**** GUEST BLOG – BY NATE HAMILTON ****
Hey World, Nate Hamilton here, this is my first written recap for Konig Wheels, the first of many during our 2016 Racing season. My goal is to be as honest and transparent as possible. Lets get into it, here we go!
Tuesday afternoon, arriving at our first competitive event of the season. We rolled into Road Atlanta.
Tuesday marks our official technical inspection, this process is mandatory, Kevin Wells representing Formula Drift inspects our Pro chassis. Weight, Subframe pickup points, Tire size, Safety, plus way more is looked over and double checked. With attention to detail provided during the builds from our lead fabricator, Bub Robarge, our cars were ready and approved to hit the track.
This rolls us into Wednesday, we took the day to dial in our home base/pit operations. While at the same time using the day to knock out media obligations, smile for the Camera say’s Corey Denomy as Kevin, Josh and I filmed the “Faces of Konig” videos, you will see them soon enough.
Driving in the Pro2 class, Thursday is a busy day for our program. We have our First and last practice sessions unfolding right into qualifications. Total practice time: 2 hours, split between 24 drivers. Qualification is 2 runs. This in total was 10 laps on the technical track of Road Atlanta. Writing this and looking back on the day, it really does fly by.
My results shook me up as I was struggling with my car setup. After 8 runs still struggling with the entry/steering. I was forced to lay down my qualification runs. These runs did not represent my team and our hard work over the offseason. I was uncomfortable, without having the seat time in the new chassis to recover from the issues, I was not able to qualify. This was a big hit to our program and was surprising to most. I am forced to look past this performance and chalk it up as a second shakedown with the new chassis.
Looking forward we brought the team together to study film and analyze the characteristics of the car. We wanted to know why I was struggling. With a great group of people in one circle, we found valuable information. A combination of my driving mixed with some front end settings we now have a base outline of what I like and don’t like.
We are now back home located in Clermont, FL working daily at Enjuku Racing. We have the car in the air, making the progressive changes we learned in ATL. We will come back with confidence and more practice in the newly setup 2016 chassis. Our next stop on the schedule: The Hyperfest event located in Virginia at the VIR facility.
Lastly I want to give my upmost appreciation to the whole Team and great group of sponsors we have onboard this season. Thanks to the whole Enjuku Racing staff for making this possible. Also, Thanks to Konig Wheels for supporting our dreams and goals we are chasing, its amazing to have a company striving for the same goals. Until Next time, talk soon guys!
