Check out this video from Sean Puno from Formula Drift Seattle last week!

Check out this awesome feature shot by our friend Linhbergh Nguyen of Speedhunters.

Click this link to see the full article! Speedhunters Nissan 370Z Photoshoot

So, I have a tough time calling 4th place a curse but so far this season, we have had two 4th place finishes, one 5th and one 6th which had us in 4th place overall, so to me, it almost felt that way. Either way, the “curse” is no more! This weekend we took our NOS Energy Drink Nissan 370Z to a 2nd place finish which pushed us up to 3rd place in the overall championship race! Even though we had an awesome weekend, it definitely did not all start out that way…

Every event usually kicks off with a practice session on Thursday but there was a down-pour of rain early in the day so practice was canceled. Even though Formula Drift decided to re-open the session for an hour or so, the track was still very wet. Having a new car this year, Thursday practice is important for us to work on the set-up but because the rest of the weekend was forecasted to be sunny and warm, running on a wet track would be no good to us. So, we would have to wait until Friday.

When we hit the track Friday for practice, our differential broke on only our 2nd full throttle run! We already had limited time to practice but now with this happening, I could only hope to get in a couple passes before qualifying. Kevin and Sergio did an amazing job as they rushed to get the car fixed and back on track before the session was over. I pulled back up to the line with 5 minutes remaining, plenty of time to get in a pass or two but just as I pulled up, Formula Drift had to end our practice session because another competitor had crashed hard and had to be towed off track. I was pretty upset, never having run our new car or engine at this track, I would now have to go into qualifying pretty much blind. On my first qualifying pass, I went conservative but still landed in 10th after that first round of qualifying! I was thrilled to know that we would definitely be in the competition so I pushed a little harder on my second pass and earned a slightly higher score which put us in 15th place overall.

Onto Top 32, where my first pairing was with Otto Graven, who has had a great year so far and is a serious contender for Formula Drift Rookie of the Year award. We had a close battle so the judges called for a one more time. On our next set of runs, I pushed hard throughout the course and was given the win! In Top 16, we were matched up against Dennis Mertzanis, a great guy who runs his own program very well. We had a solid pair of runs but as we were coming off the bank, Dennis made a critical mistake, giving us the win. In top 8, we would run against my good friend and fellow Drift Alliance member, Ryan Tuerck! It has been two years since we have paired up in competition and because we have always had such great battles, I was really looking forward to it. On our first run, I chased Ryan around the bank and into the infield but as we flipped into the last corner, he spun out right in front of me. It was very unlike him to do that and I couldn’t believe that it happened! Our lead run was nice and smooth so the judges advanced us into the semi-finals!

In the semis, my first opponent was actually my Hankook Tire teammate, Rhys Millen. Rhys had been driving on-point all weekend so I knew that beating him was not going to be easy. As I followed Rhys into the infield, he hit the wall and knocked his car straight! We made light contact with him as his car straightened out but were able to keep going. Rhys immediately got his car back in drift and finished the run behind us. On my lead lap, I put down a nice smooth run and although Rhys was right on my tail, it was still not enough to make up for his hit. The judges awarded us the win and we moved onto the finals!!

In the finals, I was lined up with Daijiro Yoshihara, he was obviously having a great day but I knew we could beat him. I also knew that I could chase Dai harder than anyone else so I stood on the gas and stayed locked in with his car all the way through the bank while beating him with more angle at the same time! Before I explain what happened next, you should know that we run a sequential transmission which means you pull the shifter back to up-shift and push it forward to down-shift. So, as we transfer into the infield, I grab the e-brake and immediately go to down-shift into 2nd gear. As I punched the shifter forward, my hand slipped over the top of it and flew right into the ignition switch! I couldn’t believe it… I just shut the car off in the middle of our run. That had never happened to me before and it just happened to me in the finals!!! I went back out and put down the best lead run I could muster but it wasn’t enough.

So in the end, it was a little heartbreaking but it was still an awesome weekend!!! We went home with our best finish of the season and moved into 3rd place! Team Hankook also had their best finish, placing 2nd, 3rd and 4th, so close to sweeping the podium! Las Vegas is coming up next and the guys already have some great ideas for the car! I’m dreading the heat but I can’t wait to get back out there and compete!

For those that did not have the chance to catch the action on Drift Stream, here are all of our tandem battles from start to finish! Also, you can view pictures from the event, in our PHOTO GALLERY.

Top 32 vs Otto Graven
Top 32 vs Otto Graven OMT
Top 16 vs Dennis Mertzanis
Top 8 vs Ryan Tuerck
Semi-Finals vs Rhys Millen
Finals vs Daijiro Yoshihara

Thank you so much for all of your support!

We just hit the road for Round 4 of Formula Drift in Seattle, Washington. I am very excited to get out on the track and do our best. Our Nissan 370Z is fixed thanks to Jim at Sam’s Auto Land and of course Kevin and Sergio. They all did a fantastic job at making sure the car is 100% again. Our rig is running on fresh tires as well thanks to Hankook.

We expect to get into Seattle on Tuesday night since Formula Drift is holding a mandatory Mid-Season Tech Inspection for all the cars on Wednesday. All the cars will be given a full inspection, as well as “weigh in’s” for the updated tire sizing to weight rule. They are knocking the tire sizes down 20mm per class! I would imagine that Formula Drift is trying to make the teams struggle to find speed with a smaller tire. Our 370Z will still be able to run in the 285 weight class which may help us a little bit since that is what we have been running all season already. We will find out soon enough!

Check out this rad video from Kevin Johnsrud showing the first half of our all night engine swap at East Coast Bash. It is his first video and I think he did a killer job, definitely has a lot of potential!

ECB Eve from Kevin Johnsrud on Vimeo.

