DELTA_Rotary

I've noticed that when they show import racing on ESPN they only interview English speaking racers. Many times a guy from PR will win and they never say much about them. I wonder if this is a reason the PR guys sometimes dont get as much publicity.

AJC13B

I don't think I am any authority on the US/PR scene, but I can give it a different perspective being outside!

The first time we heard of the PR and US scene was when the main hi-po 4 and rotor mag (Fast Fours and rotors funnily enough is the name) ran a massive story on the fastest cars on the planet at the time. The quickest? Sakura had just runs his 7.8! The next quickest was Raefelito (sp?) and then they had some other cars featured like Bam Bam IV and the first Siguel (The MX3) and others that I can't think of at the moment. I think they had a side story on Abel who was running mid 8s at the time.

Since then I have tried to follow the scene (info was and is still kind of limited) and myself and a few others that arent blinkered into thinking the rotor scene begins and ends with Australian cars and microtechs, have watched as a couple of 7 second cars turn into most running 7s. We were amazed when we heard David Turbo ran the first 180mph trap speed yet was only on a 7.8 pass! JESUS!

Its weird, you guys talk about giving props to those who pioneered the sport. I think you should just be happy that you guys were around to watch the scene grow from low 10 second passes being quick to the cars getting into Pro Stock times and beyond. Honestly, I wouldn't care who started it, I would be wrapped that I was there to be a part of it.

Then again, if someone was talking it up like they were the ducks guts of the scene and kicked it all off, its a different story

Just my $1.47 worth

Greg

I just wrote probably the best post of my life and my ******* window closed it self out. I am too pissed. way too pissed

SPEED_NYC

iTrader: (3)

i've noticed that on espn too. i must give speedvision credit though, i remember them interviewing marcos acosta, and having his son translate the spanish for him. (even though marcos is from jersey)

the other very subtle thing that pisses me off is the was Turbo and SCC cover drag events. when a car from PR wins, they just say 'so and so advanced to the semi-finals', but when one of thier west coast guys wins its like 'Abel pulled off a spectacular win over the mazda of Carlos Montoya with a 7.xx' what they dont tell you is that the other guy got the holeshot, but broke or something.... when its 2 west coast guys running, they list both of thier times. look for yourself, they almost NEVER print the et's of the racers from PR or the unsponsered east coasters when they win a round.

I can remember an event at e-town where paisley (an all arround great guy), made it to the finals against a really shitty looking starlet (i dont remember the drivers name, but it was brown with lots of primer spots on it). EVERYONE in the stands cheered for the starlet during its burn out, but it was almost silent while paisley did his. (remember, this was paisleys home track!). anyways, paisley got his *** handed to him as the starlet ripped off a 8.3xx. paisley ran a 8.9xx. besides the crowd going crazy for what the anouncer called an 'upset' it made me feel good to know that all those cali guys would soon read about how the mega dollar, TRD supra got murdered by a shitty looking, backhalved starlet WITH RUST HOLES IN IT!!!!

when turbo printed coverage of the event they didn't print a picture of the starlet, didn't say what time the winner ran, or mention the fact that the starlet didn't wear a single sponsorship sticker.
the sentence they devoted to paisley's defeat went something like: 'Craig Paisley lost to the rotary powered toyota of _____ when his car slowed to an off pace 8.9xx. WTF?? even when paisley loses he gets more print than the spanish guys.

This is not just a US PR thing either, It happens a lot more frequently when the racer is anything other than white.I can understand the mags printing more stuff on racers with big sponsorship because those companies advertise in the mags too, but why do the white racers get all the sponsorship??

I never brought this up before because many of you will disagree with me, and i dont have the time to get into a flame war. but believe me, ITS THE TRUTH.

Import racing became big business when white racers started competing. i dont know about cali, but on the east coast the majority of import racers were and still are black, west-indian, Puerto Rican, or some mixture of those. yet, the majority of the east coast guys with BIG sponsorship deals are white. it dosent add up.

all this talk about Ari dominating the street class.... Bu*l S*it! tito was running a REAL 9 sec street car, on the streets 5 years ago. even when Tito decided to give up street racing and run the porche on the track, he never got magazine exposure. Who could F with that porche in the street class back then? NOBODY!, so they made him run exibition only, or go to outlaw class. that car was incredible for its time (people dont realize that that car was a proven combination terrorizing the streets in NY for YEARS before you guys in cali heard about it). Tito didn't get any press coverage until he got that sponsorship deal with Toyo. and he didn't get that deal with toyo until his VERY CLOSE friend, used his newly aquired industry pull to make it happen. that friend is Craig paisley. Tito and paisley were tight for years, way before paisley started racing. on the other hand, Tito was a F*cking street racing legend since i was a little boy. Why is it that paisley made it to the big time 6 months after deciding he wanted to race, and it took Tito years?

