what's NEW 2005: Sport Compact

National Dragster, Feb 4, 2005

Julie Stepan, of Grand Prairie, Texas, won the Maximum Velocity Female Driver Search by Easy Motorsports and Subaru and will race a Subaru WRX in the Street class at all 2005 NHRA Sport Compact Drag Racing Series events. Stepan, 18, has raced for nine years, the last two in Super Comp.

Gary Maysonet will drive and "Sarito" Maysonet will tune a new third-generation Quiles Turbo Mazda RX-7, built by Gaby Chassis Shop, in Pro RWD. Sporting power from a nitrous-fed, turbocharged 13B rotary powerplant, the car already has run 7.6s in testing. The Orocovis, Puerto Rico-based team plans to compete at some NHRA Summit Sport Compact Drag Racing Series events on the East Coast.

Pro RWD veteran Rafael "Falito" Rivera will debut a Tim McAmis-built Mazda RX-8 that will be sponsored by Mech Tech, whose president Edwin Colon plans to attend some NHRA sport compact events. Mech Tech is a technical and industrial college in Puerto Rico that has a main campus in Caguas and other campuses in Bayamón, Vega Baja, and Mayaguez.

Brady Hort, of Woodbury, N.J., is building a Pro RWD VW Scirocco that will be powered by a turbocharged 2.8-liter VW VR6 engine. All fabrication is taking place at Hort's Racecraft Fabrication shop in Millville, N.J. Racecraft Fabrication, Ross Machine Racing, and Burlington Volkswagen will sponsor the vehicle.

Steve Topletz (owner/driver) and Dennis Topletz (owner) of T&T Motorsports have teamed with Norwood AutoCraft for the 2005 Modified season. Bob Norwood will head up tuning and technical direction, Shawn Fischer will fulfill crew chief and engineering duties, and Wes Scott will handle engine and general mechanical needs. To maximize technology and increase the parts reservoir, the T&T Celica will be powered by a four-cylinder NORAD 3RZ engine, like the one that powers Chris Rado's Pro FWD car. The transmission configuration is currently provided by a three-speed Bruno, but the car may end up with a Powerglide. Motec provided the engine management, ignition, and data logging.

Brent Leivestad, owner of PFI Speed, is returning to the NHRA sport compact scene with a Pro FWD '00 Civic. Leivestad took two years off to design, develop, and build the car, which he will tune and drive. Power for the new machine will come from a Honda S2000 engine mated to a Powerglide transmission, Mark Williams axles, and Pioneer V-drive.

Ali Afshar, who again will be sponsored by Subaru of America and Subaru Performance Tuning, will move up to the Modified class with a new all-wheel-drive Subaru. Afshar will also have on his team Julie Stepan, winner of a national driver search, at the wheel of his Sport RWD car, with which he won six times in the last two years.

Sao Xob Moua's Team Thunder Racing out of Sacramento, Calif., will compete in the Pro FWD class with an '88 Honda CRX. The team's entry, prepared by crew chief Calvin C. Cazenave and assistant crew chief Marquis A. Maxwell, has a custom chromoly chassis sporting power from a B18A/16A(LSR). Backing comes from Motorsport Dynamics, The Wizard Fabrications, www.evotuners.com, and Teegarden Motorsports Specialists.

Ken Scheepers' new Mazda RX-8 Modified entry recently visited the paint booth and will be ready for the 2005 season opener in Florida. Preliminary plans call for testing in Florida, where the car will be set up by Tito's Chassis Shop before heading to Central Florida Turbo for some chassis dyno tuning.

Irran Jolly and the Exospeed Racing team plan to attend all NHRA sport compact events on the West Coast with their Hot Rod CRX. Following a first year of testing out of an engine combination that produced a 9.7 best, the car will be mostly the same in 2005 with minor changes made to the chassis to handle faster e.t.s. Steen Chassis of Signal Hill, Calif:, handled all of the chassis work on the car, which is equipped with an Exospeed Race Engines B18 setup that runs on methanol with a JoJo Callos-tuned Motec engine-management system. Block internals are Exospeed sleeved block, Arias pistons, and Crower rods.

RPI Racing will field an NHRA sport compact entry in the Turbo Magazine Hot Rod class. The car, a '90 Honda CRX, is still under construction, but it will be ready to go by the beginning of the 2005 season. The team plans to attend at least five NHRA events in 2005 and run the full season in 2006. Lukans Race Craft in South Carolina built the chassis. The powerplant is a 2.0-liter turbocharged Honda engine running on VP Import Racing fuel. The power will be transferred to the ground through a G-Force transmission and a custom set of HoleShot wheels with M&H tires mounted on them.

Armando Melendez, a close friend of two-time Honda Tuning All Motor champ Jesus Padilla, is working on a "secret project" for the All Motor class that he thinks will run in the mid-nine-second range. The car is a front-wheel-drive Mazda Protege 323 that should be ready for the season opener at Florida's Moroso Motorsports Park.

Eric Darby and his rotary-powered All Motor '85 Mazda RX-7 will race in the 2005 NHRA sport compact series. Current sponsors are Mobius Motorsport of Palmdale, Calif., and ACT Clutch. The car sports a 13B peripheral port powerplant on gas with a Jerico transmission. The car, which will have a new paint scheme, is currently having a roll cage built and fabrication work done.