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Ok well I finally found some time to write about what happened during Round 4. I made it to the Top 8 but got eliminated during my tandem runs with points leader Jason Bostrom.
lol what a round this was!!! Just getting to this round proved to be a challenge all on its own, then once I was there it was equally as hard.
To make this short, we made another alignment change to the car. This was ok since I should have had enough practice time to get used to the car before the comp began.
Well once we got there one of my wheel studs decided that I didn't need the practice time and decided to weld itself to the lug nut and then strip the end of it off so it freely rotated in the hub.
After 2 hours of trying to get the lug nut/stud off with multiple methods, we ended up using the "Jaws Of Life" to cut the spokes on the wheel. Then once the outside of the wheel was out of the way we had enough room to get a sawzall in and cut the stud off the hub.
This left me with 30 mins to get back on track and practice before qualifying.
With the new alignment my car was having some issues with straightening up at the transition/exit of the turn. I managed to figure it out on my last run of the day... lol as usual for me.
I need to give a huge THANKS to the guys at the Thunderhill garage for helping get my wheel off. Without their help I wouldn't have been able to make the comp for sure.
Also thanks to Jon and Jesse for their invaluable help as well during the "wheel ordeal".
In the morning before we realized there was going to be any problems on this day.
This is where the problem began... lol don't even ask what we were trying to accomplish by this pic.
After 2 hours of trying to get the wheel off with multiple tools, it came down to this bad mofo right here... The Jaws Of Life!
Round 5 in short went well, but ended the same discouraging way as every other round this year.
After consulting with Mike Kojima on my alignment settings, Jon and I decided to make a move to what Mike suggested. So for the 5th time this season I am on a new setup that I am forced to learn during the competition. Big thanks to Mike for his help!!!
With the new settings the car felt great and I was back in the groove for the first time this year, until about mid way through practice when my eccentric bolts on my RUCA and Toe rod started to come loose. I had no idea they had come loose until after the competition was over and had a chance to take a look at my car in the pits.
Once this happened my car started to act unpredictable, one run it would be great and the next run the car would be all over the place. Thinking that it was "just me" getting used to the new alignment and not an actively changing suspension I opted not to make any more changes to the car during the competition and just deal with it.
On one particular practice run I made an attempt at a backwards entry... it didn't end well with the car's suspension actively changing. I ended up going off course real hard, right where Ryan Kado flipped his Corolla last year. This put a hole about the size of a baseball right through my intercooler.
At this point my day was done since I didn’t have the money to repair it, but thanks to my girlfriend Kelly it was welded back together at the Thunderhill garage.
Now that my car was back in contention I headed back out on track to make qualifying, I made 2 good passes which qualified me in 6th place. This in turn gave me a bye run for my Top 16...
My bye run is where it all goes bad… the suspension at this point was done shifting around. The end result is my RUCA is bent and broken and my alignment is fully toe in and as well as cambered in on the passenger side.
When I went out for my Top 8 runs the car wouldn't slow down after my initiation into the first turn due to the changed rear alignment, so I ended up off course both runs.
This left me with a 7th place finish in the point’s race, which isn’t high enough to earn my Formula D license this year.
I am pretty disappointed to say the least... but my crew, family/friends and I did everything we could to make it happen. This just wasn't my year I guess.
At this point I do not know if there will be a 2012 season, I broke myself financially this year to make all the Pro Am events. That being said I don't have the means right now to make a 2012 season happen without finding some more sponsors that are willing to help me pay for tires, entry fee and maintenance on my car.
I'll leave you with a video I made of the 2011 season and some of the carnage pics from Round 5.
Well thanks to Jon I am going to the Feb 5th Limitless track day! This will be the first time in 2 years that I will be going to slide for fun and not for a competition... I can't wait it's been so long since I was able to just slide for fun!
No better event to to do it at than the the Limitless event! Shane and Alex of http://limitlessmotorsports.com always throw great events. Funny, this will be the first time I get to slide at one of their events and not just watch.
The price is right, the day of the event is right and everything is lining up so far to make this a great weekend!
Got a new windshield put in today... sorry to see the old one go since it was the original glass that came with the car. O well as usual it's just the price you pay to the drift gods.
Well the Limitless Motorsports GDS6 event was an absolute success!!!
I forgot what it was like to drift for fun and not for a competition, not that I don't like competing but its just a different beast all together.
The new RUCA's that Jon made for me worked great and the new Baller Bolt eccentric lock out kits worked great and kept my car's alignment in check all day. What a huge difference it was to drift in a car that had the right alignment settings from beginning to end.
I spent most of the day trying to do following tandem runs with other drivers. This was something I was lacking skill wise during most of my 2010-2011 competition seasons. So what better way to learn than on a full track day. LMAO this also made for a lot of "close calls" but that's the name of the game, get close and try not to get f'ed up in the process.
I don't have any of my go pro footage edited yet but I will get to that later... for I will post some pics and facebook vids that I found.
