JapShow Finale 2005 Report

The JapShow Finale is now over, and once again Santa Pod was blessed with glaring sunshine and blinding Jap motors. Whatever you were into, be it show cars, race cars, drift cars, or just hanging out with some guys from your club, there was more to see and do at the JapShow Finale than you could fit into a day.

View photos from Japshow Finale in the JapShow Finale 2005 Gallery.

The day started early for most, with the thousands of club cars streaming on site from 7am (Big thanks go out to all the clubs who attended, you put on a great show!). It wasn't long before the signing on office opened its doors to the queue of eager run what ya brungers keen to get on the track. Once the track dried and cleaned, it wasn't long before the first of the run what ya brung cars made their way down the strip and the battle for the RWYB trophies had commenced! Competition was fierce, with some very special road cars clocking some quite stunning times, and celebrity driver, Eugene Sully from Big Brother also taking his turn on the strip in his Subaru Legacy! A big surprise in the RWYB was the Mitsubishi Legnum of Derek Tew topping the Mitsubishi class (everyone thought an Evo would storm it), and a big congratulations go to John Curistan, who travelled all the way from Northern Ireland to not only top the Subaru class, but also clocked the fastest RWYB time of the day

The winning RWYB times by 4pm were:

Class A - Nissan / Datsun / Infiniti Garth Wong Nissan Skyline R32 11.108 ET (sec) at 135.03 TS (mph)		Class D - Mitsubishi/Proton Derek Tew Mitsubishi Legnum 12.490 ET (sec) at 108.93 TS (mph)
Class B - Toyota/Lexus Mark Biggers Toyota Supra 11.555 ET (sec) at 127.44 TS (mph)		Class E - Subaru John Curistan Subaru Impreza 11.007 ET (sec) at 127.91 TS (mph)

Class C - Honda/Acura - Ken Weale, Honda NSX, 12.486 ET (sec) at 110.84 TS (mph)

Class F - Mazda - Anthony Fleming, Mazda RX-7, 12.463 ET (sec) at 117.88 TS (mph)

Class G - Suzuki, Daihatsu, Isuzu - Matt Smith, Diahatsu Charade, 14.718 ET (sec) at 91.08 TS (mph)

Run What Ya Brung Class Times

Visit the links below for the full timing data for each of the RWYB classes.

Class A RWYB Times
Class B RWYB Times
Class C RWYB Times
Class D RWYB Times
Class E RWYB Times
Class F RWYB Times
Class G RWYB Times

Pro Shootout

Also on track was the one everyone was talking about- the Pro Shootout showcase drag race.

Full Pro Shootout Report here

Over in the Meguiar's Show Zone , the best Jap show cars in the UK lined up to compete for the best of show trophy. The quality of the cars entered was very high, and choosing the top three was genuinely very difficult, but in the end it was Mark Lampard who took third place with his gorgeous black MR2 Turbo. In second place, Scott Allen's purple and yellow RX-7 impressed with it's completeness and cool airbag suspension, but Michael Phillips took top honours with his flip-painted, chrome-wheeled Subaru Impreza. The car is a brave crossover of Jap and American styles that really works and deserves the Best of Show trophy.

Also off track were brilliant stunt displays by Russ Swift and virtually a whole days drifting action over on the drift track. We really enjoyed the drift shows , and want to thank the boys and girls involved for putting on such great shows this year at the Pod, and we can't wait to see the D1 Grand Prix series either.

Back on track, there were drag demos by a pair of 7-second Super Street bikes, which went down a storm with the crowd, and the awesome Fireforce jet car, which was back on form and running 5's! The winner of the Pace number plate sticker draw was Ben Johnson, who won a drum of Cool Blue, 106 Octane Racing Fuel after displaying a Pace sticker on his Nissan Skyline.

We hope you all had a great day, and would like to thank everybody sincerely for making this such an awesome day out. However, a few apologies are in order because the PA system was partially damaged and not as clear as we would have liked it to be. Also, we were let down by the people who were providing our pole dancers, so we apologise if you were looking forward to this too.

Thanks again for coming, and we'll see you back at the Pod soon again we hope!

The above 3 photos by Victoria Russell. Russ Swift, Drifting and Eugene Sully after a drift ride.

Gallery

View more photos from Japshow Finale in the JapShow Finale 2005 Gallery.

Feedback

JapShow Finale 2005 feedback can be found here.