DC Sports Goes Racing Again!

 

We're back at it! Our love for racing and Acura Integra's meet up again for 2023! We are proud to announce we will be competing full time in the GRIDLIFE GLTC wheel-to-wheel racing series. Partnering up with Ronnie Vajdak we hope we can fight with the top of the pack this year! 

1. Ronnie, we are excited about working together and are looking forward to seeing your car out on track. What does it mean to you to have DC Sports represented on the side of your car?


I think many of us that grew up during the import tuning scene of the 90’s and early 2000’s, have a special connection with DC Sports. It quickly became synonymous with Honda performance. If you drove a Honda or Acura and were looking for a performance upgrade, you were going with DC, end of story. Everyone I knew, including myself, ran a set of DC headers. DC Sports became a staple of the golden era, and It’s an honor to be representing the company that helped build the foundation for today’s performance market and my passion for motorsport.

2. Can you give us a rundown on some of your past racing experience? What series have you been competing in?

Growing up, my family spent a lot of time at the racetrack. Every few weekends we would drive out to an event, and I would watch my father compete at these regional races. We visited tracks such as Bridgehampton, Watkins Glen, Lime Rock Park, and Summit Point to name a few. His success was inspiring, and I began to develop a love for the sport. By my early teens I was eager to follow in his footsteps and wanted to get behind the wheel as soon as possible. I competed in my first Time Trial event with Eastern Motor Racing Association when I was 17 at Nazareth Speedway, got my comp license shortly after and went on to win the ST2 Championship and Rookie of the Year later that same year. At that point, there was no turning back. I was hooked. The following year I teamed up with my father to do some endurance racing which included races ranging from 1 to 6 hours. In 2005, we both got the opportunity to compete in NASA’s 25 Hours of Thunder Hill. In 2016, I was invited back to drive the 25 Hour for the Mazda USA team. I competed in different Time Attack series on the West Coast including VTEC CLUB and Redline Time Attack. Most Recently, I’ve competed in NASA’s northeast region in Honda Challenge 1 in 2020, Super Touring 5 in 2021, and Honda Challenge 2 in 2022.

3. GRIDLIFE is an experience. What do you think the biggest difference will be coming into GLTC full time compared to what you are used to?

I’m always looking to challenge myself. I really enjoy learning from people who are smarter, faster and more skilled than I am. GRIDLIFE has created one of the most well broadcasted grassroots racing series in the country and along with it, have attracted some amazing talent. I was a huge fan of the Speedvision Touring Car series back in the late 90’s and early 2000’s and now GLTC has come along, and I believe it’s the closest any series has come to bringing that kind of energy and excitement back.

I’ve mostly raced regional series that don’t offer much variety in circuits so it will be my first time visiting most of the tracks on the 2023 schedule. I’ve dreamt of racing circuits such as Circuit of the Americas, Mid-Ohio and Laguna Seca for a long time so I expect it to be an exciting learning experience all season long.



4. What makes the Integra DC2 chassis so special to you?

I originally chose to purchase a DC2 because Honda’s and Acura’s were life in my household. My father was a hardcore Honda enthusiast. Before I even acquired my driver’s license, I had watched him build more Honda’s and Acura’s in our driveway than I can count on 2 hands and had race 3 different generations of Integra’s. In the early days, occasionally the caged “race cars” would also double as our commuter vehicle, but I’ll save that for a different story.

After I graduated College, I moved down to Texas and immediately put my fresh bachelor’s degree to work and became a cashier at a Lexus Dealership. Money was tight during those years, but I knew I wanted to get back to racing. I managed to save a little bit of money and bought myself a Clover Green Pearl DC2 off some young kids who nearly destroyed it. I bought it with a bent hood and crushed roof after the hood flew open on them on the highway. It had 2 unpainted fenders and a cracked unpainted front bumper held on by a rope. It was a mess, I didn’t have many tools or experience working on cars, but it was all I could afford at the time.

Over the next decade, this car has been with me through everything. Everything I know today about cars, racing, mechanics, and engineering is thanks to this car. I’ve learned about patience, discipline, overcoming hardship, and it’s given me a purpose to keep pushing. This DC2 has been with me when I had nothing, so to be able to look back and see how far we’ve come is truly special.

5. Is there anything our followers should know about you?

I’m just a regular guy who has an undying passion for motorsports. I also love animals. As a result, I now have 2 cats named after Formula 1 drivers, Nico and Kimi.

 

 We will be with Ronnie at our first race in Texas at Ciruit of the Americas March 11th for the Global Time Attack / Super Lap battle. The GLTC cars will feature a special race during that time.