You think you're fast. You think you can smoke Mustangs, Vipers, and GSX-R600s in any gear. Hitting the drag strip for competition only results in slow duds that are just a waste of gas. Wait, you KNOW you're fast. Aside from the strip, where could you find competition? Nobody wants to get into a street race with his or her pristine baby and end up wrapped around a lamppost. A hidden patch of black ice, an unseen pool of oil on the street, and you're going home in a coffin. Nobody wants that. How does it sound to be tearing corners on a racetrack, door-to-door against other drivers, battling for position, pushing to the absolute limits? The ultimate test of a driver's skills is to rip off turns left and right, blasting down straights at triple-digit speeds, all while an inch away from another driver's door. For Honda drivers, a new venue for competition has arrived. Honda has become the ubiquitous hot rod brand of choice for today's enthusiasts and a race series has arrived that has tapped into this movement.
The Honda Challenge race series, presented by the National Auto Sport Association (NASA), has provided a place for the Civic, Prelude, S2000, NSX, Integra, RSX, Accord, Del Sol, and engine-swapped Honda to play. NASA has setup rules and specifications for all models and luxury trims so vehicles stay competitive. All eligible Honda vehicles are placed into classes H1-H5. In H1 are the fastest vehicles (NSX, S2000, hybrid-engine vehicles such as a B18 CRX), H2 slightly slower (Integra Type-R, RSX Type-S, etc.), H3 (Integra GS-R, Civic Si, etc.), H4 (Del Sol Si, Integra 1.8L non-VTEC, etc.), and H5 (1.6L Integra, etc.). All vehicles are given mandated weights and modifications that allow each vehicle to remain competitive in class. Another plus is vehicles that race in other sanctioning bodies, such as the Sports Car Club of America (SCCA) club-racing world or Grand-Am, may also be eligible for Honda Challenge racing. There's enough racing competition here to keep drivers entertained for a very long time.
History
Some Honda racers prepared their cars for wheel-to-wheel racing and found their modifications bumped them into uncompetitive levels of competition. The Integra Type-R and S2000 were typically classed into groups where they were to take on powerful large bore American cars or Porsches. Especially difficult to classify were hybrid CRXs using VTEC motors. This brought about an idea to create a place where Hondas could find competitive racing with a unifying rule structure. Shultz became tired of Honda cars being classed unfairly as "orphan cars", and being surrounded by much more powerful machinery. Thus the idea came about to create the Honda Challenge in the Virginia region with director Shultz thinking, "BMW has its own race series, Porsche has its own, why not Honda?"
Honda Challenge was launched in 2002 by NASA's Virginia chapter and the series became an instant success. The Honda Challenge Website states that races often ran with fields of up to 37 cars per event in its first year. "The series has been this successful because so many people want to race Hondas and NASA has a great program for both new and experienced drivers," says East Coast Honda Challenge Director, Karl Shultz. "NASA recognizes the importance of this class, so we are ready to go primetime and bring the show to Honda and import enthusiasts nationwide," added NASA's National Chairman Ryan Flaherty. At the beginning of 2003, Honda Challenge was declared as a nationally recognized series and is currently featured on both the East and West coasts. Nationally recognized rules allow competitors across the nation to join the racing, as well as easily compare vehicle times and knowledge.