The
Rise Of CHAMPIONS
The Team N.W.B Story
by
Greg Turnage
SMASHWORDS EDITION
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PUBLISHED BY:
Greg Turnage on Smashwords
THE RISE OF CHAMPIONS
Copyright © 2010 by Greg Turnage
All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, brands, media, and incidents are either the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. The author acknowledges the trademarked status and trademark owners of various products referenced in this work of fiction, which have been used without permission. The publication/use of these trademarks is not authorized, associated with, or sponsored by the trademark owners.
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The Rise of Champions
The Team N.W.B story
Introduction
Team N.W.B. was the creation of Greg Turnage, Jojo Pagulayan, and Randall Rowland. Each of us was from different backgrounds. I was from Northern California; Jojo was from the Philippines and Randall from Southern California, but now we were all from the Portland, Oregon metro area. This is the story of how team work and a common goal bring three strangers together to achieve what many thought to be an impossible goal. Take three cars from the Northwest and compete against the top tuner cars in the West Coast region.
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Chapter 1 The Introduction
Chapter 2 Let the Tour Begin
Chapter 3 The First Road Trip
Chapter 4 Show Tour Stop # 3
Chapter 5 Let the Point Chase begin
Chapter 6 Rock Star status
Chapter 7 Pleasanton here we come
Chapter 8 In the end we all win
Chapter 9 Thank You
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The Rise of Champions
The Team N.W.B story
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Chapter 1
The Introduction
This story began in March of 2007 when I decided to enter my 2005 Chrysler PT Cruiser convertible in the Portland Rod and Custom Show at the Portland Expo Center. Little did I know this show would lead to me meeting my future teammates and reach a new level of friendships within the automotive industry. The first of these meeting happened when I pulled my car into the exhibit hall where I would be showing my car. It was raining that day so I had a lot of cleaning to do. A lot of the cars came in on trailers and that’s how I first meet Jojo. He had a friend who was showing a car at the show and trailered Jojo’s car to the show and then returned home to get his own car.
Jojo, who owned a bright golden yellow Supra had just came from a successful trip in Las Vegas showing his car at the Consumer Electronics Show. He was parked right across from me. He was wiping his car down, introduced himself and said that he happened to know the kid that was parked in front of me. His name was Jamarri Whiteside with a blue lowered Honda Prelude and introduced me to him.
As I was finally getting closer to having my car all set up, a black Mazda RX-8 pulled in the spot next to me. It was owned by Randall Rowland who was an autocross racer but decided to show his RX-8 after getting the car show bug. Once my car was competed I started looking for a ride home but most of the people I knew lived on the other side of town or had already left, so I started checking show cards to see if someone lived near me. It turned out Randall lived five minutes from my house and gave me a ride home.
The Portland Roadster Show is a three day event which starts on Friday and ends on Sunday. On Sunday I introduced Randall to Jojo and Jamarri and we all decided to sit together for the awards ceremony. We all did well at the event and agreed to meet up at some of the upcoming shows.
Randall being new to the whole car show scene asked if I would help him out on what car show judges are looking for. I told him if I heard of any shows going on I would let him know, and he could join me at some of them. I would not see Randall again till August of 2007.
I saw Jojo at a show at the Portland International Raceway in July. I had done a few upgrades to my car since the last time we meet and Jojo came over to say “Hi” and look the car over. The most noticeable upgrade was the fully digital air ride suspension set-up I installed. I took an award with it for Best Ice (in Car Entertainment) and Jojo won Best of Show.
The next time we would all cross paths was at the Lowrider Magazine 2007 Show Tour Show at the Portland Expo Center once again we all got together for the awards ceremony. We all had taken first in our classes and Jojo got invited to SEMA by Car Audio Magazine to compete in the Car Audio competition.
For the rest of the summer I and Randall would attend a handful of car shows together with Jojo appearing at one of them in late September which all three of us each won an award. It was around this time that I started telling Randall that I was going to start traveling to shows out of state where the competition would be a little stronger with California being my first stop. Randall said if I went to California he would go too. Like a lot of people in Oregon I was from Northern California and Randall was from Southern California so the thought of returning home sounded good to him, as both our families still lived there.
