As the 2011 racing season is coming up fast, I wanted to take a quick second to reflect back the 2010 season with the Project SI.   2010 was a fun packed year of racing, shows, and new opportunities for me and Project SI to go through.   Last year I set a goal for myself to compete in a full season with the Snake River SCCA in Boise and be competitive in my class, not only did I run a full year but within a few events I had a target on my back as the guy to beat.   Last year being my first year I jumped into a “catch all” type of class that only had two rules; the cars must be on street tires (140 tread) and street legal.   The top tier of the class was full of AWD powerhouses, from a 400+whp Mitsubishi Evolution X to a nicely equipped Subaru Legacy. Being able to take the Honda Civic SI and become very competitive in this class was a great experience and helped me to gain a lot in driving experience. Being a very competitive person I wanted to sweep the class however; in the end I finished strong in 2nd place.  Although I may not have gotten first place, to bring a FWD Honda Civic to a catch all class and run up against Evolutions and STIs was a great accomplishment.

The success I had last year would not have been possible without the help from the Project SI sponsors we had in the 2010 season.  Skunk2, who was on board in 2009 by sending their Pro-C coilovers, was kind enough to help me dial in the suspension and camber settings by sending me a set of their Skunk2 Gold Rear Camber Kit (Gen2).   This new style of camber kit allowed me to adjust the rear camber settings with a turn of a few nuts, which made for quick adjustments.  In 2010 the Project SI was finally able to add some more power with the addition of Go-Power Motorsports.   Go-Power Motorsports gave the Project SI a new sound and toughness on the courses with the addition of their 4-2-1 Header and 3” exhaust.   With these additions the SI jumped up to around 190whp, but saw an increase of almost 15whp in the mid-range.   The sound of the exhaust gave the Project SI a whole new tone and attitude for the 2010 racing season, fellow racers were excited to finally see the SI get some power under its belt.

With the suspension dialed in and more power to the wheels the Project SI saw one more major change in the 2010 season, a brand new look.  This new look took the help from three new sponsors to the Project SI, starting at the wheels.   In the years prior the Project SI was rocking white Konig Counterstreer rims, DJ at Moda Metals helped changed that to a killer color combination of a 5% gloss black rim with a bright green lip.   This color combo was a head turner, people either really liked it or the hated it, but it was something new and fresh to see on the track.  To help bring the new rims together with the car Cricket Communications signed on as the title sponsor for the car, which brought with it a new design.  Around May in 2010 we held a vote with our members here at NWMotiv to see which wrap design they liked the most.   After a 3 week voting process the final design was chosen by the fans from around the world and Tex, from Graphics by Tex, pulled an all-nighter the night before the Formula Drift event in Seattle to install the wrap design.

For the 2011 racing season I will be moving the Project SI into a new class, the SCCA national SMF class.  With this class I will no longer have to battle against Evolutions or STI’s but cars such as the Dodge SRT4, Mazda Speed3, Volkswagen, and other Honda/Acura cars.   With this class jump the SI took on a change in the setup for the season. No longer being held to a 140 tread wear tire rule I picked up a set of Kuhmo 245/40/17 V-710 R-Comps.  Along with new rubber came a new set of rims to help hold the tire, for this a set of XXR 009’s (17×9 +35), which will give the Project SI a new look for race day.    This year the Project SI has an autocross schedule of 24 events, but on top of that I have new goal for the car.  Last year I took a step away from the drag track, this year I want to bring that step back, so along with a full year in the SCCA SMF Class I will be running the SI at Firebird Raceway in their Sport Compact class.   The ultimate goal would be to trophy in both events, but we will see how the season turns out.  Along with the full schedule of racing I plan on taking the car to various car shows and events throughout the NW this year and the annual Eibach meet held in Southern California.  As with last year I will keep updating this blog to let you know the results from racing events and any new modification we are adding to the SI.  Going to be a great and busy 2011 season, first event is in 26 days, it can’t start soon enough!!!