Kenny Moen / Lutz Performance to the Top 8

Kenny Moen / Lutz Performance to the Top 8

Posted on by Konig Wheels

For the second time this season Kenny Moen / Lutz Performance has made it to the top 8.  

This passed weekend at Formula Drift Round 3: West Palm Beach, Florida, Moen and the entire Lutz performance team came out firing. 

Showing up to an FD event is hard enough but Moen continuously proves he is able to attack and conquer.   On Friday, during Round 3 at West Palm Beach,  an abundance of bad weather including heavy rain came down on the event.  The on and off rain really fluctuated and adjusted the temperature. But cooling down the track did not prevent Moen from doing well in the first qualifying round.  Moen and the Lutz Peformance / KÖNIG Wheels sponsored 350Z had a very aggressive practice and smooth transition going into the Top 32.

The weather did not seem to let up in the second run either.  This caused the car to have major traction issues. With such a high rate of speed, Kenny ended up receiving a 0 due the fact that the track was wet.  Over coming his scored 0, Moen ended up defeating his first competitor in the top 32 , Matt Powers, which progressed him into the Top 16.

The top 16 put Moen against Ken Gushi.  Gushi provided an entertaining match up but Moen was able to defeat him and move into the Top 8.  Drawing a former FD Champion, Chris Forsberg, in the top 8 is always going to present an extremely tough battle.  Moen was mentally focused and had an amazing first run against Chris Forsberg giving him the lead.  While the matchup between Moen and Forsberg was heating up, the Lutz performance car seemed to have its own major opponent which it would not be able to overcome.  Clutch difficulties and the attributed loss of power in the 350z, allowed Forsberg to catch up.  Ultimately this would be the day ender for the Moen / Lutz / Konig team.  All  in all it was a fantastic event.  While the Lutz 350z sustained body and mechanical damage during RD 3, but this won’t hold the team back as they are now in the repair process to prepare for RD 4 in Wall, New Jersey on June, 22nd and 23rd.

KÖNIG would like to congratulate Kenny Moen and Lutz Performance on their fantastic effort and top 8 finish. We look forward to the next event. Stay tuned for more pictures and videos from Round 3 as well as upcoming coverage from RD 4!

Mertzanis Puts Down Best Qualifying Score in his Career

Posted on by Konig Wheels

Before the Fuel Culture S13.4 was shipped to the East Coast to Road Atlanta, the car headed to the Sea Otter Classic at Laguna Seca for the huge 2012 bicycle show. Over 60,000 people came through the doors in Monterey, California, to see the show and catch a glimpse of the drift car. The 240sx was parked in the center of the Kenda Tire booth who built out a virtual garage around the car to attract visitors. This was one of the only vehicles at the whole show this year, gathering tons of attention.

After leaving the Sea Otter Classic, the car headed east across the United States to Atlanta, Georgia in preparation of Formula Drift Round 2. Some tweaks to air pressure and our KW Suspension between rounds really set the team up for success after Road Atlanta.

During qualifying, Dennis managed to put down his best career qualifying run of 89.5 at his hometown course Road Atlanta. The car didn’t require as much setup adjustments to accomplish this huge career accomplishment. He was one of the few drivers to meet the speed trap minimum for the weekend.

After qualifying, we found out that we would be lined up against Top 10 driver, Kyle Mohan, who didn’t qualify at his usual top level performance which gave us one tough draw in the first round. Dennis and the team made some last minute adjustments and put down some of the best lead runs he has driven in his career by far. After one round, the judges were stuck at 1 vote for Dennis, 1 vote for Kyle, and 1 vote for OMT.

On the OMT tandem battle, Dennis performed top notch on his lead run but made a wide turn on his follow run which let Kyle Mohan pass into the Top 16 with 2 votes for Kyle and 1 vote for Dennis. A tough break for the team who performed near perfect all weekend but we are looking forward to Palm Beach International.

The next day after Road Atlanta, the Mertzanis Racing team attended what might be the last event at Turner Field with several other Formula Drift professional drivers. The city council in Atlanta, Georgia, signed an ordinance that bans drifting specifically in the city of Atlanta within 1,000 feet of residential zoning. This made it very personnel for Dennis Mertzanis as he first learned how to drift and hone his skills in this very parking lot.

Sadly, the weather didn’t cooperate with this final Turner Field event but Dennis brought out his Fuel Culture S13.4 in the rain to tandem with local drivers and promote the sport within the local area. He talked with various media outlets on the importance of the sport and the need to continue in grassroots events and why it’s best to create events and have safe, controlled environments so as to keep drivers off the streets.

It has been a busy month in back to back travel. And with Round 3 at Palm Beach International Raceway just right around the corner, Dennis Mertzanis will continue onwards and upwards by shooting for another career best finish at Round 3.

