Hey guys and thanks for dropping by!

Enjoy the short video featuring me talk about all kinds of nonsense at the beginning before explaining how Formula Drift Rd2 unfolded behind the wheel of the V-LEDS / SHR Dodge Viper. FD Rd3 is only next week now in a new event added to the calendar at Palm Beach, FL and I really cannot wait to get back behind the wheel and start shredding off some Federal 595 RS-R’s – ALL SYSTEMS ARE GO FOR SHR!!

Thanks to Grady Nguyen for a quality video – looking forward to the next instalment already. Hope to see all you in Florida and maybe some of those crazy ATL fans may take the trip down further south?

DK #43

Welcome back guys to the second instalment of my 2011 Formula Drift blog, If I was asked to summarize how this weekend went in one word it would certainly be – Progress! Straight off the back of Rd1 in LBC the two SHR prepared cars were stripped alive and both motors were freshened up and tested in preparation for the long haul out East where they will remain until Round 4 in New Jersey concludes which is mid June – The last thing you need is any kind of terminal failures when 2,500 miles away from your HQ so Crew chief Brad Manka worked furiously and around the clock to get the cars looking and working 100% before embarking on his 48hour drive to Road Atlanta in the “Sunny South-East” – Sounds like back home in Waterford!

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Heres a compilation of footage from Formula Drift Rd2 in Road Atlanta – Safe to say the car and team are making huge strides in on track performance, also worth noting that im beginning to find my groove in the SHR / V-LEDS Dodge Viper. Super excited for Rd3 in Palm Beach, FL already!

Enjoy:

Watch live video from driftstream on Justin.tv

Qualifying Run #1

Watch live video from driftstream on Justin.tv

Qualifying Run #2

Watch live video from driftstream on Justin.tv

Top 32 Battle – Dean Kearney vs Tyle McQuarrie

I was gutted i didnt get at least a OMT against Tyler but we have nobody to blame and will bounce back fighting at Rd3 where both SHR cars will be running 100% and ready for battle.

DK #43

Hi Guys and welcome to my first driver blog from Rd1 Streets of Long Beach, Formula Drift 2011 season. As you all may know by now i have taken the huge step this year changing Team (Samuel Hubinette Racing), car (SHR Dodge Viper), engine and chassis platform (8.3 Litre V10 Supercharged!), tires (Federal 595 RSR) and finally seating position from RHD -> LHD. Not that im complaining as we have a super strong program for 2011 and a great team of people and supportive sponsors such as V-LEDS and Federal Tires around us to make the most of this years package. However going to LBC as the #2 driver was nice as i could gradually get into the swing of all these new surroundings while Sam in the Dodge Motorsports Challenger could fly the flag from day 1 – BUT as things have a way of presenting themselves in motorsport i was welcomed to the limelight in SHR prematurely!

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Thanks to Ross Fairfield from Deadpirateproductions for putting together this video of me testing the V-LEDS / SHR Dodge Viper – Keep an eye on the Dodge Motorsports page and the Dodge Viper fan pages for future instalments of this throughout the year:

DK #43

Two-Time Formula DRIFT Champ Hübinette to Field

Two-Car Team in 2011

Newport Coast, Calif. (SAMUEL HÜBINETTE RACING) — Two-time champion Samuel Hübinette is set to unleash a one-two punch on the 2011 Formula DRIFT Series. The man from Jokkmokk, Sweden, known as the “Crazy Swede,” will field his Samuel Hübinette Racing (SHR) Dodge Motorsports Challenger, with 2009 European Pro Drift champ Dean “Karnage” Kearney tapped as driver of the SHR V-LEDS / Federal Dodge Viper SRT10.

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Howdy folks,

Its been a long time since i have updated my blog so while its pre-season and not much drifting going down i thought id at least get a few words out to you all here. 2010 was a great year and its only now upon reflecting back on the whirlwind year that 2010 was that im only realising how awesome and how grateful i am for all involved….it just makes 2011 and the prospects that are ahead of me much more exciting!

