Round 4 of Formula Drift could not have come at a better time for the Mertzanis Racing team. The Fuel Culture S13 rolled off the trailer and started ripping in practice. An Aeromotive fuel cell was loaded with VP Racing 110 octane fuel and Dennis proceeded to put down quality runs at high speeds around the Wall Speedway course.
This is the first banked track of the season we venture to in the Formula Drift series and it results in serious adjustments to the suspension overall and some minor tire pressure adjustments. The result allows Dennis to enter into the bank aggressively and stay flat out for the bottom figure 8 part of the course.
Things became super tricky as qualifying kicked off and the weather changed to rain pouring down. Dennis’ first qualifying run was the key to locking him into the show which ranked him 21st overall.
The draw for Top 32 was a battle against the Go Pro x Mobil 1 Chevrolet Camaro driven by Tyler McQuarrie in a tough first round battle. With Tyler qualifying higher, Dennis’ first duty was to put down a follow run which he performed flawlessly. Dennis then held a tight line against the very fast Camaro going through the complete course.
When Dennis was leading, he took such a high and aggressive line into the bank that he was pushed out into the wall coming off the bank and crashed into the barrier at the last second in an attempt to pull out a giant lead on Tyler McQuarrie. The car came out of it with very minimal damage, luckily, but it did allow Tyler to continue into the Top 16.
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Images courtesy of Fuel Culture and Wrecked Magazine.
