I decided moderately last-minute to drive at the Select Driving Club event at Atlanta Motorsports Park on the 4th… so as soon as I could get home to thrash on the car… I was home thrashing on the car. I wanted to get the passenger-side 6-point installed, and a proper seat bracket to get a seat back on that side of the car.

When I took the passenger seat out for Gridlife I was alarmed at the seat bracket that was in there. This bracket was thrown together with some scrap (not naming any names) and just didn’t feel safe to me all these years later. Heck, the submarine belt was just looped around one of the bars. I cringed when I saw it. So I ordered a Planted bracket from Enjuku to do it right. I had to modify it slightly so that I could mount the rear bolts… which was a little annoying. But I feel so much better about this setup.

I decided to put one of the old Evo’s back in on the passenger side until I can afford a matching Circuit. The fabric had worn through, so I tucked a bit of black stage towel underneath it… and while it ain’t perfect… it’s a heck of a lot better than it was!

This car has had ambulance strobes on it since forever ago… and the brain was mounted under the passenger seat right where the 6-point submarine belt needed drilled for. I’ve felt relatively certain that this thing was the parasitic draw that kills batteries in this car… so I decided to just remove the whole thing. It was not fun trying to snake all this back out.

I also picked up a new driver-side floor panel to replace whatever this one I made back in 2005 is. I’m no fabricator now… and I certainly wasn’t back then either. It’s hilariously bad… and I was excited to see it go.

Because this car still has AC… I had to modify the new panel to fit around the duct work on the floor… which took way longer than it should have. But I’m really happy with the end result.

Seats and harnesses mounted… floor panel complete. Just in time to load up for load-in.

The next day I met Austin and his buddy Mike at the Georgia Racing Hall of Fame so that we could roll in and pit together.

We were just in time to see ’em loading one of Chase Elliott’s ol’ cars back in the trailer for the day.

Next day was the 4th and we were ready to go bright and early.

I did a terrible job of documenting the day… mainly because I was just trying to survive the heat. It was BRUTALLY hot. Like be extra careful hot. I hadn’t driven on this track at Atlanta Motorsports Park before… so I tried to take it easy and learn the track the best I could. I figured out pretty immediately that this track is faster’n holy heck and my car was severely underpowered for it. So I basically just picked a few spots on-track that I could tackle and just focused on those. But MAN… I was struggling out there!

Photos by: Travis Mooney ^^

There were a lot of black flagged sessions due to people going off-track. But I managed to get two solid hot-lap sessions where nobody interfered. Because of the size of the track it felt like I was out there by myself. It was enough that I felt okay calling it quits a bit early. I knew with the heat that getting loaded back up was going to take a lot out of me. So I called it a day.

It was great to get a li’l bit of hangtime with Swann… that’s twice this year, which is killer!

All-in-all… it was an incredible day. Although… I did manage to completely throw my back out unloading the floor jack from my truck. So that’s a new thing to look forward to drifting at this age.

It’s been quite some time since I posted here. Heck, this part of my site was offline for many, many years. But after what all has transpired o’er the past few weeks… it seemed fitting to fire up this side of the fence. After all… blogs still rule.

About 10 days out from GRIDLIFE Atlanta, Gregg Bucell called me and told me my application for GRIDLIFE had been approved. I was like… but I didn’t apply! I felt pretty reluctant to do it for several reasons. The main one being that I haven’t driven like that in a LONG long time. 2010 was the last time I drove Road Atlanta… and I haven’t drifted anything that fast since. I maybe get to drive once or twice a year, but ne’er as fast as Road Atlanta.

The second was financial. It’s been a slow start to the year work-wise. 27 year old me woulda sent it… while 47 year old me was trying to be more responsible. Gregg talked me into it… explaining that it was 50% for me… and 50% for my friends and family that want to see me charge down that hill again. I told him I couldn’t argue with that… and knowing how psyched Tyler woulda been was a major deciding factor. But the car needed work, and all of the safety stuff was from 2005. It would all need updating too. So it was on.

I picked up a new Circuit to replace the outdated Evo. I decided to just pull the passenger seat for the weekend until I can update that seat too. It was strategic in a sense, because I only wanted to focus on my driving without distractions.

I got the car on stands to get to work updating the 5-point harnesses with 6-points. Gregg sourced me a new pair of Sparco harnesses. I went ahead and pulled the wheels for fresh tires.

