While enjoying the challenges of the road racing, where his roots began, Ara on a dare, eventually found himself strangely staged at the starting line of Englishtown’s Raceway Park thinking that going straight would be a walk in the park. After a hard launch, a tremendous amount of spin, and a few moments of terror, Ara crossed the finish line in 15.9 seconds at 97.3 miles per hour. His new found admiration for drag racing has been earned, and although he swore he would never do it again, the experience challenged him not only as a race car driver but as person, and made him respect the raw power of his Supra. Before long the car was outfitted for more serious ¼ mile duties.

THE SUPRA

As Ara’s desire to drag race became more serious, he assembled a team of individuals with a similar commitment and fortitude to win, and in 1999 formed a professional race team aptly named Bullish Motor Racing. The team would open its own fully equipped race shop and build one of the most exciting and technologically advanced Toyota Supra’s the sport has seen. Creating what would become the World’s Quickest and Fastest 6-Speed Full-Bodied Supra, was no easy task. The decision to build a race prepped motor was made and the real fun began. In line with Ara’s competitive spirit, no expense was spared on the project. The results would speak for themselves and prove that the hard work and effort were well worth it. After countless hours building and tuning the Bullish Racing Supra would produce over 1000 HP to the wheels. The level of detail and commitment to perfection and precision were followed throughout the car. Much of the equipment borders on the exotic, such as:

• Motec M48 Pro
• Motec ADL Dash/Logger
• Motec Telemetry
• ACPT carbon fiber driveshaft
• triple plate carbon/carbon/ Tilton clutch
• ATL fuel cell
• Safety Devices Carbon extinguishing system
• Truechoice Motorsports custom developed suspension setup

With all the parts in place, the team hit the track hard. So hard in fact, that they would spend a better part of the 2000 season trying to find a clutch combination that would handle the amount of power the car was producing. Ara credits the Tilton carbon/carbon clutch system, found on the American LeMans GT cars, to the success of the Bullish Racing Supra. The final race of the 2000 season would see Ara and his team set a world record and become the first full-bodied 6-speed Supra to break into the 9’s in tune of a 9.98 @ 142.32 mph. At the first NIRA event of the 2001 season the Bullish Racing team would back up that season ending 9 second pass with a 9.97 @ 147 mph. Ara and his team would also go on to be presented with the Super Street Racer of the Week award. The 2001 season can only be defined as a success. At the NIRA/ BF Goodrich Fall Nationals in Englishtown, New Jersey, Ara’s long standing goal of being the first street class Supra to run a 9.5 second pass at over 150 mph became a reality. By piloting the car to a 9.56 @ 150.7 mph, Bullish Racing was once again placed in the record books. The team remained focused by continuing its dominance on the racing circuit, and put into motion the development of what would soon be the fastest import drag cars in the world.

THE “TWINS”

With the relentless work ethic, came great success. The vast amount of knowledge gathered in racing the Supra, egged Ara and team on to focus its efforts into building a serious race car. Always the relentless business man, and strategist, Ara developed a plan to gain his team, and sponsors, the most amount of exposure to not only help its efforts, but to make the industry as a whole grow in a positive manner. The decision to build not one but two identical cars was made. The cars are based on NHRA 25.1D-certified tube-frame chassis and sports a 107-inch wheelbase, molded after a Pro Stock car, and utilizes the 3.0-liter turbocharged 2JZ motor that they made so famous in the Supra. Following the same enthusiasm, Bullish Racing again spared no expense in building the best industry leading Pro car. In an effort to be different, the team would choose to run the Toyota Solara body style. The ultimate goal for the Bullish Racing team is to be vying for the 1 and 2 spots at the end of the race weekend. Ara also became the first ever to pilot a Pro Import / Pro RWD chassis into the 6 second ET bracket in NHRA’s Sport Compact history. The Bullish Racing team, in its 5 consecutive years of PRO level competition has earned 5 World Championships (with NHRA and NDRA) and became the first team to win 1st and 2nd Place honors at a NHRA and NDRA national events.