With the competitors changing positions, the battle heated up once more. RJ, aided by his big turbo inline 6 broke away hard from the line. So far away, in fact, that I counted at least 8 lengths between the two cars by the time RJ entered the hairpin. Purkhiser drove with little to no angle on the way back up, doing her best to attempt to regain proximity.
With RJ taking the win, he would move on to the next bracket.
Next up saw Pablo Cabrera in the V’s Performance S13 240sx taking the line next to Eddy Zapata and his Feal Suspension New Edge Mustang.
Cabrera took lead position first, his massive naturally aspirated Chevy LS going toe-to-toe with Eddy’s procharged Ford Modular. The 240sx, likely due to its weight advantage, was able to break away just after initiation, which additionally saw Eddy come off the bank with too much speed, running wide and setting up an awkward line for the next sweeper. Coming out of the hairpin, the Mustang ran into another bunch of bad luck, spinning out whilst attempting to put power down to regain proximity.
The Mustang in the lead, Pablo’s 240sx managed to stick close to the Feal Suspension car’s door throughout the first two sweepers. Attempting to run away from the follow car, Eddy carried too much speed into the hairpin, managing to hold his drift steady until pushing out to the outer clipping point, in which he over-rotated and nearly parked it.
With the spin marring Eddy’s follow run, the win went to Pablo.
Next up was Keoni Rodrigues in his S13 240sx and Ernie Fixmer in his R33 Skyline, the two Nissans taking space next to each other in the start box.
Keoni was the first to lead, his big single turbo 2JZGTE enabling him to run away from Fixmer’s Skyline; powered by an only lightly modified RB26DETT across the bank. The distance only widened once both cars initiated, with Fixmer making a critical mistake and straightening out after locking up the brakes.
Ernie took the mantle of the lead car next, his frankly underpowered (for today’s Pro-Am) Skyline unable to break away from Keoni’s 240sx throughout the entire course, even the typical ‘runaway’ points.
With an error on the first run, and not going any further than three lengths from his competitor in the second run, Keoni took the win and moved up.
Following the matchup was turbo Nissans was the matchup of Chevy LS E46 BMWs, driven by Margaritis Katsanidis in his Essa Autosport car, and Micah Diaz in the Holdfast E46.
Diaz was the first to take the lead run, the two E46 BMWs evenly matched up until initiation coming down the bank. Margaritis swung in too much angle, drastically reducing his speed as Micah sped away, powering through the fastest part of the course immediately after. The distance was only made up as both cars went through the hairpin, yet it was soon lost once more as they returned to the long, high-speed sweepers.
Positions switched, the Greek native was now leading. For reasons unknown, Margaritis simply couldn’t break away from Micah throughout the lead up to the first corner. However, as both went into the first sweeper, the Holdfast car oversped, running wide and even taking out a couple cones on the outside of the corner before putting the power down in hot pursuit. The proximity was regained rather quickly, the cars maintaining close proximity through the hairpin and even through the sweepers on their way back, the white E46 barking at the heels of the blue one the entire time.
With amazing proximity on his follow run, Micah Diaz took the win, moving to the next bracket.
