The Red Bull World Championship was one of the most challenging drift competitions I have ever entered. The best drivers from around the world came out to participate in this historic event. When we were looking at the drivers entry list… we noticed many champions from other series traveling to Long Beach.

To start off the weekend we went down and checked out the track early in the week. Rhys was setting up the course for what looked like a very fast and difficult course. We knew we were in for a crazy weekend as we heard they were hitting 110mph on the shakedown runs. We actually rebuilt the shifter to utilize 5th gear since our 4th tops out at 104mph. But after the course was finalized, the starting line had been pushed forward to keep the speeds around 100mph. Kevin also made a few changes to the car to get more traction in the corners. But when we showed up on Thursday to do some special filming for the Speed show, the car felt unstable at high angle. So we opted to swap it back to the old setup for the weekend.

Since there was no way to decipher how to run the qualifying order, Formula Drift decided to have a drawing party. Random names were selected, and then that driver had to randomly select a number between 1 and 32. As they were reading through the names, I realized that they there were only 3 spots left. 1, 2, and 32. 32 was the number to get because it allowed to you run last (as if you were ranked #1 in points in FD). When my name was called, only 1 and 32 remained. I knew I was gonna draw the number 1, but I got 32! Haha! What a great way to start the weekend!

So for Saturday, the schedule was simple, show up, practice for a short session, then qualify. And since all 32 are in, you are just qualifying for position. Obviously it is best to qualify high in the better brackets, so we knew to push hard. But on our first lap in practice I blew the diff mounts right out of the car on the entry. I rushed back to the pits and Kevin jumped right in there to get it fixed. By the time he got the diff out, the sheared stud out, and the new one in and back together, practice was over. So now we had to go straight into qualifying with no warm-up. When it came time for us to go, I threw down the best run I could. Ran the car up to the top of 4th gear and ripped the handbrake. The car flies sideways towards the enormous wall of barriers, I jump back on the gas, still in 4th, the car closes in on the wall and I throw it down to 3rd and floor it. Run it along the wall and then through the inner clip. Transfer back to the next wall, still in 3rd, still floored. Back to the right and through the finish. After everyone was finished, we finished in 12th position. It was a very difficult field and our mph was definitely the problem as we were almost 8mph off the highest entry speed. (Good thing that new motor is coming!)

We were matched up against Garry Whiter. The 2008 New Zealand Champion, 2006/2007 New Zealand Runner-Up. This was gonna be a insane battle for sure. Drift Alliance Ace Joon Maeng was added to our team to help us with monitoring and recording the driving styles of all the other drivers. I looked to his notes and had a good idea of what to do in tandem.

Sunday Sunday Sunday. Time to get crazy. There was another quick practice session in the morning before we jumped into the tandem rounds. We got some good warm up laps and we were feeling real confident going into the main competition. When it was time to run against Garry, I knew to just run as hard as I could. I scraped the rear bumper along the main wall. Transferred back to the left and tagged the other side of the bumper on the next wall, talk about close calls! I thought we had a great run and that we would be able to catch him in the main turn. As we entered the course, I noticed his car was much faster than I expected. I wasn’t able to get to his door but we did close the gap a car length or two. As we exit the track and come to a stop. My spotter says “one more time” to me on the radio. I knew I gave him too much room! For the next pass I did the same on my lead lap, just without touching the walls this time. On the chase lap, I threw it in much closer this time. I was able to close in and keep a one car gap between us the whole run. When we pulled back everyone was cheering, we had won the round!

Our second matchup was against Robbie Nishida. I knew his car was blinding fast, so it was not going to be easy. We lined up to run each other, and I had to advantage of leading the first pass again. When I went down the straight and threw it in the first turn, I felt a bump, he just hit me! I stayed on course and ran through the corners, and on the exit, Robbie plowed his front bumper through a line of the plastic barriers. Kevin rushes over to check if our car was ok, Robbie hit our back wheel with his front apparently, everything was cool. Robbie’s car on the other hand was leaking water everywhere. As they were deciding whether or not to let him run, the car stopped leaking, maybe it ran out of water? Either way, he pulled around and we were ready to go. I tried to keep up with him down the straightaway as we entered the course. I was slowly closing in on him in the main corner, we transferred to the left corner and his car runs wide and hits the outside wall, I get on the handbrake as he comes off the wall and gets back on the gas. His car then flips around in a spin and I stayed floored and squeezed right by! So close! We were moving into the Top 8!

The next round was not as exciting. I was paired with Samuel, and he was leading first. I was watching the flag girl trying to make sure we didn’t get left behind, since there was no “official” pace cone. The flag dropped, the car stalled! I re-fire the car as Sam is getting into second gear, I then see a Formula Drift official give me the “STOP” signal. I stayed at the start line, as Sam was running through the course, I thought to myself that it will get redone, as this has happened in the past. When Sam returns he pulls in behind me, not next to me. The Formula Drift officials were on their radios going back and forth for a few minutes now. By the time they reached a decision, they counted the run against me since “I” stalled it, and because we were running out of light. They told me to pull into the lead lane. So for my lead run I threw down the best that I could, trying to get the one more time. Sam was just way behind playing it safe. The judges read off OMT, SAM, SAM, for their decisions. We were so close to getting the one more time…

We finished 7th in the World Championships. Not bad. I was very happy to have gotten that far, but discouraged for losing the way we did. We have great plans for the offseason as our car will come back better than ever before. Cannot wait for 2009!