It’s been a while since I’ve been out and about at a car event. Don’t get me wrong, there are no shortage of events here in Southern California. You can literally drive anywhere in the city on a weekend and come across something car-related. I just haven’t been out because I’ve been busy. If you strictly follow my social accounts you’ll notice the lack of activity, but my days are pretty full of tasks. Since I haven’t been able to go back to Japan, I’ve decided to take the time now to start planning for the rest of the year while also completing my third book. The book took me over a year to finally finish but I’m proud to say that it is some of my best work yet—and also currently available for pre-order. Let’s just say that there are a lot of things going on behind-the-scenes and you’ll realize why I haven’t been as active online when the time comes. I’m planning big things. And I’ll leave it at that. A big part of me has been itching to get out and start doing car things again though. Especially now that the grunt work for the book is done. I feel like I can dedicate more of my time now to covering automotive events and shooting cars for fun. I also want to be a supportive friend so when I found out that Round 2 of VTEC Club was happening, I thought I’d make the trek out to Buttonwillow…

The day prior, I went to San Diego (the complete opposite direction of Buttonwillow) to check out this private event which Kenji Sumino from GReddy invited me too. There was a shop down there that is currently building a pretty interesting catalog of cars and he wanted me to go see it. Driving to Buttonwillow seemed like a bit of a chore after doing the two-hour drive to San Diego the day before so I convinced my friend Ryan Yamamoto to give me a ride. He was already heading up there to cover the event for VTEC Club so it kind of worked out perfectly. Not for him, but for me of course. I could just ride shotgun, fall asleep, and do a poor job of keeping him company while he drove me to Buttonwillow. When we got there, we realized just how cold it was which worked out great for the driver’s competing that day. I guess it’s considered “PB” or personal-best weather because the cool temperatures would allow their cars to run at their best. What we witnessed that day was pure mayhem, lol. I don’t know if it was the track being cold or people just being overly excited but dudes were flying off the track left and right. To the point where they had to do another driver’s meeting during the afternoon just to remind people to drive better. I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything like it before. One guy even crashed before he even got on the track and wrecked his car in the hot pits on the way out. It was indeed a wild afternoon at Buttonwillow. Despite the chaos, it was a pretty fun day. It wasn’t hot at all and I was even able to get on the track to shoot some photos. This might sound weird but I’ve actually never had the opportunity to shoot on track before at Buttonwillow. There is usually a photographer/photography company that has this weird monopoly at this particular track so no one else can shoot. Everyone else is usually left just shooting from the pit area so I just never really bothered to put that much effort into it. On this day, said-company wasn’t present so we had free reign of the track—and as a result, I have content for you…

The main reason I wanted to go out there was to support friends and also to see Jose Mejia’s Integra build. He’s been behind the wheel of an FK8 CTR for the past year but has decided to devote his time to his Integra this year. Jose made some changes to the car and we were all kind of excited to see how he would do with this new set-up. I also wanted to see the new Group B NC-01 wheels on his car and see how they look on the track. It’s a motorsport wheel that just recently came into the market so it was cool to finally see it at a track event…

Not much else to say other than that. I had a good day. Fun was had. Food was had. Photos were taken.

Enjoy!…

John Cruz’s current FA5 Civic project with FD2 conversion. He’s been trying to get the car dialed-in before he finishes the exterior and the car looked promising in the morning until he ran into some transmission issues…

Jose Mejia’s Integra RS sitting in the paddock area waiting for the first session of the day…

Really cool to see Chris’ Civic at Buttonwillow. I’ve only seen this car at two previous Wekfest events, where it won the Honda Class both times, but most don’t realize that it also serves as a weekend track car. He made the trip down from the Bay Area with a couple other Darkside Racing guys and they all took their cars out for some thrashing…

Love the center-exit exhaust on the DSR K-swapped Civic…

My homie Loreto Garcia took the day off from being a dad to have some fun in his Civic hatchback…

Easy like Sunday morning as Lionel Richie once said…

The boys gathering around Justin Yoo’s S2000 for some friendly banter…

The first session of the day featured some of the fastest Hondas in the VTEC Club series…

Jose Mejia actually only ran one session that day and broke the class record by 4-seconds!…

Look again, it’s actually not the same photos twice…

Though it was a VTEC Club event, there were some other non-Hondas at Buttonwillow driving for fun…

Chris Garay flying around Buttonwillow CW13 in his EF/EE Civic…

A four-photo sequence by Mejia, who ran a blistering 1:52.6 in his naturally-aspirated K-powered Integra…

Justin Yoo also only did once session in the morning since he had work but his car continues to impress with the K1 Lab front…

You’ll notice a theme here that I shot the most photos of Jose’s car because it was one of the main reasons why I went to the track that day…

I always forget just how un-scenic Buttonwillow is, lol…

Daniel Fuentes wasn’t trying to just drive one session but he ran into some axles issues throughout the morning and as a result, he decided to just put a K-series in his Civic after he got home…

