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.
“Can someone please find an air-conditioned parking lot for next year???”
The first drift event I entered: Drift Showoff/D1 Driver Search – Miami, still reigns in my book as the hottest (in temperature) event I’ve driven in to date. It was so hot, that I physically passed out in my car overwhelmed by the heat. While the Formula D: Houston was cooler on a thermometer… add Texas humidity and a triple-layered Nomex race-suit, and the mercury just shot through the glass.
Weather aside… this event was RAD! We more-or-less slid at the Astrodome… which was kinda cool. We were not on a track this time… but in a giant parking lot rumored to have laid dormant for the past two years – so it was drrrty drrrty durrrrty. The first car ran off with a rooster tail following resembling that of a WRC car rallying across the desert.
There were a lot of cars damaged at this event. An R33 Skyline hit a wall head-on at about 65 mph… totalling it. It was awful. Five eight-sixes (Taka’s twice) were snagged by the wall. Taka, tipped his on it’s side Friday during practice. I was soo glad he was alright. They spent all Friday night fixing the car, for Taka to come back and qualify SECOND on Saturday!!! Words can’t even describe how awesome it was to see him kick ass out there and qualify so well. That man is a machine!!! Fellow Drift Day competitor, Yoshie qualified Top 32, making her the first female to do so!
The course surface was concrete, and my normal tyre pressures didn’t want to work well. After struggling through practice with a clean run here, and a shite run there… I managed to lay it all down during qualifying with two clean-ass runs, landing me the 10th position out of 40… advancing me to the main event.
Saturday felt hotter than Friday. There was a moment… like Miami – where I physically passed out in the truck because of the heat. I had decent sleep the night before – but my body just felt exhausted. I ran decent all day during practice… but couldn’t quite get the car to do what I wanted to entering the first corner. All weekend long I was barrelling down in third, clutch kicking, and letting the momentum carry me where I needed to be for the first clipping point (heavily judged corner… entry speed being critical). For some reason… the clutch kicks weren’t snapping the car loose right. My final qualifying run it finally snapped… HARD, throwing me waaay more angle than I was expecting. I hit the first clipping point right on… but I think that hard snap threw my mindset off, and right after that apex… post kick-back: I spun.
Either way… I went out there, kicked some ass… had an effing BLAST, so I have no complaints. I got to meet the rest of Dunlop drivers. Tanner helped me solve my tyre pressure woes, and the general consensus from everyone is: I NEED MORE POWER!!! We’ll see. :) Between clutches, transmissions, and replacing $8000 worth of damaged suspension components… I think my turbo fund is severely lacking. But who knows. ;)
I pulled the e46 on a trailer following Dan & Tracy pulling the Batlground s14. Besides occasional trailer sway… that wasn’t as bad as I thought. JOEYREDMOND.com rode all the way out there and back with me… making sure I didn’t pass out trying to drive there on 40 minutes of sleep. That kool kat is going to tackle the country with me as we make the trek to Round 4 in Sonoma the first week of July. THAT is going to be an insane road trip!
This thumbs up means: I just lost five pounds sweating away in this heat!
Sponsor roll call!!!
Chris caught up to me FAST!
Please turn the A/C on outside… PLEASE!
Driverrrrz meeting..
The only two Andys running in the series. :)
Taka tipped on Friday, fixed overnight & qualified 2nd!!!
Taka hitting again on Saturday. :(
Last butt not least…
The Slide to Side Homicide Tour continues…
What an amazing weekend. First and foremost… I want to thank each and every one of you guys who came out this weekend to hang out, cheer me on, and lend a helping hand. I could not have made it through the weekend without you guys. You all know who you are, and I love each and every one of you!!! This weekend was single handedly the craziest weekend of my life. I got to run tandem with Alex for Fox5 News, which was insane… I semi-struggled during practice, but managed to lay it all down for qualifying to make Top 32… we sold out of t-shirts… I only spun twice all weekend… I didn’t get sunburned… my parents came out to cheer me on… I could go on and on. To sum up a shorthand version… it was awesome.
I have to thank Dunlop Tires for supplying me with FM 901’s for the event. They worked GREAT! I was pleasantly surprised how long they lasted. Batlground Engineering gets a HUGE thanks for helping me out with the car… getting the clutch/flywheel installed, suspension, and overall support. The car ran extremely well. A tad underpowered for the elevation changes… but otherwise very solid. The new clutch works great! The flywheel will take some getting used to… I hit redline way faster now.
I had sooo much fun this weekend. It’s hard to beleive that last year I was against the fence at this very event as a spectator thinking “this shxxxt is amazing… I HAVE to get out there and do this”… and then a year later I’m on the other side of that very same fence actually doing it. It’s been a long crazy road… and a rough one at times… but all worth it after this weekend.
hanks again you guys. For real… you are all so awesome… and I love you guys.
Running tandem with Mr. Battle Version himself:
This was the point on track where my 167 horses didn’t want to kick much ass…
Gratuitous safety equipment shot…
The best pit crew EVAR!!!! (I love you guys!!!)
Hubinette’s SRT Viper in a cloud of smoke…
Gittin’s Mustang is Satan reincarnate… seriously – this car is pure EVIL!
Kumho unveiling the only colored smokable tyres on the planet…
Kitty litter is not fun.
Photo credits: CodyWellons.com, Drift411.com, Mar<12, and Battle Mike.
