Import Face-Off 2011: MD

Import Face-Off 2011: MD

Photos by Cliff Wallace


In the FWD class, Chris “The Magician” Miller struggled to even qualify as he was forced to back out during the first round due to a leak in the burnout box. For his second, nail-biting attempt, Chris almost hit the wall as his Orange-camo Civic jerked hard left and crossed the center line, which made that pass ineligible as a qualifier. Before his third and final attempt at qualifying, Chris was expected to only peddle across the line to take the low risk number 8 qualifying position. Instead of taking an easy pass, The Magician went all out and ended up running a 67mm turbo world record pass of 8.9-seconds at 179 mph, which also secured the number-1 qualifier position! Number 2 qualifier, and local Maryland racer, Rick Everly won the class as Miller stalled at the line during semis. This is the first loss for Miller since 2009.

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The Forced Induction Pro class saw local Maryland racer Matt Lennen with his Toyota Supra win for a second year in a row. Because of the consecutive wins, there will be a $100 bounty put on his head at every 2011 event he competes at.

The hotly contested All Motor class was where New Yorker, Jose “Pepsi” Bello with his K-Series Civic took the win for a second year in a row while also setting a world record 137 mph trap speed for the class (all other top racers in All Motor are running 125 to 130 mph). For the third year in a row, Randy Owens (world’s fastest and quickest H-Series All Motor street Honda) took runner-up in the class.

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For the street driven turbo cars, the Forced Induction Sport class is for full interior, exhaust and plated cars. Local racer, Ernie Taylor with his yellow RX-7 (see pic) ruined the fun for everyone else by running 1 to 2 seconds faster than the entire field. To keep things interesting for the rest of the competitors, IFO official placed a $200 dollar bounty on his head. No one collected as Ernie ended up winning in the finals with a 9.5-second pass to Brady Johnson’s DSM that ran an 11-flat.“Next event I’m stepping up to FI Pro,” stated Ernie.

For his 4th IFO event in a row, Best of Show was won by Wes Banasan with his teal Nissan 350Z, which was featured in PASMAG. With a 45 percent increase in overall attendance at this year’s Import Face-Off, perhaps we can expect to see two Maryland events in 2012?

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