The store will not work correctly when cookies are disabled.
We use cookies to make your experience better.To comply with the new e-Privacy directive, we need to ask for your consent to set the cookies. Learn more.
SpoCom, the Nation’s largest Sport Compact Automotive Trade and Consumer event returns to the Long Beach Convention Center, Sunday, June 14. SpoCom is open to the public and features over 75 of the industry’s top manufacturers. K&N representatives will be on hand to answer technical questions, hand out decals, catalogues, mini brochures and coloring books.
2009 Lexus Is F will be featured in the K&N booth at SpoCom the Sport Compact Automotive Trade Event in Long Beach, California
SpoCom is all about the people who influence the Sport Compact Industry. It’s meant for dealers to get one-on-one time with manufacturers and is packed with automotive lifestyle entertainment.
More than 76,000 square feet has been added to the 2009 show due to vendor demand. The best prescreened vehicles on the planet will compete for the highly coveted SpoCom Trophy and thousands of dollars in cash. The judges are an all Import Industry Panel who know about cars, work in the industry or attend major car shows all over the world. Troy Sumitomo at 5-Axis Designs put his heart and soul into this year’s trophy design.
K&N will showcase a 2008 Lexus IS F in its booth at SpoCom with aftermarket modifications including a K&N air intake system part number
69-8703TS for its 5.0 liter V8 naturally aspirated engine.
Other modifications include:
Engine:
Fujitsubo Custom Full Titanium dual exhaust
50-shot NOS nitrous system
NOS composite Bottle and quick release brackets
NOS Ntimidator Purge Kit
NOS P.O.D. system
Tom’s Throttle Controller
Suspension:
TEIN Comfort Sport Mono-tube coilovers for IS F- sports version
TEIN EDFC
SPD Adjustable Front Upper Control Arms
Wheels/Tires/Brakes:
Volk RE30 19 X 9 front and 19 X 10 rear
Yokohama Advan Sport 255/35/19 front and 265/30/19 rear
Volk LE37T 18 X 9.5 front and rear
Yokohama Advan Neova AD07 255/40/18 front and rear
Brembo 6- piston GT kit
Interior:
BRID Birx 11 and Xax 11 in Hyper Black
Custom tinted trim pieces
Complete Memphis Audio Sound System:
Exterior:
5Axis Front Dry Carbon Lip Spoiler
Removal of all wheel well tar
Reinforcing:
Tom’s Front Tower Bar
Tom’s Front Suspension Member Brace
Tom’s Rear Suspension Member Brace
Tom’s Rear Body Strengthening Brace
M1 Fabrication and Development stitch welding (certain areas only)
K&N is the world leader in performance filter technology with 40 years of air filtration experience. K&N has an extensive product line and its SpoCom displays will highlight the features and benefits of these product lines.
Trenton Briley once again showed off his driving skills in the 2-day TORC Series at Perris Raceway in Perris, California. The Acton, California pre-teen took 2nd place both days in the Elite Karts
race.
Acton, California teen Trenton Briley takes the podium in the Elite Kart Series at Perris Raceway
Briley started on the pole with a group of karts behind him. He held the lead position for about four laps in his Trophy Kart with a LTR 450 Suzuki quad racer motor. With only three laps to go, the No. 524 kart took the lead and Briley’s No. 507 held onto the second position. He also won a brand new Traxxas Slash Remote control truck.
Trophy Kart with a LTR 450 Suzuki quad motor and a K&N air intake system shines during the Elite Karts Series in Perris, California
On day two, five of the best karts were ready to battle and Briley started in the back of the pack. “My son moved up fast toward the front of the pack,” said Trenton’s mother Natasha Briley. “He met up with the No. 522 kart and it became an awesome battle between two good friends.” For the next eight laps the friends went head-to-head until the No. 522 had mechanical problems. Trenton took home second place for the second day in a row in his No. 507 with K&N products.
“Our K&N air intake kit with a custom velocity stack gave us an additional 2 horsepower,” said Natasha Briley. “That’s additional to the extra 3 horsepower we picked up before with only our K&N air filter, that’s a total of 5 additional horsepower with K&N.”
Trenton Briley’s next race will be Saturday June 20 at Perris Auto Speedway in The Mickey Thompson, KalGard Lubricants Stadium Series.
The challenging Rocky Mountain Rally has come and gone and NOS Energy Mitsubishi and Team ACP finished second overall.
