On this special edition episode of BEHIND THE WHEEL PODCAST, Scott sits down w/ Wrecked Magazine’s own Joey Redmond and they review what went down in Orlando Speed Way for Formula Drifts Round 2 Pro series and much more!
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FORMULA DRIFT Orlando, FL – ROUND 2 | April 27th and 28th
With going out in top 32 at Long Beach Rd.1 by point’s leader Fredric Aasbo on our rookie debut, we came into Round 2 at Orlando Speed world with determination for a better outcome. The Team and I felt strong about Orlando, it was a track that we drove at last year for Pro 2 so we were familiar with the venue and what was needed to be successful. We arrived Wednesday the 25th to set up our pits and make some last minute adjustments to the vehicle before we hit practice hard the following day!
Thursday practice was a successful day! Last year we had some issues at Orlando, on initiation we had some struggle getting the car into drift on time due to running a stock engine and not being able to change our gear ratio. Thankfully with our Brian Crower built head this season we had no issues getting the car settled quickly into drift. We took it very conservative on our first run and after 4 laps the team and I felt great about the car and our runs. We felt like we could lay down a good qualifying run the next day so we made a group decision to conserve the car and use our remaining practice laps before qualifying the next day.
Going into Friday we knew we had to throw down. Right before my first qualifying pass I was quite nervous and was watching Kazuya Taguchi’s run and the way he initiated set it him up perfectly on the wall for the rest of his run. After he finished we lined up to lay down our first qualifying pass. I had Taguchi’s run in my head and decided to initiate like he did as it set him up for a great run. When I initiated along the wall as he did, the front of my car washed out on initiation and was understeering right for the wall. Luckily I reacted quickly and reinitiated the car and finished off the run. Unfortunately due to the mistake on initiation we received a 66. As the team and I knew we had points on the board and most of the nerves have settled I was ready to clear my head and drive how we normally do. As we approached the bank on my 2nd qualifying run we did an aggressive manji into the bank which set the car perfectly up against the wall. After riding the wall the entire way around the bank we dove into the first inside clip and transitioned through power alley at full speed. After coming off the 2nd inside clip and setting the angle of the car to finish the last turn I knew in my head we just put down a great qualifying run and I couldn’t have been more ecstatic. Pulling into the pits after our run the team was very stoked and they were proud to say we laid down a 89 point run. At the end of the day this put us at 16th place which is the upper half of the field of drivers.
It was time for the big event! Saturday was here and we hit practice in the morning focusing on tandeming only as we felt like our lead runs were solid. After a few tandem practices we quickly realized how quick our car really was. We were able to keep up with some of the fastest cars out on the grid such as Dean Kearney’s viper and the notorious NGK E92 Eurofighter. A problem we quickly noticed however was when we had to slow down following a car on the bank we lost all our momentum and the car was very difficult to get back on throttle with the tires still spinning. We are currently at 580hp with not much low end torque, which is the lowest in Pro 1 this season. My spotter, Justin Woodard and I strategized a game plan to allow a tiny bit of distance on the initiation then to real the cars in so we wouldn’t get choked up on the bank. Unfortunately this is not how we like to drive but it was the only thing that seemed reasonable to do at the time. Our first battle was with Michael Essa in the top 32. Shortly before top 32 had begun Essa ended up crashing his vehicle into the bank wall and his team was scrambling to get his car put back together. After a 5 minute competition timeout they showed up to the grid and we lined up for our first battle. As we qualified higher we lead first. On initiation Essa straightened out resulting in a zero for his follow run. Essa’s team decided to call it quits and returned his car to the pits. Essa stated he had no power steering and deemed he felt it was not safe to run and was not worth the risk. We didn’t want to win this way as Essa is a great driver and we were looking forward to a good fight but we were more than stoked to advance into our first ever top 16. After opening ceremonies our battle was the first of top 16 against number one qualifier Fredric Aasbo. Aasbo is no stranger to us, I have been watching him drift for many years as I have always looked up to him as a person and as a driver. We knew this was going to be a hard fought battle but we were thrilled to go against the Norwegian Hammer again this season. Aasbo led first and as mentioned before we decided to give him some distance on initiation and real him in. Unfortunately he pulled a little further than I was hoping on initiation but we reeled him in by the end of the bank. Coming down from the steep bank to the flat infield is a pretty drastic bump especially for our lowered cars. We never had an issue all weekend but following Aasbo into it he had a lot less angle than we have been going into that spot with and unfortunately even though I had the throttle fully down when we hit that bump our car completely straightened out. I instantly reinitiated and followed Aasbo for the rest of the run but I knew that would cost us in the end. As we lined up for our lead run I knew I was going to have to do my best run that entire weekend and we did just that! On our lead run we had a very aggressive manji which set us up to scrape the bank wall all the way around to power alley! Coming off the bank into power alley we actually left Aasbo a decent ways and he had to pull a lot of angle out of his car to keep up with us for the rest of the course. It definitely was not enough to secure the victory but we laid down a very solid run in top 16 and showed everyone that we are capable of becoming a very successful Formula Drift team! I could not have been more proud of my team and family this weekend. We have been progressing more and more each round, this round we made top 16 and I am looking forward to what Atlanta has in store for us! None of this would have been possible without the help from each and every one of you so I appreciate all of you in believing in us and we are thrilled to see what is in store for the future, thank you!