Theres a lot of talk about sponsors, tire deals and who will be driving for who in the new season as always in the “silly season” over the few months we have to gather our thoughts before decending on Round 1 in Long Beach again. At the moment a top topic seems to be the second driver for Gardella Racing which of course includes close friend and fellow Prodrift/Formula Drift driver Eric O Sullivan. The full report is all here over at Wrecked Magazine –  Obviously the very best to Eric on securing this drive! Much deserved and should see him to the sharp end of the Formula Drift grid as he is regularily seen on this side of the Atlantic.

My own plans aren’nt quite as “hyped-up” as Erics and in some respect have gone without mention to date which has kept me happy – Chinese whispers etc from small talk is generally the norm this time of the year and i know it was the case for me this time last year while i was working on securing my dream drive with V-LEDS in the INTEC RACING S14.

For now im happy to be just preparing for another awesome year with V-LEDS and Formula Drift and would like you all who are on Facebook to come join my NEW Athlete Fanpage which i have just set up over the last week – Official Dean Karnage.

Watch this space for further developments on my 2011 plans and if YOU want to be involved with me or my team drop my management an email at: ibergin@benchmark.ie / ian@deankearney.com

Dean Karnage.

Yo drift fans just gonna give ye a little insight into my latest travels to Seattle WA for Formula D the worlds biggest and most competive drifting series.

Driver and Beast in this picture maybe showing some of my pre-event confidence…….But sometimes it just not ment to be…

Anyways on with my adventures flights booked to leave Dublin for Seattle on the Friday before the event. When I got to the airport friday morning from my trip 130miles south in Waterford I relised once i had gotten to the check in desk that the unthinkable had just happened………..I had brought the wrong passport to the airport with me OH NO…With countless cell phone calls to my Team boss Lawrence stateside we got another flight booked and sorted out for Sunday morning so all was not lost and I would make it there even if it was two days late haha….The only thing that was now bothering me is that we had had a days Test/Tune at the very track we where competeing on the following weekend booked for monday.Which with this later flight almost granteeded that we where now gonna miss this..Not a great start to the home town event for the team but I was still confident about it.Ive tested on this track before and is the only track on the FD calendar that i have driven before the regular thursday media day.So myself and my techs had spoken about the track set up we where gonna run here and had a pretty good idea of what we wanted the car to do here.I wont bore you with all the late night garage antics that seam to go on before every FD event…..

Thursday pratice is always kinda a relaxed atmosphere with drivers and crew just finding there feet with the track/air temp/track temp recording weather all the usual and geting the car pretty dialed for fridays Qualifying session to follow.

I did however get a chance to put in a couple of lead and follow runs to gauge the speed/grip of my car and I was surprized to learn that my car was good here like the best its been in terms of speed and grip.Now most drivers sandbag for thursday but I was geting the general idea that my car was gonna be competive with the best here.

We where happy with how the car was performing but did realise it was down on power quit abit from previous rounds.But we just desided to leave it alone as it worked pretty good here.With a smile on my face and fulla confidence myself and fellow irish drifter Eric O Sullivan left for the Karting that Intecracing where holding for teams and drivers at Skykart followed by the Lexus launch party for Apexi’s new sc430

Surprizing how Karting takes it outa ya haha big red on me lol.

With the fun out of the way it was down to business Friday pre-pratice and Qualifying.So we got our game together running the high line on the wall was what we wanted to do as this is what they had told us in the drivers meeting was gonna score high points more so then another part of the track..If you look  behind the car you can see the spoiler been ripped off by rudding the wall..Good??

Lawrence was on the radio pushing me more out to the wall on ever pass of the course.This is a track I can now say I love and am really looking forward to coming back here next year. Its full trottle off the line using all the gears up the back striaght and finally into 5th pointing the car at the Concrete outter wall..And then quick weight shift and kick the clutch to start your drift its one of those track that makes your stomach sink everytime you hit that first bend..

Right lining up for run one of Qualifying there was some big hitters in the championship after passing before me and not scoring amazing scores so I was determaned to put in a good run..Maybe a little to determand i miss shifted coming down the power ally…

This set me up wrong for the rest of the course and knocking the first inner clip with at the expence of my front bumper.. Score BAD

Now once again finding myself in this situation of having it all to do on my final run of qualifying this is not cool.

