FORMULA DRIFT PRO 2 IRWINDALE, CA – FINAL | Oct 12th and 13th

“BREAKTHROUGH”

After a long drive from Florida, I finally arrived at Irwindale Speedway for the final round of the 2018 Formula Drift season. The team and I were feeling pretty confident now that our new power steering pump seemed to fix our previous steering issues. After a few warm-up laps, I already was feeling comfortable on the track and was running very high lines on the bank. I kept cleaning up each run and got settled very quickly, only making small changes to our setup before qualifying.

As I pulled up to the line to qualify, the nerves hit. The intimidation of this track, both in its layout and history, was intense. Not only was it the final round of the series, but it has been known as the “House of Drift,” and has the potential to destroy your car with its walls. I floored it down the straight and clutch-kicked into the bank. I held a very high line, very close to the wall at the top of the bank. Pumped on my bank run, I lost a bit of concentration coming off the bank and ended up being off the first inner clip by a few feet. Knowing I had to make up for the mistake I slid the car deep into the next outer zone, right up against the inner bank wall. I carried my momentum through the zone, past the final inner clip and finally past the finish line. Overall, it was a solid run with a score of 82. I knew I could do better, but I ended up with an 80 on my next run. With my higher score of an 82, I qualified 7th and was put in the bracket against one of my Konig teammates, Alec Robbins.

When we arrived at the track the following day, we prepped the car for top 16 practice and mounted some fresh Achilles tires to our Konig Hypergrams. My very first lap of top 16 practice ended up being one of my best runs of the weekend, so I was feeling very confident. Unfortunately, that confidence was shut down aggressively in just our fourth lap when we wrecked hard into the wall just before the finish line. Between running a little too wide, getting into the marbles, and finishing off my tires at the very end, we slid right into the wall and popped the car into the air a few feet. I broke both of my Konig wheels on the passenger side, the front Coilover, and brake line, and I bent the front lower control arm, rear lower control arm, and rear knuckle. With only about an hour before top 16 battles started, I wasn’t sure if we would make it.

We got the car back to the pits and the team was already pulling out all the spare parts we had. Andy Hately and his crew also rushed over to help us with the car, knowing we had our work cut out for us. Fortunately, we had most of the parts we needed. The rear knuckle and front lower arm were reused since we didn’t have spares, but everything else was replaced. Unfortunately, the Coilover broke so bad that it fell out on track and was taken away by the track cleanup crew, but I needed the spring. We had been running a 10k spring in the front but our spare Coilovers had an 8k spring on them. Because we had no choice, we decided to just run the different springs. We were able to get a top hat from James Deane since we also broke the Wisefab-specific top when our Coilover was ripped out.

We finally got the car to the point where we could align it and bleed the brakes after installing the new brake line. Because of the bent parts we had to leave, we had to get the alignment as close as we could. When the brakes were being bled, I ran over to participate in the top 16 opening ceremonies without my car, but I knew it would get done and we were going to make it out to compete.

My first run after the wreck was my lead run in competition against Alec Robbins. I threw the car into the bank as committed as I could, but I could tell it felt very off. I struggled to settle the car while still trying to position it in all the right places. After the inner clip, I transitioned into the inner bank and the car was so unsettled I had to shut it down or risk putting it into the wall again. Because of receiving an incomplete on my first run, I knew it would be hard to make up for it. I could have stopped just then, but since it was the finals, I knew I had to go out again and do better.

This time, I had an idea of what to expect from the car when I threw it sideways behind Alec. I kept some distance on the bank since I knew I would be fighting the car, but started closing the gap as we approached the first inner clip. I managed to stay with him around the remainder of the course with decent proximity. Although overall the performance was not my best, I knew I did the best I could at the moment and I was proud of myself and the team for getting the car back out there for the competition. This season has definitely been one of learning, but even more so of improvement. Now that we are entering the off-season, I can’t wait to refresh the car and see what we are capable of achieving next year!

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Kelsey is running Konig Hypergrams in 17×9 et 25mm front and 18×9.5 et 25mm rear. The Konig Hypergram is Flow Formed.