For most who have been following the rise of professional import racing, the name Adam can only be attributed to Adam Saruwatari, who with the likes of Myles Bautista, Lisa Kubo, and Steph Papadakis was one of the early stars of import racing. However, unlike his contemporaries, Saruwatari’s racing presence has been limited and even joked about at times by other competitors. In the mid nineties, Saruwatari became legendary for his dominance in his nine second capable, record setting A&L Racing Enkei Wheels / Nitto RX-7 – and even ran an undefeated season at one point.

        

Saruwatari’s early success and the perfectionist attitude that was at times perceived as elitist (Besides being one of the first to use team uniforms and maintaining his race cars to show car quality, Saruwatari’s family also owns a Hummer that has been used as a tow vehicle) has made him an easy target for up and coming racers as well as veteran racers.

Nevertheless, Saruwatari and his team’s professionalism and showmanship made them an early asset to the sport and a big attraction at any event they participated in. In 2001, Saruwatari debuted a much-anticipated Pro Class NSX to compete in the upper echelon of the Pro Classes of various sanctioning bodies.

Adding fodder to the complaints about his limited racing appearances is the portfolio of a relatively successful sponsorship package that started early with Enkei and Nitto and culminated at the 2001 SEMA show with an announcement of Honda’s sponsorship of Saruwatari in a new Pro Class Civic.

        

We caught up with Saruwatari at the NHRA Tuned By Matrix Sport Compact Nationals at Sonoma’s Infineon Raceway this past September 7-8, where he made his NHRA Sport Compact Drag Race Series debut. While Saruwatari made a semifinal exit after facing Grant Downing’s Venom Performance Tundra, qualifying during the outing netted the quickest and fastest times ever for his NSX – 7.399@179.42. We took the opportunity to talk with him about the status of his current and future racing plans as well as take some shots of his exotic NSX racecar.

        

According to Saruwatari, although he has appeared at numerous IDRC, Battle of the Imports, and now NHRA events, most of 2002 has been spent dialing in the NSX as well as working on the 2002 Civic Si bodied Pro Class car that was announced at last year’s SEMA show.

“When I made the switch from running the [Outlaw class] RX-7 to the Pro Class NSX, no one really prepared me for how different the clutched, tube chassis car would be from the RX-7,” explained Saruwatari about the NSX tuning efforts. “I have a lot of great people behind me including my family and the team is really starting to work together well. The car seems to have a sixth sense and it runs well when the team runs well.”

        

The big learning curve is also a reason why Saruwatari elected not to pursue earlier plans to switch to a methanol fuels source for the NSX.

“One thing we learned with the NSX is not to change too many things at once, so we have stuck with T-16 race gas. Power has never been a problem with the NSX anyway, we’ve had other problems to address.”

        

Saruwatari added, “We’re also using a new clutch. The East-West titanium clutch (as used by NHRA Pro Stock competitiors) has really helped dialing me in – the clutch really seems to make or break me in this car. Between [the clutch] and Gary Anderson helping me out fine tune the chassis, things are coming around.”

Saruwatari also spoke of the progress of the Civic Si racecar, “We have been under a lot of pressure to finish the Civic for a SEMA Show debut and I have a lot of support to get it finished. It is Honda’s as well as my own priority to get the car done and that’s why [the Sonoma] race may likely be my last race this year.” Unlike the production model Si, the full tube framed A&L Racing Civic Si will feature a front engine/rear wheel drive configuration with a stretched wheelbase that will be powered by a V6 similar to that used in the NSX, but likely revised for methanol use.

        

As for the future of the NSX after the Civic debuts Saruwatari said, “A lot of people think I’m going to retire the car but I’m going to keep it as a back up car as well as use it to gain additional track data with it. Its actually my favorite car (Saruwatari’s stable of cars also include a street NSX, a 300ZX, the outlaw RX-7, and a Porsche), it’s the reason I decided to keep on racing after I decided to retire the RX-7.” Also according to Saruwatari, how long he keeps racing depends on the success of the Civic Si – an unsuccessful campaign in the Civic Si just might mean an early retirement for the full time farmer (his family owns and maintains one of the largest bok choy farms in California.).”

        

Saruwatari closed with his thoughts on the Sonoma weekend. “It’s been a great weekend. It was really great to be able to compete with guys like Venom and Lingenfelter and to run on a well-prepped track. We have done a lot of private session testing on closed tracks but the different surface conditions really don’t prepare you for the competition surfaces.” The end of day for Saruwatari at the track also meant the end of the day for his mostly family based crew – including mom and dad, Lorene and Leroy, who have been in the pits with Adam since day one of his racing career. “My family has been extremely supportive with my racing (dad Leroy was involved with racing sand rails before he was born). Hopefully, when the racing career is over, I’ll be able to get back fulltime to helping them.” For now though, it looks as if most of us will have to wait until November to find out what’s in store for the next chapter of Saruwatari’s career.

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The editor would like to thank Jay Canter for facilitating the setup of the photo shoot.