Having an "off" day

In rally competition, we call little incidents like the one pictured here having "an off." Mild understatement for when we have a "moment" that goes bad and turns into a potential race-ending crash.

At the Rallye Perce-Neige in Canada a couple of weeks ago, we had an off very early in the race. We followed defending Canadian champ Pat Richard's tracks right off the road on an extremely slippery corner right at the start of this snow and ice rally. We went deep into the ditch and our rally could have ended right there, but for the awesome help of a whole bunch of enthusiastic fans under the co-ordination of one Sylvain Erickson -- an incredible rally driver with mad skills who spanks us all when he's out racing.

When he's not competing, Sylvain knows all the good corners for the best action so it came as no surprise he was right there when we slid wide and landed in the ditch.

When we went in, Jeremy and I knew right away that there was no hope that we'd get out under our own power. This was a deep ditch and traction? Eh. Not so much. We tried, but just spun our wheels.

But rally fans are a really amazing sort of spectator. Not only will they stand out in the freezing cold to watch us drive, but they'll also lend a hand when we get into trouble. These guys came to our rescue right away, pushing and shoving and shovelling with their hands to get us back on course and into the race.

Under Sylvain's expert guidance, these guys grabbed a tow-rope and physically muscled the car back onto the course. It was like a giant game of tug-of-war, with all these guys hauling on the rope. I normally wouldn't place a bet on manpower over horsepower, but in this case it was manpower that won out.

It took the guys about seven minutes (only!) but they got us back on the course and on our way. Thanks so much to everybody who got in there and helped and to Sylvain for masterminding the operation.

We were hoping for an amazing come-from-behind story and by the end of the day we had clawed back all the way to second-place overall heading into the final stage. We were on pace for the win... If only these guys were at the race-ending corner just six kilometers from the end of the rally, too... Ah well, you win some, you crash some. And it was totally worth it just for the experience of being hauled back onto the course by some of the best fans in motorsport.

  Thanks to Gilles Nault for the photos!

Thunderdrift: Nor-Cal Formula Drift ProAm Round 1

  Sunday Feb. 7th of 2010 was the season opener of the newly established Nor Cal Formula Drift ProAm Series: Thunderdrift.  The event had a strong turnout consisting of Nor Cal's finest ProAm drivers and seriously impressive drift cars.  Thunderhill's turns 13-10 (counter-course direction) provided the drivers with a configuration that demanded a high speed initiation and a tricky transition over a blind crest.

 During the morning practice runs the drivers gained confidence on the course and qualifying provided a great show.  Top qualifiers Ryan Kado and Jared Thompson displayed consistent runs that were full of smoke and angle.  By the end of the day it was Julian Jacobs taking the win.

 The drivers and spectators at the event enjoyed Nos Energy Drink's involvement to the fullest.  The winners of the event soaked each other down with bottles of Nos at the podium awards ceremony.  Come out on April 13th to watch Nor Cal's finest drift drivers battle it out in Round 2 of the Formula Drift ProAm Series: Thunderdrift.

for more info check out www.thunderdrift.com

mishimoto love ..

Another racing season has come and gone, and it’s time to tip our hats to all those who wowed us with their amazing performances in 2009. Chris Forsberg driving the NOS Energy Drink Nissan 350Z dominated the drifting world this season. Forsberg not only became the Formula Drift Champion but now currently ranks as the driver with the 2nd highest wins in Formula Drift history. With such a stellar record, it came as no surprise that he was named Formula Drift Driver of the Year.

It was also an exhilarating year for Team ACP who drove home with the North American Rally Championship in 2009. This win was especially sweet as it was the first championship for the team’s Mitsubishi Evolution X and the first rally championship for NOS Energy Drink. In the time attack world, AMS Performance secured first place wins throughout the season and hit a noteworthy milestone when they broke the EVO X Horsepower World Record back in October. The team at Mishimoto wants to recognize all the time and hard work these guys devoted to their sport to produce such a successful racing season. It will be exciting to see what happens in the upcoming year, so tune in.

New Quaife Transmission

There has been a lot of progress done to the 350Z in the past few weeks. The car is going to be ready to start testing again shortly so I wanted to post up some updates.

The biggest modification that we are doing to the car for 2010 is our new Quaife sequential transmission! I cannot wait to get to the track to try this thing out. The gear ratios are better and the I-pattern will help me feel more confident during upshifts on more technical tracks.

