Hello everyone!

My name is Billy Johnson and I am new to the board. I am driving for Acura this year for team Kensai Racing (www.kensairacing.com) in an Acura TSX in the Koni Challenge series (previously named Grand Am Cup). The team will be campaigning 2 TSXs and 1 RSX.

I also am active in Time Attacks out here in Southern California and have won the last Redline Time Attack at Buttonwillow in the Modified class in a turbocharged Acura NSX.

I just wanted to say hi to the community as well as to stir up some support for the team and the series.

The TSXs:


Team Kensai 2007:

The Time Attack NSX:

 

Welcome aboard

 

Cool!

 

Welcome

Always love to see the pro-racing community get involved in our forum.

What are your impressions of the TSX as a race car?

 

Any fun parts on the cars that would be put into production for the rest of the community??

 

Welcome to the board.

 

Hey Billy Welcome to AZine.
Do you have the schedule for when you guys will be shown on SPEED?

 

I would love to see these races on TV! Please let us know.
Welcome to Acurazine.

 

Thank you guys for the warm welcome. As of now, Speed hasn't released when they will be airing the races, so far 4 of the 12 races are confirmed including the season opener on the 26th at Daytona. I'll keep you guys posted on when SPEED will be airing the events.

Compared to the Speed World Challenge Touring Cars (I drove for Tindol Motorsports in their Mazda Protege last year at Road Atlanta) the Grand Am Cup (Koni Challenge) cars are much closer to the stock car that all of you are driving. Unlike SWC, in Koni challenge we are not allowed to change pickup points, modify control arms or change the swaybar location. Also from a power standpoint, the internals on our cars are close to stock (with cams and a header allowed for the TSX) -compared to the SWC cars.

I love driving in SWC, the cars are so high tech (with many utilizing sequential transmissions) and true splitters and wings. But all the cars are so even from a handling and power standpoint. In grand am, the cars are also very close in competitiveness and laptimes but each car has bigger strenghts and weaknesses than in SWC. This makes for more exciting racing when some cars have more power than others (and can't brake very well) while others have awsome brakes and handle well but have no power. -Means for a lot of passing!

The Grand Am TSX is an awsome car, we use the stock transmission and it is the best transmission I have driven in a GAC car (and i've driven 7 DIFFERENT model cars for different teams -which is close to 3/4 of the GAC field). The TSX is so nice to drive, the transmission shifts beautifully and much better than the super light vauge feeling of the RSX (granted we have a short shifter in the TSX). The brakes are also very good compared to the RSX (but this is also our weaknes) and our strength is definatly power. The team and I only have 3 days with the new cars so we are currently working on the handling of the car but again it is such a nice car to drive and really is a joy to race (compared to other cars that you haveto fight around a lap.)

Check out the team's website, they are a tuner in Canada but do a lot of business in the states, Most if not all the parts on our racecar you can buy for your street car from Kensai: www.kensairacing.com

Thanks again for the support and i'm glad to join the community!

 

Welcome to the TSX board! You're doing for a living what I always thought I should have done. I guess I'll have to stick to the high speed go-kart tracks, and open roads with the TSX for my thrills.

Good luck to you this season, and I look forward to hopefully seeing you race on TV!

 

those are sexy that orange is cool

 

very nice. good luck on your races.

 

Suite! Welcome!

 

Congrats and welcome! Those racecars are sick. Definitely diggin' the orange.

 

Cool!

 

Welcome to Azine!!

What headers and cams does your team use in the TSX? Does it still keep the 7300rpm cutout?

 

http://www.kensairacing.com/racecars...ar=Acura%20TSX

This car is using Prototype HyTech cams

 

Raaaaawwwrrr!! I think Im in love!! Cars look B-E-A-utiful. Good luck & welcome aboard.

 

Yup, but their are some updates to when that was posted:

Intake - Fujita F5 intake
Data Acquisition - AIM
Gauges - AIM MXL Dash
Seats - #76 - Sparco Rev - #75 OMP
Coilovers - Moton 3-way adjustable

Thank you guys, and I look forward to representing the TSX community in Grand Am for 2007!

 

Welcome to the board, stuntman! I was at the Redline Time Attack also. Remember the silver TSX with the black Spoon wheels?

 

I hope that the cams and intake header gets produced for us enthusiasts.
Is the car still with a 7300rpm cutout?

 

awesome

 

Are you guys running HyTech exhaust system too?

 

any more pics?

 

Welcome! btw, nice pics!

 

Are you Hondatafied? Just kidding. Do you use nitrogen in your tires? Ok, I'll stop.

