Editor's note: It isn't often that we consort with national champs, but over the last five years or so we've been exceedingly fortunate to strike up a relationship with Brian Kono, owner/operator of After Hours Automotive in Wilmington, Calif. Recently, After Hours client Renan Bayar won the National Auto Sport Association's (NASA) 2009 Honda Challenge H2 championship in an EG chassis Honda Civic hatchback built primarily by Kono. What follows is Bayar's account of the momentous feat.

Making it to the National Championships and the success we enjoyed was the culmination of the whole year's work. Suspension tuning, engine testing, even driver preparation for this event had begun early in 2009.

It was After Hours Automotive's Brian Kono that insisted we go to the Nationals. In his eyes, a national championship would validate our program more than anything else. As the event grew closer (held September 10-13), we began to assemble sponsors and plans that would set us apart from the other contenders. Kono said the only way he would go was if we brought our "A" game, and that's what we set out to do.

Of course money and time were our biggest obstacles. Kono has a shop to run, and the car required basically a complete teardown and re-engineer of several systems just two weeks before the event. Additionally, we wanted to try something different and unique. We were going to go green - we decided on running the event with E85 ethanol.

This added another dynamic that would cause huge amounts of stress. The tuning process alone had not been proven in a Honda Challenge car. We weighed out the consequences and decided to go ahead full force with our little "green" Honda Challenge car on E85.

All the details leading up to this would require writing a book, but there were several memorable milestones leading up to the race, starting 10 days before the event.

Tuesday, Sept. 1: On the road working (Bayar is a pilot), with no firm date to be home, the car was completely disassembled and sitting at After Hours. Just the night before, we finally received funding from one of our main sponsors. The decision to go was hinging on this and now with the funding in hand it was possible, but extremely difficult due to the late commitment. I had just registered for the event the night before, primarily because the registration doubled on the first of September. I got the word to Kono and all he could say was "Man, get home as soon as you can."

Wednesday, Sept. 2: I arrive back in town and picked up the transmission from Synchrotech. They provided us with their very best trans, with a polished case for the event. They signed up as a sponsor about a month before and we couldn't be happier. Upon delivering it to After Hours, Kono brought out a clutch disc he had developed for the event. I was against using anything new and unproven, so we installed a "name brand" clutch instead. Then I was put to work doing crappy prep work for the wrap.

Thursday, Sept. 3: I spent the morning at the shop arranging our spares and equipment for the trip. Unfortunately I was called off to work and couldn't help further with the car. Kono worked until 5a.m. Friday morning assembling, and then installing the motor and gearbox. I kept asking Kono, "Can we make it? I'm worried about..." He just kept saying, "Don't worry - I got this."

Friday, Sept. 4: More time spent reassembling the car - we found one of the front dampers bent like a pretzel and had to source another set of dampers. I had a set of freshly rebuilt KONIs on a friend's car and I had to rob him of them, leaving his car on a lift with no suspension.

Saturday, Sept. 5: We had a dyno appointment at noon, but unfortunately the car wrap began at 11a.m. and took hours. We sat helplessly and waited for the wrap to be completed, every hour begging our sponsor at the dyno shop to wait for us. Church Automotive's Dynapack finally got the car at 6p.m. At least it was looking sharp.

Sunday, Sept. 6: Clutch problems on the dyno prompted a trans removal - so much for the name-brand clutch. Kono's clutch was going to get its debut. I was given this task, and of course it took me around six hours! Meanwhile, fabrication on the oil cooler, air intake and battery box had begun. We wrapped up early that night, around 7p.m., so we could pack for the trip.

Monday, Sept. 7: We were slated to leave Southern California for Miller Motorsports Park in Tooele, Utah, around noon. However, at noon I was just starting the ducting for the oil cooler, Kono was plumbing it, and around 4p.m. work began on the splitter. I spent most of the day packing up the truck/trailer. The rest of the work on the car required talent, so I was just in Kono's way.

At 9p.m. we loaded the car on the trailer and headed off to Kono's for a shower, some McDonald's coffee, and finally to hit the road. We got on the freeway just before 11p.m. I had a good plan; I folded down the rear seats of the truck and made a bed. I figured we would take turns sleeping in the back.

Kono however refused to sleep in the back; it turns out he had been in an accident some years back where the driver fell asleep at the wheel while he was sleeping in the back. After waking up in the desert next to a wrecked truck, he would not take that chance again. So I got some sleep in the back and we pressed on to Utah. As the sun came up, Kono could barely stay up and pulled over.

Tuesday, Sept. 8: After about 30 minutes of napping, we looked at our watches. Our dyno sponsor Shawn Church was flying in to Miller to re-dyno the car at the location's high altitude. We were about two hours away and he was about two hours from arriving into Salt Lake City, so we manned up and pressed on.