 

The transmission has a relocated shifter so I can place it where I need it to be. You can really see the quality of the product by the detail they put into every detail.

  

2010 Formula Drift ProAM: Thunderdrift

 

Nor Cal is stepping it up big time in 2010!  Formula Drift is now officially the sanctioning body for the Thunderdrift Championship Series.  Nor Cal's greatest drivers will be going head to head in all out tandem battle at Thunderhill Raceway.  The racetrack, in Willows, CA offers extremely fast and blind combination corners that will have drifters seeing 3rd and 4th gear speeds.  This Sunday is Round 1 in the points championship and it is going to be intense.  Spectators are more than welcome and the weather is going to be great.  Hope to see you guys there!

www.drinknos.com

350Z in the Nissan Motorsports Calender

I just received a few copies of the Nissan Motorsports 2010 calender today. The 350Z was posted up as the month of October!

Photo credit to Michael Groh!

NOR CAL NOS INTRODUCES JARED THOMPSON

 

 

Hey drift fans, here is some background on the newest edition to the Nor Cal Nos Team! 

Jared Thompson, a product of the bay area, was a pro driver in the 2007 World Drift Series in China and the winner of the first annual Nor Cal Track Drift Competition at Thunderhill Raceway.  Thompson finished 3rd overall in the 2009 Thunderdrift Championship Series and will be competing in the 2010 Formula Drift ProAM.

Be sure to follow us on the blogs for upcoming competitions featuring Jared Thompson and his Nissan 240sx powered by Zankoku Performance and Nos Energy Drink.

ACP's iTunes Playlist

When ESPN asked me to tell them what's on my playlist for an X Games iTunes "Celebrity Playlist," I gave them a list of some of my favorite tunes. Check it out here: www.itunes.com/xgames or open up your iTunes store and go to Music>> Celebrity Playlists... And there's mine, somewhere between David Bowie and Alicia Keys.

Racing on ice! Rally Round 1

We're just getting home from the first round of the Rally America season. Crazy icy conditions out there like none of us had ever seen: it was like a skating rink or a luge run out there. I could have been faster on hockey skates.

Take a close look at the photo of us on the ice (shot by Mike Proulx of www.worldrallysport.com ). See that glare ice under the wheels? That wasn't even the worst of it.

Winter racing in those conditions is about keeping it tidy and making fewer mistakes than the competition. Especially when conditions are as bad as they were.

We came around a corner on one stage early on the first day to find Ken in his new Ford totally sideways in the road. He packed up and went home right after that.

We stayed in it, but got hung up on a snow bank and lost a whole bunch of time and dropped down to 8th overall. Big thanks to pro mountain bike riders Carl Decker and Adam Craig – both national team members who ride for Giant – who stopped in the middle of the race to yank us out so we didn't lose any more time shoveling.

We were on pace and won a stage late in the rally, but we knew coming back to win from 8th would be a pretty tall order. It took us most of the next day, but Worm (my co-driver, Jeremy Wimpey, goes by "Worm") and I were able to claw back four positions to end the race in 4th.

Great big thanks to the thousands of you who turned out to watch us race in the frigid Northern Michigan weather. Couldn't believe how many of you there were out there cheering us on at the spectator points and in the Super Special. Glad so many of you were able to score some NOS!

It wasn't the win we wanted, but it's some good strong points for Round 1 and we'll be back again in a month to kick it at 100 Acre Wood in southern Missouri February 26-27. Keep an eye on this spot and on www.acpracing.com for more details.

And if you've got any photos or video you'd like us to see, put 'em on the wall of our fan page on Facebook at ACP Rally or send us a note on YouTube at /ACPrally. Find us on Twitter at ACPRally, too.

TOP 10 NOSome moments in 2009: #6 AMS "HOTTEST LAP EVER" ...

in 2008, i had the idea that we should be looking for a team to sponsor that needed that chance, a chance to show the world what they're made of and support them to achieve that idea .. so i was in chicago on thanksgiving and martin i happen to have allot of friends in common, so we finally linked up the day after the holiday and talked about time attack and what he wanted to do with an evo x and the other forms of motorsports but this moment takes it in 2009 AMS was ruling the 2009 4 wheels driver redline time attack category but even though all the developmental R&D isseue AMS went though AMS still manage to come out on top even while on FIRE!!! 

TOP 10 NOSome moments in 2009: #6 goes to AMS "HOTTEST LAP EVER" ...

