September 27, 2009 - Irwindale, CA - 2009 has been a very interesting year as it has been a remarkable and definitely an unforgettable one. This year, we made history for Club Lexus and the Lexus enthusiast community. I am proud to say we made it happen with "The Pursuit". This is the first ever Lexus enthusiast meet on record that reached 400 Lexus vehicles and 600+ guests in one given spot in the world.

Why “The Pursuit” you may ask? It is simple. Our pursuit was to gather all Lexus owners and enthusiasts to meet in one central location and free of charge. For several months, we researched locations to put this together, but ultimately we chose Toyota Speedway for many reasons. For starters, the venue name made sense. What would be better than to hold a Lexus meet at a “Toyota” facility? Sure it would be better if it was “Lexus Speedway” but it worked! It was easy to find, had plenty of parking, had a drag strip and is very close to Longo Lexus in El Monte, CA.

Because of Longo Lexus' generosity, they were committed to making the enthusiast experience, a great one. They treated all "The Pursuit" guests with made-to-order In-N-Out Hamburgers by employing the In-N-Out cookout trailer on the spot at Toyota Speedway. To help enhance the meet experience all owners had a choice of running their Lexus down the 1/8 mile dragstrip or park their Lexus alongside their respective model lines. Longo also allowed participation of well known Lexus community vendors and sponsors to display their goodies and project cars. Longo Lexus is the #1 Lexus dealer in the USA. Their slogan is “Why go anywhere else?” and for good reason. This event was FREE to all guests, vendors and sponsors alike.

First off I would like to thank all the members and participants that came out from all over to make this meet a success, especially those who had to drive from NorCal and other states. Without your commitment and passion for this community, “The Pursuit” would have never been what it is today. This is the kind of participation and camraderie that has kept my passion for the Lexus community alive throughout all these years. It's all about the experiences we share going to and from and during any gathering. We are all fortunate to share these same experiences with great group of people and the cars we love.

Many thanks “The Pursuit” core team which consists of JamesN, JavyLSU and myself. I’ve organized many meets over the years and I have to say, I had full confidence in all the actions we made. There was no second guessing. We had a goal in mind and we exceeded our own expectations with flying colors. There were a few hurdles we had to overcome at the beginning, but we were able to resolve them right away. Putting on any kind of organized gathering takes a lot of time, patience and energy. I am happy to say we did it!

Hats off to all “The Pursuit” volunteers. You are all an enthusiastic and passionate group. Every single person on our team donated time out of their busy lives to help make “The Pursuit” happen. You crossed the T’s and dotted the I’s for everyone and made the meet go effortlessly. I cannot thank you all enough.

On behalf of the Lexus enthusiast community, I would like to send my greatest appreciation to Longo Lexus and their full endorsement of “The Pursuit” meet. This event would have never been possible without their generosity and their enthusiasm for the Lexus community.

I would like to give special thanks to the VP and General Manager of Longo Lexus, Mr. Chris McCarty and the President of Longo Lexus, Mr. Tom Rudnai for their full endorsement of this meet and their confidence in JamesN creating the foundation for “The Pursuit” meet.

Thank you to Lexus USA for supporting the Lexus enthusiast community and our cause.

A big thank you goes out to all the sponsors for their raffle donations and participation in making our event a huge success. We hope to see you all next year!

The Pursuit. Mission Accomplished.

 

“The Pursuit” – FACTS

• 400 Lexus Vehicles (Official Count)
  • 95% of Lexus Vehicles from Southern California
    
  • 4% from Northern California
    
  • 1% outside of California
  
  
• 600+ People in attendance.
  • 100 registered in 24 hours.
    
  • 570 registration spots filled in less than 30 days.
  
  
• $11,000+ in Raffle Prizes all donated by sponsors.
  
  
• Longo Lexus contribution:
  • Toyota Speedway - (1/8 Mile Track/Staff & Safety Crew, Lot Parking)
  • $10,000,000.00 Event Liability Insurance
  • In-N-Out Hamburger Cookout Trailer
  
  
• Sponsor/vendor Fees - $0
  
  
• Admission - $0

 

Additional photos of the convoys, meet and track runs can be found on all pages of this thread.

Photo Galleries:

kokonutjc/Photoshootmycar.com Coverage

xknowonex's Gallery


Go with SOLO - Blog

******'s Photo Blog

5Zigen-USA Blog



Video:





If you have a gallery you would like to link up, please shoot JavyLSU or myself a PM. Enjoy!


Photo by: kokonutjc



Photo by: youradhere


Photo by: xknowonex


Photo by: ******

 

phone died last night and didnt wake me up this morning, got there around 1ish and couldnt race :'(

good food though, and nice seein everyone out in force.

MAJOR props to the sponsors and the event staff, you guys pulled it off nice and clean

 

Definitely... big up's to everyone that got this together! =)

 

Man I had a great time I think I got in around 15 runs I may not have won anything in the raffles BUT I did win first place for the fastest 1/8th mile drag of the day by 2/100ths of a second good stuff James... it was the most fun I have had in a long time It was great to see everyone
The beast

The prize and bragging rights

and last but not least to the very bitter guy in the silver ISF this one is just for you....
all I can say is

 

Nice! I like seeing all cars roar and show their muscles. What's your time?

 

great event! better yet, glad to see that lexus members represent well. CHP wasnt hounding from what ive heard (or not heard), and overall this was a very successful event. great vendors and great members make a great event. lets hope this becomes an annual thing. too bad it was so unbearably hot at times, but not much you can do about that here in sunny so cal!

 

event was great! can't wait to install the springs that I won in the raffle BTW, did anyone see that Mazda RX8 that was drifting and doing donuts in the parking lot and ran away from security? Wow, just wow.

 

I went 8.436 which is actually a terrible time for me considering last time I was at irwindale I went 7.960 it was too hot I could NOT hook up to save my life but I still handled business

 

yeah it was strange there are usually police there I disagree with an idiot like that trying to burn out the event (no pun intended)

 

Yeah. Saw that...what a stupid idiot trying to ruin our event. But overall it was great and I didn't see any cops around either. A big thank you to the organizers for such a great event!

 

Rofl for still rockin the plate, Dude u did it cant say im suprised though "SHAKe N BAKE"

 

Great event...had lots of fun. Thanks!

Where were you, it's been a bit and I was hoping to catch-up...missed you and Henry. Probably others too...

That parking lot is HUGE...us LS guys got placed waayy in the north 40...was about to wave down a cart for a ride in. Lots of potential for future meets.

 

dang it took me about 8 tries trying to beat the 9 second mark.... hahaha I got it down to 8.990 seconds

stuff in car: my signature+ all seats in there + another f-sport spare wheel, textbooks, and my longboard

i believe 8.990 is good for a is350?