In November Jojo made his trip to Las Vegas, Nevada to the SEMA Show. When he returned he gave me a call to see if I was home and wanted to meet up. The meeting was to tell he was retiring from the whole car show scene and he was going to drive and drag race his car. After doing SEMA he had pretty much accomplished everything he had set out to do with the car, and that’s when I told him about my idea about traveling to California to do a car show. He was surprised at first but then his competitive sprit kicked in and wanted to know more about my plan. That’s when I told him that Randall was on board with the idea to go California and I would like him to join us. Because Jojo had a music band he had to make sure the schedules would not cross. So at that moment he asked what would we call ourselves and without even thinking I said N.W.B. He asked what it meant and me being a smart ass I said Nasty, Wicked and Bad Ass. Then when I said Northwest Best, Jojo said he liked it. I told Jojo I would draw up a mission statement, team rules, qualifications and a show schedule.
Later that night I called Randall and filled him in on the idea and that Jojo would be joining us for the trip. This was not my first time putting something like N.W.B. together. Back during the mini truck craze in the late eighties and early nineties, I and an old friend Tim Sherfy put together a club called Nu Choice Mini’s out of the Sacramento, California area. Then I moved to Medford, Oregon and started a chapter of the club there. I modeled it after the car clubs I looked up to, most importantly Lifestyle Car Club, a lowrider club out of Southern California which to me was the best of the best. It wasn’t that they even had the best cars. For me it was their quality over quantity attitude that impressed me the most.
With Nu Choice we had three trucks for almost two years. By the time we took our show on the road to one of the biggest events at the time the Bon Tons event in Bakersfield, California the first year we had 8 trucks and took 6 awards. The next year we had 15 trucks, took 22 awards including Best of Show, Best Interior and Best Undercarriage. Every truck at the show got a photo shoot to be featured in one of many custom truck magazines.
Now almost 12 years later I decided to do it again, but this time with a lot more knowledge and a much more mature group of builders. First on the list was putting together a show schedule. To me this is the number one down fall of most car clubs; it’s just of bunch of people getting together with no goal in sight. With everything in place I figured what better place to debut the team, than where we all first met at, the Portland Rod and Custom Show at the Portland Expo Center. I named our schedule the N.W.B. 2008 Show Tour. I added Hot Import Nights in San Mateo, California as our second show stop followed by a show called Showdown in the West which was in Vancouver, Washington. As our fourth stop was Hot Import Nights in Seattle, Washington, then to Idaho for a show called Excelerator with our final stop in Pleasanton, California for Nightshift. The events were spread out over a period of 8 months, and to let all the promoters know we were coming to their event, I had post cards and t-shirts made with our schedule on it. The post cards had a picture of all three cars together so they would know what the vehicles looked like. Later this would prove to be a very smart move because when we arrived at each new venue it was like the promoters knew us even though it was the first time we ever meet.
Next was making sure the cars were ready for the competition we would encounter along the way. Jojo’s car was a full custom redone form the ground up with every part of the car modified and a lot of one off custom parts. His car was the most compete from the start. My car was a fish out of water when it came to the import show portion of our schedule. I built it more centered on lowrider and custom car shows but felt it could hold its own minus the performance side of the judging sheet. Randall on the other hand, had a good foundation as his car was probably more suited for Hot Import Nights than any of us. I suggested that he remove the vinyl graphics for custom painted graphics, and introduced him to Eddie of Bent Metal customs, which later would become our team painter of choice and was responsible for most of the paint job on my car.
With the cars getting any last minute things competed done for the first show, the only thing left on the list was having the website up and running. This is where our sponsors and friends could track our results at each event, and I also was going to keep a diary on the website to follow every step on the tour.
Start of something great
Chapter 2
Let the Tour Begin
It was one month before our first show. Randall’s car was at Eddie’s getting the new graphics added. Jojo even decided to do a little detail work in the engine compartment. I was working with my upholstery guy out of Florida, Mr. Mikes; he’s known for doing custom leather interior kits for PT cruisers and had an excellent reputation for fit and finish.
All three cars were pre-registered for our first show and we needed to get a display together to show case the cars. We decided to go with gray carpet for the floor and each car used two stanchions that went with the theme of each car. I had sent show promoter Jason Wilson a postcard of our team, and e-mailed him to see if we could have our display in a triangle and instead of the traditional side by side, He told me we could have as much space as needed but to come as early as possible.
