Competition was fierce at Turner Field for round 2 of Drift Fury! When the dust settled, I was left standing atop the podium! It was a DriftMechaniks 1-2-3, as we swept the podium! Erin Sanford took 2nd place, Jonathan Martin took 3rd, and Sammy from Tiger Racing took 4th!
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A short video off the Drift Fury website:
Demos > Competition.
Gateway International Raceway, just outside of St. Louis was subject to two days of unabridged MAYHEM, as we unleashed an onslaught of drifting insanity for the 4th round of the Nopi/NDRA Xbox Cup Racing Series.
This was our second NDRA drift demo. The first demo we did in Valdosta for round 2, was a blast… but we were still figuring things out as we went. This demo in St. Louis came together like VOLTRON. Things developed into more of a “show”, and the crowd went nuts. There were SO many people there. I don’t know where they all came from… but as soon as it was demo time, people were running to get a spot on the wall. The 6pm demo on Saturday was INSANE. There wasn’t an open space to stand around the entire demo area. People were sitting on people’s shoulders to get a glimpse. It was simply amazing. Beyond amazing, it was inspiring. The crowd was so into it, and we fed off that energy to create a show that might be difficult to top.
I learned where the opposing corner of the car was to my position in the driver seat during the demos. I knew the proximity of where contact would occur… but that’s one of those things you can’t truly learn until contact is made. Feeding off the energy of the crowd, I was able to “kiss” the wall at speed, and not sacrifice my line, speed, or angle. It was nuts. I started out with small low-speed… brake-stand style taps… and by the end of the weekend, was grazing the wall at speed. I managed to take a cone out that was a cigarette pack away from the wall’s edge. It was anarchy. Pure anarchy.
Drifting was a new thing to a lot of people at the event. Countless people said “I didn’t even know what drifting was until today… you made a fan out me – this is awesome!”. I few people said “I thought drifting was stupid until today… you guys changed my mind”. Hearing things like that means the world to me. You can’t put a pricetag on things like that. It validates that all the blood, sweat, and tears we put into all of this actually means something. It means EVERYTHING to me… but when it means something to other people as a result… it makes you feel like things are moving in the right direction. I would rather see drifting make it’s mark on the world, than see myself make a mark on drifting.
A short clip, shot by Tri Tri-Rudolph, from my qualifying run where I flipped the clipping point.
What an amazing weekend! After obliterating both motor mounts, & a bearing in my differential during qualifying, I managed to lay down a run that I was pleased with, so overall I walked away happy. The BFGoodrich G-Force Sport tyres performed flawlessly, and made for a great smoke-show upon track exit! HUGE HUGE thanks to Kieran from Gran Turismo East, and Dan & Tracy from Batlground Engineering for lending such a huge hand this weekend!!!
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I had the drift car officially stripped of all her vinyl for about two whole days… then she got wrapped with new graphics! It was kinda cool having her all black and shiny again. With those ol’ Racing Dynamics tucked under the wheel wells… she was indeed looking more old-skool euro – much to my liking.
I got the primary base of the new graphics on the car about an hour before I had to be at the track for Round 2 of Formula Drift @ Road Atlanta. I got most of the sponsor logos on the car at the track, and actually finished the rest of the application after race-weekend.
I designed everything in Illustrator… and it’s kinda crazy to see it go from the screen to the car. I’m an old skool veteran to vinyl application… but never anything this large in scale. I couldn’t have got-r-dun without Tracy’s help at Batlground. Everyone conked out asleep, or went home… but she stayed up to help me hinge the vinyl onto the car… proving once again that Batlground is the BEST ever. Thank you Tracy!!!
Ol’ grrrl is finally starting to look like a racecar instead of a street car with more stickers than you can count. Now… about some aero…
;P<
This is a screenshot out of Illustrator of the file I was working with:.
Weeding vinyl on carpet isn’t much fun.
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On three… I’m going to close my eyes, and this will be applied… 1.. 2..
THREE! Man, that was easy. ;p
Batlground and Gran Turismo East logos complete.
Headed to the track with more vinyl work to do…
At the track…
On the track…
I will be competing in the 2nd round of the SCCA Formula Drift Series at Road Atlanta!