We arrived at Miller about 20 minutes before Church. We pulled the car off the trailer and got it on the dyno as Church walked up, smiling. "You guys made it, huh?!?" he said. I know I looked pretty haggard.

The tuning at the track proved invaluable. The computer can only adjust so much for altitude, and at wide open throttle it's a different story. An hour later the car was tucked away in our garage, tuned and ready to go.

My day didn't end there - while Kono set up the garage, I left the facility to pick up the RV we rented for the week. After a trip to the grocery store, I returned, hooked up the RV and promptly fell asleep from 6p.m. to 6a.m. the following day.

Wednesday, Sept. 9: I woke up, still clothed and dirty from the previous day. Finally rested, I started getting a handle on what was ahead. Kono however was quite upset this morning. Apparently he found a competitor in our garage snooping around our car! This individual entered our garage, opened up the hood and was inspecting everything he could. He later would complain to officials about something trivial he "found" that turned out to be a non-issue.

At this point we decided there would be no mercy. We would lay down the fastest times and not give this competitor ANY hope of winning. This was the first day we hit the track and I was slow and cautious all day. Kono and I debriefed after every session to discuss strategy and setup.

We weren't interested in times this day. I know I can put together a fast lap at a moment's notice. Qualifying is one of my specialties. We just made sure the car was going to be reliable, and the car was flawless all day. This was the least I ever had to do on the car. At day's end we finally relaxed, did a quick corner weight and alignment and put on fresh tires for the next day.

Thursday, Sept. 10: Fresh tires, a fresh driver, fresh car, and my favorite - qualifying! We had the car setup specifically for qualifying and the temps at the track were still cool. Within three laps I laid down what would be the fastest time of the weekend: 2:14.09 - 2.1 seconds faster than second place. Back at the garage, Kono was cautiously happy. We did a little setup change for the race and were set to go.

All starts were standing. I thought I got a good start, but John Almazan had lightning reflexes and flew ahead of me. We battled for a couple laps and I nudged inside him to take the lead on the third lap.

As I passed him, the car popped out of gear and I almost lost the position again. The rest of the race I had to drive one handed. I tried to not let it get to me, but my lap times were suffering nonetheless. I pulled out ahead enough that Almazan couldn't smell blood and just paced to the finish. One win in the bag.

Afterwards Kono and I discussed the trans problem. Some of the parts Synchrotech used were old stuff of mine, and fourth gear was one of them. Kono found some problems with the shift linkage and that evening we tested and could not get the car to pop out of gear.

We hoped for the best, but also were immediately in touch with our gearbox sponsors. They put together a package of anything related to third/fourth gear and had it FedEx-ed out to us. The only problem was that the package would not arrive until well into Friday. Mentally I prepared for the worst.

Friday, Sept. 11: Practice was going great, trans was perfect - until the last lap, and then it all started again, popping out of gear when I would lift of the throttle and then grinding into fourth. We brought the car in and were waved off to the garage.

Back at our garage an inspector for NASA came up and said we were selected for a random inspection (the guys didn't recognize my car with the new wrap). Qualifying was only a little more than an hour away, so we rushed back to Tech. The inspection seemed to take forever - compression, stroke and bore were checked, along with a few chassis things. Finally, the inspection was encroaching on qualifying, so they released us.

We rushed out to the track, qualifying was well into the session and I was really frustrated. Kono was calm on the radio and said, "Take it easy. I'll find you a hole [in traffic] and dig one out - just relax."

"BS," I replied. "It's game on. What time do you want for a qualifying lap?" I asked in my cockiest voice. "2:14...2:13?" Brian replied, "Just don't go off."

On the second lap, we found a hole and realizing the trans would be a problem I just drove one handed. I purposely over-drove into Turns 1 and 3, knowing on the relatively cold tires this would induce the oversteer I needed to turn fast laps.

With one hand the corrections were aggressive and exciting. Coming up to the esses I had a full half turn of correction in, and I took a deep breath and just stayed on the gas. It was not my fastest lap, but close: 2:14.2. Kono says I focus better when I'm pissed.

The Friday race seemingly went well. From the outside, I had a good start. Almazan had a VTEC problem and that took him out of contention. Behind the scenes, I was fighting the gearbox. I didn't let it bother me too much. Instead I thought to myself, this is how the car drives, one handed - drive it like that or don't drive it.

I pulled out a gap, and then paced to the finish some five seconds ahead of the rich guy in second who was floundering around behind me with a ray of hope.

Friday evening the trans came out. With the car on jack stands, Kono had a great plan for removing the box. With me under the car, he unbolted the trans and I "bench pressed" it onto my chest. The plan then was to have Kono grab my feet and pull/slide me out from under the car with the trans on my chest. Of course the trans got snagged on the bumper and Kono just said, "Hey, man - you're fucked."

"This thing is still hot," I replied. "I'm going to get beer," Kono said, leaving the garage. Beer helps everything.