That sounds facetious but it’s actually true, lol…

This event marked the first time I got to see the new Titan7-produced EVS Tuning 52R wheels in-person. These are made specifically to cater to S2000 enthusiasts and this photo does a poor representation of expressing that because you can’t see the wheel so let’s move along…

This K-swapped Civic had its corner light off to help feed air into the intake. Either that or it fell off and was just a happy accident…

Duane Bada has been having a lot of fun in his new FK8 Civic Type R which he is currently developing to run at GTA Super Lap Battle later this year…

Jerald threw his 95-pound body around Buttonwillow in his new Subaru BRZ which he was able to run consistent 2:00 lap times in…

The only clean photo I got of Gabriel Urias and his Civic coupe that day…

I finally got to see Andrew Horn’s new set-up with the widened front fenders and 15×9 Group B Unlimited NC-01 wheels…

Mugen aero being put to good use on this white DC5 RSX…

Guys were even taking out their mint S2000CRs for some fun at Buttonwillow CW13…

Duane Bada once again…

Horn testing out the durability of the Group B wheels by hopping some berms and catching some air…

Occasionally I would shoot something that wasn’t a Honda for practice and it came out decent…

George from Darkside Racing’s Civic Type R LE making use of those brand new bronze Mugen MF10 wheels…

Chris from DSR in his super clean black K-swapped EG…

Loreto looked like he was having some hood latch issues that day…

This E92 went off track but still looked good with the gold BBS E88s on…

After a few sessions Duane came to pick myself and Ryan Yamamoto up so we could go back to the pit area. I took the time to snap a photo real quick before we took off…

So many cool little details on the Volk TE037 wheel, especially with all the different cut-outs and scallops on the spokes…

Real boss shit for tracking this FK8 Type R with all the Mugen stuff on it. If you’re not familiar with Mugen components for this chassis, let’s just say that the stuff is not exactly cheap or affordable by most…

For example, this carbon fiber Mugen mirror covers alone are about $585 for the pair…

I don’t even want to know how much these FK8-spec Mugen MF10s are…

After Jose had his fun for the day, running just one session and destroying the Class record, I was able to get a detailed look at his Integra RS…

As mentioned, he’s recently made some big changes to his K20 Integra, one of them being not very visible which was his custom-made header by Myers Competition. It might be one of the most beautifully crafted pieces on this car but hidden between the back the engine and the firewall…

Another major change was the switch to a carbon fiber PracWorks intake manifold….

Mounted to the firewall now is a retrofitted ABS unit from a DC5R. The RS never came with ABS so Jose had Ken Suen build brackets and brake lines to make the unit work…

Here on the dashboard you can see the switch for the ABS system now mounted to the carbon ITR air vent…

The rest of the Integra is very bare bones with just the top-half of the dashboard, a KTuned shifter assembly, Battlecraft knob, Personal steering wheel and single Recaro seat…

The lightweight RS chassis also has a custom welded-in roll cage. The back is completely gutted with just remote reservoirs mounted in place for the JRZ suspension…

Voltex GT wing and a glimpse at the cage through the Lexan rear hatch glass…

A closer look at the new Group B Unlimited NC-01 wheel in white paired with Nankang CR1 tires…

Behind the narrow spokes of the 15×9 Group B wheels are Alcon big brakes in the front…

Renee’s E46 on Volk ZE40s made an appearance and Ryan’s 2GS in the background was how I got to Buttonwillow that Sunday morning…

Even after a couple of sessions, the Phoenix Yellow Civic Type R LE still looked pristine with its catalog of Mugen goodies…

The boys from DSR chillin’ in their garage area enjoying some Jack-in-the-Box for lunch…

Since Jose was done for the day and the car stayed clean, he pulled the Integra RS out so it could get some sunlight…

Andrew Horn’s Civic is looking pretty aggressive these days with the new front fender and wheel set-up…

Chris ended the weekend winning the VTEC Club Group N1 class and setting a new record with a 1:58.1 lap in his Civic…

One of the things I enjoy about shooting at events like these is just capturing the overall vibe of everything going on away from the track…

Sure, everyone is having a blast while driving but it’s also nice to see everyone just having a good time and enjoying one another’s company…

I still don’t know how I feel about the Phoenix Yellow FK8s. On one hand I think the yellow makes the car look even bigger than it already is but then you throw some Mugen stuff on there and it just looks….good…

Some people say 17-inch wheels look too big on Integras and some think it looks just right. How do you feel?…

Chris’ Civic all loaded-up and ready to head back to San Jose as the day came to a close. Good to see that it didn’t have too much wear and tear on that fresh black paint…

And on that note, that’s a wrap on Round 2 of VTEC Club USA. Not sure when I’ll be back at another one of these events, but who knows? Maybe someone will give me a free ride to the track again, lol. Thanks for looking!!…