Chris Billedo is easily the hardest working man in the paddock at the Redline Time Attack this season. He runs a FWD Enthusiast Class Civic Si and with a small crew and an intense willingness to go out and win. Chris is the only FWD Class car running a COBB Tuning AccessPORT. Round 8 of the Redline Time Attack marks Chris’ first win in class and we hope to see more in the final two races!

“Coming into this event I was nervous but also anxious, coming off a 2 month break without any practice didn’t make things better either. This would also be a race after an off track excursion at the last round at Big Willow. This weekend at Spring Mountain we ran the 3.1 mile, 19-turn configuration. I’m used to race tracks that have on average 9 to 12 turns. One of the things that made me nervous was knowing that I’d be going against a few locals. I had no experience at all on this track but knew that if I could concentrate I would do fine.

“ Saturday was a practice day very similar to an HPDE day. The day started well, I got good sleep and was well rested to concentrate on learning the track. As each practice session went by I kept getting faster and faster and was feeling very confident each time out. But I had one problem, I seem to always be the lucky one to have problems with timing. As each session went by I felt like I was improving and getting faster but due to the problems with my timing system my lap times weren’t improving nor getting faster. That made me a little upset because I learned that most of the people in my class were running much faster. I was also having problems with my car overheating but thanks to the Cobb AccessPORT and the Monitor section I was able to keep an eye out on temperatures of the car.

“Sunday is the big day where times actually count. Since my timing wasn’t working the day before, I sort of lost my confidence because I kept thinking I wasn’t going to even podium because of how slow I was running but I didn’t let that bring me down. I just thought to myself, “if I’m slow then I’m slow.” I always promise myself and to my team that I’ll try my hardest each and every lap I’m out there. I went out on my first qualifying session and felt really good about the run. I just concentrated on the turns and remembering them. When you remember turns it helps you get set up for the next one. I came in to pit and was very surprised. I was first in grid for my class and was very happy.

“Time attack sessions are where it counts, my first session the car felt okay but not to my liking. I went out and just drove my hardest, and was able to put out a time that put me in second but the first place car failed tech so I was bumped up to 1st. I was happy that I was in 1st but I’d rather earn my first place rather than by default. So the second session came and I felt really good about how the car felt. I drove the warm up lap and then the 3 time attack laps, came into pit and my team just showed me 1 finger. Letting me know that I was in first, I was able to beat my first session time by 2 seconds.

“I ended up taking 1st place, this is also my first career win. I hope there is more to come! Thanks to all my sponsors that have helped me to get to where I’m at now!”

*photos coutesty of David Karey