K&N products survive mud, dust, water and rocks on Team ACP's 2007 NOS Energy Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution IX
Andrew Comrie-Picard will participate in the 2009 X-Games in his Mitsubishi
Rally Driver Andrew Comrie-Picard and co-driver Robbie Durant took their new Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution X to Round 2 of the Canadian Rally Championship in Calgary, Alberta.
Team ACP takes second place in the Rocky Mountain Rally during round two of the Canadian Rally Championship Series
New 2009 Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution X debuts near Calgary, Alberta in the challenging Rocky Mountain Rally
“It was an intense two days of competition, especially with the gravel debut of the new car,” said Comrie-Picard. “The 2009 Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution is a strong platform and we’re working to improve its performance with every event. The Evo X will be more and more competitive through the year.”
The new Mitusbishi Lancer Evolution X is being tested this season in Canada. In the meantime, Team ACP will continue its aggressive campaign in their 2007 NOS Energy Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution IX in the United States.
Team ACP Rally uses K&N products. “I’ve used K&N since I began Rally racing more than a decade ago,” said Comrie-Picard. “We do the most extreme things we can do in a car and K&N is the perfect formula for our turbo charged motors. There is no compromise with K&N which protects our engines from road debris.”
“We had some luck on our side this weekend that allowed us to podium despite some inevitable teething trouble with the new car,” said Comrie-Picard. “It was an excellent learning event for us and now we know what we’ll be working on before the next Canadian round.”
ACP is in third place overall after five rounds in the Rally America Championship Series, behind Subaru Rally Team USA driver Travis Pastrana and Rockstar Energy’s Tanner Foust.
“The Susquehannock Trail Performance Rally is close to home for us and we know it well,” said Comrie Picard. “We’re looking forward to resuming our U.S. Rally Championship campaign as well as facing off against some series newcomers.” The event in Pennsylvania is expected to feature the American rally debut of Swedish World Rally competitors Patrik Sandell and Emil Axelsson, along with Freestyle motocross champion Brian Deegan, who has won 11 X Game medals.
The Susquehannock Trail event is one of the most demanding events on the U.S. calendar. “The 2009 running of the contest features a return to the popular two day format,” said Jen Horsey of Team ACP. “This will include a spectator friendly daylight schedule and super special stages on each day.”
There will be more than 100 miles of competitive stages the weekend of June 5-6 on a tricky course that’s fast paced and technical. “The roads will be narrow and fast,” said Horsey. “With the possibility of slick mud, it will translate to plenty of challenges for competitors.”
Top Dawg electrician Brendon Mendenhall, K&N Peformance Kits Manager Bert Heck and Ramona High School Automotive Teacher Robert Grace work out the dyno run details for the 1994 Chevy Camaro
Five Ramona High School Automotive Students and Parent Tony Greenwell at K&N headquarters in Riverside, California
Several seniors from Ramona High School received scholarships partly because of their work ethic on Top Dawg
Top Dawg rolls into K&N's dyno facility
K&N's Bert Heck explains how dyno testing will be done on Top Dawg
K&N hood scoop helped 1994 Chevy Camaro go faster on SPEED-TV reality show Drag Race High
Top Dawg is a red, white and blue 1994 Chevrolet Camaro built from the ground up by students from Ramona High School near San Diego, California. This labor of love and the students were featured on the SPEED-TV reality show, Drag Race High.
Five of those students, their teacher, Robert Grace and a parent Tony Greenwell took a field trip to K&N in Riverside, California where they toured the facility. They also brought Top Dawg, which was a dynamometer virgin until it was tested at K&N.
The five students who got up at 5 a.m. to make the trip described K&N as filter paradise. “K&N is incredible,” said Ramona High School Automotive Instructor Robert Grace. “I am impressed with the knowledge of the K&N staff and the facility is top notch.”
The Ramona High School crew brought three types of fuels for Top Dawg’s dyno runs. C12, C16 and nitrous racing fuels were
each tested on their 598 cubic inch Dart engine with Crower internals, a K&N oil filter and a K&N hood scoop.
The dyno room at K&N is situated under offices and near customer service. The race car was heard and felt by a lot of the K&N office personnel. With the C12 racing fuel the Camaro was really loud on the dyno. When the nitrous racing fuel hit the dyno it sounded and felt like a race car. High fives went all around when the Camaro made 869 horsepower with the nitrous racing fuel. “The noise was exciting,” said Grace. “These kids put their hearts and souls into this car and K&N helped us take it to the next level.”
