Dear Diary,

So for the northeast stop of our 2009 season Formula Drift went back to Wall Stadium. Wall was closing down last year so Formula Drift was forced to find a new venue last minute, which is why we went to Englishtown, NJ for the first time. Wall re-opened its doors and asked Formula Drift to come back and put on “the best show of the year!”. Our team dug through our notes and pulled up our 2007 setup for the rocky road ride that is Wall Stadium.

We arrived on Thursday with plans to get some good practice in for the weekend. Kevin and Sergio got the car all ready to go, I watched a few cars take to the track, then headed back and jumped in the car. The first few runs were pretty good. Decently high on the bank, finding the line through the lower section, just feeling really good. Then the rain came. It started coming down pretty hard, so we headed back to the trailer. We checked the weather and see that it is scheduled to rain the rest of the day, and all day Friday. We agreed to go back out on track and prepare the car for a rain setup since it appeared that we were going to have to qualify in the rain. This was the most I had ever driven my car in the rain/wet at this point. We were doing fine on the course, the car was adapting to the wet conditions very well due to the Maxxis Z1 tires.

Friday morning we roll into the track to torrential downpours! All the drivers were talking together as we watched two cars go out on course. There was standing water everywhere, and a thunderstorm that was headed right for us. The cars could barely make it around the track, the standing water literally broke front bumpers in half. After a few rescheduled drivers meetings, Formula Drift makes the decision to postpone all driving until Saturday, as the weather appeared to be sunny all day on Saturday. So now we had to do all qualifying AND Top 32 tandem in one day! Talk about long day!

Saturday morning, sunshine! No rain in site! We had a long day ahead of us so we started nice and early. During the rescheduling we had lost 2 practice sessions, we only had one scheduled before qualifying, then straight into tandem. Since the Top 16 ranked drivers went out first, we were in for a treat. The track had just started trying to dry the infield. There was still some standing water and a very wet course. They were able to move the water a good amount before we ran, but our practice session was a wash, literally! Second practice group goes out, it started to dry a bit… then qualifying starts, and as we are going through the ranks the rubber is getting down and drivers are starting to make some smoke. When it came time for our qualifying run, I had to go back to my line on Thursday morning, and try to stick it first try! Pull down onto the steep bank, I get the signal. First, second, third, flick! Grab the handbrake over the big dip, then back on the gas, high on the bank! Throttling through the bank, coming down for the big transition, full throttle now. Throw it back and forth across the start/finish line, down into the first corner, suuuper wide in the bottom corner, get on the throttle and pull me back in towards the inner clipping point, transfer across the infield, the car is jumping up and down now. Get through the whoops and into the last corner. I gained too much speed in the dry conditions! My rear tire hopped up on the steep bank and I tried to pull it off but it spun the car. I got a zero. At this point I was so nervous because I needed to get a score, any score, to get back in the game. I tried my best not to let it get to my head during the hour long wait before my next run. Second run comes around… I needed to focus. Nice and easy, don’t push too hard. I run through the course, about a foot or two off the outside clipping points, nice and tight on the inners. That run landed me in 10th place. My team and I was very happy with that!

Now it was time for a whole new battle. Head to head on the Wall Speedway course. My first matchup was with Doug Van Den Brink. His car is always fast through the course, so I made sure to remember that for my chase tandem run. I got some notes from my spotter and head in for the first round. I was the lead car which is always an advantage for the first run. I ran through the course, super high on the bank, I actually scraped the bumper on the outside wall! No holding back now! Flipped through the infield, hit all the clips, everything felt great. I lined back up to chase him now, off the start I gave him one or two car lengths. By the time we were coming off the bank we were side by side! Transferred through the infield, we were stuck to his car in every corner! As we pulled around for the announcement. We got the call, we won! Headed into Top 16! Our next matchup was against my Drift Alliance buddy, Justin Pawlak. He was driving his brand new RX8, and doing a phenomenal job at that! I had to follow on the first run this time. I was told from my spotter that his car was fast so just go for it! I had driven with Justin many times before as well so it was going to be a great match for sure! I jumped off the line with him, tore down the straight and threw it into the first corner, our initiations were identical. We ran through the course together, side by side as if we were putting on a demo. Then for my lead lap I just ran through the course as I would for qualifying, I could hear that 3 rotor monster behind me, but when the judges made the call, our team was moving into the Great 8! For the next round, it was an Atlanta rematch against Tyler McQuarrie. His car was great on this course, so it was going to be a tough run. I had to chase again on the first lap. I ran down the straight with him as close as I could trying to not let him get away. As we rounded the bank, the smoke from his car was so thick I could not see anything! As I transferred off the bank for the first inner clipping point, as soon as I got through the smoke I realized I was headed straight for the cone! I tried to correct and get around it, but it caused my car to under steer and I could not regain control fast enough and Tyler pulled almost five car lengths. Unless something serious happened on his chase run our weekend was over, and nothing did. Tyler did a smooth run and moved into the Final 4.

Overall it was a great weekend for us. We are still in the Top 3 in the championship, and looking forward to Las Vegas. See you then!