Formula Drift Rd1 Long Beach California

Where do i start about this first round of the Formula Drift championship its was definitely eventful weekend and 2 weeks leading up to it that’s for sure…Started off with a clutch exploding on the dyno couple of hours before we were planning on leaving for Cali

So with this problem needing to be sorted out ASAP we got on to our sponsors Exedy to hook us up with another specially made clutch for our sequential HKS transmission which they said they could turn around in about a day for us. Love those guys at Exedy always so accommodating. So with this in mind we decided to set off for Cali without a transmission or clutch in the V-LEDS 240sx. Loaded up the rig and hit the I5 south for about a 1500miles to another good sponsor of ours Apexi usa where we where planning on using there facility’s to re-fit the trans with the new Exedy clutch. Sweet you would think right??? wrong….about 3 hours into our journey to Cali near Portland the IntecRacing Rig decided it had enough and the injector pump gave up the ghost……Great we were spending the night in some shady motel and put us even further behind schedule about 24hours to be exact before our replacement truck arrived. So anyways we got the show on the road and made some good time on the road getting to Apexi in good time to find our clutch was there waiting for us so it was time to unload the car fast get it on the life and get cracking on it within a couple of hours the V-LEDS/IntecRacing car was ready to rock for Tech in the morning. Passing tech wasn’t a problem as the car is always well turned out.

now with all our ducks in a row it was time to Relax for the night and get ready for tomorrows qualifying

After speaking some friends of mine that have competed here before in the last couple of years Eric o sullivan and Dmac they both told me that you don’t get very much practice time here so make every lap count. So that was my mind set right from the off but things don’t always go to plan now do they?? We broke a rear axel on our second run fixed it broke another on our third run fixed it and got two laps in before the session ended. This made me kinda nervous going into qualifying with minimal laps under my belt and not feeling confident in the reliability of the car

Jun my crew chief and lead tech getting the new DSS axels into the 240sx. After we went out for our first qualifying run and what i feared happened another axel broke. Now the pressure was on me limited laps complete and first of my two qualifying laps was wasted with mechanical failure. As you can see in the picture above we got our hands on some DriveShaftShop axels from RSR for our last and final pass the course.. So I done all i could with my experience of the course and put my trust in the team that the car was gonna hold up didn’t try anything Wild or Wicked just put in a safe lap and hoped it was gonna be good enough to get me through.

Going to drivers meeting we found out that we had made the T32 shoot out putting in a healthy 26th nothing to boast about but happy to make the show. I was however pairing up with a fellow Prodrift European driver Feddy Aasbo it was always gonna be a interesting battle because we both know each other driving pretty well. So Saturday morning practice came and i got to get in some solid runs

Not a flinch outa Santa the flag man in the background ha ha

Last bend Turn 9 at LBC me and freddy getting on the Gas and smoking them Falkens 615k’s

Just after the first clip where I removed the end plate off the spoiler using the wall. Although Freddy beat me by 2 points in the finish I wasn’t to disappointed knowin freddys skills behind the wheel of that supra that he’s been driving with 4 years and was delighted to see him going on to finish 4th over all. Now the prep has already started for Atlanta Rd2 which is gonna be a very exciting round for me finally feeling comfortable behind the wheel of the V-LEDS/IntecRacing 240sx

Thanks to all the Sponsors and to the crew for the big effort the weekend Thanks dudes