The Honda Challenge Racer Changing Lives Through Motorsports

Dillon Brennan knew he had a knack for instructing when he was once asked to give an impromptu presentation to a NASA HPDE1 class.

“Dillon has a superpower where he can take something incredibly complex and explain it in such an accessible way to an intro driver,” said Sal DeSantis, who was leading the HPDE class.

That encounter led the NASA Northeast racer Brennan to the Urban Youth Racing League, a flagship program of the Philadelphia-based Urban Youth Racing School. The nonprofit was founded in 1998 to get more underserved youth into professional motorsports, partnering with industry heavyweights including NASCAR, Hendrick Motorsports and Chevrolet.

Brennan works with students, ages 8 to 18, in the Urban Youth Racing League, with the top students coming from the 10-week, entry-level Build a Dream Motorsports program. The students are either underrepresented in motorsports or socioeconomically disadvantaged, which appeals to Brennan. His family went through a hard time during the financial crisis when he was growing up.

“Helping people who are socioeconomically disadvantaged in racing is one of my biggest life goals,” Brennan said. “I really want to see kids not fall through the cracks if you have talent, but you don’t have the money.”

The UYRL is built around simulator racing, specifically iRacing, to provide a low-cost way for kids to learn race craft and car control. The goal isn’t just to create a driver pipeline, but future mechanics, marketing executives and data analysts.

“Our mission is to get these kids from the inner city recognized as a viable candidate pool for roles in racing teams, roles in the industry, so that we can represent them better,” Brennan said.

The administrators behind the Urban Youth Racing School had originally approached DeSantis, who is the co-lead for the HPDE classroom in the NASA Northeast Region.

“Seeing him in (the classroom) and his passion for motorsport and giving back, I quickly backed out and went, ‘I’m not the right guy, but I have someone for you to meet,’” DeSantis said.

The UYRL is Brennan’s first motorsports client (his day job is a managerial accountant), and anyone who knows him knows he is a natural fit. Brennan teaches the students how to drive and race in a structured digital environment. When on track in the passenger seat, he can spot the sim drivers.

“The level of confidence and the lack of understanding of the consequences,” Brennan said.

Racing on a Budget

Brennan started autocrossing while on a college internship, and like most college students, had a limited budget. His first two events were at the now-closed Rockford Speedway in Illinois, and he was hooked.

“I was building a (Honda) K24 at the time to put in the (Acura) RSX, and I had bought new name-brand wheels and name-brand coilovers, just because that’s what I was used to,” Brennan said. “As soon as I did my first autocross and I got smoked by somebody in a V6 Camry, I was like, ‘I got to learn how to drive. This is way cooler.’”

Brennan developed a social media brand, EJ2 Track Rat, about getting maximum performance with limited resources. He had built a reputation in the NASA Northeast paddock for his resourcefulness in saving money and acquiring parts.

Among his money-saving efforts were to rent a room in a house with the use of a garage, and volunteer for track time. But the “track rat” reputation came because racers would give Brennan damaged or unsellable parts. Brennan would take the parts and repair them, using parts for his racecar or selling them on eBay to fund his racing program.

Early on, when Brennan reached the limits of a setup, he was quick to swap out parts rather than look inward. “When I got to NASA, there was such an emphasis at the time to drive the car the way you have it, the skills will come,” he said. “It was a blessing in a way because it saved me money.”

But his best investment was a 50-cent notebook, allowing him to write down subjective impressions, tracking changes to the setup and driving so he could build a game plan for the next event.

“Once I started using a notebook, that’s when things started to get better,” he said. “I could see the results from my car setup changes and driving changes.”

Brennan realized that budget racing has its limits and shifted his approach on social media. He learned the politics of the paddock and how relationships are formed, which gave him a new perspective.

“You can work hard and go faster, but at a certain point if you’re trying to be nationally competitive, you need to spend the money — and that’s just any form of racing,” Brennan said.

Honda Challenge Return

After taking nearly a two-year break because of health and finances, Brennan built a car this season for Honda Challenge 2 while waiting on car counts. If Brennan can quickly return to form, NASA Spec Miata National Series Director Jim Tramontano said H2 competitors better bring their A-game.

“Dillon is probably the perfect example of how you can really use sweat equity to be a super successful race program,” Tramontano said. “He doesn’t throw a huge budget at this car, but it’s certainly grown. It’s the amount of time, prep work and extreme attention to detail that sets him apart.”

Brennan’s best national finish came at the 2019 NASA National Championships at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, finishing third in a deep Honda Challenge 4 class. More recently at the 2023 Championships in Pittsburgh, Brennan put together a strong challenge before a mechanical issue knocked him out of the final with six laps to go.

Spending the last couple of years instructing, Brennan said he learned good driving techniques by sitting in the passenger seat. Brennan wants other racers, especially young drivers, to have similar opportunities as he did.

“One of the biggest things that made NASA so fun for me was that it gave me a space where I could make mistakes and people wouldn’t criticize or tear me apart,” Brennan said. “They would build me up, instead of tearing me down. I really wanted to focus on giving people a safe space where they could learn, make mistakes and push the car without the terrible consequences.”