A few moments later he came back with Tom Paule and beer. I was laughing but in pain and they finally got the trans off me. Brian split the case and replaced the gear and some other cool-looking parts. He repeatedly told me if I touched anything he would bury me in the desert, so I was on my best behavior. Around midnight we finished and went to sleep.

Saturday, Sept. 12: The car was all good and I was nervous as hell. I went out for practice and the trans was like buttah! We pre-gridded for the race and as the cars started to peel off for the track I was really happy. So many people have stood by me to get to this point.

I gridded on pole position with the H2 cars, behind the H1 cars. Almazan was a few cars back due to his VTEC problem in qualifying. I tried to mimic Almazan's starting procedures - a few dry hops, drag-racing style!

The flag dropped and Kono's clutch (now fully broken in) felt as smooth as an automatic transmission. My car just hooked up and streaked towards the H1 cars. Coming down Miller's front straight, I got a HUGE bump from behind - it actually threw my head back. It was Almazan. He streaked through the pack and was pushing me through the H1 cars! I gave him a thumbs-up as I flew forward like a car on nitrous.

Through Turn 1 it was side by side with H1 cars. Jeremy Croiset got inside another car in Turn 2 and that car lost it. I was faced with a decision; there is a car perfectly perpendicular to me in front of me - do I go outside or inside? The answer is usually always outside, but the car was sideways for so long, and to go outside was the longer route. But a car sideways like this almost always shoots across the track to the inside.

I chose inside and the other car immediately shot across the track towards me. I chose poorly. I thought the race for me was over - I corrected as hard as I could and drove off into the dirt at around 100mph. In videos from behind it looks like the t-boning car just grazes me, but somehow I got away.

Now in the dirt, in a full drift, I settled the car and got back on track. WOW. Kono was on the radio asking if I was OK. I couldn't believe it. I was. Thank God.

I only lost a few positions and there was Almazan ahead of me. I actually felt happy for him. His bad luck seemingly over, he was in the lead! A full-course yellow came out for three laps due to something on the front straight. Upon the restart, Almazan's VTEC took another dump and I scooted up to first within three laps.

I pulled out a gap and paced for a few when I noticed Manny Coats gaining on me. Kono and I were unsure if he was in H1 or H2 (he was in H1) and began debating the point over the radio. After another three laps of back and forth, Manny had closed the gap, so I decided to put the hammer down - only Manny was getting faster every lap.

Finally, the white flag came out to signal the last lap of the race and Manny turned in his fastest on the final orbit. It got him to within three seconds of me. Man, what a ride!

I have never been to a national event. Being on the podium, music playing, photographers, girls - it was all exciting. But the thing I will remember most was all my friends cheering when they called my name. As I received my trophy, I thought, it took so many people to get me here. I wish they could feel this.

Thank you to everyone that helped to make the 2009 NASA Honda Challenge H2 National Championship a reality: Brian Kono - I've never experienced the professionalism with which you approached this seemingly impossible task; MFactory; Church's Automotive Testing; Synchrotech; HASport; Portflow; the fabulous Tom Paule; and MY MOM!!!

Engine B16A motor swap, blueprinted and built by After Hours Automotive
HASport engine swap harness
OEM .025mm oversized pistons
ATI Super Damper harmonic damper
Cylinder head by Port Flow Design
Head surfaced for an additional .5 compression ratio
JDM OEM Civic Type R camshafts
Port Flow Design valve springs
Port Flow Design titanium retainers
JDM OEM Civic Type R intake manifold and throttle body
After Hours Automotive custom 3" intake pipe
After Hours Automotive modified header
After Hours Automotive custom exhaust
After Hours Automotive custom crankcase breather
Fluidyne radiator
Fluidyne dual-pass oil cooler
After Hours Automotive custom oil cooler ducting
E85 fuel
Hondata S300 engine management
Tune by Shawn Church, Church Automotive Testing
After Hours Automotive custom lightweight chromoly flywheel
After Hours Automotive custom dual-friction clutch disc
After Hours Automotive custom pressure plate
JDM YS1 transmission
Trans built by Synchrotech Transmissions
Synchrotech carbon synchros
MFactory 4.9:1 final drive
MFactory metal plate differential
MFactory short shifter
HASport hydro-to-cable conversion kit
RC Engineering 440cc fuel injectors

Chassis KONI coil-over suspension
Spherical bushings on suspension arms
ASR rear anti-roll bar
After Hours Automotive custom anti-roll bar end links
After Hours Automotive battery box (relocated battery to rear of car)

Brakes Wilwood 4-pot forward calipers
After Hours Automotive custom brake ducting
Cryo Science cryogenically treated rotors and pads

Wheels Volk Racing RE30

Tires Shaved Toyo Proxes R888

Exterior After Hours Automotive custom carbon-fiber hood exit vent
Wrap designed by Forealgraphics.com