Having an "off" day

In rally competition, we call little incidents like the one pictured here having "an off." Mild understatement for when we have a "moment" that goes bad and turns into a potential race-ending crash.

At the Rallye Perce-Neige in Canada a couple of weeks ago, we had an off very early in the race. We followed defending Canadian champ Pat Richard's tracks right off the road on an extremely slippery corner right at the start of this snow and ice rally. We went deep into the ditch and our rally could have ended right there, but for the awesome help of a whole bunch of enthusiastic fans under the co-ordination of one Sylvain Erickson -- an incredible rally driver with mad skills who spanks us all when he's out racing.

When he's not competing, Sylvain knows all the good corners for the best action so it came as no surprise he was right there when we slid wide and landed in the ditch.

When we went in, Jeremy and I knew right away that there was no hope that we'd get out under our own power. This was a deep ditch and traction? Eh. Not so much. We tried, but just spun our wheels.

But rally fans are a really amazing sort of spectator. Not only will they stand out in the freezing cold to watch us drive, but they'll also lend a hand when we get into trouble. These guys came to our rescue right away, pushing and shoving and shovelling with their hands to get us back on course and into the race.

Under Sylvain's expert guidance, these guys grabbed a tow-rope and physically muscled the car back onto the course. It was like a giant game of tug-of-war, with all these guys hauling on the rope. I normally wouldn't place a bet on manpower over horsepower, but in this case it was manpower that won out.

It took the guys about seven minutes (only!) but they got us back on the course and on our way. Thanks so much to everybody who got in there and helped and to Sylvain for masterminding the operation.

We were hoping for an amazing come-from-behind story and by the end of the day we had clawed back all the way to second-place overall heading into the final stage. We were on pace for the win... If only these guys were at the race-ending corner just six kilometers from the end of the rally, too... Ah well, you win some, you crash some. And it was totally worth it just for the experience of being hauled back onto the course by some of the best fans in motorsport.

  Thanks to Gilles Nault for the photos!

Thunderdrift: Nor-Cal Formula Drift ProAm Round 1

  Sunday Feb. 7th of 2010 was the season opener of the newly established Nor Cal Formula Drift ProAm Series: Thunderdrift.  The event had a strong turnout consisting of Nor Cal's finest ProAm drivers and seriously impressive drift cars.  Thunderhill's turns 13-10 (counter-course direction) provided the drivers with a configuration that demanded a high speed initiation and a tricky transition over a blind crest.

 During the morning practice runs the drivers gained confidence on the course and qualifying provided a great show.  Top qualifiers Ryan Kado and Jared Thompson displayed consistent runs that were full of smoke and angle.  By the end of the day it was Julian Jacobs taking the win.

 The drivers and spectators at the event enjoyed Nos Energy Drink's involvement to the fullest.  The winners of the event soaked each other down with bottles of Nos at the podium awards ceremony.  Come out on April 13th to watch Nor Cal's finest drift drivers battle it out in Round 2 of the Formula Drift ProAm Series: Thunderdrift.

for more info check out www.thunderdrift.com

mishimoto love ..

Another racing season has come and gone, and it’s time to tip our hats to all those who wowed us with their amazing performances in 2009. Chris Forsberg driving the NOS Energy Drink Nissan 350Z dominated the drifting world this season. Forsberg not only became the Formula Drift Champion but now currently ranks as the driver with the 2nd highest wins in Formula Drift history. With such a stellar record, it came as no surprise that he was named Formula Drift Driver of the Year.

It was also an exhilarating year for Team ACP who drove home with the North American Rally Championship in 2009. This win was especially sweet as it was the first championship for the team’s Mitsubishi Evolution X and the first rally championship for NOS Energy Drink. In the time attack world, AMS Performance secured first place wins throughout the season and hit a noteworthy milestone when they broke the EVO X Horsepower World Record back in October. The team at Mishimoto wants to recognize all the time and hard work these guys devoted to their sport to produce such a successful racing season. It will be exciting to see what happens in the upcoming year, so tune in.

New Quaife Transmission

There has been a lot of progress done to the 350Z in the past few weeks. The car is going to be ready to start testing again shortly so I wanted to post up some updates.

The biggest modification that we are doing to the car for 2010 is our new Quaife sequential transmission! I cannot wait to get to the track to try this thing out. The gear ratios are better and the I-pattern will help me feel more confident during upshifts on more technical tracks.