Pic taken on the skid pad in the morning when I was burning off the first layer of rubber on my new Hankook RS3's
Alex from Limitiless and I going thru the turn 10-11 transition... this was one of those "close calls" lol
Turn 11
Traffic jam! Another "close call"
Turn 3
Over turn 5
Facebook Vids below... hopefully you dont have to login or be freinds to see these.
Well I decided to give the 2012 Pro Am season a go and signed up for Just Drift's TopDrift Pro Am series. It is a lot more money to run it than the Thunderdrift series I had previously competed in. However despite the extra money it has been a great experience and I have only been to one round of the series so far. I can't wait for the next round!
It was great to be able to compete with actual Pro drivers as well as some of the best pro am drivers in the country! The event staff was really cool and the atmosphere/environment was really friendly and helpful. This is something that to me had been lacking from my previous Pro Am experience. All in all it has been a very positive change for me and my crew to go to the TopDrift series.
Andy Hately, Chris Licup and I at WSIR Balcony, TopDrift Round 1, 2012
Chris Licup and I
Some of you may know this driver from the Icon Motorsports "Bike vs car" drift video... "Officer" Dan Brockett and I
Also the amount of media coverage and drivers was staggering... 60 drivers showed to qualify for the top 16! As for the media there were tons of people shooting for several different groups. I managed to make it on to a few of them!
Following this event my outlook has changed, I have decided to make some big changes to the car this year and hopefully I will be able to make this a great season!
Ok lots of updates, where to start? lol I guess I will just go in order as it happened. Sorry I have been working on too many other things to do my regular updates.
May 2012, we consulted with Mike Kojima again and decided to make yet another change to the alignment. However there were some specific reasons in mind when we made these changes. Again I would be out learning on the new settings with no testing time before the event... what's new? lol
TopDrift Round 2 May 26-27....
Saturday was a practice day and since I have never drifted at Horse Thief Mile we decided it would be a good idea to go the day before and get as much seat time as possible. Jon picked up some Cor Integration Tension Rods for the car so this would the first time using them with a proper caster alignment. I get on track, take a few warm up laps to feel everything out and the car feels awesome!!! So I just go for it as hard as I can, throwing the car in hard, hitting crazy angle and trying to get as close to people as I could. All day long I was tandeming with different people having the greatest time!
Last session of the day I started driving with some of the Triple Crown Drift guys and lay down some EPIC tandem runs!!! Bad part is both of the Go Pro's that were on my car died and so did the Go Pro on Kasey King's car. Um yea I was a lil pissed about that but o well I lived it and that’s enough for me haha.
I come off track after the last session and let my car cool off like I always do by just letting it run for 5 mins. While I was letting it cool down the car dies, so being the person I am I thought this was kind of weird so I tried to start it back up and it won't run now. After about 10 mins of diagnosing different things we figure out that my Walbro fuel pump finally died. I guess 4 years of abuse was enough to kill it lol. What I thought was crazy was how it died after a full day of drifting and not during.
Its now like 6:30 pm and at this point I need to find a pump and get it installed before the competition the next day. An hour and half later we find a stock replacement pump, get it installed and she starts right up. I normally wouldn’t run a stock replacement pump on my SR, but with limited time this was just going to have to work.
Sunday competition day…
The judges tell us they want us to take a certain line around the track and they were going to put hay bales and cones out to show where they wanted us to be during practice. I go out and start ripping it up in practice with the new “judges” line. It was a bit weird but I made some adjustments to my driving and was able to work it out. However on one particular run with Frank Cundari of the Triple Crown Drift crew my car dove in hard on the apex of one of the turns and I was headed straight for the hay bale. Instead of hitting the hay bale at full speed I decided to throw in crazy angle and slow my car down till it stalled out right next to the hay bale. When I came to a stop I thought Frank had already made his way around me, but when I looked back up the hill I could see Frank spinning and coming straight at me. At this point I looked the other way and braced for the impact. See the video below...
Short and simple, it was a hard hit… when we hit I actually flew up out of my seat about an inch till my harness pulled me back down, then my head whipped back and out the window where I hit my helmet on the door. At this point all I could think of was “I’m done, my car is fucked and I’m hurting”. I managed to drive my car off track and then look at the damage. It bent the new RUCA that Jon made for me as well as my SPL Toe rod and also did some damage to the quarter panel. We knew there was possibly more damage that we couldn’t see, but for the moment that was the extent of the damage
After sitting there for a minute I pretty much felt I was done, I felt like I had a mild concussion from hitting my head and my body was sore just about everywhere as well. People were coming up and asking me if I was ok and if I was gonna fix it… my reply at that time was "yes, I’ll be ok and no the car is done". I didn’t have the spare parts to put the car together and I was getting more sore/bruised by the minute. I sat down and relaxed for a minute, at which point Chris Billedo comes over and talks to me. I told him what happened and what was broke. Chris then tells me “hold on” and a minute later he comes back with a brand new Godspeed Toe arm and RUCA... He says “here put your car back together I really wanna see you get back out there and compete”.