Matt is running Konig Hypergrams in 18×9.5 et 25mm front and 18×10.5 et 25 rear in Race Bronze. The Konig Hypergram is Flow Formed.
[Not a valid template]We are releasing our first podcast of BEHIND THE WHEEL PODCAST w/ our first guest… Jonathan Wooley, Editor-in-chief of S3 Magazine! As an editor and owner of a primarily print publishing company in this podcast, Jonathan brings a unique perspective as we talk about things like sponsorships, car features, social media, print magazines and their life expectancy, car culture, some of the most interesting and popular motorsports currently and much, much more! Tune-in and give us feed back on what you think…
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Jonathan (S3 Magazine): s3magazine_wooley
Gregg Bucell (Koruworks / Grid Life / Fortune Auto Suspension): gregg.bucell
On this special episode of the Konig Behind The Wheel Podcast, Joey Redmond of Wrecked Magazine sits down with us to discuss interesting things from FD Orlando and so much more…. (details/cheat sheet below!)
CONTENT CHEAT MENU:
0:18 | Intro
0:40 | The Special Format
0:50 | The Ovals
3:30 | OSW Challenges Drivers / Teams
4:40 | Drifting on the Banks
5:37 | Tire Management
6:50 | Matt VanKirk
9:00 | Adequate hp for FD POR
11:20 | Dirk Stratton
12:00 | Dean Kearney
16:25 | Odi / Matt Field Fued
18:20 | Forsbery / Vaughn Gittin Jr
19:00 | RTRs ran into issues at FDORD
22:40 | The “Cone” Rule
25:40 | Deane / Wang matchup FINALLY!…But…
29:43 | Forsberg wins after 1,485 days
33:20 | Aasbo’s Legacy
37:00 | Winning mindset
40:06 | Plateau of power in FD
43:55 | Has FD become mainstream?
47:20 | Instagram helped to push drifting
48:45 | Kevin Lawrence & jump to Pro1
50:25 | PA Drifters
52:15 | Topics for next time
52:57 | Who’s going to be on the podium at the end of the season?
57:40 | The “ELUSIVE” 100pt qualifying run
59:35 | Ending / Contact info
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Joey Redmond : joeyredmond
Dont forget to check out our FD Orlando image gallery —> FORMULA DRIFT ORLANDO IMAGE GALLERY
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
We started a podcast and invite you to listen in when you have time. The Konig “Behind The Wheel” podcast isn’t about our wheels but rather in-depth conversations about cars, car culture, lifestyle and more! Every episode we will sit down with a different automotive personality or industry friend to run through anything and everything automotive related. We hope you can listen in and join us.
BEHIND THE WHEEL PODCAST: Ep00 – Welcome
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FORMULA DRIFT ORLANDO, FL – ROUND 2 | April 27th and 28th
FDORL was one to remember w/ some amazing highlights! Needless to say we are excited for this season for sure! Below are images of what went down in Formula Drift Orlando brought to you by Konig Wheels in collaboration with Wrecked Magazine!