I got all of my wheels out of storage and stopped by Gran Turismo East for tires. I cannot stress it enough how amazing Kieran is… and how none of this weekend would have been possible without him and his continued support. He is seriously the best!! I truly could not do any of this without him.

I love this old poster in the shop of Road Atlanta from way back. It’s so cool knowing the history of that place… and it made me feel extra excited knowing that we would soon be getting to go drift there.

Back at the house… it pained me to pull this old sticker from the car… but I did save it. This car is truly a time capsule.

It took way longer than I’d expected… but I got the new seat mounted and new harnesses installed. I had to relocate the hand brake to fit the new seat. I’m tempted to redo that whole hydro setup altogether. I planned on re-doing the driver-side floor board… but ran out of time.

The car had a wild oil leak… which turned out to be the o-ring where the dipstick meets the oil pan. That was WAY more complicated than it shoulda been to replace. I didn’t really document this because I just wanted to be done.

I replaced the upper/lower intake boots while I was in there… and while I was doing that I broke this stupid vacuum connector:

In typical BMW fashion… I tried my damnedest to find one locally, but could not. No dealerships had one in stock. None. I hail mary’d tryna find one at Pull-A-Part early Wednesday morning and saw this thing:

There weren’t any connectors… but I did scoop a fresh set of amber tails and an emblem for cheap. Not what I intended, but glad I found.

I had to overnight that $2 connector from 4 different vendors just to increase my odds of getting one on time. In the meantime I had to ziptie a temporary fix just so I could get the car on the trailer in time for tech. The car would not start and run without that vacuum hose connected.

All loaded up for Road Atlanta.

Made it in time and passed tech with flying colors.

I pitted with the ol’ Koruworks crew for the weekend… which made me VERY happy.

Austin was my pit crew for the weekend… and was MVP for SURE. More on that later.

I got a PROPER aluminum vacuum connector just in time.

We had MANY wristbands.

Drivers meeting.

My parents came out which meant the world to me. Their love and support is everything… and they’ve always been THE most loving and THE most supportive!! It was so great to get to share this weekend with them.

It was go-time… and I was a nervous wreck. It had been 16 years since I’d driven Road Atlanta… and I just don’t get to drive at this level anymore. It was an overwhelming and intimidating place to be trying to knock the rust off.

Knowing I had updated all of the safety bits in the car was a huge relief though. For a long time I haven’t taken the safety stuff very seriously. I don’t know if it’s wisdom with age, or what… but I’ve turned a corner on that and want to take it seriously moving forward.

It was so crazy to be gridded back atop that hill. E’en crazier to be surrounded by SO many BMW’s. That is quite a difference between way back when and now.

I totally fumbled the first few attempts. I was SO in my own head that I wasn’t concentrating properly. I hit the windshield wipers at one point. Spun the keyhole. I was scared out of my mind. Once I got past the first turn it was like riding a bike. But that initial entry was going to take some work.

After the first session… I was a mess. Anxiety was spiraling, and I honestly felt like I’d bit off more than I should have. That Road Atlanta was NOT the place to be remembering how to drive at that level.

Austin, though… did something I will never forget. After that first session he asked if I needed anything… that he wanted to run to the house real quick. Unbeknownst to me… he had convinced GRIDLIFE to let him run. So between sessions he ran home and got tires, came back and put his car through tech… and then he pulled up behind me in line for the second session. It was an audible sigh of relief from inside my helmet. Austin has been in my rearview running my door thousands of times. It was exactly what I needed to realize “you’ve been here before… you’ve got this”. And from that point… it was ON.

Each run got better and better. I kept biting off just a little more with each run… and things were starting to come back to me. I opted out on drifting the full course, because I just wanted to get back to the top of the hill to practice the old FD layout. And Austin was behind me every time. It was THE BEST. I also truly enjoyed grip racing that track. It’s such an incredible place!!

This photo that Travis shot is everything. My Dad with the thumbs up… and Austin right behind me as we barrel into the keyhole. Everything I’ve done in life is in pursuit of making him proud. This is such a special moment.

The love of my life.

I made some DriftMechaniks helmet visors for the homies. The only way to get one is gonna be to drive together. I surprised Sebastian and Gregg with theirs, which was super special! Austin got one as well, DUH.

