

Ibarra's 6.95 pass might have made racing history, but the California driver must find some additional horsepower because it takes low-6.7-second passes to win in the Pro RWD category.

"I ran a 6.95 at 30 pounds of boost with one bad turbo," said Ibarra. "I ran 162 at the eighth-mile; it should have run 202 or 203 mph. The Solaras and most of the other cars are running 45 pounds of boost. We've got tons of power in that motor aside from all the improvements we've made."

After racing to the Modified title in 2002, Matt Hartford and his Summit Racing Cavalier made the jump to sport compact racing's premier category. Hartford and his four-cylinder powerplant posted solid numbers but were still off the pace from the rest of the category leaders. He'll look to improve on his 2003 season, during which he reached two final rounds and scored one victory. Hartford has signed MTX Audio as an associate sponsor.

Another driver who made the jump in 2003 was Stephan Papadakis. The soft-spoken Southern California driver joined the Summit Sport Compact 200-mph Club in Las Vegas in july and followed that up with a stunning 207.80-mph run at Oregon's Woodburn Dragstrip with his AEM/Driver FX Honda Civic. he also clocked low-seven- second, 200-mph passes en route to winning the second StreetGlow Extreme Rush in Dallas. After a year of adjusting to the rear-wheel-drive class, Papadakis was poised to make a run for the championship in 2004 before crashing during preseason test ing after previously clocking a run of 6.68 seconds at 211 mph. A new car is under construction.