In 1999, Honda’s were the most popular cars in the aftermarket scene. They were cheap, sporty, had great gas mileage, and offered great quality for the money. At the time I was a poor college student not being able to afford much, driving around a Jeep Wrangler (of all things). I wanted a new car that got better gas mileage than the jeep and could serve as a weekend track warrior. HPDE’s (driving school) were a new thing to me at the time and I wanted to get involved as soon as possible.

Acura had released its last version of the Integra Type-R and I really wanted one bad. Unfortunately it was too expensive for me to afford so I had to find something close enough, the Civic Si. The SI out of the box was a great package. 160hp motor, with a 8k redline, shorter gear ratios then the Integra GSR, no abs, and a great chassis. It was also easy on the wallet thanks to dealer incentives/rebates. In no time at all, I purchased it and started to put some money away for future mods and track events.

After a few months of scraping all my pennies together I decided to attend my very first track event with NASA. I signed up two weeks prior and it was the longest two weeks of my life. This was a two day event and I was looking forward to every minute of it.

Day 1
There’s nothing like your first time on track. Many experienced track whores probably don’t remember the overwhelming feeling of the classroom speeches and making sure you do everything not to crash your car. My first day was just that, overwhelming. None the less, I had my car gassed up and the lug nuts torqued ready to go on track. My first instructor was an active spec miata racer and really knew a ton about the track. I learned about the different lines, braking points, shift points, and turn in points. Towards my last session, I was bringing my lap times down by being consistent and trying to reduce the amount of mistakes I was making. At the end of the day I was totally exhausted and could barely stay awake!

Day 2
This was a unique day for weather. The track was wet and there was a consistent amount of rain that was falling to make sure nothing was going to dry up. I was completely nervous. My instructor gave me a quick pep talk and encouraged me to take it slow the first few laps and try practicing new lines in the rain. During the first session, I had to play more with the throttle to get the car where I wanted it. Since the Si was a FWD car, I had more of a safety margin in case I decided to get too carried away. Throughout the day there were many accidents and because of it, lost track time. At the last session of the day, I took it easy and decided to keep practicing everything I learned over the weekend.

Conclusion
Throughout the weekend, I kept hearing the common phrase that most people have heard before, “once you get bitten by the track bug, it’s over”. Unfortunately I was bitten and ever since then my life hasn’t been the same, nor has my wallet…

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