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I picked up a new Circuit to replace the outdated Evo.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.

Rowdy Road Trip. from Andy Sapp on Vimeo.

The first weekend in October, we all pitched in on a 16-passenger van and trekked up to Nashville for Adam and Alyson Szczuka’s wedding. This is a glimpse at what went on.Special thanks Hertrech Eugene for tag teaming on the shots!

2012 Motion Picture Reel from Andy Sapp on Vimeo.

Where do I even start? This is a project that I have been wanting to do for years. On the surface, it is merely a 3-year montage of footage I have shot using my Canon 7D since diving head-first into the realm of DSLR videography. But I feel strongly, that it is impossible to view this video from the surface. In fact, this video pulls you into the very depths of my heart and soul in ways I never thought possible. I stand strong in my conviction that I have never created anything in my life up to this point that harnesses and exposes that very same unfiltered heart and soul. Simply stated… this is the most powerful work I have ever created. Read more

Back during the week of Formula Drift Atlanta, we got some great press coverage from WSBTV in regard to the proposed legislation to ban drifting within Atlanta city limits. I got a phone call from Alex asking if I could be at the news station in 20 minutes… and the next thing I knew, they were shooting us live from the chopper! I managed to obliterate a day-old pair of BFGoodrich g-Force™ Sport COMP-2™ tires in the process. I found out those tires have a ton of grip! It was a wild experience!

They don’t allow embedding, so click the image to launch the player on WSB’s website.

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.

No words. Just watch. Enjoy.
OR ELSE.

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

Over the summer I have had an insatiable urge to shoot video. Since my car has been out-of-order, I have been catching rides to out-of-town drift events every chance I get. While it is seemingly easy enough for me to go and shoot an event – life ramps up its speed, making it seemingly impossible to edit anything. This video sat nearly complete as a rough cut, sans a few effects and grading for two months. Well… over the holiday weekend I was able to put the finishing wrench-time in and complete my first drift video in two years. I tried a lot of new things with this video, which is really my driving force behind making them. I want to learn something with each project. This edit is no exception. I tried a lot of new things both behind the lens, and behind the keyboard. This video was a ton of fun to create… and even though it took me forever to finish it – I think it was worth it.

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!!

Gran Turismo East – Michelin Spot from Andy Sapp on Vimeo.

HUGE thanks to my buddy Alex for the amazing voiceover, to Will and Josh for hooking me up with some of the incredible footage, and to Cody for letting me borrow his 5DMKII!Biggest thanks of all goes to Kieran at GTE for all his amazing help and unparalleled support over the years – both to myself and to the drifting community as a whole. Atlanta drifting would not be anything close to what it is today without it.If you’re in the Southeast, keep an eye out for this commercial airing on Comcast very soon!

Southeast Drift’s Triple Threat 3 went down the day after FD Atlanta… which was awesome because it brought out a TON of FD drivers to our local shredding ground.

We towed the injured KDF van down to Turner Field so we could set up a booth and sell some swag.

The booth setup was PROPER.

Josh (left) and Will (right) were shooting the event for the DVD. Josh was looking gangster on my bro’s Dyno flexing the Slide Style™ KD Tee. I see Mr. Alvendia up in the mix as well!.

David Lee of Risky Devil was also rocking the Slide Style™ KD Tee while Shawn made a funny face..

Some drifting was had. Tons of awesome tandem with a slew of FD pros like Dennis Mertzanis, Matt Powers, Tony Angelo, Chris Forsberg, Ryan Tuerck, Tony Brokohiapa, and more. It was rad. It is great to see the pro dudes mix it up with the local-folk.

Afterwards we crept through some plush downtown neighborhoods in search of parking…

So we could all eat at an old staple of mine: La Fonda Latina. Good food, good people, and GOOD TIMES for sure.

One thing I have always loved about motorsports is the paradigm of the sacrifices involved to conquer personal achievements along the way. One achievement that has eluded me for 6 years has been to successfully navigate the drift-course at Road Atlanta… specifically the entry into 10a, and linking the downhill section tracking out of the horseshoe back down to 10b (sans-manji).

Perched at the top of the hill talking to my buddy Joshua Herron… I couldn’t help but ponder all the years of bad luck, broken parts, STUPID limp-mode, ecu problems. I’ve basically been cursed. Seriously.

The duration of practice would unfold in much the same manner as the past… cursed. Even with a fully-functioning hydraulic e-brake – I still wasn’t acclimated to the point of total comfort. I even had another close call with a flat-spin in the narrow patch of grass between the track and the wall. My Yokohamas had SO much grip that they rocketed me right towards the wall. It scared me so bad I threw up in my mouth.When qualifying came around… we cranked the tyre pressures up around 60-65, and with some advice from Eugene, I came flying into 10a without my normal flick to set the car up. To my surprise… IT WORKED.

With the entry checked off my list, all I had to do was get the car back down the hill out of the horseshoe. My buddy Mike Peters had called me a week prior and given me some advice on my line to help me do this. To my surprise… IT ALSO WORKED.

Back down the hill I went, with just enough wheelspeed, momentum, and RPMs to get within reach of 10b. It would take a massive handful of that e-brake… but it would work.

To say that I was excited would be a MASSIVE understatement. Hell… Cloud-9 still doesn’t quite describe it. I had been fighting this track for 6 years… and with the help of all my friends, Matt Foerst, Kieran O’Brien, Eugene Chou and Mike Peters… I was able to finally break my Road Atlanta curse.

I ended up qualifying 8th, and was paired up with Jason Giovanni from Florida for top 16. On my lead-run… Jason straighted out, and on Jason’s lead-run… I straightened out. I think it should have gone OMT, but it didn’t – and Jason moved on. I was still so excited about my qualifying runs… that I didn’t even care that I got knocked out.

I don’t expect everyone to understand what a special moment this was for me. Tons of dudes rip this track every year with little trouble. I never thought this 3300lb car could get it’s 180 horses to push it through the track like this. I had it drilled into my own head that I couldn’t… and with the help of my friends… I did it.

I was able to hang out with all the DriftMechaniks/Team Rowdy dudes and just have a good time. These dudes are the best on the planet, and I dare anyone to attempt to prove otherwise.

This was a day I will NEVER forget.
EVER.