Automotive students worked 12 to 16 hours a day to complete the project. They went to zero- period before school and worked on the build of the car, attended classes, did homework then worked on the Camaro in the evening. Senior Brendon Mendenhall was the electrician for the team. He made a quick fix in the K&N dyno room that allowed testing to continue. “I wired up a switch that cut the nitrous solenoids,” he said. “We had to activate that switch to turn on the nitrous and everything worked again.”
Ryan Greenwell was the only freshman on the project. He is an accomplished junior dragster that has three Wally’s listed on his racing resume. He also uses K&N products on his dragster. “I was a floater on the crew,” said Greenwell. “They teased me because I was the youngest but I was there all the time and helped out where we needed it. I think I have 38 nicknames now.”
“My son’s work ethic changed with this project,” said Tony Greenwell, Ryan Greenwell’s father. “He was the only freshman and he stuck with it to the end. It was very rewarding to see my son’s growth and development and also very rewarding to see all these kids start something this great and finish it.”
Todd Dodson worked on brakes and suspension. “I learned how important suspension is,” he said. “I also learned fine tuning is critical.” Senior and crew chief Chris Houts said he got his hands dirty every day. After graduation he will attend the Motorcycle Mechanics Institute in Phoenix, Arizona on a full scholarship. Daniel Currie will go to UTI in Arizona for the Ford Facto Program.
SPEED-TV gave Ramona High seed money to build the Camaro. “It was ten-thousand dollars,” said Grace. “We took that seed money and made phone calls, sought out an advisory committee made up of local racers and received parts from sponsors like K&N. In the end we have a car worth tens of thousands of dollars.”
In the reality show, Ramona High lost the race, but they really won. “We set out to build a race car and we did,” said Grace. “Several of our seniors received full scholarships as a result of our program and I’m proud
them and all of the students who worked on Top Dawg.”
"When I was in high school we had auto shop but it was nothing like the Ramona High School program," said K&N Performance Kits Manager Bert Heck. "I wish I had been in their shoes
when I was a teenager."
Next year Grace hopes to take the car to a local drag strip and show his students the motorsports side of the automotive world.
Cody Gibsonwon the A class his first year and the Pro-Am Unlimited his second
Eighteen year old Cody Gibson, up and coming ATV racer, says he realized he had a natural affinity for racing at a young age. "I had some friends in Englewood, Tennessee that had ATV's and I rode one of them and liked it a lot. I quickly felt comfortable enough to start getting crazy on it and realized I had a talent for riding these things," says Gibson. Cody, known for his no holds barred approach to tearing around the track with absolutely no fear, suffered a serious injury on his road to professional racing. "Four years ago, I broke my pelvis and sacrum trying to jump a road in Tennessee. It almost ended my career before it even started," says Gibson.
With a Championship in Pro-Am unlimited, and a 3rd place showing in Pro-Am Production in 2008, Cody has become the rider to watch.
18 year old Cody Gibson
Cody races for Walsh Race Craft, a manufacturer and dealer in aftermarket chassis components for high performance ATVs. He pilots a Walsh built Monster Energy Kawasaki KFX450R in both the Pro-Am Unlimited, and Pro-Am Production Classes. "The 2009 Kawasaki KFX450R is the best handling and most agile bike I have ever ridden. I can't wait to show everyone what it has at Round 1," says Gibson. With a Championship in Pro-Am unlimited, and a 3rd place showing in Pro-Am Production in 2008, Cody has become the rider to watch. "My 1st year racing Nationals, I won the A class and my second year I won the Pro-Am Unlimited. Now, I am winning the Pro-Am Production."
Cody is currently training to go pro and only uses K&N ATV Air Filters on his ATVs. "I use them because my team manager chooses them and he always knows what is best for me," says Cody. "Using only the best quality products keeps us from worrying about mechanical problems and lets us focus on winning the race," Team Manager Mike Walsh adds. "K&N products give us peace of mind."
Walsh Race Craft, located in Live Oak, Florida, manufactures long travel a-arms, swingarms, steering stems, subframes, and other suspension components, as well as billet aluminum products and other small ATV parts. "Each product we create is backed by multiple National Championships and countless National Victories," says Walsh. "We have some of the best people and companies in the motorsports industry supporting us this year, K&N being one of them. I am really looking forward to putting together a solid season for all of our sponsors."