I got my game face on on focused and this next pass a pasition I didnt need to be in but also one I had put myself in.Plan was consistant safe run and just make the cut.. It paid off safe but in for the main show 25th

Some pictures from friday evening pratice where i was workinf on my chase line.

Geting right up inside charles in this picture.This dude is also really cool guy and a guy i hang out with quit abit at all these FD events he also drives in the Asain touring car series.

Friday is also a great chance to interact with the fans and supporters of FD the two little dudes in the picture are wearing Dean Kearney 43 jerseys gives you a great feeling to see this around the pits..

Also friday evening gives you sometime to repair any damage that might of happened to the car..I like give the team some work to do late on friday evening haha sorry dudes..But they had the wall tap fixed and another wing sorted for the car and She was Brand New again…

Love this picture..Saturday morning is final pratice session..And i was on the pace big angel on the bank one of the top speed drivers and scraping the wall on nearly every pass i felt good..

Saturday before the T32 started gave us a chance to meet somemore of the loyal supporters and cook in our suits

My battle in T32 was not gonna be a easy one but i was confident. i had 3rd place finisher in the championship last year Tyler Mc Quarrie but i knew the pressure was more so on him to bet me as i was the rookie..but gauging Tyler over the past two days I knew I could bet him and I was goin for it. Into turn 1 following him first I noticed he was slower then me but I still attacked as always he made a slight correction infront of me forcing me to make maybe a more noticable one behind him but i got right back on it..

I got right back on his door for the rest of the bank and all over his rear bumper in the power ally.Transitioned lovely right alongside him for the S bends…I knew at very very worst it was all equal goin into my lead run..Right??

On my lead run the lights went out I waited a moment as I remember him askin me for the pace cone.I waited about two-three seconds at crawing speed at this point I desided I couldnt wait any longer as I needed every inch of the striaght away into turn 1 for my 5th gear entry.And to be honest I didnt think Tylers car would have a problem keeping up having twice the power and torque and half the weight.

I then tagged the wall on the bank and also the inner wall before exiting the final bend with a look in my mirrior to see he wasnt nearly as close as I was to him.. Returning to the line i was think i had it by maybe a narrow margin or perhaps a OMT I was in shock to learn tyer had advanced…Not the first time in my drifting career ive gotten the bad end of the stick.But it was my first time in Fd it had happen to me.

^^^^Depressed head on me after the T32 battle^^^^^

Speaking with TMcQ afterwards he said he thinks a OMT would of been a better call “thanks” but he also told me his 350z has problems getting the power down with makes its striaght line speed poor..This is probley the reason for the big gap I pulled on my lead run.But I still dont agree with penalising me for it..

So it was to the spotters tower to watch the rest of the weekend unfold and enjoy the atmosphere of the crowd with some of the other drives knocked out Robbie Nashida and EOS.

I leave you with this wall scrape mark from the weekend Hope you enjoyed the read and thank you very much for taking the time out to read it.

Big thanks to all my sponsors and supporters.Also big shout out to all the crew at V-LEDS and at IntecRacing.

well done to the intec pro am team in rd4 kyle winning nik second and peter 4th.

Hi guys and gals.Just a short blog report from Prodrift series rd3  in the new Irish venue City west custom street course.This was a first time for Prodrift to  be run in the the Irish capital Dublin…

I wasnt planning on running this event in the week leading up to it because of not geting my sr22 Blister 13  finished..But me and my team where going up to support the local drivers and just enjoy the atmosphere.

Upon arrival i was met by good friend and fellow waterford driver and world ‘traveler’ Buttsy. Buttsy is the owner and founder of T3B a European drift demo team sponsored by Monster energy.Ive drifted at demos before with Buttsy and Ronan (my brother) who is also part of this team. But anyways lets just say when i met the guys on arrival to the venue. They where on abit more of a “social” weekend. Therefore seen i had no car with me and asked me did i want to driver there T3B soarer!!! So of course i said yeah no problem dude. So i rounded up the troops to get this thing semi competetive was our plan….Right??? When i returned to the Monster pit where my crew were awaiting my arrival with the car I pulled in with a grin on my face..Followed by questions from my crew what the grin about??? I replyed theres noting to adjust…Shes bone stock with a blown manifold ha ha…

