Honda Expo 2021 Official Event Coverage

What an interesting couple of years we have all had. The last Honda Expo we were able to host was in August 2019 which feels like forever ago. Going into this year there were many hurdles when it came to securing a venue, so we decided to reach out to Evergreen Speedway because of our longstanding relationship and try to put something together. The car show paired with the on-track activities was a lot of fun and we think this has a lot of potential for years to come!

Photos by Brady Gunderson. Text by Matt Haugness.

One of the best things about being at a racetrack is that we were allowed to race on the track! Evergreen Speedway has many successful Evergreen AutoX events throughout the season so we knew this would be a great fit. We decided to tweak their format slightly and have an entire run group devoted to Honda and Acura vehicles. Another major change from a normal autocross is every driver had 2 consecutive laps which we called Time Attack AutoX. We also designed a much faster course than normal which we think was a hit!

It was AWESOME to see an entire group of 25 Honda/Acura on grid together. Everything from S2000’s to EG Civics were running at the same time. See our post for a full breakdown of the rules and classes we decided on. The award winners, photo gallery, and a link to the overall times can be found towards the bottom of this post. We look forward to developing this part of the event in the future and fill up the entire pits with Honda and Acura cars exclusively.

Almost 100 cars signed up for our car show at Honda Expo this year. After not having the event the previous year and with the Canadian border still being closed, we were happy with the turnout of cars overall. We think that next year will do the car show trackside like DriftCon (it’s by far the best place to host a show at this venue) and limit the cars to approval only. This means probably about 80 cars maximum will be allowed in the show in 2022. This will make certain categories ultra-competitive which may bring out even crazier builds.

Categories were determined by the number of models of each car in the show. Essentially each model needed to have at least 4-5 cars to have an award created. Competition was close in many of the categories but the most populated were the multiple generations of Civics. There were so many close categories that determining the first and second place very difficult. Our criteria for judging the cars can be found here.

Speaking of judging, this year we took some of the feedback we received from past events and tried to improve the event. A few participants at these events felt like we didn’t spend enough time to get to know their builds in detail. We doubled the number of judges and we felt like we had plenty of time to split up the categories and get to know the owners that were willing to talk with us. This allowed us to catch all the details and the important parts of their builds. It’s amazing in the Honda/Acura community how many people do most of their own work on their cars!

Someone that we have respected for years decided to join on and help support our event. Austin Hironaka (owner of Hiro’s Hotrods) made the trip from Bellingham to set up a tent and display his Del Sol/Element. The Saturday before Honda Expo Austin and Namsayin hosted a great open house/meet at his new shop which we were stoked to attend ourselves. We were super grateful that he took the time to attend and help promote the event for us. He also picked three awards in the show: Best Sleeper, Best Track Build, and Best Engine Bay. We know that relationships are important in the Honda community so we look forward to working with Hiro’s Hotrods and Namsayin for future events.

Another sponsor that came back to support the event was Hasport Performance. They provided an engine mount kit and some prize packs that we randomly selected winners the night before the event. Will Hanson was picked as the winner of the Hasport mount kit and we think that he will be selecting mounts for his 10th gen Civic. Follow @beastlywill on IG for updates on his build!

MPC Motorsport was a new sponsor this year that came on board and supported by providing a couple Hundred Proof Hardware dress up bolt kits (K-series and B-series) that we gave away with a raffle of all show participants. They are a respected company in the Honda community so we can’t wait to have them back in 2022.

Thank you to our sponsors/vendors, staff/volunteers, and Evergreen Speedway for making this year possible. It was super challenging with the venue change and some uncertainty surrounding COVID-19 but we made it happen.

I am a huge Honda fan and have been for most of my adult life. Honda Expo is all about the passion for me and one of my events that I look forward to hosting the most (despite it being the smallest). I think that over the years the Honda scene has steadily diminished as people have aged out and with the younger enthusiasts gravitating towards drift or stance builds. My goal is and always will be to nurture the local Honda/Acura community and help it grow. I think with the new motorsports element it will only help show people outside the scene what Hondas are capable of. Thank you for attending and please encourage any friends to attend in the future!

-Matt Haugness

If you have any feedback for areas that can be improved at Honda Expo please submit a comment using our CONTACT FORM. We will personally take into consideration any suggestion.

Sponsors

Hasport Performance
Hiro's Hotrods
MPC Motorsport / Hundred Proof Hardware
Honda Auto Center of Bellevue

Vendors

Civics 4 Life
Get Wrapped PNW
StanceWars
Mint Squad 206

SCROLL DOWN FOR FULL SHOW AND AUTOX WINNERS + PHOTO GALLERIES

CLICK HERE FOR AWARD PRESENTATION PHOTOS

CLICK HERE FOR FULL TIME ATTACK AUTOX LAP TIMES