Vtec Club Rd.1 2021 Recap

March 7th, 2021 at Chuckwalla Valley Raceway

Words: Amir Bentatou

The 2021 Vtec Club season kicked off on March 7th at Chuckwalla valley raceway.  Drivers were eager to get back on track with Vtec Club's first competition event since the start of Covid-19.  The time away paid off for many drivers with records falling in almost every class.  The driver roster had a host of new names and builds, ready to go head to head with the Vtec Club veterans. 

Group A is the home of Vtec Club’s fastest cars and did not disappoint. Newcomer Andre Klebleyer took the win with a blisteringly quick 1:52.858, beating the record set by Kam Urquhart’s K24 powered Noble by nearly 4 seconds.

Much like Kam, Andre was behind the wheel of a mid-engined K powered car, in his 2007 K24 swapped Lotus Exige. The combination of lightweight, mid-engine, and K power has proven to be the combo to beat at Chuckwalla.

Vtec Club veteran Jose Mejia and his purposely built FK8 Type R came in second place with a 1:55.338.

Jose had been looking good in testing but an aftermarket upgraded turbo failure meant that he wasn’t able to run a representative lap and his day was cut short with only one morning session.

Closing out the podium was Jeffery Ting, also driving an FK8 Type R with a 1:59.742.

Jose wasn’t alone in having turbo issues. A few sessions later, Jeffery also suffered from an aftermarket turbo failure, minimizing his chances at a fast lap and ending his day.

We hope to see both Jose’s and Jeffery’s FK8’s back in action at Round 2.

Group A2 was dominated by S2000’s proving that they are still the platform to beat in A2. Kevin Burke took the top spot of the podium with a 1:55.382 in the Rockstar Garage S2000.

Kevin managed to set a new A2 record, beating the 1:58.850 by Randy Chen in his S2000. Kevin was also one of the few drivers that managed to set his fastest time towards the end of the day despite the heat.

Team Narita Dogfight driver Justin Yoo drove his S2000 to a 1:57.023 earning him second place on the podium.

Justin had gone faster in testing, but was working through some setup changes at Round 1. We are looking forward to a battle between Justin and Kevin once Justin gets his S2000 dialed in.

Eric Walsh ran a 1:58.104 to round out the podium. Eric is a newcomer to Vtec Club with his K24 powered S2000.  Eric’s car is built to race in POC and is undergoing significant development, making him another competitor to watch in A2. 

The record also fell in Group N, this time by Ricardo Hernandez in his S2000 with a 2:00.134. He edged out Sean Mulyanto’s previous record of a 2:00.437.

Ricardo is a regular of the Southern California “touges” so it’s fun to watch him make his transition to the track like we did well over 10 years ago.

James Snell is Vtec Club regular that we’ve seen improve over the years and is closing in on the fastest drivers in Group N.

His 2:01.523 in an S2000 landed him second place.

John Cruz finished 3rd,  representing the FF’s with a 2:02.280 in his EG known as Goldy.  John mentioned Goldy made less power on the dyno recently and the engine may be on its way out.  We’ll see if he’s able to get an FF back on the top step later this season.

Group N1 is a class that has been dominated by the B Series Golden Era cars. That made its podium one of the biggest shocks of the weekend when for the first time since its inception, there were no Golden Era cars in the top 3.

The biggest surprise in N1 was the win by Marck Tejeda with a 2:02.176. Marck’s win was the first for a 9th Gen Civic in any class and was just shy of the Group N1 record held by Duane Bada with a 2:01.494.

Tony Jackson from Race Prep Garage was representing the TSX’s with a 2:03.540 earning him second place, showing how much potential the TSX has with minimal modifications.

Edward Macedo ran a 2:04.234 in his 8th Gen Civic to finish third.  This is Edward’s first season of competition in Vtec Club and his Civic currently has a completely stock power plant, making his podium even more impressive. 

Rumor has it his Civic will soon have an engine that could help him challenge the top contenders. 

Last but not least was our class that does more with less in Group N2. N2 often has the closest battles in Vtec Club, and round 1 was no different with a podium separated by only 6 tenths of a second.

Daniel Fuentes piloted the Visual Automart B20 powered EK to the win and a new record of a 2:02.985. That beat the previous record of a 2:04.786 set by Jose Mejia.

Alex Cao in the Koyorad EG finished with a 2:03.200, less than 3 tenths off of Daniel.

Alex’s lap was impressive considering his EG is at stock weight, has a stock LS engine, and he co-drives it with his girlfriend.

Rounding out the final podium spot of Round 1, long time competitor Jason Kim from Spec32 finished in third place with a 2:03.500 in his B20 powered Integra Type R.

We’d like to thank everyone for coming out to Round 1, including the handful of K-swapped non-Honda cars mixing up the competition. For more classing information about Honda swapped cars, visit the “technical” section in the Vtec Club tab.

Vtec Club returns to Streets of Willow on May 21st for its second round of the season.  If Round 1 was any indication of what to expect for the 2021 season, we’ll see more records fall, new competitors, and close battles to keep us at the edge of our seats.