We did our first drift demo for NOPI/NDRA in Valdosta this weekend. It was a blast. We have a lot to work out to make the whole thing more of a “demo”… so it was a good learning experience. The way the track was set up… spectators weren’t really allowed anywhere near us, so we were pretty isolated to the infield of the circle-track the whole weekend. It gave me a chance to relax between demos, and do a ton of skateboarding.
We all got interviewed be the Speed Channel… so we’ll see how it turns out! Overall, it was a great weekend!
After a sleepless night of car-prep… with the entire rear-end of the car on the floor of the shop less than 20 hours before the drivers meeting… the first round of Drift Fury was a success!
The beginning of the day was my first chance to shake-down the car, and get used to the solid rear-end. The car felt amazing. There used to be a noticable rebound on kick-back… that was no longer there. The car just wanted to keep going. It took some getting used to… but felt really great.
With 60 drivers in the feild… and elimination from 60 to 8… competition was fierce. The Top-8 elimination would leave Aaron Losey, Jonathan Martin, myself, Dennis Mertzanis, Forest Luster, Shawn Smith, Erin Sanford, and Rob Fellows standing.
Despite falling asleep in my helmet while staged for Top-8 (literally)… Erin Sanford and I would end up having a “one-more-time” battle, with close runs the first time around. In the end, Aaron Losey walked away with 1st place, Jonathan Martin with 2nd, myself with 3rd, and Dennis Mertzanis with 4th.
Afterwards, the skateboard made it’s way out of the truck, and a bunch of us started kicking it around old-skool style. It’s crazy how many drifters skate (or used to). It was a rad time, even if I was falling asleep randomly. ;P
About a month ago at Black Hills Circuit I managed to crack my subframe. I didn’t hit anything, or do anything out of the ordinary compared to how I usually drive.
They only thing that really makes sense is that this was a small fracture that has been compounding over time. Possibly a hairline fracture that has slowly grown with each aggressive-arsed clutch kick.
I talked to R&D over at Turner Motorsport, and had them assemble a fully reinforced subframe… complete with aluminum subframe and differential bushings.
I’m actually glad my subframe cracked where/when it did – because sure enough – just as Turner R&D advised… there were cracks in the driver-side rear subframe mounting point that I couldn’t see until the subframe was removed. The infamous subframe weakness in the e46 subframe mounting points WAS starting to be exploited – so fortunately I caught it in time before the entire thing tore out of the car. I am still VERY surprised that the damage was so minimal considering the on-off torsional load that has been put on that subframe (and it’s mounting points) for the past 3 years.
Fresh out the box… 
Turner also reinforced the rear sway bar mount: 
Almost ready to yank-r-out… 
The crack near the mounting point: 
Another view of the cracked subframe: 
Rear end: out. 
New vs. Old: 
All assembled: 
I forgot – I ordered shiny blue Turner adjustable rear camber arms! 
METAL. 
Crack detail: 
Pwn4g3. 
In order to reinforce the front subframe mounting points… you have to drop the gas tank… which should have been easy – but it’s German… so it wasn’t. Once I finally got it out, the remaining mount points ground down to metal, battery, alternator, and ECU disconnected… we had to rig the rear end on a dolly and carefully move the car over where the welder was, because I was on the far lift – where the welder doesn’t reach. Nerve racking doesn’t even begin to describe the fun that was. :P
We got it over there, all prepped and ready to weld… got two of the plates welded in the bottom mounts… and ran out of argon, and had to finish the welding the next day (the day before Drift Fury).
Bye-bye stubborn gas tank. 
Cuts inside the trunk above the mounting points: 
Ground down METAL ready to weld: 
Daniel Willie behind the stick:
rn
GRINDING METAL! 
Driver side rear lower reinforcement: 
Driver side front lower reinforcement: 
My shop glasses from high skook pwn u. 
Drrrty mohawks > Clean mohawks! ;P
Driver-side front subframe mounting reinforcement – ready to be primed and painted.
Passenger-side front subframe mounting reinforcement.
Driver-side front rear mounting reinforcement.
