This past weekend was full of excitement when NOS Energy Drink came down to Austin, TX for the Texas Heat Wave. Along with barrels full of NOS Energy Drink and an appearance by the NOS Honda S2K. Both the NOS Chevy Suburban and Scion TC were unveiled for the first time.
One of the most anticipated events to hit the Bay Area this
summer was the BLOX Open House in Fremont, California.
NOS Energy Drink was on hand to provide the energy
and entertainment for the crowd as they checked out over 300 of the Bay Area’s finest import tuner cars. Hundreds of models were featured at the NOS Energy Drink Lounge and Main Stage, where ice cold NOS was distributed to thousands of car enthusiasts throughout the day. For more information on this event, check out BloxRacing.com or TunerPlayground.com
Check out this teaser video from our friends at 360VM:
Blox Open House Teaser (NOS / 360VM Edition) from Roland Posadas on Vimeo.
Willows, CA – June 30th was Round 3 of the 2010 ThunderDrift Pro-Am Series, with Nor-Cal’s top drifters gathering to go for a shot at a pro license. Of the three points leaders, two returned in new cars. Andy Gillespie was driving Tomasz Olech’s SR-powered Corolla while his Miata was down, and Ryan Kado was in his new orange S14, recently purchased from Inland Drift. Luke Lonberger was still using his Turbo LS1 S14.
NOS Energy Drink was out in full force, with photographers and models
making
the rounds and handing out free NOS to anyone who looked thirsty.
Resident
judge Richard Kong was joined by Don Ahn and Conrad Grunewald to round
out the
judging staff for this round.
Kado qualified first and was favored to win, but a stroke of fate pitted
him
against 8th qualifier Julian Jacobs in the Top 8 round. On the second
run, Kado
was following just a tad too close, hit the brakes, and straightened out
for a
second in turn 3, costing him the battle and giving him 5th place. Had
he
qualified 2nd, he would have finished 6th and lost out on an additional
30
points.
Lonberger and Virgil Brosseau went One More Time in the Top 8 after
Lonberger
made an epic pass on the inside of Turn 3, sending him far off the track
at the
exit. Lonberger also went One More Time against Gillespie in the Final
4, and almost got another One More Time against Jacobs in the Championship
Round, but
Jacobs got the win. Gillespie went up against Josh Sher in the
Consolation Round
and came away with 3rd place. This was Jacobs’ second win of the
series,
but he’s still in 4th place overall with 261 points, due to a poor
finish in
Round 2. Lonberger is still in 3rd with 285 points, Gillespie is hanging
on to
2nd with 288, and Kado has the tenuous lead with 295.
In addition to the Prizes and Trophies the drivers usually receive, NOS
Energy Drink presented the winners with NOS Hats and Hoodies!
With only 10 points separating 1st and 3rd, the series could still go to any of the top four drivers. All Kado has to do is show up to Round 4, and 5th Place Brosseau won’t be able to squeeze by.
The 4th and final round is August 31st at Thunderhill Raceway. NOS Energy Drink will be there providing refreshments and adding to the excitement as the drivers make their final attempt at achieving Formula Drift greatness!
For a more in depth look at all of the action from Round 3 of the ThunderDrift Pro-Am Series, check out this great video from our friends at Lab17:
ThunderDrift ProAm 2010 Round 3 from Lab17 on Vimeo.
We hope to see everyone at NOS Energy Drink’s Forum Fest this Sunday, 7.18.10 @ Pacific Raceways in Kent, WA…Remember the event is free for all spectators!
For all you car show participants! Here is a sneak peek of the LIMITED EDITION NOS Energy Drink Car show BELTS.
Every category winner will take home one of these lovely belts instead of a trophy. Hold it high and wear it proud to show that You made it…..You made it!
NOS Energy Drink is the official Energy Drink of Formula Drift but now officially the loudest sponsor at Formula Drift events due to Chris Forsberg's now following of soccer/futbol aka World Cup FEVER!
Formula Drift Seattle has come and gone but NOS Energy Drink made some waves, some cheers and jeers and plenty of NOS to go around....
Seattle Formula Drift round of competition is ALWAYS the loudest but this year in particular was even louder due to the World Cup-esque Vuvuzella's...Look out for videos images and who knows GIFS of the NOS Vuzuzelas
Here's some pics from the action, remember you can always look at my personal blog JarodDeAnda.com or my FATLACE.COM blog here... Here's some other images on my FATLACE POST
I'm gonna start with the most recent event from this past weekend and "pepper in" some other happenings in my personal life, because we'll I'm blessed to do what I love, and LOVE WHAT I DO!
Here's the one and ONLY NOS microphone, SEND IT!