We took a stroll through the FD pits.

And a quick stroll through the GRIDLIFE pits.

Ashley and I with Kieran and Austin. I could NOT have done any of this weekend without each of them! REAL TALK.

Sunset 10/10. I picked up a HANS from Jim Downing himself. It’s a bit of a story… but it was his personal HANS… and the last one at Downing Atlanta. I feel honored to have it and to be the one using it. Now that I’ve used a HANS, I won’t ever NOT use one. I honestly cannot believe I’ve gone this long without one. In my humble opinion, they should be as mandatory as helmets out on-track.

After the halftime show was over it was time to watch the big boys… so off to the Rowdy VIP.

Rowdy VIP… of course… wouldn’t happen without Marlow.

I’m happy I got to see Tuerck on his farewell tour.

This was Ashley’s first time experiencing Formula Drift… AND Road Atlanta. I’m o’er the moon to get to share this world with her. She is my favorite person, and I love that she appreciates all of this as much as she does!!

The level pro drifting is at these days is absolutely mind boggling compared to how it was back in the day. It is WILD. It’s almost unrecognizable in a strange way.

The questionable calls ain’t changed a bit though!

The finals were James Deane vs. Vaughn Gittin, Jr… with Vaughn coming out on top.

And that about wraps up my weekend at Road Atlanta. This was easily one of the best weekends of my life. I felt very emotional, and felt like I really overcame something to get back out there and bomb that hill again. I felt like Tyler was out there with me cheering me on and helping me through.

It was everything. The friends… the family… it was all just… everything.

One things is for sure… I will move mountains to do this again next year.

Back in May, I picked up a new daily… a Hellrot Red 1993 BMW 325is. My friends Alie and Jeremy were moving out west and needed to sell this beaut! It just to happened, that gas mileage in The Destroyer™ was bleeding my wallet dry, and I needed something slightly more fuel-efficient. That put me in the right place at the right time to pick this car up cheap!

I immediately snagged some Raceland coilovers and slammed the hell out of it on a old set of Racing Dynamics.

I have some funny plans for this car that are light years from happening. For now I’m just enjoying some gas-savings and having a fun daily again! This car has humbly reminded me how good I am at driving like an absolute maniac. Kindred spirits we are… kindred spirits.

Eventually I will write up what a wild, crazy, and INSANE journey this trip was. Maybe. Until then, these snaps will have to hold you over.

Video in the works… watch out.

I feel super honored to be included in Volume 1 of Hoonigan’s “The greatest hoonage caught on tape”! The clip is from Will Roegge’s “Don’t Stop” video. So many of these clips are classics, it is awesome to be among them in this awesome compilation.

Also… Motörhead. Need I say more?!

Sir Alexander Grant, massively on-point with this amazing photo of a mid-murder killing spree.

Click to enlarge, but be warned… you might not live to click again.

I had a chance to sit down with Will Roegge and Skylar Smith while they were in town for Formula Drift and discuss the current state of the legislation to ban drifting inside Atlanta’s city limits… and really try to touch on why Turner Field is such a special place for drifting.I can’t thank Will and Skylar enough for putting this piece together. It really conveys a strong, positive emotion about the epicenter of our drift community here in Atlanta. Plus, 300FPS slow-motion RED Epic footage in the rain just looks BREATHTAKING.

A few snaps that MARLORD™ shot from the last Turner event. I snapped another axle leaving the line for my first run… but with the amazing help of Chris Stein, the car was patched up and back in thrash mode for most of the day! I cannot quite describe how amazing it felt to be back out there. GIGANTIC THANKS again to all my friends and family for getting ol’ girl fixed!Be sure to come out to Turner Field this Saturday for another all day banger! Drifting starts around 10am until the sun goes down!

Before I dive into what is the nicest thing that anyone has ever done for me… let me preface some history.