At this point all I could think of is this has to be sign to keep going. I was kind of blown away that someone would just give me parts to put my car back together and compete against them. This is why I love drifting, the community is awesome to each other… most of community that is not all of it tho lol. So for the next hour and a half we scrambled, beat and bolted the car back together. We then did a quick site alignment and put the car back on the ground.
At this point I pretty much just sucked it up and dealt with the pain. I sat down slowly in my seat cuz my thighs and back were so sore from the hit. My seat harnesses caused some cool bruises around my shoulders and chest and now I had to strap them back down. OUCH is all I can say about that. I started the car and thought well if I drifted on one lung I can drift with a mild concussion… I took a deep breath and then thought “fuck it let’s do this!”.
I made it back on track for the last 15 mins of practice which basically is like 4 laps at HTM, the car was a bit out of control but I was just making do with what I had. I made the few passes and it seemed like I might make the bottom of the qualifying order, only time would tell at this point. Sitting and watching the others qualify made me realize real quick that everyone was bringing their “A” game tho. I made my 3 qualifying runs and my car fought me every step of the way. No matter what I did to adjust I just couldn’t put the car in the right spots for the judges. Could have been the car, could have been me, could have been both, but at this point all I could do was try and hope for the best.
It was no surprise to me that I didn’t make it into the Top 16, but I know I gave it my all at least. Regardless I had a great Saturday practice with sick tandems and even with the hit on Sunday it was still great weekend.
I get back home and call Jason up to see if he has some time to come by and check the quarter panel damage to my car… lol he shows up and next thing I know about 90% of the damage is fixed in an hour. Basically we just pushed all the dented areas back out and then reshaped the tail light area. I figure at this point I will just cut the rear wheel arches out and then put over fenders over it so we don’t have to do any more body work to the car.
June 2012...
Jon talks to John and Chris Corvinus of Cor integration about picking up a set of their “Chuckles” modified steering knuckles. These have more angle than the previous modded knuckles that Jon made and also have 25mm of roll center correction. Add these to the Cor Integration tension rods and you have 60 degrees of angle at your disposal. We decided to hold off on putting the knuckles on for the next event as there was no time to get it everything on the car and then aligned. So we just aligned the rear, installed a new Walbro fuel pump and hit the next event.
ThunderDrift Round 1, June 17th 2012...
Early on the Father’s day we headed to the Solano County Fair Grounds for this event. We get there and realize this parking lot track is going to be ruff on the suspension. We unload the car and start prepping everything for the day.
Practice starts and right off the bat people are spinning out on their first run trying to get used to the surface of the track. I start my first run and just chuck the car at initiation and end up spinning I get myself turned around and then just roast my tires to get them good and warm for the next lap. My second run I throw the car out and then use my e brake to make a correction, when I try to drop the e brake it won’t go back down. My car is headed right for a concrete barrier so I’m just hoping I will stop in time. I get the car stopped and then start beating on the e brake handle to release it, after a few hits it finally lets go. I head back to the pits to see what the problem is and find out that the ratchet mechanism in the ebrake has come loose and wedged itself in between the handle. So Jon yanks it out and I head back out on track for my third run.
I line up with Matt Madragali for my third run. He leads into the first corner, we initiate together and then switch back the other way at the same time. Right as I try to adjust my angle a bit I feel a “pop” thru the steering wheel and then I have no steering. So I lock up the brakes and come to a stop and ask the nearest corner worker if I had broken a tie rod, to which he replied yes. I limped the car back to the pits ready to change a tie rod… we get the car jacked up and quickly realize it’s not a tie rod. I had broken the steering knuckle on the passenger side. At this point my heart sank knowing that I didn’t have spare knuckles with me.
I talked to my dad and Jon and decided that I would chance it in father’s day traffic and drive back to Sacramento get the Cor Integration knuckles I had in my garage and then drive back to the Solano fairgrounds to put it back together and try to get it aligned in time to make qualifying. Long story short three hours later I get back in time to see qualifying start. We hustled and got the car back together and then did a sight alignment since we didn’t have the time to do a proper alignment.
I jumped back in the car and got in at the end of the first qualifying runs… all I could think of while I was waiting to go was dam I am in same situation as I was in during TopDrift Round 2, again I just said “fuck it let’s do this!”. Got both of my qualifying runs in but the car was just not right without a good alignment.
Again no surprise I didn't make the Top 16, it was disappointing to say the least, but again we literally did everything we could to make it work.
Jon picked up a set of the PBM rear knuckles, along with my dad and I we managed to also get all the components to do a Wilwood Hydro E brake setup. Since the car would be down for close to a month we decided to do as much to is as possible this time around.
Cleaned up the tail light area and got a new tail light to replace the broken one.
PBM rear knuckles with roll center correction and second caliper mount.
Stock knuckles coming out.
After we got the drivers side rear knuckle out we noticed the RUCA mount was cracked ont he back side and the bushing had pretty much been crushed/cut thru from the hit in TopDrift Round 2.
Hydro E brake parts, Wilwood Master cylinder, brake pedal, earl's lines, Cor Integration rack spacers and Aerocatch hood pins.