If you didn't know yet Keep Drifting Fun and NOS have created unique limited edition 450 stickers per round of Formula Drift, myself, Will Roegge, Josh Herron and Chris Forsberg will be passing them out at each round, we backtracked with the NJ one and will have a complete set at the end of the year stay tuned...
Here's some fans holding the Seattle and NJ round KDF NOS stickers, so rad!!!!!
BTW, here's the Needle to Space!!!!!!!
Here's Chris Forsberg aka Mr. Vuvuzela bringer to the drift world! and "Square" Blair he manages alot of what Chris does...
on "Set up" day I laced them out with some Incipio cases for their devices...
Hope everybody had a safe and memorial 4th of July, I sure did with family and friends and a scar will forever be on my leg with my family crest, my cousin and I got our family crest! BOOM!
Stopped by and saw my homies in Scottsdale, AZ at a shop called HIGH POINT SHOES owned by Adrian Wilson of the AZ Cardinals, he's a BEAST!
I always lace them with NOS Energy Drink to keep em going during the day, they love it!
I returned home yesterday from Round 4 of the Formula Drift Championship series at Evergreen Speedway in Monroe, WA. Overall, we had a great weekend that began on Wednesday with an in town appearance with the local NOS crew. We spent the day spreading the word about Formula Drift and the event that was happening only a few days from then. Not only did we hand out a bunch of drinks, we were even able to give away two tickets to the event.
Friday begins with our second practice of the weekend but most importantly, it is our last practice session before qualifying begins. We made a few passes and I was feeling good to go but on the last pass, trouble! As I exited the bank, the car behind me bumped into my car and bent the rear control arm. Thankfully, I have Kevin and Sergio who busted out that Genius tool box and spare parts and got the car fixed with plenty of time to spare before our first qualifying run.
In qualifying, we scored 80 points on the first run which is solid but being that qualifying position is so important in earning Championship points, I wanted a higher score. On the second pass, I pushed for more angle coming off of the bank which paid off with the 5th highest score, 86.3.
We entered into Top 32 tandem paired up against Eric O’Sullivan. My strategy going into this round was to focus on my car’s ability to achieve better angle than I thought he could coming into the “power alley.” As we went through this section of the course, Eric over rotated and made contact with the wall. Although Eric was fine, the car was not able to make it back to the line, even after calling 5 minutes. This meant that we would advance to Top 16 where we would face Daijiro Yoshihara.
Dai is not only a great friend of mine but an amazing driver who, at this point, had a two event winning streak behind him. I would have to be perfect to beat him so as I approached the bank wall clipping point, I brought the car up towards the wall... it was at this time that he hit me and pushed the back of my car into the wall. For a second, I thought the front end of the car would snap back, wrecking the front end but it didn’t and I was able to keep going! Daijiro also damaged his car in the contact and was unable to make his second pass.
The ladder was not getting any easier as we went into the Great 8 against Darren McNamarra. His car was quick on the bank and although I was able to catch him in the latter part of the course, he had a definite advantage going into the second run. So on my lead lap, I pushed the car harder through the bank than I had all weekend. The lead pass felt great, but it was not enough to make up for my mistake on the first run. We ended the weekend in 5th position overall and with another solid finish under our belts, we now look forward to round 5, the flat track in Las Vegas.
If you're going through hell, keep going. ~Winston Churchill
Where to begin? So many things happened this year at Pikes Peak. We were at tech about a week ago today, yet it feels like an eternity ago. But, I suppose technical inspection is as good a place to start as any.
Dave had arrived back from Chicago with a new engine, new rear diff and reinstalled wiring harness - all things that had been summarily destroyed in the unplanned CORE Evo BBQ (i.e. piston through the block resulting in fireball). We arrived for tech in Colorado Springs just in time. Passed with flying colors and headed in to the driver’s meeting. Excitement about the record breaking was already abuzz, particularly since another few miles of the road had been paved (from Boulder Park up to the summit); effectively resulting in a faster course.
Wednesday began the tireless practice schedule of getting up at 2:30 am to head up the hill. We got 2 runs in the middle section before the timing belt broke. Car went straight from the mountain to SCR Performance for a cylinder head replacement. It was an all-nighter and the crew then scurried from Loveland straight to Devil’s Playground for practice day 2. Just one run on practice day 2 … and low oil pressure reared its ugly head. Car went straight from the mountain to Tobz Performance for another all-nighter to, sadly, put the stock motor back in. We missed practice on Friday because we simply couldn’t get the new engine in place and onto the dyno for a new tune in time to make it. Hopes were raised a bit as Martin, Tobz & Mitch had their way with the Evo on the dyno. Horsepower was high and turbo lag wasn’t too bad with the stock Mitsu engine and Forced Performance turbo.