Back in October of 2010, two friends of ours, Axel and Martin, came stateside from Germany for a visit. During that week, there happened to be a drift event up in Nashville. My car at the time, had a shattered ring-and-pinion, but I wanted them to drive while they were here. I had a rebuild kit from KAAZ overnighted, and got a new pumpkin from Stricktly German. Matt Foerst got the KAAZ rebuilt, and back into the new carrier. Axel got the diff back into my car while I was busy finishing freelance work. A very VERY important facet to this story is that… at the time… I was knee-deep in the worst financial turmoil of my life. I had been struggling to stay afloat as a freelance designer, while still falling deeper-and-deeper into debt from drifting. But with the car freshly patched up, we made a last-minute dash to Nashville. To shorten the story up, my first run of the morning, the car’s rear-end was already making a clunking noise. Something broke. There I was, maxing out my last credit card so we could drive at this event… and the car broke on the first run. I drove back to the pit, and told the guys “Fuck it. We came here to drive and that’s what we’re going to do… if it blows up, it blows up. Let’s have fun today no matter what”. And we did. All day. The noise got worse with each pass, and by the day’s end… the car was indeed… very broken.

When we got back to Atlanta, I decided to park the BMW in the garage, and take a break. I needed to get my finances out of the gutter, and that obviously was not happening with it in the picture. The thing is… I never intended that break to extend into the hiatus that it did.Fast forward to present-day, 2012. I am working an awesome full-time job, finances are doing much better, and in the meantime, the starter died on the car, so I took it up to Koru, where I planned to work on it at least one night a week.

The only problem is, that with work… I could barely find the time to actually work on fixing the car. Good intentions only go so far, especially when it comes to turning wrenches (read: they don’t turn themselves). Now. Let me introduce you to my dear friend, Kyle Boyce.

I’ve known Kyle since 1992, when we were best friends in middle school. Like many childhood friendships… Kyle and I lost touch for many years after I moved away, but we reconnected through the universal language of the automobile… and… when in 2008 Kyle reached out to me after opening his own restaurant: Manhattan NY Pizza. Kyle told me that he wanted his pizza place to be a hangout for car guys/gals. Where any gearhead could walk in and feel at home. I was immediately on-board with this, and did my best to tell all of my friends and miscellaneous gearheads alike. And it worked. Manhattan Pizza is now a staple for speed-crazy, wrench-turning maniacs from all over Atlanta. All of my friends religiously converge there once-a-week like the gigantic family that they are.

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THIS IS WHERE THE HISTORY LESSON ENDS AND THE REAL STORY BEGINS
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Kyle calls me up, and says “WE NEED TO HAVE DINNER. Just you and me, pick a date, and lets stick to it”. He said “I know you’re busy, and I’m busy, but let’s do this PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE”. I’ve known Kyle long enough to know that when he says please more than once… that it is important. So we picked a day, and stuck to it. I arrived to the restaurant early, and found a table reserved for the two of us. Yes, that is combined weight. ;P

He brings out my usual, and we sit down and eat. Catching up on what’s been new in each other’s worlds. A few of my friends show up, for the normally scheduled “family” get-together. The whole time, Kyle is texting a lot… which I remember thinking – Kyle doesn’t usually text this much… but whatever. Then, he excuses himself, and goes into the kitchen.Then… one-by-one… in a single-file line… ALL of my friends come out from the kitchen. All wearing the same black t-shirt that had the funny beard-skull illustration that Patrick/Tyler made of me on it… reading SAVE THE SAPP. Nobody said anything to me, most barely even looked at me… and everyone sat down. I’m definitely thinking “WHAT. IS. GOING. ON. HERE?”

Kyle then gives a short speech, which can be Cliff’d along the lines of “We know your car has been broken, and you still come out to all the events and shoot video… which we love… but we love you, and we miss driving with you. So we’re having a drift intervention. We stole your car, had a fundraiser, and fixed it behind your back without you knowing.” At this point I hear my lovely 2001 BMW 325Ci’s unmistakeable exhaust note revving up outside as it pulls up to the restaurant.

Cliff’d Cliffs: STOLE CAR, RAISED MONEY, FIXED CAR BEHIND MY BACK, THESE PEOPLE ARE THE MOST AMAZING. EVER.

I have always said that I am forever in debt to drifting for introducing me to the most amazing people I will ever meet in my lifetime… AND THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT I MEAN. I couldn’t even say anything. I just wanted to cry. That’s right. Heavy metal crazyman… on the verge of tears. I got up and demanded a hug from everyone in the entire restaurant… holding back tears the entire time.

I basically didn’t know what to say the rest of the night. This is by far the nicest thing anyone or any group of anyone has ever done for me. Once oustide, and reunited with my Chariot of Fire… well… I guess you could say you had to see this coming. And if you didn’t, then you don’t know me and my propensity for violence on the streets.