PBM knuckles installed with the new Wilwood calipers in back.
Removing the stock e brake mount and installing the new Wilwood setup.
Tee fitting and lines to the calipers.
Aerocatch pins.
Cor Integration Chuckels and Tie Rod Spacers... this is not max angle this is just where the bump stops were when I had my other knuckles.
Jon cutting out the damaged driver quarter panel...
Passenger side... lol we had to apologize to the car for cutting a straight body panel.
Since Jason moved to Arizona, I have no one to do paint and body any more... So my dad painted my over fenders for me, they came out pretty good.
As always sorry for the lack of updates... WHAT A YEAR THIS HAS BEEN!!!
I'll go in order... so last time I updated we changed out the rear knuckles and went to a new hydro e brake setup.
Top Drift Round 3 July 27-28 - Walt James Oval, Willow Springs Raceway.
After making a mad dash to get the car back together and new parts on the car we headed out to Willow Springs once again. We knew this event would not be our best showing since we made so many changes to the car. I was hoping I would be able to adapt to the car quicker than I did but due the setup of the track the amount of practice time wasn't as plentiful as previous TopDrift events.
I go out in practice on the first day and my first lap out I break the handle to my new hydro e brake, no biggie Jon grabbed some hose clamps and small piece of tire rubber from the track and put it back together.
Back out on track I realize that the new knuckles and alignment have made a huge difference in the way my car handles... the car handles better but it transfers weight a bit different and has way more forward bite than before. I also got to find out just how far I can take the Cor Integration knuckles.
After several laps, I start to get it figured out but after the first banked turn I find that I am running out of power and have to use my e brake or straighten out to make it to the infield transition. At this point I am starting to think I need just a bit more power to make this section of the track work. I'm not satisfied with my performance so far but I know I did all I could with the amount of time we had.
Competition day... I go out to practice and still can't manage to get past the end of the bank without having to make adjustments. I just suck it up and deal with it as best I can.
The sun goes down and qualifying begins... they give all of us 3 consecutive runs, I make my 3 runs and pull off track. I'm not super happy with my runs but I believed they were enough to get me into the top16.
I went to the bleachers to watch the rest of qualifying and see that Lex King is up, He goes to make his first run and all we here is a loud boom. Lex slows and then limps the car off track. I run over and talk to him to see whatsup and he tells me the tranny is done. At this point neither Lex or myself have been able to make a good event happen at TopDrift, so I tell Lex go and see if they will let you run a different car and then see if someone will let you borrow their car. Lex takes off to talk to the officials and Jon and I go back to watching qualifying, a few minutes later Lex comes back up and asks me if he can borrow my car... In the 2 seconds it took me to respond all sorts of stuff ran thru my head. My car is my baby and so to let someone borrow is hard for me to do, but for some reason the loudest thought in my head at that moment was just to let him borrow the car. So I told Lex, "if you can fit, then go for it". We ran back over to the pits and Lex jumped in the car, I gave him a quick intro to the switches and gauges in my car and then Lex took off for the track. Jon and I go back to the bleachers and wait for Lex to come out on track and don't see him for a bit, so I go back to the pits and see Lex out of the car. I asked him what happened and he told me that the officials were initially going to let him use my car, but in the rules it shows that once u start qualifying with one car you have to stay with that car. I had mixed emotions about this, I was relieved that we wouldn't have to worry about what we would do if we had to tandem together, but I was disappointed at the same time that my norcal brother wouldn't have a chance to get on track.
The qualifying meeting starts and they start giving out the names of the top 16... I wait and don't hear my name. So I ask the judges what my score was they tell me 72, I then find out I was one point from making the Top16. I was just as disappointed as I was happy about this, I knew then it was just a matter of time on the new setup and I would be able to do much better.
Next event was Thunder Drift Round 2 August 12 - Solano County fairgrounds
For the the first time all year we didn't have to make any huge changes or fix anything... that being said we got an opportunity to finally get the car on a real alignment machine, thanks to Jon's brother Drew. We previously had done our own alignment and it's not that we don't like the string alignment but Jon and I both felt it be would nice to see how close we actually got with the strings. On the machine most of what we saw on the strings was correct, so we adjusted it till we got exactly what we wanted.
We get to the event in the morning and its cold, cloudy and dark. For some reason our pit area was restricted to what we called the hay field lol. We get the car unloaded and wait for practice.
About 10 am the clouds and cold burn off and I go out for practice. Right off the bat I just start throwing the car around on the new alignment settings and quickly realize these settings are what I have been in need of all year! Altho the car felt great it was still a bit foreign to me, so I was not as consistent as I would've liked to have been. But over the last two rounds we have been able to make consistent improvements to the cars handling!
I make my 2 qualifying passes and again on the new setup I am not as consistent as I wanna be. In the end I qualify 8th.
Top 16 Intro.