As you can see from this picture i was kinda excited about it because this was gonna be a proper challenge. With the drivers in Prodrift been some of the best drifters in the world.So i was waying up my options and how i was gonna approach this i had NO lock so i couldnt apply the big angle.I couldnt power my way out of the corners because i had less then stock power.And as for grip ha that was a no go either..So the approach was just go out there and have fun and see what way it was gonna go this was the best option right ha

Pratice we just went out and had some fun.. and spun quit abit “i mean a lot” LOL but then i started to get the hang of this car and was really enjoying it.Big 3rd gear clutch kick enrty of witch we where the only car with this kinda commitment in turn 1..But to be far we where the only car that needed to do it because of our complete lack of power…But defo made for some “HAIRY” entrys out to the wall and under the judeing stand…haha

Now pratice over time for Qualifying this was gonna be interesting to say the least…First run I just took my Formula D tactics safe first run and just put a score on the board…. It worked out pretty well clean run 70.4 which left us in 7th place after all the cars pasted through once…HaHa i couldnt believe it

Maximum attack for run 2 and a entry speed of 96kms 7kms faster then any other car. Perfect line through turn 1 and just keep it together nice and clean for the rest the run whilest running the wall scoring a 92.6……

After the Qualifying session finished it was back to drivers briefing to learn who was after making the cut..I was trilled to learn i was after taking second place and very surprized too..So now it was time to drive the cars down in to the pits for some photos and off to the autograph session with all the rest the drivers….  

Back for super lap.. In Prodrift this is where you do one more lap from cold and score a score to find out who you are batteling…So i left it all hang out for this as the championship points didnt mathar to me.Coming in a fraction to hot like 10mph to hot…i was forced to spin to avoid contact wit the wall… leaving me in 13th Unlucky for some including me…. I could feel my weekend of “keep drifting fun” coming to a end pretty quickly as i was paired with Danny Eyles who is a top European driver with a good car and good tyres and good team support..I followed Danny on the first run to aggresively and closed up to much on the first tight section causing a striaghten by me..And on my lead run i just didnt have the legs or the grip to pull on the Japspeed monster Danny advanced wel done dude great run…

At the end of my run the PD crew took sometime out to interview me infront of the home support about my Formula D rookie year and about the team im driving for IntecRacing/V-LEDS . It was great to be driving back home again i can say i really enjoyed it and me and my team are looking forward to Hopefully runnnig the full season in PD for 2011

Big thanks to all my sponsors Stateside and in Europe it wouldnt be possible without ye and also thanks to Buttsy and Ronan from T3B and Monster energy for the car thanks guys looking forward to demoing with ye again soon thats it for now guy and gals just landed in Seattle for rd4 of the Fromula Drift season and its my Teams home event in Monroe fingers crossed for good result and stay tuned to the live drift stream www.formulad.com

Hi Guys and Gals i’ve been meaning to get this blog  posted with the last few days but something came up everytime…

Anyway i’ll get started, coming to New Jersey I really didnt know what to expect, people had told me so much about this track and what the 36degree banked first corner was like and then its comes into the flat infield with an almighty bang and followed by a figure eight

So setting the car up for a banked circuit with a heavy transition into a full throttle right hander and a bumpy section that would be more suitable for a tractor LOL….. I got to Garage Jtune Tuesday morning off my flight to meet my crew chief Lawrence and my tech Jun, we threw around a few ideas about set up for this track and made a decision to run a pretty simple one but make the changes on thursday practice at the track, when I was about to feel it out for real.

Making a few changes I quickly got to grips with this track and was loving it, changing from a 4:3 to a 4:1 final drive made it just perfect meaning for the first time I could run a whole track in FD in the one gear, perfect now I just had to focus on my line on the bank.  Every run I was getting higher and higher and feeling more at home in this V-LEDS 240sx then ever

Running practice with some of the front runners in the championship I was figuring out more and more about what this car needed to work well here and was still tweaking things even into Friday morning practice.