The black ribbon atop my car, with message so near-and-dear to my heart… embodied a million-times-over by the kindness and heart behind this special evening.

The fundraiser t-shirt that paid for the parts to fix the car. The extra money raised went to buying me a season pass to attend the S2 Drift Events down at Turner. I can’t even scream at the top of my lungs how amazing this is! There is above and beyond… and then there is what all of these incredible people have done for me.

Kyle made pizza for everyone, and these were literally icing on the cake, care of my amazing Mother.

Group photo from the evening. There were several people that helped make this happen that aren’t pictured here… but everyone in this photo, and everyone involved are easily the most amazing people I have ever met. I am without a doubt, the luckiest guy on the planet. I don’t know what I did in a past life… or even the current one to deserve it… but I am very, VERY thankful to have these people in my life. SERIOUSLY. AMAZING.

I cannot thank all of my families enough (in NO particular order), DriftMechaniks, Team Rowdy, Boyce Family, Sapp Family, and the DRIFTING family as a whole. Words cannot even begin to do any of this justice… but I had to at least try.I will wrap this up with a photo of myself and Kyle. Except this one isn’t us elbow-to-elbow in the early 90’s as kids. This is of the two things that brought us back together as friends, in front of the restaurant that we both tried our damnedest to make a place for gearheads from all over to feel at home… for good food, great atmosphere, and even better memories.

Thank you, Kyle
<3

In January I was lucky enough to be able to attend the ASD Mob Seminar up in Charlotte. What an AMAZING amazing experience. Ian, Dave, and the crew as ASD know their stuff like no other team in Formula Drift. There. I said it. The fact that they wanted to give back to the grassroots community with a program like this is really too phenomenal for words. The things they taught us totally made me re-think everything in regard to car-setup for drifting. I seriously can never thank these guys enough!

In May, I ran in the Warrior Dash with (left to right) my brother Jonathan, Dad, Mom, Tom Hanks from Castaway, and parent’s friend Joel.

Everyone HAS to do one of these races. It is REALLY fun, and a very wild race! The obstacles are actually a nice way to break up the distance. I won’t lie – you get filthy dirty in ways you can’t really imagine until you do it. But it is an absolute RIOT!

Also, in May… I picked up another guitar I’ve always wanted. Definitely a staple for both heavy metal and rock and roll. An Epiphone Flying V. I also snagged a sweet li’l mini-stack by Marshall.

In June, Alex let me borrow his Honda Camino, and I went with he, Eugene, and the rest of the Swoop Jockeys on a 50+ mile moped ride from Cabbagetown all the way to Northpoint Mall for the Cars and Coffee meet. I don’t know what it was about these crappy old neglected things… but I kinda fell in love with them. As fate would have it, Chad wanted to get rid of his old Tomos A35… so I bought his!

I started sanding the paint off, put new bars, seat, controls, taillight, and made a super-sweet headlight cover with a broken Hella cover from the truck. I also made a nice chain guard out of an old ’71 Georgia license plate. I still need to get the rest of the teal off the bike – but it is definitely starting to feel more-and-more like mine.

rnEvery Sunday morning, I’ve been riding around Atlanta with these guys… having a blast. We rode through the historic Pullman Yard, and I happened to have my Contour on me. This was a really fun ride!

In light of riding basically mini-motorcycles, I decided to take an MSF class with Cody, Wes, and Alex. It is something I would recommend to anyone who wants to ride a motorcycle of any kind. We learned a lot, and I feel a lot safer when I ride now as a result. We all passed both the riding and written tests… so at the end of the weekend, we all got our motorcycle licenses!

I’ve been working a bit on tidying up the garage as well. I plan on putting up pegboard on the left-side wall to help free up some space. There isn’t a lot of room to move around in there, and I want to try and help it breathe a bit. The BMW has been sitting for a while, with the rear-end still broken. I’ve been too busy with work to really mess with it, but in the next month-or-so, plan to have it back up and running again!