My Top 16 battle I end up against Eugene Kretschmer who qualified 9th. My lead run I went in fast and threw in a bunch of angle, I knew that going up against the LSX powered car of Eugene I would need to make a statement with my lead run. While going into the first turn I thought that I may have over cooked my entry, but the Cor Knuckles held me on my line. As I look over my shoulder it looked like Eugene was going for a shallow line to pass me, next thing I know Eugene passes me. Passing was a not something the judges wanted to see, so I was fairly confident that I had the advantage. Going into the following run I knew that all I had to do was stay close and keep it conservative to take the win. So I did just that and took the win, while waiting to hear who won Eugene apologized to me for the pass and said to me that he thought I was going to spin so that's why he took the inside. lol I told him I thought I was gonna spin too but the Knuckles did their job!
Waiting to find out the outcome of the battle.
For the Great 8 battle I line up with Josh Mcguire who qualified 1st. Josh has been getting consistently better thru the season and working out all the bugs in his power plant, so I knew once again I would need to bring the heat in order to take the win. Josh lead first, we take off into the first turn and I try to keep up as best as I can with my stock SR. I follow close to him but I would venture to guess not close enough to take the advantage. So on my lead run I decided to do the same as I did with Eugene and go super fast in, however on my initiation my trans popped out of gear and basically screwed up my whole run. I did my best to save it but just couldn't get out of the mistake I had already made, Josh did a great job of following me so much so that he pushed me along the track lol... nothing wrong with a lil love tap!
Sonoma Drift Summer Jam August 18-19 – Sonoma Raceway
I decided to go to this event instead of TopDrift Round 4. In my time as a Pro Am competitor I have never missed a single series event, however this year I was running two different series plus trying to run the bigger local events as well. So when I realized that Summer Jam would overlap TopDrift I was really disappointed. The final decision was based on the fact that I had never driven the world class Sonoma Raceway before and since I wasn’t high in the points for TopDrift it wouldn’t be detrimental to miss the last event.
What can I say about this event…? EPIC is one word to describe it lol.
Coming off of my Top 8 finish at Thunder Drift Round 2 I was hype to get more seat time and finally start putting down some podium finishes!
Day one practice day and team tandem competition.
I wake up and realize I’m late so I just throw on my shorts and a t shirt and jam out the door. We get to the track a bit late due to my alarm not going off… lol my fault. I get the car off the trailer and head over to the tech inspection. When I get there my car passes tech with no issues but the tech inspector looks at my shorts and tells me I need to have long pants to get on track. Now normally I have long pants and extra clothes but on this particular day I forgot them in my rush to get out the door. So I asked if I could get a pass on day one if I made sure to have pants for day two, he then says no and tells me to talk to Lino Ramos the event organizer.
After I talk with Lino he says he can’t let me out without long pants. Lino then tells me he will go look to see if can find some pants for me. Lol I told Lino good luck with that, unless u can find a pair of 40 inch waste and 34 inch inseam I can’t even put them on. As I am watching my practice minutes tick by I decide I will try to run by the gift shop to see if they have anything for me…nothing unless I want a race suit. I need to get on track at this point so off to Wal-Mart to try to get something. Google maps has me there and back in under an hour. I hop in the truck for a quick run to Wal-Mart and Long story short it takes me over an hour and forty-five minutes in Bay Area traffic.
Once I get back I find out that practice has ended and that the drivers’ meeting has already begun. In the drivers meeting they tell us that team tandem practice will begin in 15 mins. Originally I had no intention of doing the team tandem comp but needing the practice Travis Roush, Tyler Xiong and I made a team just so we could get on track before the competition. I head out on track and it takes me about 4 runs to figure what I need to do, after that I kind of get into a zone and start to really tear up the track. By the time practice ended I was really happy with how the car was handling and I felt I was really consistent as well.
What can I say about the track… it’s awesome, technical, fast and fun! We head out for the team tandem comp and put down some decent runs but in the end Team Mint took the win. At the end of the day I left feeling that I finally would be able to put down a solid performance despite having only a small amount of practice time.
Day two - competition day.
I manage to get up in time and also had a pair of pants this time too lol. Practice starts and I still feel that I am in the zone. People kept coming up to me to tell me that I was killing it out there… I am super stoked at this point.
Qualifying begins… I decided that since we are only getting two runs that I would make my first run a conservative run and only go about 85%. I make my first run do exactly what I set out to do… after hearing that my run should qualify me no problem, I decide my second run should be epic since I have nothing to lose at this point but qualifying order. The officials send me off on my second run and I go in super-fast and chuck the car real hard, I hit all the clipping points on the way up the hill and am carrying a lot of angle and speed. I fling the car back the other way to make my transition to the last turn and I end up spinning… lol I had a bit too much weight transfer and couldn’t hold it. In the end I find out I qualified 4th with my “conservative” run!
Top 32 competition.
