For the past two weeks, Bradenton Motorsports Park owner Victor Alvarez has had social media buzzing about who has the baddest radial import in the world, with the trash talk culminating at The Reunion presented by Turbosmart, April 19-20 at BMP.
Alvarez, along with driver Troy Pirez Jr., recently broke the quarter mile record for a 2JZ import on 275 radials with his 1994 Toyota Supra, running a 6.34 at 218 mph during testing, beating the previous record of 6.36. Alvarez admitted he didn’t even realize they’d set the record and was initially disappointed with their performance.
“My personal goal was to go 6.20’s. I thought that was realistic,” said Alvarez. “I had no world record in mind. A couple days before, Motion Raceworks posted that the 1/8-mile record for an import on a radial was a 2JZ Skyline in Bahrain that went 4.08. By my math, I figured if we ran 4.08, we’d probably go 6.20’s, and I wanted to beat that 4.08. In the midst of it, we cracked off the 6.34.”
Alvarez was quick to call out the rest of the import community, saying not to worry about scales or tech inspections, just grab a lane. His Supra, featuring a 2JZ billet block from Fast Forward Race Engines, a single Precision Next-Gen 88mm turbo, M&M Transmission turbo 400 with lock-up, and FuelTech on board, was the quickest in the world. The fact that the run didn’t occur during competition was irrelevant to Alvarez, despite what some detractors might say.
“I get it, and people can say whatever they want,” Alvarez said after the run. “To be honest, if I was stating we had some kind of class record, I would 100% agree. But what I’m saying – and I’ll say it really loud if anyone wants to hear it – is we have the baddest import in the world on a 275 tire. Period, end of discussion. Whoever thinks otherwise, please hit me up. We’ll make arrangements to line ‘em up and we’ll see.”
It didn’t take long for someone to “think otherwise.” This past weekend in Orlando, Larry Ramnath and the team at Drag International posted a 6.302 elapsed time at 218 mph in his Nissan S15, resetting the record once again – also in testing.
However, the two teams will have the opportunity to settle things in real competition at The Reunion. Both will be running in the Extreme 28’s class, which will also feature 2024 Sick Week winner Brett LaSala and his Snot Rocket Mustang, Garrett Mitchell (better known as Cleetus McFarland) in his “Mullet” El Camino, and a host of others.
“We had to have a class for guys that were too fast or got ruled out of the Street Car class,” said Alvarez. “So we created Extreme 28’s, which is basically anything goes on a 28-inch tire with steel roof and quarters. We’ll have a 16-car field that runs 6.20’s to 6.40’s, and they’re real cars. I think it’ll bring a whole new level of excitement, and is the future of our event.”
In addition to Extreme 28’s, The Reunion will feature Xtreme FWD, Street Car Shootout, Nitro vs. the World, Stick Shift Shootout, both a 9.50 and 10.50 Index, and a N/T Shootout. All classes will run the full quarter mile, with the exception of the N/T Shootout. This will be the third year of the popular event that was originally supposed to be a one-time deal.
“We love small tire racing. That’s just what happens down here,” Alvarez said. “We have one of the best tracks for that here at Bradenton. During Covid in 2020, when no tracks were opening, we had a bunch of cancellations of races we wanted to attend. We finally said screw it – nobody else was willing to open, so we threw together this event called The Reunion in about 30 days, and we had a huge event. I wasn’t intending to do it again. People kept asking me over and over to do it, so last year we did it for the second time. It’s a lot of fun and gives everybody a place to race, so it looks like it’s here to stay.”
This story was originally published on April 9, 2024. 