Our German DriftMechanik counterparts, Axel and Martin, made their way over to the US for a visit… and hung out for about a week. To celebrate, we made a mad-dash to fix my broken diff, get the car prepped, truck packed and get to Nashville Superspeedway for TND’s Driftoberfest.As we left, I stopped to make sure the trailer tires were filled proper. When we got the gas station, we found one tire was totally flat. So I put air in it, and as I did, a nail shot out of in from the pressure build… leaving a perfect hole in the tire. With my patch kit at home, I bought one from the gas station. It looked like a stick of bubble-gum would have worked better, but alas – I plugged it with a vow to recheck in a few miles to make sure it was holding. We didn’t even get 5 miles down the highway and I noticed sparks shooting from the rear of the trailer. Then came the vibrations and some minor sway. Just like that – I had my first trailer-tire blowout EVER.

I had a spare, but it was a 14″ passenger tire… which wouldn’t make it through Monteagle. All the other tires on the trailer are 15″. We called every place we could with zero luck getting a spare tire at 1:30am. The one place we did find only carried 16″ tires. Lucky for us, Sammy from Tiger Racing hadn’t left for the event yet, and had a spare for us. We limped the truck/trailer to his shop just a few miles away, where he pretty much saved our lives! We drove straight through to the track, and arrived at 7am before the gates opened. I was exhausted, and still had to break in the new diff clutch plates. Got that taken care of, and it was track time.

After my first run, the diff was already clunking. I decided that I had too much invested in fixing the car/making the trip so we all could drive – so I made the executive decision to drive it anyway. Axel and I drove the car all day. I had a blast watching Axel drive my car. I had never had the chance to see my car in action like that. He got a TON of seat time! It looked like he had a blast.Marlow’s Corolla was knocking, so at the end of the day we put his car on my trailer, and I decided to drive the BMW on the street back to his place. Bad idea. By this time, the rear end of the car was making horrible clunking noises. Alex was shooting video out of the passenger-side of his truck, and I floored it for the shot. BAD idea. The car dogwalked to the left, right towards his truck. I thought I was going to hit him… hence the ‘oops’ face.

Unlucky for me, after that… everyone took off and I couldn’t drive over 40mph. Equally as unlucky – my cell was in my truck, so I had no way to call anyone, and they all took off at a normal pace. No GPS, no phone, malfunctioning car, and no idea where to go. Eventually, Tony Schulz realized something was up, and rallied the troops. They had to box me in, and we all went 40mph for about an hour back to Marlow’s. It was CRAZY.The next day, we hit the Import Alliance carshow for a moment, and then hit the Wave Country skatepark.

I skated in the pool for about an hour, then we hit the road back to Atlanta.

Shortly after our return, Martin and Axel (left to right) had to catch a flight back to Germany.

I’ve said it before, and I will say it again. I feel EXTREMELY lucky that this crazy motorsport has introduced me to so many amazingly rad people. Martin and Axel are two of those people. I wish I took more photos while they were here… but I was too busy having a BLAST hanging out with them! I can’t wait to meet up with these dudes again!!

After rediscovering the magic of my photos from Africa, I remembered another photoset from long ago. After digging through notebooks of old CD-ROMs… I found another trove of images. This time… of my beloved BMW, Evelyn

From day 1, my love for this car was of exceeding proportions. The Jet Black gloss of the paint seemed forever deep, the smell of the black leather hypnotizing, and the rev of the motor… well… let’s just say that aspect was most arousing of all.

Lost in my enamour for this wondrous chisel of German engineering, I used to wander the city streets of Atlanta… forever searching for the perfect environment to compliment to car’s stunning good looks.

Armed with a (now ‘vintage’) 35mm Nikon N2000, and a 28-70mm 1:3.5-4.5 f3.5 lens, I scoured my city for cool locales, sharing an immeasurable amount of bonding time with the car that stole my heart.

Inspired by the UK magazine, CAR… I was drawn to the idea that the vehicle’s surroundings could speak at an equal volume to the subject itself. Unfortunately (for me, anyway)… in the advent of digital photography, this practice has become commonplace

Regardless, to me… there is something infinitely pure about these photos. No race-trim, no slammed stance, no battle-scars. These photos bring back some great memories when my car was brand-new, times seemed simpler, and my love for the automobile was the only inspiration I needed.

While I was clearing out and backing up old files on my machine, I stumbled across this image that my buddy Carlos Richard shot back in August of 2007 for my cover-feature in S3 Magazine. I thought it might make for a cool skate deck, so I gave it a whirl. I think I know what deck I’ll be skating once I kill my current stick!

Check all the decks online in the Slide Style™ Deck Shop.

