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Mother Nature must have been smiling down on the Steeda Campus this past Saturday for the 2004 chapter of the Steeda Focus Challenge. The regularly scheduled south Florida afternoon monsoon was held at bay until after the collection of the car show ballots, and once the dyno had spun down, after competition that saw numbers in excess of 300 HP!
Over 150 Ford fans from as far away as New York found their way down to Pompano Beach for the event, which began promptly at 9:00am. The Tampa Bay Area of Florida was well represented by a contingent content to make the 4-hour drive. Gregory Maerki motored over from Ft. Polk, LA, but the long distance award winner was Osmin Diaz, hailing from Mineola, NY. In an effort to improve his fuel economy for the ride home, he was awarded the Diablosport Performance Chip, with programming, for his Focus. All these travelers competed for prizes out of reach for the many, local Focus fans in attendance.
Much of the excitement was captured by our friends in the media. Josh Bolger, the Editor from Mustang Weekly was on hand, as well as Mark Elias from Modular Power Magazine. And for the first time there will be bi-lingual coverage of a Steeda event online, thanks to Rodman Armas, whose photos should get posted to trasnocho.com by mid week. Brush up on your Spanish, and check their site for additional coverage.
The #22 Steeda Focus Race Car was on hand, and was the center of attention at various parts of the day. Many were entertained by the video loop showing the "Bumblebee" in action on the track at Homestead Speedway and at Moroso Motorsports Park. Tech Guru Dan Carlson also used it during the Tech Q & A session, and the crowd shifted to the adjacent red SVT for the cold air intake installation demo.
Hot dogs and soda were provided for all who registered, and the event logo was screened onto commemorative T-Shirts (and onto a cake, although we trust not with the same ink!).
A light rain had just begun when Ed Zerbe of the Tampa Bay SVTOA addressed the crowd. Ed made a generous offer to save anyone in attendance some moolah if they choose to attend the SVTOA’S next on-track event. Ford fans can take a turn or two at the road course at Moroso Motorsports Park on October 17th – and we wager that a lot of the action in the dyno room was in preparation for the NOPI South Florida Nationals coming to the drag strip at that same facility in just two weeks time.
But for now, with the sound of 300 galloping horses still ringing in our ears, we’d like to thank all the Staff at Steeda (especially Steve, Sam & Chad for braving the heat in the dyno room), the sponsors for providing the prizes but most of all the Focus fans and friends that made this the biggest chapter in the Steeda Focus Challenge books to date!
View more picture of Steeda Focus Day 2004 by clicking here. |