 

The transmission has a relocated shifter so I can place it where I need it to be. You can really see the quality of the product by the detail they put into every detail.

  

2010 Formula Drift ProAM: Thunderdrift

 

Nor Cal is stepping it up big time in 2010!  Formula Drift is now officially the sanctioning body for the Thunderdrift Championship Series.  Nor Cal's greatest drivers will be going head to head in all out tandem battle at Thunderhill Raceway.  The racetrack, in Willows, CA offers extremely fast and blind combination corners that will have drifters seeing 3rd and 4th gear speeds.  This Sunday is Round 1 in the points championship and it is going to be intense.  Spectators are more than welcome and the weather is going to be great.  Hope to see you guys there!

www.drinknos.com

350Z in the Nissan Motorsports Calender

I just received a few copies of the Nissan Motorsports 2010 calender today. The 350Z was posted up as the month of October!

Photo credit to Michael Groh!

NOR CAL NOS INTRODUCES JARED THOMPSON

 

 

Hey drift fans, here is some background on the newest edition to the Nor Cal Nos Team! 

Jared Thompson, a product of the bay area, was a pro driver in the 2007 World Drift Series in China and the winner of the first annual Nor Cal Track Drift Competition at Thunderhill Raceway.  Thompson finished 3rd overall in the 2009 Thunderdrift Championship Series and will be competing in the 2010 Formula Drift ProAM.

Be sure to follow us on the blogs for upcoming competitions featuring Jared Thompson and his Nissan 240sx powered by Zankoku Performance and Nos Energy Drink.

ACP's iTunes Playlist

When ESPN asked me to tell them what's on my playlist for an X Games iTunes "Celebrity Playlist," I gave them a list of some of my favorite tunes. Check it out here: www.itunes.com/xgames or open up your iTunes store and go to Music>> Celebrity Playlists... And there's mine, somewhere between David Bowie and Alicia Keys.

Racing on ice! Rally Round 1

We're just getting home from the first round of the Rally America season. Crazy icy conditions out there like none of us had ever seen: it was like a skating rink or a luge run out there. I could have been faster on hockey skates.

Take a close look at the photo of us on the ice (shot by Mike Proulx of www.worldrallysport.com ). See that glare ice under the wheels? That wasn't even the worst of it.

Winter racing in those conditions is about keeping it tidy and making fewer mistakes than the competition. Especially when conditions are as bad as they were.

We came around a corner on one stage early on the first day to find Ken in his new Ford totally sideways in the road. He packed up and went home right after that.

We stayed in it, but got hung up on a snow bank and lost a whole bunch of time and dropped down to 8th overall. Big thanks to pro mountain bike riders Carl Decker and Adam Craig – both national team members who ride for Giant – who stopped in the middle of the race to yank us out so we didn't lose any more time shoveling.

We were on pace and won a stage late in the rally, but we knew coming back to win from 8th would be a pretty tall order. It took us most of the next day, but Worm (my co-driver, Jeremy Wimpey, goes by "Worm") and I were able to claw back four positions to end the race in 4th.

Great big thanks to the thousands of you who turned out to watch us race in the frigid Northern Michigan weather. Couldn't believe how many of you there were out there cheering us on at the spectator points and in the Super Special. Glad so many of you were able to score some NOS!

It wasn't the win we wanted, but it's some good strong points for Round 1 and we'll be back again in a month to kick it at 100 Acre Wood in southern Missouri February 26-27. Keep an eye on this spot and on www.acpracing.com for more details.

And if you've got any photos or video you'd like us to see, put 'em on the wall of our fan page on Facebook at ACP Rally or send us a note on YouTube at /ACPrally. Find us on Twitter at ACPRally, too.

TOP 10 NOSome moments in 2009: #6 AMS "HOTTEST LAP EVER" ...

in 2008, i had the idea that we should be looking for a team to sponsor that needed that chance, a chance to show the world what they're made of and support them to achieve that idea .. so i was in chicago on thanksgiving and martin i happen to have allot of friends in common, so we finally linked up the day after the holiday and talked about time attack and what he wanted to do with an evo x and the other forms of motorsports but this moment takes it in 2009 AMS was ruling the 2009 4 wheels driver redline time attack category but even though all the developmental R&D isseue AMS went though AMS still manage to come out on top even while on FIRE!!! 

TOP 10 NOSome moments in 2009: #6 goes to AMS "HOTTEST LAP EVER" ...