Top 32 battle with Michael Nguyen. Mike has an AE86 with pretty much a stock 4AGE motor, so needless to say he was down on power, so before the comp began I talked to Mike as told him that on my lead run I would just let him go first and I would catch up and pass him before the initiation. We both agreed that we wanted to put on a good show and I didn’t want to just run away from him when we left the line. The officials send us off and I let Mike go just like I said, before the first turn I pass him and make a decent run but at the last turn I miss a gear and straighten a bit, but manage to save it and finish the run. At this point my spotter told me that I should have the advantage. On my follow run I gapped Mike a bit and then caught up to him at the top of the hill… I managed to keep my distance so that I wouldn’t run into him until the last turn when his lil motor just ran out of steam. Mike straightened a bit and so did I so I wouldn’t hit him. All in all Mike did a great job with that lil motor! Judges give me the win.
Top 16 battle vs. Marcus Fry. Marcus has a beast of an LSX powered Datsun 510, I knew I wouldn’t need to pace him since his car should be making 150+hp more than my setup. My lead run I take off and go in fast since I knew Marcus would be beating down my back, I start my way up the hill and then I hear over my radio “SPIN!” so I knew at that point to just take it easy and finish out my run. Now that I knew I had a major advantage, Jon and I both agree that I should make a good conservative run and just make sure that Marcus doesn’t just run away from me. Lol that is easier said than done when chasing a 510 with over 400hp. Marcus and I take off and once again I do my best to keep up, we head up the hill and the first thing that I have to deal with is the smoke from his car. It doesn’t look like much in the video but it was enough that it was hard for me to see him or the line I wanted to run. I end up going one tire off trying to follow him but it wasn’t enough of a mistake to overcome his spin and I take the win.
Great 8 battle vs. Darren Crockett. This battle wasn’t as dramatic as the rest, but was still a good clean battle for both of us.
Top 4 battle vs. Elijah Wright. This battle I thought might come to some controversy concerning an outside pass I made on my following run. Now the judges told us that they didn’t want to see any passing but if it did happen then they would take it on a case by case basis. My lead run was just like my other lead runs… go in fast and try to run that qualifying line. I talked to Jon about my strategy for following Elijah and again we agreed to leave some gap to start and catch up at the top of the hill. We take off for the first turn and right off the bat it looked like Elijah’s car was having some under steer issues. I did my best to slow down so we wouldn’t hit going up the hill. By the time we got 2/3 of the way up the hill his car went to full under steer and then straight… at this point I made a split second decision to not run into him or go off course so I went for an outside pass. Now here is where the controversy could come from, I made a pass but I was forced into the pass on the outside to avoid us hitting each other. Also if you go by the fact that Elijah went fully straight then his run should be a zero at that point so all I needed to do was keep it on the track and I would take the win on that run. In the end it seemed the judges felt I didn’t make an illegal pass and gave me the win. Elijah talked to me after the battle and indicated to me he wasn’t upset with the decision and we congratulated each other on a good battle.
The battle for first place vs. Josh McGuire. Again I would be dealing with a beast powered V8 car, Josh’s car has a Ford 5.0L motor and a super charger. So to say the least I would be doing my best to keep up. Both Josh and I brought our “A” games for this battle, we make our runs and it’s so close that the judges ask us to go one more time. This didn’t surprise me one bit. The next battle we both went super hard again and according to one of the judges he said 2 foot long dirt drop on my part is why they gave Josh the win. That was the how close our battles were that it came down to a small dirt drop! To say the least the battles were EPIC, however I have no video footage. Lol I wish there was some footage but to this day I have only seen one small clip of our battle and it’s only the end of the run.
I am pretty sure this is the dirt drop the judges were talking about.
Here are the first 3 battles before my gopros died
Thunder Drift Pro AM Round 3 September 16 – Stockton 99 Speedway.
After coming off the 2nd place finish at Summer Jam I was ready to put down another solid finish at this event. This would be my first event on this steep of a banked oval, so we knew I would need all the practice I could get.
We get to the track about 8am and find out that the track had just been re-paved, no problem except for the outside of the track would be super sticky but the infield hadn’t been touched and was super rough.
In the drivers meeting the judges show us the track configuration, which turns out to be a small mirror version of Irwindale. Practice starts and almost everyone is struggling on their initiation into the bank, as I said before the new paved track is super sticky on the bank. After the transition off the bank into the infield the track goes from super stick to super slick and rough. Through the morning almost everyone figures out the track and most of us are able to put down some solid runs. My trouble spots were making the transition into the infield and then again on the exit of the infield back onto the main oval. Towards the end of practice I started to have some slight under steer issues in the bank but just dealt with it since the car felt great everywhere else.
Qualifying
Since this event has only 2 qualifying runs, my strategy is the same as previous events… make one conservative run to get into the top 16 and once that is secured then make an all or nothing run to better my score. The first run I made a mid-high pass on the bank and then finished out the run strong banging off of limiter. The second run I made was identical to the first but I went high on the bank. This gave me the 6th place spot, not as high as I would have liked but it will do.
Top 16 Intro.