As you can see from this picture my little Nissan was able to stick with Conrads Camero monster on 305 rear rubber, so being really happy now it was time to enjoy the weekend behind the wheel and enjoy the Jersey fans.

Some shots from the practice here, hope you enjoy this, was trying to follow Dmac by the sound of his car because I sure as hell couldnt see him.

Running with Miki is great I remember watching video option dvds of this guy and saying i’d love a spin with this dude and feel very honoured now to be able to run door to door with him

Running with Gushi in pratice was giving me lot of confidence knowing he is one of the faster drivers in FD and been able to stick close enough to be a threat was good.

On my qualifying line here, now time to put this down when it matters.

Right…….. down to business (qualifying) the only part of the weekend I can really say I hate. Now its time when all your setting up and tricking about comes together and you’ll know if they are really working. As I launched at the bank I was on the high line and was happy down to the transition I tried to cut it a little tight for the speed factor maybe to tight knocking off an intercooler pipe when I tipped the clipping point……….

Never a good idea…… i’ve put a lot of pressure on myself for the next and final run. Knowing if i dont get this right we are packing up early and going home, not good I dont like these situations haha, so  I backed off, I didnt want to tempt faith so I just ran a 90% run and waited for the result off my spotter over the radio

Confirming back to me over the radio “12th he says well done” I was a little shocked I didnt think I was gone in the top half of the grid. Finishing up a respectable 16th over all I was happy knowing that the run I had put in was a pretty safe run

First part of the job done now some more twin battles to toy around with before the main competition starts.

Drawing Matt Powers in my first of the top32 battles I was pretty confident, we had been monitoring everyones speed all weekend and we knew we were quite faster than Matt and i was running a slightly higher line but saying that Matt is always a driver to watch out for and I was on my guard

Been the higher qualifyer I was to lead the first battle and running  pretty much my qualifying line and fast. At the end of the run I looked in my mirror and I had seen I had pulled quite a big gap on him

Knowing I had the advantage going into the second run I just knew a clean run was gonna put me through.

I followed well as good as I needed to do….putting on the pressure where i thought was needed

Coming out of the last turn I knew I had it in the bag as I applied the pressure going over the line….

Me looking like a dummy at the top 16 opening ceremony, my first FD top 16 to be exacted. I had then found out I had top qualifyer Ryan Trueck and it wasnt going to be easy but I was looking forward to it.

Ryan leading, I followed hard and fast probably  to my own downfall as i got too close to him at the transition and made quiet a big mistake. Losing the chase run i had it all to do…..

Ryan followed cleverly and gave himself enough room not to get caught out anywhere…..

On the infield section i tried to blind him with FALKEN 615K smoke in the hope of him making a mistake behind me but i wasnt so lucky..

If you look at my helmet in this picture you can see im looking back at him in my side mirror..

Knocked out in top16……..

Its a step in the right direction with the car and signs that we are making good progress…

Me after i was knocked out along with Sam in top16 just speaking about what happened in our battles and probably wishing Dai luck………

Anyway guys and gals thanks for taking the time to read my blog, really hope ye enjoyed it and look forward to meeting ye all soon at some event near you…….

I’m outta here

Karnage…..

Here is our Team V-LEDS/IntecRacing video from our successful weekend in new jersey 10days ago. Where i feel im really starting to make the car my own and geting it dialed in and competive.

Hope you enjoy the video. Blog report to follow shortly

Wall Stadium New Jersey Video

The guys back at Intec in conjunction with ContourHD have been working double time outside of the events – they’ve re-edited the Round 2 Atlanta Video

Check it out after the Jump !

ContourHD Video From FD rd2 Atlanta

Formula D rd2 ATL (hotlant)

Where do i start… Hotlanla that’s right for sure but the event started long before the Thursday in Georgia for me and team boss Lawrence. Myself and Lawrence set off from the IntecRacing workshop in the Northwest Seattle to be exact on the Sunday before the event giving us 4 full days to get there before set up on the Wednesday. I was thinking handy drive right (been from Ireland and all that) sure ive driven around Europe competing in the prodrift European series….ha ha oh boy did I eat my words when we got about halfway threw the journey I was thinking to myself (moaning) that I would be at almost any track in Europe now from my workshop back home and we still had 2600kms to go.