one last example and i'll stop talking yall's ears off. a year or 2 ago when the front wheel drives were running low 10's, there was a FWD tallon from Florida that was running with the top 3 or 4 hondas. I am not from Cali, and had never met tony fuchs, bergenholtz, or david Shih(sp?), but I knew what every one of them looked like from TV and Mag coverage. the thing I always wondered about was why that tallon never raced at e-town or atco. i guessed it was cause of lack of sponsorship. but why would he have a hard time getting sponsored? FWD was real big, and he was one of the big dawgs, Extreme motorsports and Busher proved that diamond starr racing was popular and profitable, but this guy never got a piece of the pie. I'd seen pics of his car in the mags many times, but none of him. It wasn't untill I went to an event at moroso and saw the guy in the pits that I realized why...he's black. I should have realized it long before that, but it made me mad, and still does.

Even now that the cars from PR are starting to get some exposure in the mags, you never see pics of the drivers, just the cars.
in the issue of turbo with the article about hartfords focus and torres' seven, there are no pics of Jose; theres a few pics of Hartford and his crew though.....

we live in a raceist world, it would be niave of me to think that this sport, started by minorities would be any diffrent.

crispeed, i LOVE your car, i hope you dont get shut out of the mags because of this raceist politics BS
good luck to you too greg

i've seen it happen to Tito, the T&R guys, Albert Diaz(sick *** Supra), Stanley Stufont, and lots of others.

RX794

Nice comments SPEED_NYC, I feel you, I know alot of these guys here on the east coast and feel the same way about the business sometimes.

kabooski

crispeed's car! is featured in www.fullboost.com.au today

SPEED_NYC

iTrader: (3)

thanx J, btw have you mentioned the supra vs rx7 thing that vosko is putting together at atco to Albert? i know he'll clean up, but i love to see his car run

AJC13B

We don't have to worry about racist BS like that in Australia. I guess thats a good thing. Though there is little or now CORPORATE sponsorship of any of the cars here, its usually just local shops that give parts at a discounted rate. We still manage to run decent numbers

crispeed

I've known Tito for many years and we've always raced each other at the track. Actually when he first brought the porche to Moroso we both drove our cars to the track and raced each other in the finals where offcourse he won! but the sad part was that none of us ever got any magazine coverage because they were more concerned with the big name racers that didn't even make it to the finals!
Lately the racing seen is more about who's got the$$$$$$$$$
The big name sponsors have a very big say in what happens at the races now. I've seen certain racers not even qualifiy but some how end up running in the finals because their big name sponsors made a call and demanded that their car run on race day or else!

crispeed
87TII
9.20@150mph

Judge Ito

It's interesting how this thread started about Toledos FC running in the 8.9 no 1/2 chassis and turned into this mixed feelings of Import Drag racing in the USA reality. This is a subject that needs to be addressed. I lived in N.Y.C. for 7 years and moved to N.J. and been here for 23 years. I have seen it all, 1 of the reasons I stoped my subscription to turbo mag. and sport compact car mag. was because of the lack of exposure to many P.R. cars and local east coast racers. I have made my opinion noted to the turbo mag. staff via email. Guess what? no respond. Speed NYC is 110% correct and he is not alone in the way he feels. In 1998 we went to Englishtown for an IDRC event, we took a 1982 Toyota Starlet 1/2 chassis we we're running a 13B bridgeport and nitrous oxide and qualified in the Outlaw class with a 9.8 @135mph. Craig Paysley was running the white supra then in the same class and some more locals. Like Joe Perez. To make a very long story short. We won the first round of elimination against Joe perez and lost the second round against a 1972 Rotary powerd Datsun Deluxe 1200 that was running a Joe Perez haltech turbo set up in the 9.4 that day. Eventually that Rotary Powered Datsun beat the living craps of Craig Paysley supra that day. The name of the owner of that sweet running Datsun is Jose Escalera. Guess what the turbo magazine coverage and the sports compact car mag. coverage came out a couple of months later, All they had was a picture of paysley white supra then and a picture of craig drinking water out of a gallon. Not even a picture of the winning Datsun or my starlet or Joe Perez starlet. Man I was looking forward running craig that day just to beat the daylights out of him. but Jose beat me to it. Like I said I wrote letters to both mag's and no reply. they had no defense. I stopped racing at your IDRC and NIRA events because of this ****. I just run my local Rotary vs Piston events at Atco Raceway N.J. where I feel right. Yes Pepeloco rotary powered datsun has had some luck. but only because he is winning and forcing his way to coverage. U ask: what or who is pepeloco's sponsorship? we call it "Bolsillo Power" translate to your own money sponsorship...I'M building a new car and I don't give to pennies to run any NHRA importevent or IDRC event. Im really pissed offf here and had enough.....