[Not a valid template]FORMULA DRIFT LONG BEACH, CA – ROUND 1 | August 8th and 9th
What’s up everybody! Kevin here with my recap of the Formula D season opener at Longbeach, CA.
After losing the engine in my S14.3 on the dyno just a few days before leaving to Long Beach, The team and I revised our plans and decided to run Enjuku Racing’s R32 Demo car as this was our quickest option to have a car ready for Long Beach. We scrambled to bring the R32 up to tech regulations for Formula D competition as well as swapped over my last seasons nitrous kit and Garrett 3582 turbo to try and get some more power out of the R32. After a last minute trip to Tampa, FL to see my tuner Martin from RS-Enthalpy we were table to turn the R32s power up to 685whp from 505whp and off we went to make it out to Long Beach. After the 2.5 days travel filled with traffic stops and loosing parts of the roof of my trailer we finally arrived to the venue and loaded in for tech inspection, we passed tech with flying colors and then we were ready for practice and qualifying the next day.
FRIDAY
Friday morning after warming up the car in the pits I headed off to get in line to take my first practice pass. However after entering the burn out box and doing a few circles I heard a pop and realized my left rear axle had snapped. I scrambled back to our pits where the team confirmed the axle was broken and we got to work swapping it out. Unfortunately the spares we brought were a different length and would not just swap right in, we had to swap the outter stub that broke from the new axle to the old one in order to get the car back out to make a pass. This took a bit of time but we finally got it done and back out. After waiting in line again I was up next for a pass, this time no pop in the burn out box so I pulled up to the start line. Off I went and entered into the first turn of the tight course, I probably went into this pass with way more trust than I should have but I did alright for the first turn. Coming into the second one I pass the touch and go and then realize im going in too deep towards the Judges wall. I pitched more angle and pinned the car to try and dig out away from the turn but the impact was still going to happen. I tagged the rear wall which in return pulled the front of the car into it as well. I got the car back to the pits for evaluation of the damage and was suprised to find that other than all the cosmetics of the car the only suspension
part to really take the hit was the front lower control arm. We swapped that out as well as hammered out the chassis as best we could to keep the fenders from rubbing the rear tire and I rushed to try and get in a pass before qualifying. Unfortunately practice was called when I was about 3 positions back from making a pass so I would move on to qualifying with out making a full complete pass.
Pulling up to the line to take my first qualifying lap also my first ever full pass at long beach it felt as if there was a building sitting on my chest. I did my best to put all that aside and was able to take a very conservative pass and not hit any walls and earn a score of a 68. Knowing that was good enough to put me in the show I did what I could on my second pass to tidy it up a bit which worked and netted me a score of a 71. After the qualifying meeting I was informed I would battle Chris Forsberg in the Top 32.
SATURDAY
I was able to get in 6 complete passes before my battle with Chris, all of which I dialed in a bit better than the run before. Chris being the higher point qualifier was up to lead first. Light goes out and off we go, I was excited to see that on the run up I was able to keep up with him in our R32 demo car on the straight. We enter into the first corner and thats exactly when I realized he had way more grip in his car when in drift that what I had. We did take a bunch out in hopes to prevent another axle breaking. He is able to gain some distance on me and I do everything I can to keep up. Coming into the final transition I reach over to down shift from 4th to 3rd and the car accidentally shifts into 5th causing me to bogg out and loose more distance from Chris going into the final turn. Now my turn to lead I knew Chris had the advantage on me going into this half of the battle so my best defense was to put down the best lead lap I could in hopes that Chris would make a big mistake behind me resulting in us getting a OMT call. We leave the line and I give this pass my all, I honestly would say it was the most comfortable / cleanest pass I have had all weekend. I was hoping for Chris to make a mistake on this pass behind me but hearing his car not far behind me I knew that he wouldn’t let me have the win that easy. He kept right up with me and followed my line just as the judges asked. Chris would be awarded the win and this would wrap up my first time driving Long Beach as well as my Pro1 debut in Formula D.
I want to extend a huge thank you to my Team, Sponsors, and Family for all their absolutely amazing support and keeping me going and not letting me give up on this event. Everything it seemed was going against us to not make it out to Long Beach but we never gave up and I was able to get out there, Qualify, and run my First Pro 1 battle with our Demo car turned Pro1 legal car with that was done with in under a weeks time. Again thank you all so very much for everything I cant wait to get the S14 back together for the next one.
