Hi All!

Sorry, I’ve totally lagged on this, but I have a good reason… I’ve been working and racing!

As I write, I’m currently in Indiana. I just got finished working the Reading, PA event, and I was telling Tae that I’ve driven over 2,000 miles, in literally 3 weeks!

I love to stay busy, but now I have a few days to re-coup and get ready to work the “BIG GO” next week. Now that you all know I haven’t been lounging in the Cali sunshine, lets get to where I left off…

I think it was mid 90′s, I believe it was 1997, when Gary and I partnered up with a shop in Santa Barbara. My trusty little Civic had long come off the street. But not by choice, it blew up on the K&N dyno. Of course, it had became legendary by then. It was the first true street driven car that could run in the 11′s, and I’m talkin’ full interior – back seats, front seats, glass, and everything!

But when it broke, Gary and I had to make the ultimate decision, and Gary asked me what I wanted to do. Should we rebuild and keep taking suckas’ money? Or make it a full ‘trailer queen’ race car?

The whole ‘girl racer’ thing was still in its infancy, and it was mostly limited to ‘this is my boyfriend’s car’. We saw where the market was heading and fast. Well, needless to say, it was a no-brainer!

We threw the Civic on a flatbed truck and took it up north with us. We hoped that we could get it done and start racing, but that didn’t happen. We both were so busy with the shop and others cars that sat around the shop.  Day by day, the Civic was looking so sad… and gutted.

Gary and the other partner of the shop decided that they wanted to go for another first, and that was to run the very first 11-sec full-interior del Sol. Granted, there was Herman Flores who had his fully raced out, but our del Sol was still the first of its kind. Aside the fiberglass trunk, that car was heavy as hell! The first outing for the del Sol was the ‘Battle Of The Imports’ in Palmdale. Stephan Papadakis was the driver, and he didn’t let us down, it ran in the 11′s!

Business immediately picked up for us. But we were totally oblivious to the fact that the other partner started liquidating, or shall we say lining his pockets with the profits. It really sucks when people don’t share the same passion. Because of that situation, it was getting a little bit tight for us two, and we were getting paid less but working longer hours. Hell… Gary, me, and Robbie used to drive to Los Angeles every night so we could eat, let alone get essentials like fucking toilet paper, because we couldn’t afford it!

One day we arrived at the shop, which was relocated to Carpinteria, and came across a note on the door from the Sheriff’s office. They informed us that we basically have 24 hours to get everything out of the shop, because they were shutting the place down. The owners of the cars were to pick them up at the auction. I’m not going to lie, the panic really started to set in. We would have called our customers but the phones and electricity were shut off!

So, we did the next best thing… we got to a payphone and called some of our friends that were customers and gave them the low-down. They immediately got on the horn to call all the car owners, and we got every car out of the failed shop safely.

My Civic, of course, was already on its way back home to Los Angeles. But, if you readers thought the buck stopped there, it sure as hell didn’t. A couple months later, a Sheriff shows up at our house; we had no idea why. Well, the shop owner had a guy from Japan that came to the States on a work visa wanting citizenship. That was long before we started working there. It turns out that the shop owner took $30K from this poor kid. The only thing that the Sheriff could think of, since the thief fled to Japan, was to sue Gary. That became a nightmare, and we immediately signed the Civic over to our good friend Mark Fata’s mother. Because, come hell or high water, nobody was taking that Civic from us!

Ultimately, Gary had to file for bankruptcy. I was so angry over this that Gary, knowing my temper, wouldn’t allow me to go to the court proceedings. I’ve almost been put in jail for contempt before. I have a horrible temper and I’m not afraid to display it.  So here we are, with no money, and no hope of getting the Civic on the track ever again! And to think this is just the beginning of our career. But, people, it takes a lot more to hold us down than just some stupid shit like this. In fact, we have never taken a fall that we haven’t gotten back up from, and we’ve come out much stronger!

Even after all that, 1997 wasn’t all that bad of a year. The thief owner had sold the 11-sec motor out of the Del Sol to a friend/customer Eddie Ramos, and Gary swapped it into a white EG and that was where I got my start. It was in Pomona, at a street legal event, they told me that I needed to really learn now. At 320WHP, these cars are way different than anything I’ve ever driven previously.