Made a super-last-minute decision to make a pilgrimage to Englishtown for East Coast Bash.

The last time I was there was 4 years ago to shoot Slide America, and I didn’t have time to pull my car off the trailer to drive. With Will and Josh in attendance to shoot for Keep Drifting Fun… it seemed all-the-more fitting to get back there for some driving. I’ve been telling Petty I was coming back for 4 years… so it was time to make due on that.

We showed up around noon on Sunday. This track is so amazingly awesome that I was instantly bummed I wasn’t able to get there on Saturday. So many configurations… none-of-which are bad. I instantly felt at home on this track. The more I drove it, the better things felt. I had such a blast… and cannot thank Petty enough for having us up! Towards the end of the day I felt a weird vibration in the car, and decided to call it a day before I blew something up.

The next day we took the car to Roots Factory in Coatesville, PA to give it a once-over. I didn’t feel like cracking open the diff-carrier… but it seemed like something wasn’t quite working with the diff. It had more play than usual, and you could turn the wheels against themselves if you pulled hard enough. Byron noted that my car looked right at home at this shop.

My buddy Brad Hettinger had already basically stripped his down to a shell in less than a day’s time. We decided to take a funny picture for his build-thread..

The next day we saddled up, and drove about an hour and a half from Hater Dan’s house in Pennsylvania to a top-secret locale for an OG underground hoodrat sesh. What went down inside this warehouse was UN. REAL. Rob Fleming met us, as well as a few local rippers, for a crazy closed-door session that lasted several hours. UN. REAL. Will and Josh piloted the KDF van to the location to document things. They wound up with some of the craziest shots I have ever seen in drifting. MASSIVE thanks to Dan for hooking this insanity up. Keep an eye out for the Keep Drifting Fun DVD to peep what went down!

After that madness settled down, we headed back to Pennsylvania, only to re-pack and head back to Jersey for Gardella Racing’s ‘Throttle Thursday’… which brought out a bunch of FD pro-drivers… many of which (including myself for a li’l while) kicked around skateboards and braved the park on BMX bikes. This was my first time inside a skatepark since 1998… and I was REALLY scared! (more on that in a minute…) We all had a good time, including our jump-session in the foam pit (01:35 in).

The advent of the foam pit was definitely after ‘my time’ in skating. I had never been in one, so I didn’t really know what to expect. I will say this much – they aren’t exactly as soft as you think. Whatever you do… DO NOT open your mouth, or else you get tiny bits of gross sweaty foam in it. UGH. Once I got up on that railing to jump… it was a good bit higher than I originally thought. Either way, I had to get in on a front-flip to complete the night.

Next up was Formula Drift New Jersey. The folks at NOS Energy were awesome enough to let us spring an impromptu booth-space in front of their bunker so we could help sell Will and Josh’s tees. Josh looks asleep in this picture.

Tony brought by some of the new DA American Steel Tees that I designed. They turned out SICKKKKK. These are available in the Slide Style™ store now!.

Alex caught me red-handed in this photo. After my shattered collar-bone in September of 2007… I swore I would never step foot on a skateboard ever again. I was actually banned by friends and family. After nearly three years, I finally caved. I totally understand how people who try to quit smoking feel. For three years I’ve been getting the ‘urge’ to skate like a smoker’s spiral into a nicotine-fit. I have to say… it feels good to ride again – even if I am riding like an old man scared for his life..

A couple funny jump-shots that my buddy Larry Chen snapped while I was wearing Lihnberg’s wig. If you haven’t been to Larry’s site, DriftFotos – CHECK. IT. OUT. Dude is a madman behind the lens – an amazing photographer for SURE. Plus he likes jump shots, which is RAD.

After FD, we headed south to Baltimore to meet up with the Drift Alliance crew to go see Hall and Oates in concert.

I never thought I would go see Hall and Oates… but we had a blast. It’s so smooth! SO SMOOTH.

After Baltimore, we made a quick stop in Philadelphia to get some proper cheesesteaks & pretzels with Will, Josh, and Andy Laputka. On the way back to Atlanta we made a minor detour to Manhattan. After an all-night drive back down the East Coast, we made it back home. What an astounding trip, and an incredible few weeks up North.

SUPER HUGE THANKS to my buddy Dan Bailey for letting us crash at his place for so long, and for the amazing hospitality.