Anyways after 36 hours driving without stopping only for gas we spent a night in Kansas city to recharge our batteries and get a good rest  before we battled on the rest of the journey to the Famous Road Atlanta Circuit. Losing a wheel off the trailer 1000kms before our final destination was putting doughts in my head was this gonna be another weekend like Long Beach..(drama filled) but we limped on to the track at 50mph for the last 1000kms finally making it there i was never so relieved to see a race track in all my life ha ha.. Anyways with set up over with, it was time for Thursday practice which i was looking forward to after watching this event for the last 5 years and always long to drive this Circuit i was gonna try figure out a set up for the 240 that would work and just enjoy this practice session

I was enjoying this first session and was making a mental list in my head of changes i was looking to make to the car before the next session but was surprised at how difficult this track was to drive with camber elevation and grip changes with the 85+ heat

The second session i was still finding it a little tricky but my trusty spotter in the tower Kyle was pointing me in all the right directions on what way to put together a respectable qualifying line and my crew chief and tech Lawrence and Jun where making all the right adjustments to the car after every lap to get me comfortable in it bearing in mind i know its a s body but this car is relatively new to me only been my second Competitive outing in it

As you can see i was starting to get the line right and getting the power down earlier after watching some of the front runners like Dmac,Gittin and Tanner so i could generate some good smoke

Friday morning before our last Practice session Jun did some more small changes and tweeks and we are all pretty confident and in high spirits.

Plan is go out in this session and nail the Qualifying line because Thursday was good but still a little scrappy so run 1 all is going well great entry 86mph good angle good transition and just coming outta the horse shoe where i up shift 4th BIG BANG…… i radio back to the pits ”bosco axel just broke” not nervous up until this point but now i was watching my last chance at practicing nailing this line counting down on the timer and I still didn’t have my full plan of attack mapped out in my brain….

with moments to spare my amazing team got this recurring problem sorted in time for me to do just one more pass of the course in which i strung together a pretty descent lap now back to the pits for final check over a bit to eat and my 4th change of Tshirt of the day from sweating like a………………well you know what lol

As we went to the Autograph session at the nos energy stand i sat beside good friend Eric O Sullivan who was giving me some tips about this track from his experience last year here..when your new all info is well soaked up that’s for sure

Practicing with Taka

The came before the storm..its got that impressive stance this car VIP but some how aggressive.

Qualifying; after a pretty good but safe first run entering at 86mph again good angle but a little early on the upshift 3rd the and little late with the 4th it was good enough to put me in 14th place after a full pass of the grid.. I was now happy knowing this wasn’t my best lap and the fact knowing we where defo in the main Top32 show I could push hard for my second run right??

Sitting on the line pretty pumped this time i was gonna go for it full steam ahead my spotter Kyle comes over the radio all he says is “110% commitment” so i launched off the line and left my entry about 0.5 of a second later for that touch more speed which i had at a 88mph and as you can see slightly over shout turn 1 but nailed the rest the run the the dirt drop was heavily penalised 50.8 my score and what do you know most the field put in great second laps pushing me back to 23rd.Far from ideal placing but we where in nun the less and Joon Mange was our pairing

Missing night time practice due to some issues we had to address i was still pretty confident in our ability to progress to Top16 at least

Joon was to lead the first pass and i stuck pretty close to his rear quarter and new i could move pretty close to him on the horse shoe if i transitioned a second earlier then him which i did….

I made my move and im thinking to myself nice I timed that perfect im right on his drivers door…balancing the throttle and sayin in my mind 3rd 3rd 3rd 3rd NOW just on the clip Upshift 4th for the downhill…………………BANG…………shaft broken i couldn’t believe it this was to end my weekend here a sad way to go out of any event but i couldnt of lost of to a nicer guy…

All in All a good weekend with its ups and downs but I reallly feel that me and the team are really making massive progress as a team since I first tested with them in Irwindale last year.. Looking forward to Jersey in a few weeks

Thanks to all my sponsors and to all the people that are making this possible I leave you with this last picture i really like it gives you some idea of how big Road Atlanta really is

Back soon guys and gals Karnage…..