At that time, there was another girl who was racing that was trying desperately to become the first female racer in the 11′s, and as was I. My very first pass out, I ran a 11-second pass! At that point, I didn’t care or even remember what round I went out. But I have made my mark, as first female to run 11′s! I still have that firejacket hanging up in glass, and it has my first achievements sewn on it. I eventually got in another car, which had clutch issues, but I’ve earned the ‘Rising Star’ award (little did I know at the time, that I was going to shine so bright). After that, Gary and I decided that no matter what, we are getting our race car done.

We hooked up with a friend of ours Mike Brittan, whose family had a unfinished house in Riverside. We took the Civic to the house, and worked on it day and night to get it rolling. My daily commuter car was sold to buy my first intercooler. I’ve worked 4 jobs just to help put my money in, and Gary did side jobs – building motors and turbo manifolds. If anyone has ever read the article where I said we shared clothing, it wasn’t a lie. Back then, we ate Del Taco’s 29-cent tacos everyday, and it was taking its toll on me. For anyone who called me fat, FUCK YOU and your FAMILIES – I didn’t know racing was supposed to be a beauty pageant!

I, myself ,even filed for bankruptcy. Because, I figured all those payments to my credit cards could go straight to my car, not knowing the consequences later down the road. We’ve had our mishaps at Mikes house as well, all the arguing, bitching, money issues, and finally the community filed a complaint for noise ordinance. We all slept on the concrete floors of the garage, nightly… and oh…  the scorpions were not cool!!!

After all the tribulation, we finally got the car done – minus the motor… for that we towed it down to Pro Import. The owner of Pro Import was the previous partner to Honda Pro, Viet Lam. Gary started doing side jobs down with Viet to make money so we could finish the heart of the race car, and we did. The car took its first breath June of 1998, and that’s when racing world was in for a whirlwind!

I was trying to get sponsors for this car, which has never been down the track, even Viet tried. He literally kicked one of his sponsors out. Because, when he told them that my Civic was going to be the top dog car on the track, they laughed (I’m not exaggerating) in our faces. Viet helped us finish the little things like some welding on our roll cage, getting us some parts, got us rental cars, fed us, and stayed a true friend. One of the few we had that believed in us! If any of you remember my car, in its very beginning, you will agree that I didn’t have many stickers. Because, I wouldn’t take parts to be exploited, all the parts were bought and paid for by yours truly and GK!

Well everyone, I’ve tried my best to compress what a year and a half we had to get the race car barely fired up. It only gets more intense as my years go on.

Stay tuned, as I will stay in touch monthly!

-LK

This first article has been a long time coming. I just seem to get hung up on just about everything! Just to get the ball rolling for many more to come in the future, let me start with a brief bio to introduce myself and my roots of racing.

My name is Lisa Kubo, and I was born in Los Angeles, CA and I grew up in Monterey Park. My family were avid street racers (sorry but its the truth) and my father had his prized ’70 Plymouth Road Runner. As the story goes, the first night he was off active duty from the Vietnam war had cash in hand to buy this beaut! My mother had her oh so feminine ’74 Stingray Vette, and though she still has it all these years later, I still haven’t driven it! I guess my whole “racing” experience and love for cars started when I was two weeks old (its noted in my baby’s 1st book) when I saw my father win $20 bucks racing. I’m sure there was plenty more late night street racing adventures going on in my first years, but I’ll fast forward to when I can actually remember.

When I was 5 years old we used to hang out in Alhambra in a Zodies parking lot and have “hook up” races. On this particular night I refused to get out of the car when we got to our designated race street, and my mother being such a typical “mom,” was freaking out (and she still does to this day). My father took this 70′s inspired gold helmet with a Road Runner on the side (I still have this helmet), he plopped on my head and away we went! This went on until I was approx 8 years old, then I just stood and watched after that.