NOS has just released their new NOS Rewards Series that allows you to collect points with the purchase of NOS Energy Drink products and earn rewards! They have all types of gear from shirts to hats, license plate frames, and even the new NOS Pro Drift Game App! This is a new drifting application that works on Androids, iPhones, iPods, and even iPads! The game features my 2011 Nissan 370Z and Formula Drift tracks like Long Beach, Seattle, and Atlanta.

Click on http://www.drinknos.com/rewards.do to find out what to win and how to win!

Click on the image below to enlarge.

The guys over at Meister Watches were awesome enough to send me over some new product to keep me looking good while I am off the track. This package came while I was out of town so I was very excited to see it when I got back to my house in California.

For more info on any of the Meister Watches check out their website at http://www.meisterwatches.com/.

Meister set me up with some great watches just in time for summer. They sent me out their brand new Tactical Green Prodigy which is a great all around watch that has a scratch resistant lense and is stainless steel throughout.

Meister also sent me their Cheif in all black. This watch also has a rubber band and many of the same features as the Prodigy line.

And last but not least, they sent me their Ambassador watch. Carbon fiber face and band, stainless steel bezel and clasp. Real nice watch.

Check out this write up by none other than Mr. Larry Chen in Nissan Sport Magazine. It is titled “The Drift Corner” and has a quick write up about my missile car and explaining what they are exactly. Dave Briggs gets a little cameo in there as we were running tandem together and you can see the tip of Rad Dan Burkett’s car as we flipped into the barrel turn of the Balcony course at Willow Springs.

East Coast Bash was awesome! It is by far the biggest and best grassroots drifting event in America with over 120 drivers… Hell Yeah! Matt Petty and Tim Johnsrud always do an awesome job of trying to plan the event around Formula Drift so that drivers are available to make it to both events, it’s especially great for me since I was already back east. Problem was, I really didn’t want to be left out of the fun so I had to get myself a ride for the weekend.

When my Formula Drift rig leaves for Atlanta, it stays out east until New Jersey. So back in May, before it left, I packed up some gear that I might need if I were to find a car for ECB. After searching around forever, I found a Nissan 240SX with a recently rebuilt KA with turbo and some extra bolt-ons. The rest of the car was basically stock so it would need a little work but it was nice and simple which is exactly how a missile car should be. It needed a cage but I was still on the west coast so my buddy Vosko picked it up and took it over to Lee Alexander who put it in for me. He did in only 2 days and it came out great! I planned on completing the rest of the prep work the Friday before the event.

I arrived at Englishtown Raceway Park on Friday at about noon and although I had a lot of work to do, I still had plenty of time to do it. I started by pulling off all the extra interior parts and other items that the previous owner had left in a big pile for me. I jacked the car up and went to work pulling out the front suspension, swapping in the coilovers, replacing the tension rods and checking out the rest to make sure it was all still good. I also added a little steering angle and did a quick check of the brakes as well. Then I did the same to the rear… wheels off, suspension swap, new rear pads (to make sure the e-brake would work) and a quick check of everything else. I installed my seats and harnesses, did a quick eyeball alignment and I was ready to hit the track at about 9pm, just in time to go out with a few other drivers and check the course.

That night when we hit the track, my only goal was to check the car out to make sure it was good for the weekend. I did two laps and the car drove great! The handling was good, the e-brake worked and it was burning tires with no problem. I pull back into the pit and heard a light ticking from the engine. Me and a few other guys looked it over and were assuming the worst… rod knock. We let the car cool down before we pulled and cut the oil filter open, when we did, it definitely seems as if we were right.

I was obviously super bummed at this point, I had put so much effort into having a car for the weekend and here I was with rod knock, 12 hours before the event was to begin. Thankfully, I had a few buddies there that were ready to get dirty and help me out. So at about 11pm, after diagnosing and debating, we started calling around; not only did we find a new engine but we had a buddy willing to deliver it to us at the track. From there, Pat Dulcey from RT Tuning, Nick DAlessio from Elite Imports, and Michael Edwards helped me disassemble the old set-up while the new engine was being delivered. Tony Angelo jumped on the forklift and helped us lift the engine up and out of the car, it was super dark out but the Nate Hamilton crew had their generators on and had the lights cranked up so we could see what we were doing. The worst part was that we had to break the engine all the way down, manifolds, oil pan, everything. We were ready for the new motor by 3am and were starting to lose steam but shortly after, Reese Marin showed up with the engine and was ready to help out.

The new engine was in the car and fired up somewhere around 9am and the car was working great. I even put an oil pressure gauge on it to make sure we were making good pressure and not develop another rod knock. When it came time for our drivers group, I took the car out on track and drove it around to make sure everything was ok. I pulled back into the pits and double checked for leaks, everything looked good so I went out to make another run and the car immediately gets blow by! I am pretty sure that the slightly higher compression of the non-built engine was affecting the tune but since we really had no way to adjust it, we had to say eff it and hope the engine would last through the event. I got to do a couple tandem runs with my brother in the car, chasing down Carluch in his sweet 240SX with a VQ35 in it. After the engine let go, I parked it and took a much needed nap. Carluch was rad enough to share his car with me for the rest of the weekend so I supplied the tires and we switched off every lap. We had a blast riding together!

Saturday night was super fun and we got to hang out and party with the entire northeast crew. EVERYONE was there and partying, that is what drifting is all about, hanging out with your friends, helping each other out, and driving whenever you have a car that runs. Although it was a tough weekend for me, I really want to thank all the guys that helped me out just because they wanted to.

What will I do with the car? I’m gonna fix it. We managed to save the original engine before it exploded so I’m going to have it rebuilt with a ROM tune so that I can run it at Freedom Moves!