The 2012 race season is almost upon us and no one knows that better than local import drag racers SpeedFactory Racing as they prep their two headlining, competition winning Honda Civics for battle. May isn’t just an introduction to spring and seamlessly never ending rain but also when most drag strips are prepped and ready for split second decisions.

Photos and Story by Mackey

If you know anything about import drag racing, then you know of SpeedFactory, but more importantly their Outlaw Turbo Civic which has been totally redone for this year. Last year the Outlaw Turbo Civic was piloted by Kevin Kempf, this year his brother James will step into that role moving away from the all too familiar SOHC monster he drove before. The boys were literally packing the truck and trailer for their first big race in Las Vegas at Import Faceoff, we snapped a few pictures and asked a few questions before they hit the road.

NWM- What are you most excited for this year?

James Kempf - All of it! The new setup with the car, the fantastic companies we are working with that have come on board and sponsored our team, our amazing crew & friends, everything. We have been hard at work upgrading the car, tow rig, and trailer for this season and it’s going to be another fantastic year of racing. And I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t super excited to be piloting the car this year as well. We work hard to put on a good show and represent our sponsors in a positive and professional manner and are ready to kick the season off!

I have to give a huge thank you to Competition Clutch for coming on as the title sponsor this year. Golden Eagle Manufacturing, Arias Pistons, Albins Gears, and Bill Miller Engineering are also with us again this year. Avid Racing, Bogart Wheels, Ferrea Racing Components, ESA Designs, South Tacoma Honda, and Honda-Tech.com have all come on as new sponsors for us this year as well. We couldn’t do this without their continuing support.

NWM – What’s different about the car this year than last year?

JK - The chassis has been updated to an SFI 25.5 cert for safety reasons and to be legal in the future as we progress with the car. We’ve also switched to an air-to-water intercooler and Ignite racing fuel. The biggest change though is the switch to a Motec M800 standalone this year. We expect to gain reliability and consistency this year with the new EMS, and also push deep into the low 8′s.

NWM – When is your first race? When is your first home track race?

JK - The Import Face Off race in Las Vegas this weekend is our first race of this season. June 3rd is our first home track race at Pacific Raceways here in Kent, WA.

NWM – What race are you most anticipating this year? Any big rivalries we can expect this year?

JK - I’d have to say that the World Cup Finals in Maryland is what I’m looking forward to the most. That race is hands down the best race of the year, at the best run track in the country.  As far as rivalries, we have a little local NW rivalry going on with the boys over at Kaizenspeed with their H22 powered Outlaw car. We’ve both been running in the high 8′s most of last year with a best ET of 8.72 for both cars. They usually short track quicker than us and we usually out power them on the top end with a higher trapspeed. Well, they went out for a Test & Tune session about a month ago and posted a smoking 8.53 pass. As you can imagine, that gives us a lot of motivation to beat that time. So you can expect a lot of great racing this year between the two of us as we battle it out!

Goodluck to SpeedFactory as they travel to Vegas! Bring us back a win!

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