February 15th thru the 18th was the show dates for the Portland Rod and Custom Show. On January 27th Randall took delivery of his car from Eddie with the exception of the front bumper and rear wing. Eddie was doing some extra paint work on them. For anyone that has ever competed in car show, the two weeks prior to the show is the most nerve wrecking time of all and for us it would be no different. It started with the company that was making custom parts for Jojo’s car. They were having issues, but Jojo’s car was together so it was not going to cause him much trouble. On February 1st Mr. Mikes called to say my interior would ship on that upcoming Friday which would give me a week to install it. Well on February 12th only the front seats showed up so the new interior would have to wait. Jojo’s parts never got made and Randall’s car was still on jack stands, but was all back together. One bright spot was that our team logos, t-shirts and business cards were done.
February 14th was move in day for the show. We loaded Randall’s Chevy Tahoe with our club display the night before. This way I could take our display over to the Portland Expo Center early and get our spot for the show all set up. I and Randall meet at his house later that evening to drive our cars over to the Expo Center where we would meet up with Jojo and set up the cars. This being a three day show meant that each day before the start of the show, one of us would drive over to the Expo to turn on the power to our display and dust off the cars. We did not just have a regular looking display; I made a DVD for each car that highlighted the modifications to theme music that fit the car. Next we had a 20 inch LCD television that played a DVD that highlighted of all three cars features with footage of the cars driving though the streets of Portland, Oregon.
With the cars all ready to go we picked up our paperwork for the show to see how we were classified. I was put in semi-custom cabriolet/convertible; Jojo and Randall were in semi-custom street machine. It was weird because last year Randall was classified in semi-custom sport compact but for whatever reason this year he was put in a different class.
At 12:00 pm Friday afternoon the doors on the Expo Center opened to the public and it would be the first time everyone would see team N.W.B. It was our first show and so far the responses from the crowds were great. This is the type of show my car was built for, hot rod/custom car shows. On Saturday in the next room was a show called Import Motion which was where most of the other tuner cars were on display. This would be the day that most of our friends would be in attendance and see us as a group for the first time. For some it was the first time they heard about our show tour that we planned on doing this year.
On Sunday the show ended at the 6:00pm followed by the awards ceremony. I won my class, with Jojo taking first and Randall third in their class. For our first show it went real well. The cars looked good, the display was unique and most of all, one show competed before the real test, Hot Import Nights in San Mateo, California.
2008 Portland Rod and Custom Show debut of Team N.W.B
Chapter 3
The First Road Trip
Now the real test was about to begin. Not only would Hot Import Nights be our first road trip but it would also be our first NCCA sanctioned event. When I was putting together our show schedule I had talked to the guys about competing in the National Custom Car Association points chase. This would be the first of 4 shows that we could get points at so the pressure was on.
My back seats still were not done and Jojo gave up on the guys that were supposed to build the parts for him. Randall on the other had ordered 9 inch monitors for the side rear door windows and a second DVD player and amp. There was a little work to be done to his car, so I helped him get his car back together and started working on the logistics of the trip.
For me this is where I asked for a lot of help from my family, starting with my sister and father in-law. Randall was the only one on the team that owned his own truck and trailer. Jojo at least owned a truck. He and Randall both had Chevy Tahoe’s and I had a two-door Chevy S-10 Blazer that was great for hauling Jet Ski’s but worth nothing for hauling a car. So I asked my father-in-law Jess Hanon, if I could borrow his full- size crew cab Chevy pickup. With no hesitation he said no problem. It sounds simple but my father-in-law lived 5 hours away heading towards California. That meant he would have to drive to Beaverton where I lived. Then I would drop him off on the way down and pick him up on the way back, and he would drive back home. Next was a trailer, I rented one from U-Haul and I was ready to go.
Jojo did not own a trailer, but had an arrangement with RRev motorsports to use their trailer when needed so he was in good shape trailer wise. Next was where we would stay. My family lives in the Bay Area. This is where I was born and raised. So I ask my sister Nola if she would mind us camping out at her house. I know she’s is very busy and always has something going on but she said ok and ask that I call her when we were close to arriving to her house.