Top 16 battle vs. Nick Bayati
This would be my first time running against Nick. I lead first and head into the first turn, I pull my e brake and the car doesn’t come out so I pull it again and force it out. This made for a slightly late initiation but I was still on a med high line on the bank, so figured I would make up for the mistake by running the high on the bank exit as well as really close to the wall on the transition to the infield section. As we begin to enter the infield I can see that Nick is on a shallow line and looks to be going for a pass on the inside of me. As I make my way on the outside “qualifying” line, I watch Nicks line go from shallow to basically over taking my line on the inside. I make a split second decision to straighten out so we don’t hit, as I straighten Nick spins and I get my car back into drift and finish out the run. At this point I knew the advantage was mine and on my following run I ran conservative and took the win.
Top 8 battle vs. Marcus Fry
Marcus qualified higher than me so he lead first, as we leave the line we do our best to pace each other thru first gear I hear Marcus shift and then he starts to slow down. I slow down with him to try and keep our pace but then quickly realize something is wrong with his car so I get back on the gas and just make a solo run. During my solo run I notice that my car is starting to have more under steer issues on the bank, I don’t know what the problem is so I just deal with it and force the car to stay sideways on the bank. As I come back around to line up I hear that Marcus has broken an axel and calling for 5 mins. So I wait the 5 mins and they announce that Marcus didn’t quite get it back together in time so the win goes to me.
Top 4 battle vs. Josh McGuire
After my last battle with Josh I was eager to have another good battle with him. Josh lead first and I had it in my mind to go as hard as I could… lol I went a bit harder than I should have and spun on rough area of the infield transition. At this point all I could hope for was that my lead run would be awesome and Josh would spin. I start off on my lead run and just throw the car as hard as I could knowing that this was an all or nothing run. I initiate high on the bank and feel some under steer trying to creep in, again I just force it to stay out and carry a high line to the exit of the bank. I stay super tight to the switchback clipping point and run my ass down the wall of the outer clip zone for the transition into the infield section. I run the infield section fast and on the outside “qualifying” line and finish out strong running back on the straight and almost taking out the switch back clip. This was my best run of the day and all I could hope for was that Josh made a mistake behind me. Josh had a clean follow run and they give the win to him.
Battle for 3rd/4th place vs. Matt Madrigali
I lead first… we head into the bank and I chuck the car fast and hard just like I did in my battle with Josh. At about the midpoint of the bank my car starts to seriously under steer, I did my best to keep it sideways but in the end it straightens and I scramble to keep the front end off of the wall. A second later I get the car sideways again and put the hammer down thru the infield, at the exit of the infield I notice the car is hard under steering back on to the front straight. Again I am not sure what is going on that my front is under steering so bad so quickly. We take off for the next run, I run up thru first gear pacing Matt he slows a bit and then takes off again in second gear. I hammer down and follow him into the bank, where it looks like his car is wavering a bit which I believe makes him run a shallow line. At this point I’m hoping the wavering and shallow line will help make up for my mistake on the first run. I follow close thru the infield but the car under steers again on the exit back onto the front straight. The judges give the win to Matt and I would take 4th place.
I get back to the pits and start to loading up to leave when Jon and I notice that my front tires are full of rubber/tar so much so that most of my tread is full and I have about a half inch high spot right in the middle of the tire. At this point we both realize where the under steer had come from… all the new tar and rubber on the track from it being repaved recently built up on my front tires. All I could think of was “oh well” that’s just the way it goes in competition, one stupid thing can drastically change your cars handling. But we learned from it and next time we would watch the rubber build up like hawks.
I was so hype for this event! I would actually be able to drift for fun and not a competition.
Day one… The Street of Willows, we were all kind of bogged down by the flaggers being over cautious and running us under a yellow for multiple laps. Then all the drivers actually got pulled off track for a mid-day drivers meeting when someone drifted around one of the safety cars. So the amount of track time on day one wasn’t as much as I would have liked. However I did get to do some sweet tandems with Matt Field! Something that kind of slapped me in the face about this day was how my car wasn’t able to fully link certain sections of the track without a short manji, up until this point I have been able to get my car to do what I wanted after a bit of practice. But this time I really noticed that I was lacking the power to do the big boy sections without falling out of drift or having to do a manji. This got me thinking it may be time to finally step my stock SR20 up to some more power.
Day two… Streets of Willow and Horse Thief Mile! I went out on Streets in the morning of day two, they were running the track backwards. I was eager to hit up HTM but I thought I would try Streets first. I got on track and laid down some sweet tandem runs with different people. Then about 20 mins into the first session I blew out my passenger side axel which ended my day. Two things that upset me about this weekend despite having hella fun on track. One was that most of the photogs on day one were taking pics in a section that I wasn’t drifting and was using to cool off my car so there aren’t a lot of pics of me from day one. Going along with that is that my axel blew so early on day two there isn’t a lot of pics of me from day two either. The second thing is the Wi-Fi bacpacs on my GoPros were acting up and kept shutting off, so there is not much video footage either.
TD Pro AM Round 4 November 24, Stockton 99 Raceway
This would be that last competition event of 2012.
