FF Battle 5 saw some minor changes to the overall format of the event. For one, Continental Tire took over and replaced General Tire. It only made sense being that Continental was already sponsoring Import Tuner’s FR Shootout, which took place simultaneously at Streets of Willow that day. The next notable change was the creation of a separate class for those who have been competitors in the FF Battle series before and had cars that were, well, more competitive and more track-prepped. By separating these folks from the new guys and the less experienced drivers, it helped to even out the playing field. In the past you sort of had an idea of who the top three guys were before the competition even started and this year, things were really a toss-up. Everyone had a chance to win and the guys who were favorites in the past to win the whole thing were off in their own class competing with other experienced FF Battle’rs…

As every year, I can’t reveal the final results and more importantly, I don’t even know who won so I couldn’t tell you even if I wanted to. The results are revealed when the photos and story are printed in an upcoming issue of Super Street magazine. What we can show you before that issue hits are just photos and observations of the event. Another difference from the previous year’s FF Battle events is that there were no other track days that were going on at the same time as both the FF and FR events. Typically you will see some other cars out there running in a track day that Raceline USA organzied. This year, the track was specifically catered to the FF Battle 5 and FR Shootout…

Below are photos from both. I just captured whatever I saw that day that I found interesting and there isn’t any specific order that these photos are in. I’m really happy with how the photos came out because I think it captures the essence of both events. There will be a total of two parts to the actual Battle coverage. One you are looking at today and the second half will come tomorrow. Thanks to everyone for looking and make sure you click on the link below if you missed the photos from the dyno portion of FF Battle 5…

FF Battle 5 2013 Coverage…Part 1: Dyno Day…

Though I was really there to cover FFB5 for this site, I do have to admit that I was a little excited to see what the FR Shootout had to offer. For those that don’t know, the FR Shootout is much like the FFB5 event but obviously the “FR” indicates that it is dedicated to front engine, rear-wheel drive vehicles. It was nice to see some RWD cars out there blasting through the track but I was surprised to see the absence of Supras this year. The FR field consisted mostly of S2000s, FR-S/BR-Z, and some Nissans thrown into the mix. There was also an RX-7 as well. Maybe eliminating Supras from the equation helps to level out their playing field as well. There weren’t very many “high horsepower” competitors in the Shootout so the competition was based more on the driving itself…

One vehicle that I was surprised to see on the track was this completely Spoon Sports-themed S2000 that was brought out by Go-Tuning. Go-Tuning, if you didn’t know, is one of the premier Spoon Sports dealers in North America now and so it was fitting that they brought out a Spoon-equipped Honda to compete. What is also worth noting is that they also had famed drifter Dai Yoshihara driving that day…

Evasive Motorsports was also on hand to compete in the FR Shootout and brought out this Voltex-adorned S2000 that was still rocking the OEM soft top…

In the paddock area, Kristian Wong was busy applying more decals to his car to make up for the lack of good paint and overall poor exterior finish of his Civic coupe., haha…

Sportcar Motion competed in both the FF Battle and FR Shootout. For the FR competition, they brought out their supercharged S2000 on CCW Classics…

Subaru BR-Z from CounterSpace Garage on Gram Lights 57extreme…

I’m not gonna lie, it was a little odd to see an S14 round a corner aggressively without drifting right through it. On the other hand it was refreshing to see one set-up as a circuit competitor and not a drift car…

A couple more of the Spoon Sports S2000 from Go-Tuning…

When the S2K returned to the pits, Aaron from Go-Tuning chatted with Yoshihara to get his assessment of the car’s performance…

Old habits die hard of course and the S14 did eventually do a bit of sliding…

The Spoon build on jackstands…

Dai and the guys from Go-Tuning inspecting the tires after their last session…

Kristian looked on in his old green HKS race suit…

One of the other S2000s that Evasive brought with them was also wearing the Spoon S-Tai front bumper…

Mike Chang from Evasive holds up the hood on the Voltex-equipped S2000 as fluids are replenished…

