I actually drove almost an hour at 6am from West Hollywood to Irvine just to experience this gathering of appreciation for rare and tasteful automotive exotica...we don't have these in Jersey or anywhere in the mid-Atlantic so i was determined to see what all the hype was about..
Just got home from Sonoma which was a short weekend in comparison to all our other events being that it is just a short drive to San Fran and also that we do not have Thursday practice available at this track like we do the others. That being said, I am glad we debuted our new Nissan Motorsports engine last round in Vegas because we would not have had the time to adjust with the few runs we have on Friday before qualifying.
Our first lap of qualifying is always pretty straight forward, push hard, get a clean run in, and get nuts on the second lap. However, our first pass put us in 2nd place, and held all the way through the second round! I still pushed hard on the second run trying for a backwards entry but went slightly off course which threw off the run and our hopes at the top qualifying spot.
Landing in the second spot put us in a great position for tandem because we would pretty much be leading first in all our tandem runs. First we were matched up with Matt Field, who is a rookie to Formula Drift this year. He was driving the course very well for his first time out, however he made a few mistakes on his lead run which gave us the win to move into Top 16. Our next pairing was against my Drift Alliance brother Joon Maeng, his new ride with Bergenholtz Racing has proven to be a help to his recent success. He has adapted to the new car rather well and has been much higher in the rankings since he parked his Nissan S13. Our first run was rather smooth and simple, I lead and stuck to my line. I knew Joon had a very similar driving style to mine so on the chase run, I pushed to drive close and not let his car get away from ours. We stuck together through the course and took the win. Our third matchup was with James Deane, he was driving very well and had a high entry speed. We both ran a good lead run and close chase runs so the judges ruled a One More Time. Our next lead run was solid and James stayed close behind so to get an advantage, I would have to get even closer. So, on my chase run, I entered into the first corner with only a few feet between our cars. I was able to slowly pull in closer to his car through the braking zone and with only inches between our cars we both jumped onto the throttle and cleared the rest of the course. The judges gave us the win! We were now in the final four.
After we cooled the car down and got back to the start line, I am told we will be facing Vaughn Gittin Jr. in the Semi-Finals. After I had a moment to think, I realized that the two of us were not the only Drift Alliance members still remaining, Ryan Tuerck had also reached the Semis. Holy crap, it could be a 1,2,3 DA podium!!! The only thing standing between us and our long time dream of having 3 of us up there together is Tanner Foust, which is no easy task being that he would have to lose twice. Tuerck runs through the course and beats Tanner, putting Tanner in the consolation round which means it would be either Vaughn or myself who would have to face Tanner for that last spot on the podium. I lead against JR with a solid clean run, on the follow I wanted to keep the gaps close to try to ensure a win, as we enter into the course and start to slow down and I realize that we were both on the brakes pretty hard. At this point, I try to follow JR as best as I could, on the outer clipping point he dropped into the dirt so I do the same but my car spun to a stop which gave Vaughn the win. Now it was up to me to defeat Tanner.
Tanner’s car is fast so I tried to beat him with angle, my first pass I threw the car as hardas I could and went past the lock, sliding into the first corner with all four tires screaming, I was able to pull the car out and continued through the course! This was about as hard as I could run the Sonoma course but on the follow run, Tanner pulled a couple car lengths on me as we entered into the first corner, I was unable to catch up and remained about three car lengths behind for the entire run… The judges gave Tanner the win and I took 4th. An awesome finish that I would be super happy with in any other circumstance but I have to admit, I was so sad to see us get so close to sweeping the podium only to miss it. We’ll get ‘em next time!
NOS has partnered with the Keep Drifting Fun fellows (Will Roegge and Joshua Herron) to produce some of the best drifting footage on the net and they have come through again. KDF and Chris Forsberg Racing are both using the best POV cameras out today CONTOURHD's and shot this entire video using only CONTOURHD cameras. With a little KDF editing magic, this is one of the most creative drift videos to date!
ACP and his team took the bronze medal in Rally Car at the X Games! Great result as only two of the Fords were faster, and they're super high-spec cars out of Europe. Also, NOS Energy was one of only two drinks partners on the rally podiums at all - the green one and the red one were shut out, despite having strong teams and drivers. NOS and ACP rocked!
The event culminated with an awesome party at the Target Terrace Lounge at LA Live where the team, sponsors, media friends, and special guests rocked the night away and passed the medal around for photos! Truly a killer X Games for NOS Energy and ACP Racing!
Busy busy weekend! First we started with getting the missile over to Apex’i USA to get the Power FC tuned… That’s right! Kevin installed a Power FC onto the KA, he is a wiring genius. We were having some overboosting issues, but we got them sorted out and Kevin finished up with 275whp. The setup it capable of much more, but since the engine is still stock internals, we do not want to push it.
Here’s the car as we got up to Irwindale for their first drift night with the Adam’s Motorsports Park crew. It has been a long time since Irwindale held a grassroots drift event so we wanted to go up and support!
The event brought out 98 cars total! The track also said that they turned away 38 cars putting the total of drivers that showed up to 135, but there would not be enough run time for that many. They are already working on what they need to do to ensure enough run time for that many drivers. Overall the event was a great success, NOS Energy Drink was out as well to support the Adam’s crew and Toyota Speedway. I was able to take our southern California manager Jean for a ride a long in the missile. It was his first ride in a drift car!
It drifts!
Daijiro came out as well as well to check out the drifting. He says he will have his personal car up and running soon!
On Saturday we went back out to Toyota Speedway to support the Kids Against Cancer fundraiser. They had all types of racing going on all night, from Legends to Late Models… They filled the main grandstand and gave everyone a great show to watch while raising money for a great benefit. We took our team rig out and set it up and displayed the car in the vendor area.
We took the NOS Energy Drink 350Z out for a quick demo right before the big race! We hit the track and drifted the infield and the big banks until the tires popped! The crowd was super excited as they were up out of their seats clapping and cheering! It was a great feeling to be able to drift the entire track and show another new crowd what drifting was all about.
Lined up with the Legends cars…
Waiting to go…
My favorite car of the night!
Popped the tire and debeaded it off the rim! No damage to the car though…
After the Saturday night racing was done… we packed up the truck and headed over to K&N Filters for their annual car show. They placed us front and center of their big meet and had a great display with the help of Jean and his crew who were giving out NOS Energy Drink to everyone that came by. We took the car out for all the fans to come by and check it out as well.
We met with many fans throughout the day as well…
We had a great time seeing everyone over at K&N and want to thank them and Toyota Speedway for having us out to their events this past weekend.
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 forthe 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:
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:
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!
Come out, have fun, get smoke in your face, cheer, boo, do what ya gotta do but lets SEND IT at the house of drift!!!!!!!!