Passenger-side front rear mounting reinforcement.
Primed.
Painted
I lifted that rear-end into the car, and bolted it up by myself. (j/k)
OMFG DONE!
On the alignment rack at Gran Turismo East @ midnight. *Note the “UNSPONSORED(tm)” sticker’s partial removal to reflect how I felt, lol.
I CANNOT THANK BATLGROUND ENGINEERING & GRAN TURISMO EAST ENOUGH for their help. I would not have been able to get all of that madness done without them, and definitely would not have had the car ready for Drift Fury otherwise. Seriously… there is a reason I say they are THE BEST IN ATLANTA… because they are.
I will say it again – Batlground and GTE are the BEST in Atlanta.
<3
Erik Jacobs, Tony Schulz, Dennis Mertzanis, Jonathan Martin, and myself were invited up to Lanier National Speedway for a 10 minute drift demo between circle track races.
This was some of the fastest I’ve consistently drifted to date. Usually you get a super-fast entry… and slow down a good bit for the rest of the course layout – rnbut this was top of third gear – pedal through the firewall the entire time!!!
A few pictures from the drift demo madness (c/o www.codywellons.com).
After the Formula Drift Qualifier was wrapped up in Houston… we blazed trails to Lousiana for the Import Face-Off invitational. It was gawt damed AWESOME. It was a road course that was very challenging (for underpowered cars :))… And by mid-day we were killing it. Hot lapping the entire circuit with non-stop drift madness at every corner.
Marty, Dan and I all made top 8. Marty and I both advanced once, to be eliminated. I was taken out by the 1st place finisher (mostly due to fuel cut with gas sloshed to one side), and Marty was taken out by the second place finisher… Also in a Miata.
Marty and I got to battle it out for 3rd/4th… Just like the drift expo!!1 it was AWESOME. From what we were told it was the best tandem of the day. We got SUPER close, and finished it off with some slow manji standing burnouts for the crowd to finish the day.
People at the event were SO stoked about drifting. It was really a cool day, and it totally validated all the stress, sleep deprivation, and personal anguish I put myself through in the two weeks prior to the event. It was an amazing track and an amazing day.
Next competition they run there we HAVE to go back!
Some video from the event:
Better late then never, I suppose… here’s a recap and some photos from the Formula D qualifier at Gulf Greyhound Park in Houston, TX.
Three events… Three days… Summed up: pure mayhem. The FD qualifier was a mess. Everyone was ripping it on the practice day prior to the qualifying event. There was a lot of speculation as to who was going to walk away with a license. It was looking really good for a lot of people.
THEN… it rained, turned all the dirt and sand in the lot to mud… and everyone turned on suck-mode… including myself. If it had rained, and continued raining, circumstances would have been different. But the rain had time to dry… slightly. So the track surface went from mud, to wet, to dry, to wet, to mud again – and if you hit that last patch of mud, you would completely wash off course.
I felt like I was actually running decent considering the situation… then qualifying started. I NEVER have issues with understeer. NEVER. NEVER EVER. I hadn’t understeered the entire weekend. Then by some stroke of magic (or lack thereof), I understeered three out of four runs… IN A ROW. I didn’t feel good about it at all. I knew I wouldn’t be getting a license. The thought of not getting a license didn’t bother me at all… but not quite understanding where my understeer issues came from did. I’ve since deduced that it was a combination of factors, such as tyres from Irwindale on the front (Dunlop left me high and dry on tyres) – and they moved the course in to help avoid the muddy-puddled area… which played a significant role in changing the track surface.
They only gave one FD license… To Quoc Luy in his satin black 13 hatch. A provisional license was given for the first three events to Wes Hamachi the green Garage 112 hachi. Two invites were given to the qualifier in San Diego. One to “Hachi Bill” Sherman from No Ants… And the other invite to me.
