JapShow 2007 Report (go to Gallery)

A big thank you to everyone who braved the forecast bad weather this weekend and made it along to JapShow 2007 at Santa Pod Raceway. Despite the damp conditions, we managed almost a full day of track action on Saturday, with some excellent Run What Ya Brung (RWYB) times being set on the test day, and then thousands still made it along on the Japshow main day for the massive club meetings, drift track, show and shine, traders and also a fair bit of track action from the sweepers who were battling the showers tirelessly all day.

Unfortunately, although sticky in warm dry conditions, the track surface at Santa Pod is like ice in the wet and unsafe to race on, and every time it got close to being ready on Sunday, the heavens opened once again. As a result, no RWYB or HKS Pro Drag racing took place (see box at bottom of page for rain-off value), so the focus shifted to the drift track which ran almost continuously throughout the day and put on a great show to compensate for the lack of drag racing. The drift track has been massively enlarged since last year and the grandstand and pit area have really helped to make the most of the efforts of the drift crew, so a big thanks go out to them for keeping it cooking all day.

Also around site, car clubs from around the country put on huge displays, so a big “thanks” goes out to the organisers and attendees.

A few clubs topped 100 cars, which was a great spectacle and shows fantastic support for the club and show scene. Best club award went to HondaOwners.net for their modestly-sized but beautifully presented display packed with top cars.

The Meguiars Show & Shine display was also moderately sized, but the quality of cars on display was excellent and picking a top five and over-all winner was a difficult task. Toyotas were a big feature in the show paddock for some reason, but all of exceptional quality. Thanks to everyone who had the tough job of polishing their cars over-and-over between rain showers… without you there wouldn’t have been a show, so well done and thanks again! However, the top show cars were as follows:

Best of Show Mark Watson, Toyota Supra (Gold) Mark’s custom wide-arch Supra was the finished article, with great interior, ICE bodywork and a tidy engine. Much of the work was carried out by Mark himself, and his polishing-job was first rate!

Top 5 Runners Up

Amo Singh, Toyota Supra Amo’s cool Lamborghini Yellow Supra featured fresh yellow paint inside and out and very cool rims. As a daily driver, they don’t come much nicer than this.

Alex Creasey, Nissan Skyline R33GTR The only non-Toyota winner had a subtle stockish look, but the most perfect Midnight Purple paint ever seen. The car looked fresh out the factory, but featured subtle and classy custom touches.

Dave Wannell, Toyota Celica GT Dave did a great job of cleaning his cool Kandy Blue Celica, rolling on big chrome wheels and overflowing with ICE, this was a real contender.

Neil Marsham, Toyota Supra Yet another Supra, but this time picking up a trophy for its clean exterior backed up by the best engine bay in the show.

RWYB Winners

Since no wheels turned in anger on Sunday, all RWYB times were carried over from Saturday’s test day, but some awesome times were laid down nontheless. The usually “slow” class G massively upped the ante this year, and quick cars featured in all classes. Congratulations to the winners, and thanks to all who took part.

Class A – Nissan/Datsun Bob Bentley - Skyline R12 GTR 11.028 seconds @ 122.95mph

Class B – Toyota/Lexus Nick Pattinson - Supra 13.066 seconds @ 108.18mph

Class C – Honda/Acura Wendel Brand - Civic 11.737 seconds @ 113.74mph

Class D – Mitsubishi/Proton David Green - Lancer Evo 3 11.374 seconds @ 113.86mph

Class E – Subaru Paul Eggerton - Impreza WRX 11.881 seconds @ 119.47mph

Class F – Mazda Paul Wyatt - RX7 11.746 seconds @ 120.31mph

Class G – Suzuki/Daihatsu/Isuzu
TBC

Class X – Non Road Legal Andy Barnes - Nissan Skyline R33 GTR 8.944 seconds @ 152.50mph

All the RWYB competition times can be found on the JapShow 2007 RWYB Times page.

Thanks again to all who came along and braved the weather, we hope you had a good time anyway and enjoyed a great gathering of like-minded jap-heads. Make sure you check out the gallery pages.

JapShow Photo Competition

If you took photos at the JapShow, then make sure you have a look through your album and send us your best shot! The winner will recieve VIP tickets to the JapShow Finale later on this year!

For more information and to check out the entries so far, click here.

JapShow Finale - Sunday 7th October 2007

JapShow Finale 2007, the second JapShow of the year at Santa Pod Raceway and final round of the HKS Drag Series, will be on Sunday 7th October with a test day on Saturday 6th October.