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Hey guys,

   What a weekend! That is an understatement. This weekend February 9-10 was our Nor-Cal Honda Challenge season opener. The weekend started off very well. We headed to the track Friday afternoon to miss the traffic and to get pitted with all the other Honda Challenge cars. Everything went according to plan and we were able to do some final testing of the car at the track with some brake bleeding etc. Now it was time to head to the hotel and rest up for the beginning of the season tomorrow.
   Saturday was upon us. We arrived at the track bright and early before the sun came up. I still had to set up my in car camera, detail the car, and do one more quick brake bleed of the car. You could feel the excitement racing through everyone in anticipation of a new season. Our morning practice was to go out at 8am. I was a bit nervous about our brakes. In the off season we completely changed our brake package to a bigger one. I had nothing to worry about at all. The brakes had a bit of a soft pedal but they worked well when I needed them. The biggest test in this session was of our new aero package for 2008. Last year we only had the stock air dam and spoon spoiler. This year we installed a Raynal Racing front splitter/spoiler with a rear wing. Usually a morning session feels very slick and dangerous. Not with our new set up. The car felt glued to the ground. It was awesome! We only got about 3 and a half laps before one of my oil catch can lines fell off. It was no big deal. Just a smoky in car moment and some oil in the engine bay. However, in those few laps I was fourth fastest out of 13 Honda Challenge cars. I had also set my own personal best time at Infineon Raceway and I was maybe driving the car at 85%.
   Things were going very well. We attached the oil hose again and cleaned up the engine bay. We were now ready for the qualifying session at 10:30am. Qualifying was a mess. One of the infamous legend cars managed to spin in turn 4 on the warm up lap. The car was stuck and required a tow off the track. This killed the first 2 laps of qualifying and bunched everyone up. To make a long story short, we never got any clear laps and qualified 4th. Keep in mind that our car is the most underpowered of all the H1 cars. Oh well, let us see how the race goes.
    The race was upon us. On the pre grid we were informed that it would be a rolling start. This was new to me. Last year we only did standing starts. This worried me a bit due to our lack of power. It all turned out well and I kept my position for the whole race. Well almost the whole race. On the white flag lap I was black flagged! Oh no, what for I thought to myself. I did not miss any yellow flags. The bastards black flagged me for being too loud. What a joke! They wait until the last lap to bring me in. I was only 1 decibel over the limit. Can you believe that? I was enraged to say the least. This placed me in 6th after the race. I was in fourth but then was robbed. Hopefully Sunday goes better.
    In the evening on Saturday night I drove home to get a street exhaust to put on the car to pass sound. This exhaust was unfortunately real restrictive. It was resonated and muffled. That was not the problem. It had a bottle neck in it that went down to 2 inches in diameter. This made the car run rich and robbed about 5 horsepower. Oh well, at least we knew it would pass sound. The practice was at 8am again. All went according to plan. I diced it out with some of my competitors and was confident in how the car performed against much higher power Honda Challenge cars. Qualifying was at 9:30am. As soon as I got out of my suit it seemed that I had to get back in it for the qualifying session. I sure am glad there were no issues with the car. We would have had no time to fix it. However, this car has been incredibly reliable its whole race life. Good old stock Honda motors.
   The qualifying session went great! There were no legend cars stuck off track wasting our time and I was able to put down some fast laps. Once again the car was perfect. As the qualifying times were posted I was expecting to once again to be 4th fastest. To my surprise, I was 3rd with a time of 1:52:7. That is a full second and a half faster than my previous best I did on Saturday. I out qualified cars that have over 40 horsepower and 40 torque on me. I was stoked. The race was going to be interesting.
   Race time! This time we were told that we were doing a standing start. Cool, this would work to my favor. On the start I got up to 2nd place. However, I was out dragged to the next corner by the 2 cars with more power. I kept this position for the whole race while keeping the leaders in shouting distance. All was well until the last lap on turn 7. I was given a point by from one of those infamous legend cars. I passed him on the outside going into turn 7. As I reached the apex of the corner the legend car tried to out break me into the corner and locked up his breaks and t-boned my beautiful car on the white flag lap. Not all was bad. I was able to collect the car and kept my 4th place position. However, 2 thousand dollars worth of damage was done to the car. The car is down at the body shop at this moment getting the passenger side quarter panel and door replaced. Oh well, I guess that is racing. If I was not black flagged on Saturday I would be in 3rd place in points. Instead, I am in 4th. No big deal. It will do for now while I have the little motor. There are much bigger things to come. Trust me. Then we will be having some fun.
   Well that is all for round one of the Honda Challenge season. Next up is thunderhill on March 8-9. Hopefully, we can stay away from the final lap bad luck this time. Talk to you later and thanks for all of your help and support.

Sincerely.
Devin Raynal

Raynal Racing civic si #6

Erick Aguilar. Worlds quickest 2003 NDRA champion all motor 4 cylinder Honda.

Car weight 1585lbs, VP C14+ race gas. (NO METHENOL!!!) Record set 6/27/03

9.99 at 131.18mph

*****Erick relies on ALANIZ for his cylinder head work.*****

Congratulation to Andy Hope. West Coast H1 Honda Challenge champion for 2003. Tom Liang 3rd in point for H1.

Road Race engines need reliable head work. Andy and Tom use ALANIZ.

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