Once again, with a zero for only one of the drivers in the previous run, the writing was on the wall. Shaffer put down an absolutely excellent follow run the next go at it with RJ, nearly making contact with his wing mirror upon crossing the hairpin’s apex.
Shaffer took the win, moving on to the final four.
The next bracket was a duel of Nissan S13 chassis 240sx’s, a hatch and a coupe. Pablo Cabrera and Keoni Rodrigues took to the line; a rivalry of coupe versus hatch, and big V8 versus turbo I6.
The V’s Performance S13 took to the lead first, with Keoni in hot pursuit. Despite the sheer torque of Pablo’s V8, he simply couldn’t race away from the Tiki-adorned S-Chassis. Keoni maintained a distance of no more than two lengths throughout the course, chasing down the green V’s Performance 240sx all the way through.
Positions switched, the two took off from the starting box with remarkable speed; the speed that was enough to make both bungle their lines coming off of the bank, thus forcing an additional awkward line through the second sweeper. Despite the tricky opponent to follow, Cabrera did well, thus earning the win and the move up into the final four.
Following the S13 rivalry saw Meliton Villamor’s S14 take to the start box next to Micah Diaz’s E46 BMW. Diaz led first, breaking away hard from Meliton. The distance was kept throughout the bank and the sweepers; however, upon entering the hairpin the S14 driver dove hard into the Holdfast car’s pocket, keeping great proximity throughout the rest of the hairpin (albeit at a more shallow angle in order to preserve speed.)
Roles switched, the two drivers took off. Micah used the extra speed the mixture of his LS power and BMW suspension to maintain great proximity to the TriSpeed 240sx. However, the proximity proved to be a double-edged sword, as the white BMW shored itself up to avoid making contact with the slower S14 through the hairpin, and spun out.
Meliton taking the win via Micah’s zero, he too would move to the final four.
Following the two was Tony Cisneros and Shawn Hartum in their S14 240sx and FD RX-7 respectively. Cisneros led first, the big V8 living underneath his hood enabling him to break away from the rotary rocket as both cars shot around the bank before initiation. Though some proximity was regained by the Zestino RX-7, it simply wasn’t enough to keep with the 240sx as it transitioned through the sweepers. Coming through the hairpin, Shawn over-cooked his RX-7 through the second apex, gaining too much angle and bleeding speed that he simply wasn’t able to regain as Cisneros simply put left him in the dust.
The order switched, Shawn took to the lead position. Despite his weight advantage, the yellow RX-7 just couldn’t find the go to race away from the black 240sx, the S14 keeping near door-to-door proximity throughout the entire course with asides to the exit of the hairpin. Despite a short-lived breather, the black Nissan was back on the RX-7’s door by the end of the first sweeper, maintaining the same door-to-door proximity up until the finish line.
Cisneros took the win thanks to his precision driving, moving on to the Final Four.
