Interview with Stephan Papadakis

An interview with one of the most world famous drag racers for the import community Stephan Papadakis.



Papadakis, driver of the AEM/Driver FX Pro RWD Honda Civic, is arguably the most recognizable name in sport compact drag racing. The Redondo Beach, Calif. resident recorded the first eight-second pass in a front-wheel drive car and owns the fastest E.T. for a FWD car in sport compact racing. He also captured three NHRA sport compact victories with that bright yellow FWD Honda. This year, Papadakis moved to the Pro RWD category with his new AEM/Driver FX Honda Civic. In this Q&A session, Papadakis talks about his inauspicious debut to the market, why kids should race their cars at the track and not on the street, and how he gained sponsorship.

Q: How did you get involved in sport compact racing?
PAPADAKIS: My friends had Hondas and fixed up their cars and I've always been into RC cars and performance and fixing up cars. Nobody in my family would let me get a Mustang or Camaro, so the Civic was a good economical choice. It was attractive because you could still do work to it. This was back in 1992 when the whole scene was just starting. At the time, big upgrades were headers and exhaust.

Q: That was a little more than a decade ago. Did you think the sport compact scene would take off like it has?
PAPADAKIS: No, I remember going into the local speed shop, which was Dynamic Autosports in Irvine, [Calif.], and I was talking to them about a used camshaft for my buddy. They were telling me about stuff like honing the manifolds, nitrous, porting the heads and all this other stuff that they do to the engines. I told them, 'No, this is it. I don't want to get to serious here.' I think a couple months after that I was doing tons of work to the car.

Q: What made you get so involved?
PAPADAKIS: I was hanging out with friends that were into the same stuff. I was racing them and losing to them, but I was learning more. And the more I learned about the engines and the upgrades, the less I was afraid to make upgrades to my car.

Q: You started out street racing. What would you tell today's youth about street racing?
PAPADAKIS: You don't have to street race now because there are plenty of tracks to go racing at today. Back when I was doing it, there weren't any local race tracks in Southern California. And when I stopped street racing and started going to the race tracks was when I was able to actually get sponsors and make a little money and develop a positive reputation. None of that could happen at a street race. There's no professional street racers.

Q: How did you get involved with AEM?
PAPADAKIS: I dealt with John Conpaldi, who was the original owner. So, I had a pretty good relationship working with him and him helping me with my race car back in 1995. And around '99, they had grown into a large company and wanted to do some race sponsorship. So, John gave me a call and said to send him a proposal. I sent them a proposal and we had some meetings and it worked out well. And it was because I was going to Battle of the Imports and the NIRA races at the time and I was making a good showing and developing a name for myself at these publicized races.

Q: When you started out racing did you ever imagine that you'd achieve the success and the status that you've achieved?
PAPADAKIS: No, it was never even a goal. All I thought about was racing, I wanted to go racing. It was just something I did for fun. Then it turned into something that if I could make some money off of or maybe make a living doing it, that would be fine. But I just want to race, that's the main thing. It's not that I want to be rich or I want to be famous, I just want to go race.

Q: You achieved a lot of success in the FWD Modified car. Did you want to move up to the Pro RWD category this season?
PAPADAKIS: Oh yeah. The record that I have, the 8.12 is not an NHRA record, but it's a FWD record. I ran that in November 2001. Shaun (Carlson) ran an 8.22 this year, we're talking a year-and-a-half later. No. 1, I had to say, is the competition or the lack of it in the Modified class and the really good competition in the Pro RWD class. Also, the attraction on moving to a faster, more high profile class and just trying something new. I still have the FWD car, which I'll still race at certain events.

Q: Do you ever plan on campaigning both cars at the same event?
PAPADAKIS: No, it's hard enough to race just one. If we try and do both, it takes away from one car. I do miss that car, but with the FWD, because of the drive train, it's not bulletproof as with the RWD cars. So, the FWD car is a more frustrating car to race.

Q: You debuted the RWD AEM Drag Civic at the SEMA Show in Las Vegas last fall. What was the reaction when you brought out the RWD car?
PAPADAKIS: Some people thought I was abandoning FWD, which I wasn't. I've innovated tons of stuff in that class anyway. People who think the way I do want to compete. They want to go racing. I wanted to go racing because I like to compete. I'm not into racing because I want to dominate everybody. If I'm dominating, that means I need to go somewhere else. I need a new challenge. I like the challenge.

Q: Whose decision was it to campaign the RWD AEM Drag Civic, yours or AEM's?
PAPADAKIS: It was a combination of both. We wanted to do something in another class and have a faster car. It's cool having a six-second car at over 200 mph. For the layman, it's just more high profile. At the same time, we made sure we wouldn't neglect or just give up on the FWD car.

Q: What's your goal for the 2003 season?
PAPADAKIS: To be within the top three. I want to be the third fastest guy out there and finish top three in points. For a first-year car, first-year team, first-year engine program, because everything is new this year, I think we've come a long way and the second half of the year is going to be kick-ass.

Q: Are you looking forward to the second StreetGlow Extreme Rush in Dallas in October?
PAPADAKIS: I'm really excited. Not necessarily to prove myself to the domestic crowd, that's not what I'm trying to do; we have our own following. After the first Extreme Rush I realized that's not really the people I'm trying to reach. I don't really care about the 55-year-old man with a muscle car in the parking lot. I don't care if he likes my car or not; that's not our market. So, I just take it as another race. It's the top eight cars in the points going out and competing at a national event in front of a huge crowd.

Q: What are your feelings about the rivalries in the Pro RWD category? Do you enjoy racing against that group?
PAPADAKIS: I love racing against all those guys especially because they're nice guys. It's always fun competing against nice people and we have plenty of that in the class. I consider everybody in the class a rival because they're not on the same team and they don't have Hondas. So, everyone out there is a rival. I like racing George (Ioannou) the most because he's the fastest in the class and he's got the bulls-eye right now.