ARSLANIAN, STREETGLOW SOLARA RACE TO BEST EVER 6.64 AT NHRA MOROSO
PALM BEACH GARDENS, Florida (April 5, 2005) - Bullish Racing owner and driver Ara Arslanian drove his StreetGlow-sponsored Solara to an eye-opening, career-best 6.644-second/202.38-mph qualifying blast at the third annual BFGoodrich Tires NHRA Sport Compact Nationals, Moroso Motorsports Park, April 2-3.
The performance at the NHRA season-opener puts the team's venerable Solara in rare company, with less than a handful of cars to have ever gone quicker. More impressive, the run should have been even quicker and faster, if it wasn't for a failed head gasket suffered just at the end of the run. The low speed relative to the elapsed was an obvious sign that Arslanian didn't finish the run under full power. Still, the best-ever performance is an indication of the potential of Bullish's new HKS 3.4 L Stroker and twin Turbonetics turbochargers-based engine program.
"We knew we had something special coming into Florida," said Arslanian. "We saw our best half-track numbers ever at the NDRA Phoenix race a couple of weeks ago, and we were only four passes into the program. It would have been nice to see what the real numbers would have been (if the head gasket didn't fail), but we're still excited about the progress."
The Bullish crew, lead by crew chief Fred Bauer, quickly repaired and prepped the Solara overnight. After the third and final round of qualifying was completed early Sunday morning, Arslanian qualified second out of a field of eleven entries for the elimination ladder. The team chose to run a more "conservative" tune-up to head-off any repeat mechanical issues and lined up with competitor Brad Personett for the first round. Arslanian reacted first and left the line with an excellent .095-reaction time, but Personett made up for the slack by running the fastest time in series history - a stout 216.86 mph - to beat the StreetGlow Solara to the finish line. Arslanian's run still stopped the clocks at 6.741-sec/204.78-mph, on par with last year's best performance, but was not enough for the win in this instance.
"Of course we were a little disappointed to leave in the first round, but we're really encouraged by what we saw on our data-logger. The twin-turbo, 3.4L-stroker 2JZ is a brand new engine program that Bullish is pioneering, so we know that we are still at the beginning of the learning curve. It's truly exciting - every time we roll up to the line, we have the potential to be running a record time."
Personett went on to fall to reigning NHRA champ Matt Scranton in the Semi-Final. Scranton's bid for a perfect start to the season was ended by competitor Steph Papadakis and the AEM/Driver FX Civic in the final, who blasted to a 6.65/210 run to Scranton's 7.01/191.
"We had a great 6.64 going into the third qualifying session on Sunday, and anyone that can come in first thing on Sunday morning and sneak past a 6.64 with a 6.55 is my hero... Hartford was my hero Sunday morning. That Summit team is going to be deadly once they cure their engine failures. Until then, we all have work cut out for us against the AEM team - my hats off to AEM and Steph for the win."
Arslanian spent the extra time on the sideline mingling with thousands of new and old South Florida racing fans. Many of the fans asked Arslanian about the Bullish Racing/AEM Import Dragster that the team unveiled a few weeks earlier.
"We always have a good time with the fans in Florida. They're really up on the sport and are some of the most enthusiastic fans you'll meet in the country. I wasn't surprised that they were asking about the dragster. Unfortunately, we had to leave the dragster in New Jersey to finish it up - we'll definitely bring it with us when we come back to Moroso in June (NDRA)."
The BFGoodrich Tires NHRA Sport Compact Nationals will be broadcast on ESPN2, Thursday, April 14, 2 p.m. (Sunday, May 1, 1 a.m., repeat). For more event information about the BFGoodrich Tires NHRA Sport Compact Nationals, please visit www.nhrasportcompact.com.
