http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9TCIU3R8ct0

 

nice post. i think the 5 second board lady is still the same one today! lol.

 

Roger Foo was an inspiration of mine to start club racing. Racing NASCAR or INDY or F1 are another world but think a regular guy built a Honda and went and won SPEED Challenge races was really cool and very close to home, very tangible. I though, "shoot, if he can do that I can at least go club racing..."

Now if SPEED World Challenge was still what it used to be in the Roger Foo days and I had more money I would love to do that.

 

really, you think? with the introduction of other class' allowed in SWC you still think so?

if i remember right if he hadn't gotten signed up with mazda the next season, that one season in his hatch would have been his first and last. heard it's very expensive.

 

good find.

foo was what got me into liking hondas, especially hatches... seeing that little underfunded and private team taking on the turner and realtime guys and winning...


WC used to be fun... taz harvey, pierre, bill auberlein, etc... all banging on each other every race...

 

Very good memories, this.

What was the song/tune they use to play over the loudspeakers just before these WC races?

 

great find. I too found inspiration from Roger Foo and I believe I met him back when I started getting serious about autocross.

 

Ahhh "The Foo"

Known him since middle school.
Always followed his career.
Way back when he was running a white 75 hatch with side drafts in the early days.
In high school he was already building cars.

One day I wrecked my 77 honda accord, that I bought from my mom for 500.00
New engine and suspension, and other goodies on this car that i was building into my daily driver.
Not knowing what to do with it, I asked Roger his opinion.
His reply.. "find a shell and put that engine in it."
After one week of searching the dollar saver paper (local classifieds) I found a 75 civic hatch not running for 300.00
I took the ad to Roger, we went ,and looked at it.
20 mins later he helped me bring it home.
Back at my house we pushed it in the driveway, Roger says "get your manual out (chiltons) and change it out...Everything will bolt up" he says.
Not doubting his word I got to work.
I was stoked at the idea of the accord 1600cc in the super light civic hatch.
Two days later the beast came alive. absolutley no hiccups whatsoever.
This might of been one of the first ever swaps??
The year was 1984.

 

one of his chassis became an H2 car out west.

 

If im not mistaken its Renan's car in so cal

 

Nice!! Anyone know what lap times they were running in that video?

 

I saw it posted some place a while back. Google lap times, laguna seca, and Roger Foo.
They were some MFing fast times.
If im not mistaking the car had a redline of 9200?
It was featured in Sport Compact Car during that same year.

 

Here is the link to the Sport Compact Car Magazine article.
Good info on the car itself.

http://sportcompactcar.automotive.co...-dx/index.html

 

His EG was sold to some one back east/south east.

Renan's car was Quan's old car, one of 3 he built. While Roger did help out Mike alot (all of the 25 hour races), non of them where his cars.

The EK hatch he built was sold to some one back east too.

He and Taz Harvey built a few (3 or 4 i think), 99-00 civic SI's one was for WC and the rest where built for SCCA SS*. One of those cars was ran in NASA NorCal but it was toatled last year.

The car Renan has, the cage was built by Mike Lock and Mike Quan. Jeremy C's brother's car was also one of those cars.

 

Has he raced professionally ever since Mazda?

 

Yes

 

Last I knew he helped build, and race two TSX cars that ran in the Koni Challenge.
That was a few years ago.
Im sure he is involved in something somewhere.

Thanks for clearing up the "where is the car now" scene Jimmy.
With most of the PDQ cars being yellow it was easy to mistake it as being sold down south.

 

That was the first race I went to. I was going to school in Monterey and just getting interested in cars. I remember taking a picture of his engine bay because his oil catch can was an old water bottle zip tied to the firewall.

 

Ahhhh, I remember that race like it was yesterday. It was my 2nd world challenge race ever (After Infineon being my first race 2 months prior). Talkin' about feeling out of place, I was a lonely privateer trying to race with the big boys on a shoestring-OF A shoestring budget. I raced my '93 DA Integra with my stock B16a. Just 4 days before my race/primary B16 broke before it even was able to start. I had the head shaved .035" and ran CTR Pistons with CTR cams. Piston to valve clearance was NOT checked and the head was shaved so much with the tall domed pistons, and whamo!!! Bent intake valves So for the race, I just had to use my STOCK b16A with CTR cams and was waaaaay underpowered compared to Taz and Roger. It was a learning experience if anything.

If I remember correctly, during qualifying, Leslie and Foo were the only ones to run high 1:45's. During the race it was about a second slower. Back then the madated tires for WC TC was Toyo T1s...STREET TIRES (NOT DOT tires) that were shaved. I'll post up the official qualifying sheet if I have time (yes I still have that sheet)

ahhh, the good 'ol days

jmeris

 

sweet!! I'd like to see the sheet.
Surge

 

I finally remembered the song they played on the loudspeaker during the warm up lap:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w2pW2QrlytM

 

Was that a Chevy Corsica ~1:43? In Speed WC???

 

It was a Oldsmobile Achieva

 

oldsmobile achieva i believe - if it's the red one...