In case you weren't aware, Stephan Papadakis is a well-known racer in the sport compact community. He was the first to drive a Honda into nine-second quarter-mile times, then eights, sevens and sixes. As import drag racing was eclipsed by drifting, he took his team over to the Formula D series without skipping a beat.
When I heard he was planning to build a car for NASA's Honda Challenge series, it really caught my attention. Having been friends for a few years, I offered to help in any way I could. What started as advice on what setups other competitors were running devolved into me checking tire pressures at his first event. At the end of Sunday's race, I interviewed him just outside turn four at Willow Springs Raceway.
AH: You've set all sorts of records with your drag racing Civics, the most powerful making 1600bhp. You own a drifting team with whom Tanner Foust took the Formula D championship last year. Your S2000 drift car is about to come out in the next Gran Turismo. Why are you racing a single-cam CRX in the Honda Challenge series?
SP: The reason for the CRX was it's something simple. The H4 class has good competition. The car is really tuneable and there are lots of parts available. I can do road racing, have good competition, train myself, and have people help me. I want to learn strategy, learn the lines, and, above all, get a lot of seat time for a little amount of money-relatively speaking. Then translate that into whatever else I do racing-wise.
AH: Do you think any of your previous experience translated into road racing?
SP: I think some of the drag racing helped, especially the car building helped with the drifting. And some of the drifting stuff is definitely helping with the Honda Challenge, because I'm not scared of the fast turns. If the car gets a little sideways, I know what to do and I'm not over-correcting and stuff like that. Now I think road racing is going to help with drifting, because I'm learning lines, learning to keep my eyes up and look ahead, and getting a feel for the car-the braking threshold, the traction threshold. Sometimes it's quicker to get around the track by going a bit slower into the corners and faster out. I'm learning all these techniques.
AH: What road racing experience do you have?
SP: My first road racing experience was with Autopalooza when TMR magazine sent us to Danny McKeiver's school (Fast Lane). And then we did an actual race. I didn't do much after that. I had a couple street cars I brought to the road course and drove some other people's cars. I had a shifter kart for a while, did a school at Bondurant in Arizona.