Kevin is running Konig Dekagram in 17×9 et 25mm front and 18×9.5 et 25 rear. The Konig Dekagram is Flow Formed.
[Not a valid template]GRIDLIFE – Track Battle Round 1 – Mid-Ohio | April 14th and 15th
Mid-Ohio has always been a demanding and tricky circuit to tackle, and for this year’s Gridlife TrackBattle season opener it proved to be no different. However, for Fiona and I, just making it to the event was a victory all by itself…
Rewind to a weekend before Mid-Ohio, we arrived at Gingerman Raceway for a shakedown, to make sure both my highly-reworked S2000 and Fiona’s new-to-her E46 M3 would work as intended. Much to our surprise, everything that could go wrong, DID go wrong. My S2000 experienced some major oil pressure problems that left the health of the engine in serious doubt, while the M3 suffered a pretty serious fire after an off. Most of the driver-side wiring were toasted, as well as a couple of sensors for the engine/trans and some bodywork, but luckily the car survived mechanically and Fiona escaped unharmed. At the end of the weekend, we were left with two barely working cars and absolutely exhausted, but there was little time to breathe.
Calling the week that followed “hectic” is an understatement. Not only were we caught up in school commitments and exams, but we had to find a way to resolve the issues and ensure they are ready to race before the weekend. Huge thanks to our sponsor Brian of BaoHouse Racing, who was able to squeeze in a last minute check for both of our cars, as well as Mikey of Xenocron Tuning, who helped analyze the issues with my F22C engine and reassure me that it was luckily okay. Although there remained a few issues, we were out of time and had to set off for Mid-Ohio.
Pokemon onesie is now the official TeamARF team wear, because Fiona said so…
As we arrived at the track, we quickly realized that the weekend will be defined by a single factor: the weather. Every source suggested that the weekend will be filled with rain starting right around our first session, and Mid-Ohio itself is notoriously difficult in the wet. If we were to be successful this weekend, we would not only need a fast lap time, but to set that fast lap as quickly as possible.
Saturday morning, and the news was good. The track remained dry, but the forecast was not pretty. The pressure was on, and I came up with a sneaky plan… You see, in time attack, traffic is the worst nightmare. You can be 2 seconds faster than your previous best, and one slow car at the wrong point on track will completely ruin your efforts. In order to get as many clean laps in as possible, Fiona and I lined up early to be at the front of Group B, just behind Levi Brown in his incredibly fast TrackMod Civic EF Hatch. The strategy proved invaluable, as many of our competitors ended up stuck in a train of slower cars. With Mr. Brown ahead of me acting as a target and Fiona behind chasing me down, I settled down and gave it my all.
My lap was far from perfect, and the tire pressure setting had skyrocketed during the session, but we still banged in a 1:39.098, obliterating the old Street class record and a stunning 1.9 seconds faster than the next fastest car in Street, a Corvette C7. In fact, that lap would’ve landed me in a podium spot in any RWD category, whether it be StreetMod, TrackMod, or Unlimited. I was happy with that result, but not with the my lap. I knew the car had plenty left in it and I could’ve improved to a 1:37 by the next session or two. Fiona, meanwhile, went faster every lap as she got to grips with the M3 and Mid-Ohio, and managed a 1:48.372, 8th fastest in a highly competitive 17-car Street RWD field and also the fastest E46 M3 out of 3 entries in Street.
Unfortunately, our fun was cut short just before the start of the second session, when a light drizzle began to fall. However, it quickly turned into a monsoon that soaked the whole track and buried the hope of any dry running for the rest of the day. Sunday was much of the same, and although we had a lot of fun slicing and dicing in the rain, the time charts remained unchanged. I walked away with a victory, which was my goal right from the get go, but doing so before the others got a chance to does make it a little less enjoyable. Fiona, meanwhile, is also unhappy with the outcome. As much as I told her that it was a very valiant effort and a great first showing on a new track with a new car, she couldn’t help but feel disappointed, as she had prepared so hard for the event in the months before.