I see that Mosport, Canada, is on the Koni Challenge schedule for June 15-17, along with the Nascar Canadian Tire Series race. I can't think of where you'd use 2nd gear there (or 1st), exept at the start...or 6th, for that matter; no wonder you like the TSX gearbox so much.

I guess that Canadian Tire's recent foray into supporting Nascar, including bringing the series to Canada for '07, will dominate much of the publicity for that weekend, but it would be nice if Acura was also on board in some way, knowing that a series of their cars will be there.

This is great news, and I hope you and the team will make it up to Canada in the summer.

 

I remember the kensai cars as abp is the orange a new paintjob?

 

Welcome to the board, pretty cool to have a professional driver amongst us, I'll have to look for you guys on SPEED. Cheers!

 

 

Yes I remember your car, it looks clean! (looks like my Koni Challenge car!) -Did you remember the FactorX NSX?

http://video.google.com/videoplay?do...383&pr=goog-sl
= 145mph+ on the front straight.

We are currently running an off-the-shelf header but will be soon using a prototype from Skunk2. Our rev limit is also higher than 7,300rpm.

We use Helium in our tires - keeps the car lighter
Just Kidding, we use nitrogen in both the shock cans and tires. And we will be going to Mosport and Trois Rivieres since we are doing the whole Koni Challenge Series. I HOPE TO SEE YOU THERE!

EDIT - yes orange is Kensai's new color scheme.

 

The Skunk2 is nice!




Found those pics

 

Awesome, awesome...welcome aboard

 

Of course I remember the NSX. Sunday morning at the registration, I was nearby when you were talking about your story of how your team towed the car back to Vegas (???), swapped out the motor, dyno'd it, then towed it back on Sunday morning for you to drive. And the amazing thing was that you won, and recorded the fastest time of the Time Attack. Great job!!!

Will you be at the upcoming Time Attack at California Speedway? I'd hope to have my Prelude up and running for this Time Attack so I won't embarrass myself by driving a stock TSX in Unlimited again.

Good luck in the Koni Challenge. Will the series make it back to California Speedway this year?

 

stuntman : Any races in Southern California ?

vwong : How are you doing ? I met you long time ago, back then I had a burgandy 93 Accord and you were driving the Prelude, remember ? We had a drive on the Angels crest hwy.

 

Welcome and good luck with your races in the Koni Challenge!
Its great to see teams that are using the TSX in races

 

Thank you, and the Factor X guys were awsome, when dissapointment looked them in the face Saturday morning, they decided to drive 6 hours from Buttonwillow to Vegas, spent the whole night swapping the motor, and dynoing the new one, then drove the 6 hours back to the track to make it for the 2nd practice session Sunday morning -all without any sleep! The guys at Factor X gave me a competitive car that I could win with, but their hard work and determination was truly the amazing thing.

Yes Factor X is bringing the NSX to the upcoming Redline Time Attack at California Speedway, so I'll be driving it again in the Modified RWD class. I hope to see you and your Prelude out there, stop by and say hi! -It was good seeing your TSX out there last year, but you dont want to beat on your daily driver so good luck with the Prelude and make sure you have a tire (for a class) that will better suit your needs (it may have been better to use street tires of a 140utqg or higher in your TSX in the street class, because the street tires for your application probably wouldn't have increased your laptime by a whole lot, so you would have been more competitive in a class that better suited your car/modifications). But make it out there -what makes the event so great, is that their are people with a variety of cars and modifications made to them competing, and that's how the event grows! -by being there!

Unfortunately the Koni Challenge will not be returning to California Speedway, the closest event is Laguna Seca in Monterey. Then the next closest race is Miller in Utah. If you can, the Laguna Seca race is an awsome event to attend. The track is my favorite and Monterey is a beautiful area, and their are nice shops/restaraunts there to make for a great weekend! -Hope to see you there!

 

The TSX run was just a one-time thing. My plan was to run the Prelude, but I blew the motor last May and haven't had the money to rebuild it. So I brought the TSX since I was gonna help at the Time Attack event anyway. This time, I hope to bring the Prelude. It's gonna be in Unlimited FWD because the interior of my Prelude is fully gutted (other than the dash). My ultimate goal for this event is to beat my lap time from the last Time Attack event in March 06 (which I won). I'm not hoping to win this time because if people bring out their Honda Challenge H1 cars or any turbo'd cars, I don't stand a chance. I'm preparing my Prelude for Honda Challenge H2.

I'll definately come over to FactorX's area and say hi.

 

YGPM.

 

how high exactly are you revving it?

hope you have a great season

 

Congratulations on your - and the team's - VICTORY AT DAYTONA!