HondaFest NW Continues To Grow

07 Apr 2019 Kent, WA – Filling the grounds with cars and people at Pacific Raceways normally comes the first week in August. Coming in second and growing bigger each year is the HondaFest NW. The trio of a car show, lead/follow and drag racing bring the people and vendors to this annual event.

Rows and rows of all kinds of show cars and most all of them daily drivers filled the paddock area as SpeedFactory set up in the middle of the paddock leaving their normal spot as the drag race portion was cancled due to water weepers on the track.

Leading off the day on the 2.25mi. track instructors from ProFormance Racing School do what is called “lead/follow” with a group of three to seven cars. It is 100% follow the leader but that “leader” knows the fastest way around the track.

No fooling around here as the last car in line has a radio and you can’t out run it. You get out of the spirit of the day you will be booted out of line, Safety First. For those that follow the “drivers” meeting rules you get to push your car a little more than “normal” driving and doing it “safely”.

This part of the day is also growing as 19 sessions of drivers took part with a few doubling up. A great day put together by NWMotiv and Pacific Raceways will again look to grow the program so make a date for next year’s event.

Over 350 images of all the action today – click here to go to the photo album.

Wet Day For 2018 Hondafest NW

08 Apr 2018 Kent, WA – The 5th annual Hondafest NW put all the car show entries on the same playing field – “wet”. Under the rainy skies the paint that pops in the sunshine is now a shine wet look that unless under a pop-up blends in with all the other wet entries. For a look at the car show images go to www.nwmotiv.com .

In addition to the car show, there were vendors of various types – the Speed Factory group showed the Honda crowd their race car driven by James Kempf and the smell of hot food was put out by Bigfoods.

The other action was on the road course. In what is called “Lead/Follow” Don Kitch owner of ProFormance Racing School lead groups of people in their cars around the 2.25 mi. track. After a driver’s meeting where Don expresses to those in the group that this is not a race, it is where I go, you go and no lagging behind to speed up later and making sure I have in the “Follow” car the general manager of Pacific Raceways John Ramsey and he has a radio. Not needed this day as the speeds were held in check by the water Mother Nature was pouring on everyone all day, though these conditions are one of the elements that ProFormance Racing School uses in it’s AM Skills program. Learning what your car is doing when it is wet putd thru the school program. Check the ProFormance Racing School web site for a date for you.

One final item for the day was a 1963 MG B racecar out making laps letting all know about the SOVREN Spring Sprints hitting the track the end of this month. This MG is from Chehalis, Wa. In 1996 it was restored to race condition and in 1998 and raced in the SOVREN events since and was conference champion for three years in the 1980’s. Check out this car and many more the 27th, 28th and 29th for the SOVREN Spring Sprints.

Lots of images from the 2018 Hondafest are now available – click here

Record Crowds at 2017 HondaFest NW

09 Apr 2017 Kent, WA – Filling the grounds with cars and people at Pacific Raceways normally comes the first week in August. Coming in second and growing bigger each year is the HondaFest NW. The trio of a car show, lead/follow and drag racing bring the people and vendors to this annual event.

Rows and rows of all kinds of show cars and most all of them daily drivers filled the paddock area as SpeedFactory set up in their favorite spot next to the staging lanes.

Leading off the day on the 2.25 mile track instructors from ProFormance Racing School do what is called “lead/follow” with a group of three to seven cars. It is 100% follow the leader but that “leader” knows the fastest way around the track. No fooling around here as the last car in line has a radio and you can’t out run it. You get out of the spirit of the day you will be booted out of line, Safety First.

For those that follow the “drivers” meeting rules you get to push your car a little more than “normal” driving and doing it “safely”. This part of the day is also growing as near 50 drivers took part with a few doubling up.

All this time the “drag crew” is prepping the drag strip for the afternoon of side by side running of all kinds of cars and trucks.

Leading off the action the ultra- fast Honda’s from SpeedFactory in a mix of testing and checking the latest setup put down some impressive numbers as noted by the crowd and crew reactions.

A great day put together by NWMotiv and Pacific Raceways will again look to grow the program so make a date for next year’s event.

Lots of great images from all over the facility – click here to go to the photo album. As always thank you for your support and purchases!

Huge Crowd For HondaFest 2016 at Pacific Raceways

HondaFest 4-10-16 08610 April 2016 Kent, WA – The annual gathering for the enthusiasts of everything Honda converged on to the Pacific Raceways grounds to take it all in. Car show drags and AutoX kicked off the action.

HondaFest 4-10-16 053The 22 turn course proved quite challenging for those who took part. Missing gates and turns by the drivers had the AutoX instructor walk the course describing what the cones mean and what to do. Afterward the drivers ran the course, with some turning in some pretty impressive laps.

HondaFest 4-10-16 217As the 1:00 pm start time for the drags to start drew near, the massive amount of people cruising the car show started for the stands, except those in the number of food stands.  The lines were long and the food good.

As SpeedFactory prepped their race cars the lanes filled with a mix of cars with both street tires and race tires. The gains these teams have made are record setting with three great drivers with some bright minds behind them.

For those who stayed till the last race of this year’s HondaFest, they watched the SpeedFactory crewmembers and the drag crew jumping, high fiving and hugging each other with the numbers they just laid down.

HondaFest 4-10-16 235With the thousands and I mean many thousands of people that come to the HondaFest shows how popular the event has become.

Also a big thanks to Makki Nelson for her first ever HondaFest experience in pictures.

Images of all the action are in two albums – click on the links below to go do the albums –

Honda Fest 2016 Photo Album – Click Here

Honda Fest 2016 Makki Nelson Photo Album – Click Here

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