Overall, it was certainly a perfect start to the season for me in terms of results, gaining a lot of valuable points on the competition at a track we expected to excel at. Fiona’s performance is also getting better by the weekend, and we can’t wait to head down to Road Atlanta in three weeks for Global Time Attack!
Jackie is running Konig Dekagrams in 18×9.5 et 35mm all around in Semi Matte Black. The Konig Dekagram is Flow Formed.
[Not a valid template]Getting to know 2018 Konig Supported Formula Drift Drivers
The 2018 Formula Drift Season is in full effect with the Streets of Long Beach just behind us and Orlando approaching this weekend. We thought we’d take a few minutes and give you a quick rundown of our 2018 FD drivers and telling you what wheels and fitment they’re running. Check them out, show them love, and remember to follow their journey this season here!
Kevin Lawrence – Formula Drift (RB30DET powered Nissan S14.3)
Kevin Lawrence hails from Florida and has been drifting Nissan cars as long as we can remember. He took home the 2015 Three Palms Drift Championship and has never looked back in his drifting career. His reliable RB30DET powered Nissan 240sx helped him drift his way to the Pro 2 championship last season. An amazing victory at Texas Motor Speedway with all the pressure in the world on his shoulders allowed him to become Pro 2 championship by the thinnest margin in Formula Drift history of just two points.
Kevin Lawrence and the Enjuku Racing team are clear favorites for the 2018 Formula Drift Rookie of the Year award in the pro series. Kevin also is heavily involved in the drifting community in Florida and tours the country with his demo R32 Nissan Skyline to events like Hyperfest in Virginia.
Kevin is running Konig Dekagram in 17×9 et 25mm front and 18×9.5 et 25 rear. The Konig Dekagram is Flow Formed.
Matt Vankirk (SR20DET powered Nissan 240sx)
Matt VanKirk comes to you from the Northwest where the drift scene is strong! He really has become known for his aggressive driving style and his 3rd place, podium finish in Formula Drift Pro 2 last year. This year he is now stepping it up a notch as he competes in Formula Drift Pro! We’re excited to watch MVK try and earn that FD Rookie of the Year award!
Matt is running Konig Hypergrams in 18×9.5 et 25mm front and 18×10.5 et 25 rear in Race Bronze. The Konig Hypergram is Flow Formed.
Ryan Litteral – Formula Drift & Pro 2 (LS3 powered Nissan 350z)
Ryan Litteral is a driver famous for having a drift vehicle with top class style over the years. Ryan comes from Southern California and has been drifting for 12 years now. He earned his license with his black S14 in the Just Drift series back in 2013. His last appearance in Pro 2 was in 2016 where he finished a solid 6th place running his own program.
For the 2018 season he has teamed up with KoruWorks in Marietta, Georgia to campaign an LS3 powered Nissan 350z. The team will attend all four rounds that have a Pro/Pro 2 weekend and they will do double duty trying to sweep the Formula Drift weekend with a victory at both levels. You can also catch his YouTube series called IT’S LITT! Documenting his demo car 240sx build.
Ryan is running Konig Ampliform in 18×9 et 15mm front and 18×10 et 20mm rear in DARK METALLIC GRAPHITE. The Konig Ampliform is Flow Formed.
Geoff Donati – Formula Drift Pro 2 (LS3 powered Nissan 240sx)
Geoff Donati hails from a small town in Ohio and once he discovered drifting he wasted no time heading out to the track to give it a shot. His first full season of Pro-Am soon followed at the Midwest Drift Union in 2016 and where he fell just short of earning a license when the year ended by one point! Geoff went right back to MDU for the 2017 season and managed to win almost every round that year and became champion of the series with ease.
Geoff Donati dominates his competitors with consistency and some have even compared him to a young Chris Forsberg. He seems incapable of making a mistake at times behind the wheel and looks to carry that ice in the veins approach into Pro 2 for 2018
Geoff is running Konig Hypergrams in 18×9.5 et 25mm front and 17×8 et 40mm rear. The Konig Hypergram is Flow Formed.
