Who was Shoreline Racing?

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Shoreline Racing was started by a group of guys who lived in Westside Long Beach, CA. Starting during the late 1970's with roughly ten members, Shoreline grew and captured members from surrounding cities such as Gardena, Lakewood, Torrance, and the Orange County area. The club's main purpose was just a bunch of neighborhood kids having a good time, hanging out, wasting money, and racing their cars. 

Generation 1:

Shoreline was started by a group of guys who lived in Westside Long Beach, CA. Being neighborhood buddies, most of the clubs members attended Long Beach Polytechnic High School, Cal State Long Beach, and Long Beach City College. Starting with roughly ten members, Shoreline grew and captured members from surrounding cities such as Gardena, Lakewood, and Torrance. The club's main purpose was just a bunch of neighborhood kids having a good time, hanging out and racing their cars.

Diversity was a given in the early years of Shoreline. Not only were the cars from different countries - US, Japan, Europe, and Germany but also the club members themselves. Westside Long Beach was and still is an ethnically diverse city and Shoreline shared these same traits. Members were from a wide range of ethnic groups which truly separated Shoreline from many of the other car clubs of its time.

Some of the cars in Shoreline were: Capri and Capri II's, Datsun 510's, Ford Pinto's, Toyota Celica's, Chevrolet Chevelle's, Porsche 914's, VW Scirocco's and Bug's, and Mazda RX2's, 3's, and 4's.

Generation 1 Members:

Matt Barden, Jesse Beato, Ken Bone, Chris Ching, Greg Christopherson, Brian Karasawa,

Mike Kuriyama, John Kuroyama, Robert Endo, Glenn Fujita, Paul Hamashita, Greg "Frogger" Meza, June Miyamoto-Donovan, Bill Murakami, Randy Nakagawa, Sid Nakagawa, Dave Nishimoto, Roy Poblete, Ron Shimizu, Eddie Takemoto, Gary Takemoto, Glenn Takemoto, Nick Tandoc, Doug Tani, Rich Toyama, Dave Wilson, Joe Wright, Kirk Wong, Steve Yonemura, Nathan ???...

Honorable Mentions:

Glenn Kaminaka, Todd Kaneko, Dave Matoi, Kevin Matoi, Danny Nakagi, Brian Tanamachi 

Generation 2:

Although still based in Westside Long Beach, Shoreline began to capture more members from the OC(Orange County) area. Along with this began a shift of automobiles and ethnicity. The majority of the cars were now Japanese and mainly Toyota and Nissan. The same shift was present in the club membership - mostly Japanese. Although never the intent, I look back now and find this a bit unfortunate because the club lost some of its diversity.

Generation 2 Members:

John Choi, Ross Ito, Brian Karasawa, Floyd Kika, Bill Murakami, Michele Shima-Hanano, Eric "Lazy Dog" Ono, Mauro Quibin, Brian Shimizu, Kenny Sugihara, Gary Suzuki, Ken Takenaka, Mark Tanaka, Wes Tanaka, Dean Takenishi, Dave Tominaga, Staci Wong-Bernard

Honorable Mentions:

Tammi Fujitani, Sheri Sugihara

Generation 3

The last generation of Shoreliners were mainly from OC(Orange County). Just like the original Shoreliners, just a bunch of guys hanging out at the street races. We mainly had Hondas except for a few who had Celicas, Corollas, and a RX3. We were into racing a lot more than Generation Two. That is when the present boom of street racing started - in the early to mid nineties. That's also when all the Hondas and Acuras started coming to the races. We started out just testing our cars on Maria Street but then we ended up runnin'(racing) a couple of people on Maria Street and then it turned into the import car hot spot. It was the Mansville Street for the imports. Our cars were mostly stock motors with nitrous on them. Once I burned an exhaust valve I rebuilt the motor with duals and the whole engine was reworked. I guess you can call my CRX the first Honda in the thirteens. It ran a 13.96 at 102.3 mph. I beat the all mighty Junior Asper from Redline. That is when he decided to turbo his car and it all began from there. Info contributed by G3 Shoreliner, Dean Hanano.

It's funny, when you talk to other G3 Shoreliners, Dean's car doesn't seem to be as fast as depicted above. Well, who am I to judge. I just post this stuff to the web. Others can verify it.

Generation 3 Members:

Grant Butsumyo, Roger Fujimoto, Dean Hanano, Richard Hitomi, Ross Ito, Eric "Lazy Dog" Ono, Bobby Nishida, Brian Shimizu, Kenny Sugihara, Ken Takenaka, Troy Tanaka, Wes Tanaka, Tats Toyoda

Honorable Mentions:

Brian Karasawa, Akio Machii, Michele Shima-Hanano 

Today:

Well, today there is no longer is club called Shoreline Racing but many of it's members still act like their still in high school or college. Still continuing to waste money on their cars and needlessly burning precious fossil fuels. Giving more attention to their cars than their spouses and children; spending Jr.'s college money on expensive aluminum, sticky rubber, and forced induction.