Chris Billedo has been racing in the Redline Time Attack series since the first round at Buttonwillow, but just recently upgraded his Civic Si with an AccessPORT from COBB Tuning joining the illustrious ranks of AccessPORT Racers. This of course, garners him a coveted, AccessPORT Racer Spotlight! At Just 19-years-old, Chris is the youngest driver in the Redline Time Attack series, but is taking on the track nevertheless! Chris is competing in the Enthusiast FWD class and is proving to be a force to be reckoned with. Chris placed 2nd in his Si with a lap time of 2:04.226, almost 12-seconds ahead of 3rd place and just 4-seconds off of 1st!

Driving at Auto Club Speedway was a very fun experience for me, I’ve never been to such a fast track that required so much braking. I ran both days, Saturday and Sunday; Saturday being the practice day similar to an HPDE event and Sunday being the actual competition. Since I’ve never been to this track, I thought it would be a smart idea to sign up for the practice day. The practice day went very well; of course since it’s my first time here I took it very easy. As I started to get comfortable I picked up my speed around the track, especially around the high banks of Auto Club Speedway.

Racing is a never ending learning-experience and since I’m also the youngest in the series; I still have a lot to learn. I ran at Buttonwillow Raceway and Las Vegas Motorspeedway and thought I learned all I needed to learn. But at Auto Club, I experienced something I’ve never felt before. I was always taught that if you do your braking in a straight line, it will “all be good”. At Auto Club, the speeds are very fast and I’ve never experienced the car getting loose while braking. I think it has to do more in part with how fast I was going and also not having any aero enhancements. Due to the rules and specifications in Enthusiast class, you can’t run any carbon fiber, splitters, wings or anything to help with down force. Throughout the day I got used to how the car would brake so I didn’t worry about that anymore, but it sure was something I’ve never experienced.

I didn’t change much on the car for this race, but I added one major component that made the biggest difference: tuning my ECU with an AccessPORT from COBB Tuning. This made a dramatic difference. The car was tuned by Steve at e-tunez.com. He guided me through capturing datalogs and uploading maps to the car. One of the major differences on the new tune was the VTEC engagement point. Stock, VTEC kicks in at 5,600 rpm, but with the AccessPORT it was brought down to 4,500 rpm and red line raised to 8,600 from 8,200 rpm. Lowering VTEC allows the car to pull from lower in the RPM range which in theory would make the car faster.

Another area that the AccessPORT addressed was the “Rev Hang” experienced by many Si drivers where the drive by wire throttle keeps the revs up between shifts, making smooth and fast shifting difficult. But the AccessPORT eliminated this and made the throttle pedal very responsive. Lap times at Auto Club Speedway are highly dependent on how fast you are on the very long straights and banks of the track. I believe that the AccessPORT is the reason why I was able to take 2nd place in Fontana. The car was very responsive, whereas without the AccessPORT, the car felt very sluggish.

My racing program would not be possible without the help and support of all my sponsors including COBB Tuning. Not only did they provide me with an AccessPORT but they helped with track-side support and advice to help me better my skills as a driver also! This was my first race as a COBB Tuning Racer and I’m glad I am.

I am now 2nd in points for the Enthusiast FWD championship and I can’t wait for what else to come at future races!