Travis Reeder – Formula Drift Pro 2 (LS3 powered Nissan 240sx)
Travis Reeder is a drifter from the Pacific Northwest who cut his teeth in the Evergreen Drift series. Travis dominated the 2016 season in the Evergreen Drift Pro Am easily becoming the champion of this regional Pro Am series. He made his Pro 2 debut last season and managed to earn Rookie of the Year for his amazing efforts behind the wheel in his 240sx. In fact, he was basically announced champion at Texas Motor Speedway and could only mathematically lose if Kevin Lawrence qualified first and then won the event. Sadly, that happened and he finished the season in second place by the smallest margin in Formula Drift history after some amazing drifting all year.
Travis Reeder caught the world’s attention when he won Road Atlanta last year and took a commanding early lead in the Pro 2 championship. He has committed to the Pro 2 season again for 2018 and is determined to win the championship at all costs.
Travis is running Konig Ultraforms in 17×9 et 25mm front and 18×9 et 25mm rear. The Konig Ultraforms is Flow Formed.
Kelsey Rowlings (5.0L Coyote powered Nissan 240sx)
Kelsey Rowlings earned her Pro 2 license in the Three Palms Drift series down in Florida and became the first-ever female to earn a Pro 2 license through the Pro-Am drift promotion ladder. Kelsey was one of the few drifters who traveled in the younger part of her career and she managed to also compete in the Streetwise Drift, Lone Star Drift, and XDC series before stepping into the Pro 2 stage.
Kelsey’s engine package makes her one of the most unique car setups on grid in 2018. Instead of the traditional LS-engine setup, her team has picked the 5.0L engine out of a new Mustang GT to power her 240sx. Kelsey returns to the Pro 2 series in 2018 looking to outperform last season.
Kelsey is running Konig Hypergrams in 17×9 et 25mm front and 18×9.5 et 25mm rear. The Konig Hypergram is Flow Formed.
Garrett Denton (2JZ powered Nissan 240sx)
Garrett Denton is one of the most unique racers in the Pro 2 field today. At the age of 14, Garrett was the youngest driver to win a sanctioned NASCAR event race in North America. His love of driving and racing started as early as 5 years old and he has been behind the wheel ever since. Garrett also came from the Midwest Drift Union series where he finished in second place in 2017 and took plans to run in the Pro 2 series.
His Pro 2 campaign involves a crew full of University of Northwest Ohio graduates where he also attended college earning an in dual Associates Degree in High-Performance Motorsports Technology and Automotive Technology. Garrett will be taking to the Pro 2 circuit with a 2JZ powered Nissan 240sx with support from Koruworks to help him make a run for the championship.
Garrett is running Konig Dekagram in 17×9 et 25mm front and 18×9.5 et 25mm rear. The Konig Dekagram is Flow Formed.
Alec Robbins (LS powered Nissan 350z)
Alec Robbins is a unique individual who famously ran a slammed pickup truck drift build with an LSX engine in the Pro-Am ranks. Alec Robbins saw success as the 2016 Midwest Drift Union champion and made his rookie year debut in 2017 in the Koruworks 350z for some Pro 2 rounds.
Looking forward to the 2018 Pro 2 season, Alec Robbins has built his own 350z with a LS engine making 550/560 to the wheels. This should be a great setup to keep up with the competition at all four rounds of the Formula Drift Pro 2 series.
Alec is running Konig Hypergrams in 17×9 et 25mm front and 18×9.5 et 25 rear in RED OPAL. The Konig Hypergram is Flow Formed.
Adam Knapik (LS powered Nissan 240sx)
Adam Knapik hails from Southern California and earned his Pro 2 license through the Just Drift Pro-Am series. In 2016, he managed to take home the Just Drift Championship and has been working to improve his LS-powered Nissan 240sx ever since. His day job is a Porsche driving instructor giving him endless amounts of time behind the wheel of racecars. Moving into the 2018 Pro 2 season we cannot wait to see what Knapik Racing has put together to go out and compete with the big boys of Pro 2.
Adam is running Konig Rennforms in 18×9 et 23 all the way around. The Konig Rennforms is Flow Formed.
