FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Kevin Macvaugh
Bullish Racing Communications
(201) 342-8374
pr@bullishmotorracing.com
HAT TRICK IN SIGHT FOR BULLISH RACING AT NDRA VIRGINIA
DINWIDDIE, Virginia (April 21, 2005) – Four races into the 2005 racing season, Bullish Motor Racing has already garnered two victories and one runner-up finish between the NHRA and NDRA sport compact drag series. Bullish team owner and driver Ara Arslanian, has a chance to drive the StreetGlow-sponsored Solara to a “hat-trick” victory at the NOPI Virginia Race, Virginia Motorsports Park, Dinwiddie, VA, April 23-24. Arslanian, the defending two-time XBOX Cup Pro Compact champion, heads into the third round of the 2005 NDRA XBOX Cup Series with the early series points lead.
Arslanian and the Bullish team wrapped up a second consecutive event victory in Las Vegas - in the midst of a taxing five-event road trip that began with the NHRA opener April 2-3 in West Palm Beach, FL, and that will end with an April 30-May 1 homecoming at the Nitto NHRA Sport Compact Spring Nationals at the team’s home track in Englishtown, NJ. The victory, in front of a NHRA POWERade audience, at the Nitto NHRA Sport Compact Nationals followed the team’s first win of 2005 at the NOPI DC race in Budds Creek, Maryland and has reinvigorated the well-traveled team for the weekend in Virginia.
“It’s been an incredible past four weeks,” said Arslanian. “We were showing signs of wear and tear – with the crisscrossing from New Jersey to Florida, from Florida to Las Vegas, and now from Las Vegas to Virginia, but winning the last two races have really charged us up. We are excited to be leading in points in the NDRA and in second place in the NHRA – it’s a great position to be in.”
While Bullish is gunning for their third consecutive win to complete the hat-trick, the team will also be using the event to continue refining their new-for-2005 Turbonetics twin-turbo HKS 3.4L Stroker engine program. Although much data has been collected over the course of the two dozen or so competition passes the car has made so far this year, the team is looking to make a few adjustments this week to refine a baseline for the engine program. The baseline testing has been made necessary by the introduction of new engine program elements, including a dual-rail new fuel system machined by Ross Machine and new head port configuration prepared by Headgames Motorworks, over the past few weeks.
“We basically came out with a brand new engine program this year and then totally reconfigured the program and tune-up each of the last three times we’ve raced. The fact that we can design these changes and then have them work according to plan - without any real world testing - really shows the abilities of the special people that make up this team. That being said, we still would like to button down our new tune-ups; and Dinwiddie, a track we have plenty of data on, will be a perfect place to do this.”
In fact, at the 2004 NDRA Dinwiddie date, Arslanian raced to a runner-up finish while setting track records of 6.92 seconds and 198.52 mph – records well below the performance the 2005-spec StreetGlow Solara has shown thus far. In fact, at the NHRA season opener at Florida’s Moroso Motorsports Park, Arslanian slammed the gears to a blistering 6.644-sec/204.68-mph clocking during qualifying. Winning three-in-a-row is also not foreign to the team; Arslanian pulled a three-race win streak from June to July last year.
“Win streaks are great, but they are by-products – not the goals of our program. Its not rocket science. If you look at every pass, every round, and every race as a championship round – the streaks will come; and winning usually means you’re having fun. We’re having A LOT of fun. My only regret is that we won’t be able to bring the Bullish Racing AEM Import Dragster to the Virginia fans. We wanted to make Virginia our track debut, but we’re just a bit away from getting everything set up.”
The team’s Import Dragster is the NDRA’s first Pro Extreme Compact class entry and features a twin-turbocharged 3.0L 2JZ Inline-six cylinder engine designed to propel itself into the record books as the quickest and fastest import-powered dragster in the world. The team now anticipates the Import Dragster to make its inaugural pass at the June NOPI South Florida event.
The NOPI Virginia event will be taped for broadcast on SPEED Channel’s Nopi TunerVision on a future date. In addition, results of the competition will be posted daily at the series website accessible at www.nopi.com .
Editor’s Note: Members of the media interested in attending the event are encouraged to contact Kevin Macvaugh, Bullish Motor Racing, (201) 342-8374 or Seth Rubin, Alan Taylor Communications, (212) 714-1280.
About Bullish Motor Racing
Bullish Motor Racing, based in Hackensack, New Jersey, is a premier professional sport compact drag racing team competing in both the NHRA and NDRA sport compact drag racing series. Owner/driver Ara Arslanian competes in a tube-framed Toyota Solara powered by a 1,600 horsepower production-based, turbocharged 3.0-liter inline-6 engine. In the past three years, the team has amassed an unprecedented 4 championships with their third consecutive NDRA Championship coming last year. In addition to the national titles, the team also currently holds and has held quarter mile ET and MPH world records in the NHRA and the NDRA, as well as numerous track records. www.bullishmotorracing.com
About Street Glow, Inc.
StreetGlow® defined a new category in the automotive aftermarket with the introduction of Auto-Neon® and has since inspired a new generation of enthusiasts with its extensive line of performance lighting products. Their cutting-edge line of StreetGlow and OPTXR by StreetGlow branded products continues to drive new automotive lighting trends and showcase the popularity of this emergent category. Named to the prestigious Inc. 500 list of America's fastest growing private companies for four consecutive years, StreetGlow, Inc. is the number one choice in Auto-Neon and performance lighting products worldwide. For more information, visit www.streetglow.com or www.optxbystreetglow.com
Bullish Motor Racing 2005 Season Statistics
ABOUT OUR SPONSORS
Through our sponsors, team Bullish Motor Racing has been able to compete at the highest level of performance with the best resources and equipment. Bullish Motor Racing thanks all of our sponsors for their great support in making us a championship team.
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Head Games Motorworks
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