I wanted to drive race cars professionally since the first time I attended my first NHRA race when I was 11 years old. My Uncle Mike worked with Kenny Bernstein (he did the clutch), so I got to see pretty much everything. At this great age of 11 my sister and I were watching and there was a pink dragster with the words PAW on it, and behold it was a girl! We made a b line to that girls pit talking all the way about how bad ass this person was, and how a pink race car is so girly! If it had Hello Kitty plastered on it I think I would have had my adoption papers for her to sign! So when my sister Stephanie and I got there, the driver was sitting on a chair with a mile long line of fans. Being the typical kids Steph and I were, we had our autograph books, and when we got to the front of the line there she was. The great Shirley Muldowney was so beautiful and feminine, but boy she can spit nails.

She was so nice to me and Steph and made us smile as she signed our books. I knew right then this is what I wanted to do, even though it wasn’t about the whole “racing” a car that I was intrigued by. Though that was a part of it, it was more about making people happy, and feeling a connection with strangers who fueled a passion as strong as mine. At my age we didn’t have Junior Dragsters, so I was going to have to wait many more years until I could buy my own car. So year after year I attended the two NHRA races in Pomona, CA, and once I got to High School, my Mom and I carefully planned how I would ditch school Thursdays and Fridays when the races were in town.

Fast-forward seven years and I bought my very first car; a lowly 1988 VW Fox. The poor thing was slower then molasses but it was my “baybe” and the only female car I owned since all my race cars are boys! I fixed it up with all the bells and whistles I could afford on my restaurant job salary, since unlike what a lot of people thought, I didn’t have a rich family who bought me everything I wanted. With my Fox I now had the ability to go street racing with my own hooptie but I never raced anyone since I knew better. It was the start of the Honda era, and they were fast back then! I attended street races for many years, and stopped when I started racing professionally.

I was 20 years old when I met Gary. I raced his buddy in a juiced Nissan 240SX and annihilated the poor guy! From there Gary and I always hung out, and I saw his Civic taken all apart in his garage. I was not an “H” fan but that’s probably out of jealousy! He explained to me that this Civic in particular was the very first B series VTEC twin cam swap in the U.S. Myles Bautista had the first twin cam swap, and Myles sold Gary this B16 motor that had just came from Japan. We used to take this sleeper to the street races almost everyday except Monday! On the weekends Gary and my father would take it to terminal island in Long Beach, CA.

Gary and I married shortly after the car made its debut at Battle of The Imports, where he made history as the first 11sec full interior street car, and was the main face for Pro Motion Distribution. We were married in Las Vegas proudly wearing matching Battle Of The Imports shirts, jeans, and Vans!

On any given day you could see our Civic on the street, since I drove to and from work with it, but we never let anyone know anything about it. It wasn’t all lowered on rims, didn’t have a wing, nothing! Hell the intercooler was painted black and it rocked stock ride height with SI hubcaps! But believe me when some bad ass rolled up on me I didn’t hesitate to pop open the glove box and hit the High boost button on the EVC! I have some funny street racing stories about this car, but I think the best was at car shop we used to attend on Tuesday nights called Frisco’s in the City of Industry. Behind it was a very famous street called 4 lanes, and on this particular night the V8 clan was making fun of our car which was very typical back then. Gary, my Dad, and I decided I would be the best bait to seal this race because after all I was a girl what did I know about cars! I walked over and the V8 clan were grilling me about the Civic, what does it run, how quick, how fast, does it have NOS (they didn’t know about turbochargers, obviously). I played stupid said it ran “like” 15′s. I sealed Gary three races! Away we went to this street, all 4 cars lined up and I waited at the finish line with my Mom.

I heard and saw the three other cars ahead and was thinking man we lost, boy was I wrong! About half track the Civic was roaring! I could have sworn he passed them and spun them around! Needless to say we won the races, and had a huge laugh, since those guys couldn’t believe they were just smoked by a damn FWD Honda, or as we were commonly called Rice Rockets! They came over and had to know what the hell was with this car! They swore we used NOS but when we popped the hood and said uh oh turbo their jaws dropped, and I don’t think they messed with another import again!

I have so many stories to tell about my life in racing, and everyone who thought I had it easy or handed to me I’m going to be putting you in your place. It wasn’t all happy happy joy joy! I will be telling all because every person has great stories to tell how and why they are who they are. There’s only one story I will not tell and its because of the massive betrayal of family and I never got over it.

Until next time…

- LK