Coolidge

It doesn't matter what race/age/gender/etc you are... it's all equal on the forum. Everyone goes by a nickname.. **** I don't even know what race/age anyone on here is (pretty much) and some of them I talk to a few times a day! It doesn't matter what you are b/c on the forum a post is a post and it gets treated the same way. It's too bad it wasn't always the same outside the forum.

Greg

WOW, I had no idea people was as pissed off as they are. I know about the real racers from me going to import events and seeing the real, I have traveled a ton just to see racers (sacramento raceway, LACR) and I saw what I saw first hand. Turbo Magazine in general is nothing what it used to be 5 years ago, thats a fact. Before they used to do issues on Grand Nationals, Turbo Mustangs, Typhoons ect...ect..... Now they are totaly about turbocharged hondas and supras. 2 years ago they had a feature on PEPE LOCO and NIBO RACING. I was stunned that these type of cars were not flodding the magazines. Really, what I want from my car is to stomp the bullshit out of these rednecks in my area but I would also like to become a big factor in the import drag racing series. If I end up getting a big named sponsor does that make me one of the bad guys? Was Tito (Eddie Bello) a bad guy after haltech sponsored him? From you guy seeing my car in the progress you can tell that this **** breaks the **** out of your pockets. To go fast you need money. There is nothing wrong with that, but then you guys are much older than me and lived the history I can only read about it and take your opinions. Ah well, I just wanna go fast , it dont matter to me what them people have cause I cant live wanting the money that these people have although it wouldny hurt

crispeed

Greg!
When you get your car running you'll experience this **** for yourself.
Remember what I told you happened to my friend at the NHRA finals in Cali as a result of mr Paisley,Papadakas,and the NHRA!
The only person that defended my friend's rights was Abel and even almost got into a fight about it!
At least the NHRA realise their part in the wrong doing and corrected it but the sad part is that everyone still thinks Pailsey is the Modified champ and he got all the fame for it! I didn't see any of the magazines mention this correction made by the NHRA!
He was not the only one that this happened too. Just ask the Queen of drag racing what's her opinion of the J-/E-elb-o-k sponsored civic. She would probably tell you about a certain bribe offered too her to not race her car by the big name sponsor of her opponent and a lame effort by them to get all the racers at the track to sign a petition that she was using illegal fuel and get her dis-qualified. The good thing was that when this happenned it was at E-Town and most of the cars and drivers from PR were attending this event and basically told him to go F--k himself!
I can go on with a lot more stories about the happenning in the racing community but that ain't going to change anything and might even come back to bite me in the---!
I always wondered why everyone on the east coast never got together and formed their own dragracing organisation to truly represent what we on the East coast been doing for many years long before there were any Turbo magazine or hot rod Hondas!

crispeed
87TII
9.20@150mph

Amir

Lets here some more stories Chris! There is an article on NHRA's site about how much Lisa wants to rip Jojo a new *** next year, its pretty good reading Another import racer that I can't stand is Chris Rado. While I have never seen him race or met hiim, what I have read from interviews with him is enough to make me think he is a cry baby that doesn't deserve any of the sponsorship he gets. I remember reading an article where he was complaining about having to run in the outlaw class and how it wasn't fair. Maybe if the dumbass would actually follow the rules, he could run in the class that he wanted. And whats with him claiming to be the first unibody in the 8's? He has a backhalf job done on his car and the only people that consider it a unibody are readers of superstreet. I would love to see his outlaw class Celica get raped by a rusted out no sponsor car from PR next year Some of you guys need to join together and write a book about the history of import drag racing. I never realized how much of a one sided story the mags really showed.

-Amir

p.s. I heard that Bello got off without any charges, does anyone know if he is building a new car?