We headed up the mountain on Sunday morning still reeling. With one problem after another and things not going particularly smooth for us at any point this year, we were partially thinking “what next?” and partially thinking “who cares what’s next, it’s a miracle we’re taking the start line”. The green flag waved and we were off. Things were going exceedingly well, Dave was in the zone. We screamed through Picnic Grounds, we floated through 11 Mile, we were coming up on the Ski Area.
This video says it all and so I’ll let it do the talking ... Go to 3:31 on the timer … we come around this tight right corner at the Ski Area quite aggressively and fast (a testament to the run up until that point I’m pleased to say) and then right as we pass the videographer you can hear the clutch go (… hear poor little Evo shudder as Dave tries to shift).
We stumbled and lost a lot of time immediately after; contemplating what we should do. Proper use of the car’s gearing and power is what allows you to pull out of the power-slide on dirt. Should we continue on, sliding through corners knowing we might slide right off the mountain without the ability to get the car into its powerband to pull out of a slide if we need it? As we discussed it (literally – still hauling up the Peak and taking corners we contemplated our fate between my navvie calls) we remained in 3rd until we came to a quite steep hairpin. The car nearly stalled, Dave shoved it into 2nd and we creeped out of the hairpin. This gave us a little hope. If we can RPM-match shift between 2nd and 3rd we may just be able to pilot it up to the summit. Dave started to get the hang of driving under the conditions we were faced with. And, call me twisted and addicted to a nice shot of adrenaline, but it was actually, well, kind of fun. We’d whip around a hairpin and the car would bog down terribly while we waited for the turbo to spool, but when it did, that feeling of g-force slamming you back into your seat was a thing of joy – life worth living. It only lasted about 4 seconds before the pinging of the rev limiter like nails on a chalkboard, but I giggled almost every time that turbo kicked in. After a week of awful thrashing, you’ve got to take solace in the little things. :)
We ended up in third place with a 12:55. While not a terrible time in the grand scheme of things, pretty dismal compared to what we were hoping for and what the car, running optimally, is capable of. Our Time Attack record still stands at an 11:48. As usual - no boost, no clutch, no whatever - Dave drove the piss out of that Evo and I’m a proud navvie/wife. Live and learn, make it faster next time. Yet again, though I wanted to curl up in a ball and forget this ever happened a few days ago, I find myself planning for and excited about next year already. We want our shot at the mountain again…
We would like to thank our 2010 sponsors for their support, both in helping us in getting to the race, and in keeping us there! Special thanks to the guys from AMS Performance for coming out to lend a hand and to Aaron Searle for his awesome dedication throughout the week.
• NOS Energy Drink
• AMS Performance
• Built-by-Bones & SCR Performance
• CBRD Speedfactory
• Forced Performance Turbochargers
• Shepherd Transmissions
• Tobz Performance
• TiAL Sport
Be sure to become a fan of Kern Racing on Facebook by clicking the link and we'll keep you updated on the latest news about the NOS Energy Drink Hill Climb team. We've got lots of pictures and videos of the Evo in action for you to check out too!
Dave & Allison
Round 2 of the ThunderDrift
Championship Series was a truly epic battle between some of Nor-Cal's
best drifters. The course was incredibly fast and challenging which put
a serious amount of pressure on the drivers to minimize their mistakes.
This was the largest turnout of the season and drivers even showed up from out of state to compete with Northern California's finest. There were V8 powered imports, turbo charged 240's, and of course AE86 Corollas.
Shout out to our boy Geoff from Lab17 as he throws back a cold
one!
During qualifying, the drivers were laying down the law and we saw who looked most promising for the tandem battle ahead. One of the drivers that qualified in the top 8, Jared Thompson, experienced a mechanical failure with his waste gate breaking off of the manifold under the hood. The remainder of the top 8 were: Andy Gillespie, Luke Lonberger, Ryan Kado, Scott Sherod, Julian Jacobs, Al Pulido, and Matt Madrigaldi.
The winners of the event were some familiar faces in the Nor-Cal drifting scene: Ryan Kado, Andy Gillespie, and Luke Lonberger. Shots provided by Mike Tseng Photography at the winner's podium.
Come out this Wednesday, June 30th
for Round 3: The Smell of Fear, where the NOS Team will be out in full force to
support Nor-Cal's finest drifters. For more information visit www.thunderdrift.com.
"What's in this?"
"Oh nothing more than High Performance Energy, Enhanced Mental Focus, and a NOSome Loaded Cherry Flavor"
More pics after the jump.
Continue reading "More From E3! The Start of the Competition!" »
Yesterday we had the chance to go out to Irwindale Speedway to film with the Bro Show. The Bro Show is a series of webisodes that is hosted by Break.com. It was a ton of fun, and I got to showcase drifting to a few new fans, and hopefully thousands more to follow when the video gets released on their website!
Click Here to see some pics from the guys over at Wrecked Magazine that came out to shoot a little behind the scenes…