I went into this event thinking that if I did well there would be a chance of earning my Pro license or maybe earning the wild card spot if I didn’t make into the 3rd spot for series points. Over the last year we changed the car so much that I was re-learning the car at almost every event. This would be one of the few times this year where I knew the car and made no changes. All I had to do was learn the track and figure out what line I wanted to run. Even if I didn’t do well I knew I was going to give it all I had and at least make the other competitors work to beat me.
I won’t go into details about what happened, but there was some tension in the air at this final event of the Thunder Drift series. Some of us took it as the last day of the school year, in that we were just trying to get through the day and move on to better things.
Practice… The last time I was on this track it had just been repaved on the main oval, I was expecting the track to be just as sticky. However I quickly found out that it was not, my first 2 runs on the bank and I realized it was actually quite slippery compared to last time. On my third practice run I decided to run in really hard and then try a clutch kick initiation… my car sailed up the bank and right into the wall. While the hit didn’t bother me, I knew it was really hard on the back of the car. I talked to Jon on the radio and asked him how it looked and his response was “its fine, just keep going”. Lol so I lined back up for my 4th run and decided to not worry about it, the starter let us go and I flicked the car with my e brake and ran the wall of the bank, dropped down low to the first inner clip where I just tipped it in, then ran the outer zone the rest of the way. All I could think of was dam that was a sweet run, next thing I hear in my radio is Jon saying that was a good run. The rest of practice would pretty much continue on this path of laying solid “qualifying” line runs.
Qualifying… As usual we were given two runs, I went out on my first run and laid down what I considered to be conservative. I was told it was a really good run, however I knew I would lay it out there for the second run. According to what I was told later about my second run is that the judges notes all said “sick, sick, sick”. In the end I would get beat out Eugene Kretschmer and qualify 2nd, which I was not disappointed with at all!
Top 16
So because there were not enough drivers to run a top 16 Eugene and I would receive bye runs and go straight to the great 8.
Great 8 vs. Sean Hoover My lead run I ran in hard into the bank and got the car up to the wall. When I transitioned off the bank I took a quick look back to see that Sean was about 3 cars behind me. At this point I just continued on like I had in practice and hit all the clipping points I could. My following run I ran in hard on Sean’s bumper, we went around the bank fairly close, after the transition off the bank to first infield turn Sean would spin out. Judges would give me the win.
Top 4 vs. Marcus Fry I knew Marcus would be driving at his best for our battle. For some reason every battle we had this past year something would go wrong and Marcus wouldn’t get to straight up battle me for both runs. So I knew he would be on his “A game” for this battle. I lead first and headed straight into the bank hard, maybe it was the sound of his LS1 roaring behind or just me but for some reason I didn’t get up on the bank as high I wanted to. While it was a decent run I knew it wasn’t enough to pull out a good advantage on Marcus. My following run I knew I would need to put pressure on Marcus to take the win, so I did my best to stay with him off the line. We went into the bank, I pulled my e brake and knocked my elbow against the fluid reservoir and this kind of “shocked me” like when you bang your elbow on a sharp corner. This caused me to let go of the ebrake and really screw up my initiation. At this point I was low on the bank and my car was wavering. This one mistake would set the tone for the rest of the run, I didn’t run the line I wanted and fell out of drift at the end. I radioed to Jon and just said “sorry, I fucked up” lol. The judges gave Marcus the win.
Battle for 3rd/4th place vs. Eugene Kretschmer Once again I would up against an LS V8 powered car. Eugene beat me in qualifying and I knew from watching his runs that day this would be an EPIC battle! Long story short our battles were so close that the judges made us go one more time and would eventually give me the win for 3rd place.
I would take my place on the podium and celebrate with 1st place Tyler Wolfson and 2nd place Marcus Fry.
Now we would wait to see who would come out with the Wild Card license... With only around 30 points separating 4-7 place we all were eager to find out who it was. To make a long story short they awarded the Wild Card to Josh Mcguire about a week after the event. Then another week later it was taken back from Josh and given to 4th place in points Sean Hoover. There was a lot of drama concerning this, and I for one believe the entire situation was handled poorly. Basically Geoff Pitts the event promoter told us the top 3 in points would get FD Pro License's and a 4th "wild card" license would be given to someone. However Geoff did not have the authority to give a wild card... This will be all I say on the matter other than this is not the only issue this series has had in the last 3 years.
After round 4 I did some major thinking and research into finding a new power plant for the car.
I'm not going to fully explain why I decided to go V8 power, but just know that this was the right thing to do for what I am trying to do with this car. Now that I have that out of the way most of you who know me know that I would normally never go to an American V8 motor for my car. But I know I need to evolve and adapt in order to stay competitive in Pro Am... in 2012 I was basically the lowest powered car on track aside from some of the stock motored Corrolla's. Even those cars power to weight ratio even's out the slight advantage I might have in power output. On top of that the field of cars were all going to high powered setups, so after chasing down multiple v8 powered cars towards the end of the year I decided to go to what I call the "darkside" lol. However some people call it finally seeing the "light" haha. Either way I made the decision to sell my beloved SR and go to an LS series V8.
December 8, 2012 I sold my SR to Luke Wright and my quest for the new power plant began.
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