Coolidge

That celica won't have a chance. Sure 750hp from a 1.8L is damn impressive.. but not enough to take down the PR rotaries! I can't see that celica getting below 1700lbs... where the top rotaries are at now anyway, but with a few hundred more hp.

crispeed

Hey Ito!
You think Toledo would ever get the respect or attention he deserves for his achievements from these so called respected Mags!
He probably needs to paint the PR national flag across his car and die his face white like MJ!


crispeed
87TII
9.20@150mph

Judge Ito

Cris as u see Im the Judge. and Im going to go ahead and judge and say no way!!!!!!!!!! Toledo Racing needs a super agent like "Arliss" that HBO guy.. Cris this idea of the east coast guys getting together and forming some type of organization has been talked about..

KNONFS

iTrader: (14)

DROGA!!!

Ahh diabloooo mala mia!!! Sorry man couldn't resist No offense to you or your team!! Are you Boricua?

kabooski

The mag's love making a big deal of
recent cars that have run 9's or 8's

east cost racers have been running low E.T's for a long time.

The "Original switche" car has been running 8's for years
Theres "Tropical heat"
one if the fastest 4 bangers out there in the world.

Theres kilo cars
12A with NOS hitting 9's
and on and on

NHRA IDRC are run now by BIG MONEY not racers any more
Luckily there's plenty of Local Import Drag events

SPEED_NYC

iTrader: (3)

Greg, dont mis-understand me. I'm not saying that people who get sponsored are 'the bad guys' I was complaining about some of these 'bad guys' who happen to get the sponsorship deals. I was happy as hell when Tito got his spnsorship deals, it made me feel like one of 'us' finally made it. I think paisley is a great guy too. theres nothing wrong with getting sponsorship $$ and getting media exposure, I just dont like the politics used to decide WHO gets the $$ and fame.

The example i gave about paisley was just to show how a lot of ppl got into racing within the last 3-4 years and became 'superstars' when the pioneers and true race heads that have been living this life for 15+ years get little or no credit. I like paisley, and am not trying to take anything away from him, but i dont think his heart is in racing, i think it was just a business decision for him. It's amazing what a sucessful race campaign can do for your mail order parts business.

As far as the age thing, I'm not that old, I'm only 26, but I was kinda born into racing. I went to my first street race when I was 10 or 11. everyone i was arround as a child was into racing, and If you've ever been to Jamaica Queens, you will understand what I mean when I say a lot of us LIVE this rotary ****.
(seriously, I think 133st had the highest rotary car concentration of all queens, mabye NYC)---remember those days Anthony_NYC?

As far as Tito, I could never consider him a bad guy, did you guys read that issue of turbo where all the racers were saying who thier idols and influences were? Tito gave props to Neil (rottentop) for inspiring him. Neil is another NYC rotary legend. (watch for his tube framed, 13BT Toyata corolla twin cam this year)

So, Chris, Greg, Ito, how old are you guys anyways?

SPEED_NYC

iTrader: (3)

Thanx for clearing up his name and car for me.

Chris,..... As for an east coast race santioning body, i think it would have been a great idea, but it would be very difficult to organize now. The NHRA and big $$$ companies would just roll over us. 4 years ago, we would have had a chance.
Allong that line of thinking though, what about an east coast racers association? kinda like the NBA players association or a union. theres strength in numbers, and if people come together to speak up for the east coast guys, mabye they wouldn't be able to get away with a lot of the shady s*it they pull now. a group like this would be great because it wouldn't be just limited to one santioning body. no matter what organization or division you raced in, there would always be people on your side, ready to speak up!

Judge Ito

I own a Rotary Performance shop in N.J. and I'M responsible for some of Pepeloco's 685rwhp. I have been drag racing for many years from the streets of Hunt's point NYC to your local tracks. Puerto Rican/American here. And speed NYC I'M 30 years old.

Greg

Im gonna try to ask Abel
to join in on this convo Hopefully he will state his 2 cents. That way we can get some opinions from the other side of the fence

SPEED_NYC

iTrader: (3)

Great Idea

SPEED_NYC

iTrader: (3)

Ito, then you probably know the guys that had that green 13BT mazda pickup at hunts point a year or 2 back. I think they were afiliated with Rally/ or AP engineering.
they tried to sucker a friend of mine who was driving a turbo GSL-SE at hunts point, saying they were running a 'stock' 13BT, but they lost when they blew it up at half track; uhh street. anyway, they werent too happy about paying up .........
we had ALL of queens with us that night!!