After the announcement was made we all went back out for an amazing session filled with tandem madness. It was sooo much fun. Once the pressure was taken out of the equation, and it dried up a little… People were ripping it. It was an AWESOME session!
http://www.driftday.com/fdtxqualifier_results.htm
Drift Racing + Podium Finish + Ambulances + Emergency Rooms = WIN.This past Saturday was the first Atlanta Drift Expo downtown at Turner Feild. For it’s kick-off event, I think it went extremely well! It was an absolute blast. The course was a little weird at first… but as the day went on, started to make more sense. It was awesome!!! Third-gear entry for a high-speed front section… linking to a lower speed back section that was tight and technical.ATL made a strong showing, and it was a DriftMechaniks 2-3-4 on the podium… proving that we ARE Atlanta’s illest sect of sideways sliding lunatics. Harri Tervola from Ter-Tech took 1st place in his turbo e34 525i, Erin Sanford took 2nd in his freshly faced s13, I landed third place in the e46, and Jonathan Martin took 4th in his bare-METAL Miata!!! It was a really great day… emergency room and all.
Video c/o TedJ on www.southeastdrift.com
We had a champagne victory celebration at the end… and I couldn’t get mine open. I haven’t opened a bottle of champagne since college, lol. Caught up in the moment… getting champagne shot in my face… it made sense to try and smash the end of the bottle on the curb to pop it open. That would clearly be the worst decision I made all day. I knew as soon as it happened that I had to go to the hospital. The bottle crumbled into large shards of glass that had no intention of going down without a fight. I cut across the face of my thumb, about halfway into it.
Thankfully my Mom was at the event all day. She sat me in the truck, and we took off for the hospital. I passed out as we pulled out of the lot… and when I came to I freaked out. I couldn’t see anything, and didn’t know where I was… I didn’t know what was going on. It scared the absolute hell out of me. My Mom turned around and called 911. An ambulance showed up and took me to Atlanta Medical. I got stitched up, and all taken care of. I was in and out in about two hours. They said my blood pressure dropped to zero… which is why I passed out and didn’t know where I was. The cut didn’t really bother me… but I never want to feel like I felt when I came to EVER again. I checked the atlantadriftexpo.com site… and there wasn’t anything listed about a trip to triage for third place… I wonder what’ll happen at the next event?!? Death? Destruction?
All the DriftMechaniks were incredibly awesome to get everything packed up, and both the cars back home for me. I don’t know what I would have… or would do in general… without them.
This trip set forth with me, my iPod, and the open roads of this nation… towing the e46 solo-style across America’s interstate highways from right coast to left and back again. Three twelve-hour days of blaring heavy metal across the continent, sketched out truck stops, drive-thru windows, and rest stops, and 2400 miles later… I came to rest in Burbank, CA – about 10 hours before the Formula D Media day.
Irwindale Speedway was the one track I was scared of all season. I think just about everyone I know has wrecked there – so that was always in the back of my mind. Right off the bat, I realized my car wasn’t prepared to handle the track layout. Beyond underpowered, and still lacking the right suspension setup… I couldn’t link the track right all day. I scored another flat tyre… this time after six runs (versus two in Chicago). My torque wrench accidentally went home with Dan after Chicago… so I was stranded for a little while without a way to change my wheels – everyone was down on track… so there was nobody to ask. :/ Towards the end of the day, I started to make sense of things… although I wanted to hold my angle too long coming out of the bank which would cause me to kickback and spin. I just couldn’t manage to link the section from the bank to the infeild. I’ve never initiated so fast. It definitely took some getting use to.
Qualifying the following day went well. The caliber of driving put on by everyone there was about two steps above top-notch. You could really tell that it was the home track to many of them. It was impressive to watch, and inspiring to be driving with these madmen. I knew my chance of making the main event was slim-to-none… so as long as I rocked that BMW as hard as I could and have the time of my life in the process, I would be happy. Those goals I hit head on. I gave that li’l car as much hell as she could handle, and walked away very pleased with my runs… so no complaints.
Post qualifying, at the end of the day… I just sorta stood track-side staring at the infamous “House of Drift”. I was just plain awestruck at what I had just done. I dove head-first into the American professional drift series… and pulled it off. How I pulled it off, I still don’t really know.
I once had this dream, and standing there trackside at dusk… I realized that it wasn’t a dream anymore. It was right in front of me… all around me… encompassing everything I do. That dream was right in the palm of my hand… and it never felt better.