Meanwhile, it was time for the next session to begin for the FF Battle competitors…

Jason Lee’s FA5 Civic SI representing Godspeed Project and Sportcar Motion…

Ping looked relaxed during his run in his Acura CSX Type-S with J’s aero…

Jose Guzman’s DC5 RSX ripping through road course at Button Willow…

Tony Jackson from Eibach Springs skating around the pits while he waited for his session to come up…

His Civic laid dormant in the paddock with its spare 17-inch wheels on it. Jackson opted to run these wheels on his Civic based on the tire sizes available to him from Continental…

The Spoon AP2 was just chillin’ under the tent so I decided to go get a closer look at the build…

Spoon Sports side mirrors for S2000…

Nothing remotely crazy under the hood. Just a Spoon Sports valve cover and carbon kevlar intake. The motor itself was also essentially stock…

Closer look at the Spoon intake ducting….

The red leather interior of the AP2 with Spoon Sports steering wheel…

Recaro RS-G ASM Limited Edition seats…

Spoon Sports CR93 wheels in silver…

It wouldn’t be a full Spoon-themed build without the signature Spoon front brakes…

One of the Evasive S2000s returning for its next session on the track…

As always, Brandon Leung from BOWLS LA was on hand to film all happenings at FF Battle and FR Shootout for Source Interlink Media. Here he is interviewing Kristian Wong about his first time participating in FFB5…

I really liked how this shot came out of Kristian and his EJ1 Civic coupe. He was the true underdog of FF Battle so it was cool to see how enthusiastic he was about being out there in a field of K-powered Hondas…

Ping returns from his session into the pits…

I figured you guys might want a better look at Kristian’s, better known as “studytuned” on Instagram, coupe. It is pretty raw and certainly far from refined but in many ways it is really cool to see because it has a very Japanese-feel to it. Not like Japanese tuning shop-built but like a privateer, Kanjo-style, Honda that you’d see either at the track or on the highway ripping doing some “spirited driving”…

I should mention that this is also a daily driven car too so this is pretty much how you would see it if you encountered it somewhere in L.A. Kristian tunes 1000HP GT-Rs all day for SP Engineering and then goes home in this single cam beater. Talk about walking the lines of two almost completely different worlds…

A Bride Low Max seat is mounted to the stripped interior of the coupe with a Takata harness that looks like it was rescued from the artifacts of the Titanic…

The official FF Battle 5 logo and decal…

With the FF competitors back at the paddock, it was time for the FR guys to do work…

Super Street editor-in-chief Jonathan Wong speaking on behalf of the mag for the FFB5 video…

Brian G. from Hasport checking on the J-swapped CR-X…

The aggressive front face of the Hasport CR-X…

JDM Wong interviewing Import Tuner Technical Editor, Scott Tsuneishi…

The best of both worlds in Tony Jackson’s Civic…A Mugen S1 and red Recaro Pole Position seats…

I really wanted to see how this EP3 Civic would do on the track against the others but he ran into a TPS problem early in the day and was forced to take himself out of the competition…

How inviting does this look?…

Import Tuner Editor-in-Chief and Kristian Wong look on in the distance as Dai Yoshihara gets a better look at one of Evasive’s S2Ks…

Some more track footage for you guys… Sportcar Motion’s boosted S2000…

Evasive Motorsports S2000 still sans hard top…

Really love the lines of the Voltex kit on the S2000 and how it flows with the factory body…

I apologize for all my track footage looking very similar to one another. I never actually got on the track for photos and found a spot that I liked in the paddock and just stuck with it…

JDM Wong grabbed my camera to catch this shot of Mr. Studytuned taking a nap in his car inbetween sessions…

Jason Lee’s FD2 CTR-converted Civic on front staggered Magnesium Blue Volk Racing RE30s…

Liked how this Subaru BR-Z from CounterSpace Garage looked on WED’s TC105N…

That’s all for today. Gonna cut it off here for now and then resume Part 3 of 3 tomorrow. Thanks for looking!…