Donovan Brockway (LS powered 2014 BMW 2-Series)
While Donovan Brockway has opted to take the 2018 season off he is still a part of the Konig Wheels Drift team. His 2018 season off is allowing him to put a new “BeastMW” together that starts with an F22 BMW 2-series chassis that will have a full HGK carbon/Kevlar widebody kit and one big RHS 427 race engine. We know Donovan will be missed on the paddock this year but we cannot wait to follow his build progress and see it debut on Konig Wheels in the 2019 Pro 2 season.
Donovan is currently running Konig Rennforms in 18×8 et 35mm front and 18×9 et 35 rear on his 1000hp e30. The Konig Rennforms is Flow Formed.
However on the F22 he will be running the Konig Ampliform’s! Make sure to stay tuned to his build!
2018 GRIDLIFE MID-OHIO | APR 14TH & 15TH
RACEDAY
“The first event each year is always the Hardest…”
After a 7 hour drive to Mid-Ohio, we unloaded all the cars and gear, made sure all the cars got through tech inspection, then we set up camp and got prepared for the next morning. Everyone knew we would have one, maybe two session to lay down a respectable time before the rain came, much easier said than done, the team was basically shaking down their new cars, Lester had never driven this track so he really had his work cut out for him. Sitting in the Silvia I had multiple concerns with over-heating due to the new front mount and ducting, I wasn’t sure if the wheels and tires would rub under load, was the grip going to be there? had I done everything right to have a safe car? I would soon find out the answers to all these questions, and as team captain my thoughts were about all my teammates and that they were going through the same thought process. As we started our out lap Mark led the team followed by Mike and Les as I brought up the rear. My goal was to load up the car a little bit more every lap, lap two Mike and Lester gave me the point by and I bumped the car up to about 65%, constantly checking the gauges, trying to put heat in the tires and listening for odd sounds or tire rubbing. About 3 laps in I felt a wave of relief fall over me, the car was working! A quick look at the solo showed that I had cut a 146.08 not a fast time but all things considered it had felt like I had just won! And with the gas gauge showing I was on fumes I pitted with a huge smile on my face! parked the car and anxiously awaited for my teammates to finish up and come back to the pits, One by one they started rolling in, it was hugs and high fives all around! I was one proud man. After the track high subsided a bit we started looking at times. We knew our street FWD guys we looking good and boy were we right! after one session Lester was sitting in first place with a time of 156.55 followed closely by Mike with a 159.34 putting hard times in 1st and 2nd. All eyes would turn back to the radar as the rain was going to hit sooner than later. During the cold track lunch break the rain started to fall. I was on slicks and knew that my day was over, Mike had also decided to leave his car in the pits for the rest of the day. Rain is a funny thing at race tracks, after it had poured for hours it was apparent the the dry times would stand for everyone that weekend, Leaving hard times on top of street FWD. The end of Saturday would see conditions improve from soaking wet and standing water to a damp track, and with this street FWD would see the late entry of a brand new civic type R, a car known in this class as a ringer car, Anthony Cuthbert would end up bumping Mike and Lester down to 2nd and 3rd. The sun set and some hard earned beers were shared as we all swapped war stories. But once again all eyes were glued to the radar. It was pretty clear that Sunday would see more rain and with more rain we knew the times from Saturday would stand. Lester and Mark would go out and practice their wet driving skills as the rest of the team watched. Then it would be time to collect some hardware and hit the road back to Chicago.
All in all it was a great weekend and even though we only had four of the seven Hard Times car out the tone had been set. Gridlife Mid-West will go down in history for us as it will be the first time that all 7 cars hit the track together, as always there is a ton of work to get done between now and then. I have said it before and I’ll say it again. You gotta be there to win!
Hard TImes Racing drivers list for Round 2 is as follows
Lester-Street FWD -Integra
Mike -Street FWD -Integra
Mark- Street AWD r32 GTR
James- Street RWD Mustang GT
Ben- TrackMod- RWD Mazda RX7
Sam-Unlimited RWD s13 180sx
Charlie- Unlimited RWD s13 silvia
*************
Hard Times Racing is a supporter of the GRIDLIFE event series. Konig is proud to provide quality wheels for part of the Hard Times Racing team!
Charlie Ensslin 240SX is running the Flow Formed Konig Dekagram in 18×10.5 all around w/ et18mm offset. The Konig Dekagram is Flow Formed.
Make sure to follow Hard Times Racing on INSTAGRAM!
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