‘Garagista’ James Alford hopes some winter ‘TLC’ for his Civic EK9 will reap rewards in the Racing Hondas Championship’s Class A in 2025.

Alford, who prepares his EK9 with just his father, achieved the unique feat of finishing all 16 rounds in 2025 with a best race result of fourth position.

He said: “We don’t have a workshop – the car is kept and worked on in a friend’s garage at their house.

“The winter months have been spent giving the shell some TLC which it needed after the 2024 season. There’s not a lot of room but we manage it.

“The car evolved a lot during the season with lots of small changes – now we’re taking those changes and making them better, refining certain areas.

“Let’s see if we can find a little bit more power and try and be as close to the 240bhp-per-ton target as possible. We were 80kg overweight in 2024…”

Alford, a 32-year-old IT consultant from Chelmsford, says work on the EK9 is even giving him new car-build skills.

“I’m learning to use a welder which means I can start to neaten up certain areas of the car!

“It’d be great if the refinements we’re making can lead to that elusive first podium result, but it’s looking like it’s going to be an even more competitive grid.

“To be honest, the most important thing about going racing for a van-and-trailer set-up like ours is having fun and that’s what we had in 2024 with Racing Hondas.

“A lot of that was down to how clean the racing was – competitive but clean which is what it should be, plus the organisers genuinely take stock of what the drivers are saying.

“It was a no-brainer to come back again in 2025.”