07/16/2024
Honda Fest and JDM Fest Recap: This is going to be a long one. Videos in the comments! 👇
We’ve been relatively quiet the last few years. Changes in life away from the shop lead to some time away from the races, but this year we’re back. With a vengeance.
In All Motor, the last few years have been quiet. With some bad mechanical luck and the fact that we had a comfortable lead over the competition we put development on hold and took our time with a few things. Recently, some of the competition came out of the wood works and forced us to pick up the pace.
For HF, Maxime Desrochers absolutely demolished the class in qualifying with a blistering 6.41 at ICAR, resetting his own track record in the and H2B CRX. Unfortunately 2nd gear left the chat in the semi final and he couldn’t find 3rd gear from 1st quickly enough in the final, losing the race by 0.07 seconds. Despite the loss, it was an honourable effort and a good sign of things to come.
On the Quick 16 side, we showed up, unannounced, with Pascal Forget and his Hotrod EG Hatch. After 5 years of dealing with incompetent engine builders and getting motors back from big shops in the USA with the head gasket installed upside down, we took it upon ourselves to build the engine in house and make sure all the t’s were crossed and i’s dotted. We also installed a Nexus R3 to make sure everything stayed under control.
We hadn’t even finished unpacking the trailer when we heard that people were already whining about the wheelie bars. I guess they were right because despite battling some boost control issues, we took home first place. We didn’t get a clean pass down, but we got some great data to build upon.
We took 1st and 2nd place in Time Attack Race with Marc Blais setting the pace in his EK coupe, followed by Sebastien Morales-Castro in his K24-swapped FRS.
We also clinched the top step of the podium in Time Attack Street with Samuel Cote-Lavigne in his FL5 CTR.
On to JDM Fest. Drag only for the for this event.
For All Motor, we weren’t sure if Max was going to make it after his tow vehicle died on the way to the track on Friday. Apparently some other competitors who hadn’t planned on being there decided to show up after the news broke. Easy win, right? Too bad for them, Max made it after all on Saturday morning.
After the transmission mishaps at HF, Maxime Desrochers took it nice and easy on the transmission in Q1. He laid down a leisurely 6.64 second pass, granny shifting not double clutching like he should, good enough for P1.
We sat out Q2 and got bumped from top spot. In Q3 he pushed a little harder on the throttle pedal and managed to get P1 back, all be it by only 0.066 seconds with a 6.53.
The eliminations were business as usual: the car responded exactly how we wanted and Max ended up winning with a 6.44 second pass.
The Quick 16 grid at JDMF was looking to be a bit more challenging than HF. With some 7 second ¼ mile RWD cars present, we had our work cut out for us. Taking what we learned from HF, during the test day on Friday, Pascal put down a 5.75 second pass with no track prep. Come Saturday morning, we managed a new 1/8th mile FWD track record of 5.52 @ 132 mph.
We still had some boost control issues, but the car put down several 5.5 second passes back to back and we went home with the win, track record, and more data telling us there is still a tenth or two left in the car. Next time I’ll be gunning for the overall track record.
It amazes us how many sore losers there are out there. Some wouldn’t even shake Pascal’s hand after the event. If guns are legal, it’s not our fault you showed up with a knife.
Thanks to Dark Horse Events for the great fun and awesome events and to SSPA Québec / Quebec FWD for the organisation.
TLDR: We came, we saw, we conquered. If we were racing in a class at HF or JDMF, chances are we won.
Honda Fest:
All Motor - 🥈Maxime Desrochers (New Class Track Record)
Quick 16 - 🥇Pascal Forget
Time attack:
Street: 🥇Samuel Côté-Levigne
Race - 🥇Marc Blais 🥈 Sebastien Morales Castro
JDM Fest:
All Motor - 🥇 Maxime Desrochers
Quick 16 - 🥇 Pascal Forget (New FWD Track Record)
