Formula Drift Diaries

Formula Drift Round 4
Las Vegas

Dear Diary,

I had some really high hopes for Las Vegas this year, we made some minor changes to the car to get some more speed so I could not wait to get it on the track. We got a chance to test the car out the weekend before and it felt great! It was the first time we had run our car outside of competition in a very long time. With the tandem battles getting so competitive this year our team was doing our best to keep up with everyone. When we got to the track we noticed that Formula Drift was running a new course. It seemed much more suited for great tandem so we had a really good feeling about the weekend.

On Thursday we did not really do anything special except to run the car and make sure everything was good. We took a few different lines through the course and tried a couple different entry styles to find the best way through the main corner. The car was running great and we all felt really comfortable with the setup and did not change anything for Friday’s qualifying session. Thursday night was also the Formula Drift Blackjack Tournament. It was a ton of fun! Lots of the drivers and crew came out to the casino to compete… in the end, I made it through the three rounds, finishing 2nd Overall! What a great way to start the weekend!

Friday started out with Pro-Am so we arrived a little early to check it out before we had to start setting up for our day. That night when practice started, so did the mayhem! Takatori hit the tire barrier, JR smashed the front end which tore off his front suspension, and Darren’s Sky was done for the weekend because of a blown motor. When these things happen if front of you, it’s a reminder that it can happen to you. Of course we all know this but it’s the last thing you want in your head before you go out for a run. I just wanted a solid run to qualify so I tried my best not to think about it. The course was tricky, but very similar to Long Beach. Run up to 4th gear, clutch kick into the first right turn, keeping the angle light and the throttle down, trying to gain as much speed as possible. Then flip back to the left along the first outer clipping zone and floor it! Drive the car all the way down with big angle towards the second outside clipping point, downshift and bring it into the first inside clipping point. Followed by a tight right into a tight left turn. After qualifying we were sitting in the Top 10! Although I didn’t want to think about it, I couldn’t help but be excited because Tuerck was now theoretically in 1st place, moving us up to 2nd!

Saturday was another interesting day at the track. It seemed that a lot of the drivers were not cautious during their practice laps and forgot that the track gets much looser in the hot sun. I think four or five cars hit the wall in the one hour practice session. Thankfully, all but one car was still able to compete in the Top 32. For our first match up, we went against Bill Sherman who was making yet another triumphant return to Formula D in that crazy fast S13. I was a little nervous to run against him since they seemed to be having some car troubles in practice so he was limited on track time. On my lead lap, I did my run and never even looked back. On the chase run, I wanted to stick close to him and not get left behind. We flip into the big left hander and he was going deep towards the wall! I thought he was gonna crash but I just followed him in there knowing that if he pulled it off and I straightened, he would get the win! He jumped on the gas at the last second so I did the same but I guess he had a little too much momentum coming out of the clip because he straightened up. We were moving into Top 16!

Our next battle was against Takatori. He was doing quite well in his new car, so I did not want to give him too much room on the chase lap. We kept it close to him throughout the course; he made a small mistake so we got the win! We were now in the Top 8! I was so happy to see that my Top 8 battle was going to be against Ryan Tuerck, he is such an awesome driver and an even better friend. This was going to be a great match up! I got to lead first so I drove through the course with as much throttle and smoke as I could. On the chase lap as we were running down the straight, he had a slight mis-shift. I paused as he gets the car back into gear and tore past us, we were entering the course almost 10mph slower than normal! We both managed to pull off a great run together despite the lack of entry speed. Then those dreaded three words… one more time. We lined back up and this time I carried it in a little harder, pushing for the wall. On the chase lap we stuck with him all the way through the course… one more time! Come on! This was the last chance; this time I throw it into the main corner even deeper and put the rear bumper right up to the wall! Tuerck followed me so closely that he also tagged the wall! His team called for 5 minutes to look at the rear; they changed a part and got him back to the line in time. I think he must have bent or broken something else though because as I chased him into the course he threw the car to the right but as he flipped back to the left his car did a full 180! We were able to avoid hitting him and were now on our way to the semi-finals! We were so happy to have 2 chances for the podium!

Our first round in the semi-finals was against Miki who was doing a great job in his RX7 that weekend. I lead through the course with a nice smooth run, but he was right on top of us. While we were chasing on the second lap, I followed him into the left hander pretty close, but I hesitated too much before I got back on the throttle and he put another carlength gap in between us. I was unable to make up the gap through the second half of the course and we lost the round. Mildly frustrated, I tried not to think about it as we lined up to run against Tyler, again! This was the third event in a row that we had to run Tyler head to head and this time it was for 3rd place!

I got to lead on the first lap again which helps my spotter watch his moves and tell me what I should do. We got a nice pass through the course and he was within a carlength or two the whole time. We swapped spots at the start line and I told myself to not get lost in the smoke like I did in Jersey. I decided to just go for it, I figured if he’s still making smoke then he’s probably still going! As we were full throttle running towards the outside clipping zone, I just tried to look for anything I could use as a reference to see where I was on the track! I could see him as he got off throttle to enter the first inside clip so I jumped on throttle and pulled up within one car length of him, we flipped into the tight right turn I lost him again! I stayed on the throttle for a second longer and then there he was! Inches away! I then transferred though the last turn and stayed close to his rear bumper. As we pulled up to the Formula D official and he points at us as the winner! I congratulated Tyler and ran over to my crew. We just got our second podium finish of the year! And for the first time ever, I was leading the Formula Drift Championship points! What an awesome weekend!