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.
When life picks up speed, the momentum can be somewhat overwhelming. In wake of that momentum, I have totally neglected my own site. Typically I hate the “Oh, sorry I haven’t been posting much, but hey… I’M BACK” entries. Yet, here I am. So much has happened in the past 8 months that I don’t even know where to begin. Over the next several posts, I would like to get things back up to speed with what has been what in my neck of the woods.The biggest change in my realm, is undoubtedly work-related. In late November, I was contacted by a local Atlanta studio to freelance on a showreel of animated print advertisements. The studio is Artistic Image, located in the King Plow Arts Center in west Atlanta.
The studio is really awesome, and does amazing work! After working on the showreel I got to work on some really fun spots for Cartoon Network LA. I was given all of the graphic elements to animate, and the concept was that ordinary back-to-school items would transform into giant aliens and battle it out. Really really fun spots to work on!
Then in January, the crew at Artistic Image asked me on full-time for a 6-month contract to work as a part of the team to revamp the historical Stone Mountain Lasershow.
The project would entail video-mapping technology to create the illusion that the mountain comes to life… giving the show an added element of dimension that the traditional lasers could not provide. It was an incredible project to work on, and took an immense amount of work to complete. Everyone on the team at Artistic Image did an amazing job. I had a chance to see the show’s opening July 4th weekend, and judging by the crowd’s reaction – this renovation was a HUGE success! I feel very honored that I was able to work on a project of this magnitude, and one that has such a historical significance to the state of Georgia.This spot on 11alive.com gives a little more insight to what we did.
June marked the end of my contract, at which time, I was offered a full-time position as an animator. I graciously accepted the position, for I have been wanting to transition away from designing for web/print for well over 5 years. I was finally able to make the jump to motion design full-time, and I am incredibly happy about it. Everyone on the team at Artistic Image is super-talented, and most of all – really great to work with! I’m really excited that they gave me the opportunity to come on board and be part of the team!
I found this old news clip while digging through some old files. A pretty cool Fox News feature from the Hyperfest event at Summit Point Raceway in West Virginia. My buddy Tony Schulz gets a spotlight, and I’m in the video for a split-second around the 2 minute mark. A pretty cool find from way back. These were fun times for sure.
2008 Driver Profile – Andy Sapp. from Andy Sapp on Vimeo.
This edit is well over a year in the making. This cut is as close to perfect as I will ever get it. This video is the most thorough, polished, and complete example of my abilities behind the wheel… and my abilities behind a computer. Period.This digital short showcases the past 3 years of my professional drift effort. Features amalgamated footage from Formula Drift and Nopi Drift events, as well as various Nopi/NDRA demos, grassroots competitions, practice events, SPEED TV, and other television appearances.
Very very special thanks to everyone who provided me with the footage to edit this video.
Soundtrack by Slayer.
Keep drifting fun. OR ELSE.
CBS 46 News came out to Turner Field yesterday and did a nice feature on the Southeast Drift event at Turner Field.
We’ve been drifting in the Turner lot since 2004… and I’m amazed that a news station hasn’t made it out sooner
Despite a mechanical failure rendering my car useless for the weekend…
I did manage to get some solid face-time with Jason and the crew from Speed TV for an interview!
Join host Charity Hodges and the Nopi Tunervision crew as they cover the Batlground Drift Demos at the 2006 Nopi Nationals Motorsports Supershow! See Daniel Willie, Tracy Shayhorn, Erin Sanford, and Andy Sapp ignite drifting mayhem for the 100,000 screaming fans at Atlanta Motor Speedway in Hampton, Georgia.
We landed some great coverage on Speed TV’s Nopi Tunervision. The coverage highlights some of the madness from our drift demos over the course of the weekend.
Speed TV’s Nopi Tunervision host Charity Hodges interviews me at NDRA Valdosta about my li’l e46.
For those of you who didn’t get a chance to see it live, here’s the mayhem… 6 O’clock news style!
Here’s the story behind the feature:
I was contacted by the PR department of Formula D about a week before the Atlanta event, and was advised that they had given my contact information to Fox5 News about a television spot showcasing the series, and my participation as a local privateer campaigning the series in it’s entirety. They advised me not to count on it for sure… and to beleive it when we see it – but sure enough: Fox5 Sports hit me up!
One of the sportscasters came down to One3 and interviewed me (none of that interview was used)… asking the normal barrage of drift-related questions: what is drifting, where did it come from, how is it judged, how I got into it… etc. They shot some footage of me at my desk, and told me that Karen would meet me out at the track on Friday morning.Formula D secured a full hour (which was later whittled down to 15 minutes due to track restrictions) of “practice” time to shoot the news spot. It was going to be Alex Pfeiffer, Casper Canul, and li’l ol’ me. Alex and Casper were going to run tandem, and I was going to run solo. We got on track, ran a coupla solo runs… and Casper blew his water pump.
They ran up to my car and said “Okay… you’re gonna run tandem with Alex… you up for that?” At this point, I had only run tandem with friends in parking lots… but I wasn’t about to pass this up. “Let’s do this.” I told’m… and it was on. There really isn’t any other way to describe it, other than it was fxxxcking insane, and fxxxcking awesome all at the same time. It’s just like Casper says in his interview… everything happens so fast – it’s wild! Karen then met me back in the pits and interviewed me again. She was really stoked on drifting. I thought it was cool that she was so amped about the sport.
Anyway… Slipstream (Formula D) is AWESOME for setting this up. It was an amazing opportunity that I would not have been a part of if they hadn’t pulled for me. I feel really lucky, and extremely thankful. They are the BEST!!!
Who knows… maybe next year they’ll do a follow-up! ;)