//Images courtesy of Fuel Culture & Wrecked Magazine 2012//

Attention New York City: Have you seen this vehicle?

Posted on by Konig Wheels

We are always getting some really cool stuff shared by our fans and friends. Ali Arsham is no exception. Mr. Arsham runs GoGoGear.com. GoGoGear specializes in Custom Graphics, Apparel and Promotional Products. Ali Arsham has been racing for 22 years. He is also a fabricator and one of his more recent builds was the 2010 Hyundai Genesis Coupe. If you follow our blog, then you know the exposure this car has received since it was debuted. The car has traveled to various Auto Shows and Events across the country. However, this Genesis Coupe is by no means just a sweet race-built show car. On May 22nd, 2012 at Thunderhills Raceway in Willows California it shared 3rd place in the 2nd round of the Nitto Tires United States Touring Car Championship (USTCC).

Ali and the GoGoGear team just shared this image of the Genesis Coupe in action on the big screen in Times Square, New York, NY. This is certainly exciting for KONIG Wheels, GoGoGear and the USTCC. Check out the image below. Let us know in the comment section if you were walking down 7th Avenue in Times Square and saw this on the screen!

Image Courtesy of Del City and GoGoGear

First Podium for Hyundai

Posted on by Konig Wheels

Ali Arsham Scores his First Podium for the GoGoGear.com/Konig Wheels Hyundai Genesis Coupe

Willows, Calif., May 22, 2012 – Ali Arsham, driving the GoGoGear.com/Konig Wheels Hyundai Genesis Coupe, finished in third place in round two of the Nitto Tires United States Touring Car Championship (USTCC) at Thunderhill Raceway in Willows, California. The team fought hard against many other manufacturers including Volvo, Mazda, Dodge, Honda, Acura, Mitsubishi and BMW using crew mostly comprised of students and instructors from Universal Technical Institute, a leading training school for future automotive technicians.

The race started off in a normal fashion with Robert Thorne’s K-PAX Volvo C30 starting from pole position and assuming the lead. A fight soon began between the Volvo of Thorne and the TNI Racing Mazdaspeed 3 of Felipe Cabezas. Cabezas was glued to the yellow Volvo and would not let Thorne get away. The two started to pull away from everyone else and nearly collided on the first lap in Turn 6. Behind the pair, Arsham’s Hyundai was running on a completely different strategy. Things really got interesting as soon as the fuel stops started to come into play.

After about 90 minutes of racing the battle for the final podium spot started to heat up. Arsham’s Hyundai was running in third place in the latter part of the race. “My strategist was on the radio telling me that Cabezas was on the same lap as me and was gaining on me quickly. He did the math and said that I need to speed up considerably or I will get passed,” commented Arsham after the race.

The GoGoGear.com team’s strategy was bold and risky from the beginning. They decided to try and complete the race without stopping for fuel. “Hyundais are known for their excellent reliability and fuel economy. We knew that these were the strengths of our Del City.net Genesis Coupe and knew that we needed to use those strengths to gain an advantage,” added Arsham.

On lap 39, the Mazda caught up and passed Arsham and it looked like the Mazda was headed to the podium. But five laps later, the Mazda was forced to pit. The turbocharged engine was thirsty and needed more fuel while the 3.8-liter V6 engine in the Hyunai was providing much better fuel economy. The TNI Racing Team crew hurried and did a super quick pit stop lap of 3:03, the fastest pit stop of the day to try to send Cabezas in front of Arsham. But as the car was still in the pits, Arsham roared by the pits and reclaimed third place. Then both teams started to work out the math to figure out the gap. With only five laps left in the race, Arsham’s crew radioed him to step it up. They knew that third place was theirs to lose. Arsham started to click his personal best laps in the last five laps of the race trying to stop Cabezas from catching him. The TNI Racing crew also knew what was going on and were telling Cabezas that he needs to step it up. While on the last lap, Cabezas was behind the winner but one lap down and the checkered flag was shown. Cabezas was done but Arsham who still had not received the checkered flag had one more lap to finish.

Everything was looking good but suddenly at Turn 9, the Hyundai slowed down out of fuel. “I knew it was out of gas because we have done considerable testing and know exactly what the car will and will not do. I knew that if I can get to Turn 14, I would be in good shape because it is a right hand turn and the fuel pick up is on the left side. Sure enough, just when it looked like the car was done, it came back to life,” said a very happy Arsham. The Hyundai crossed the finish line and then stopped on the side of the track, just after the pit exit in third place. “We used Hyundai’s fuel economy to our advantage to score a podium finish. This was our first podium finish in our Hyundai. Being able to do it with the help of the Universal Technical Institute students and instructors, is a real bonus,“ added Arsham.

The GoGoGear.com Racing team will be racing their Hyundai Genesis Coupe at Infineon Raceway in Sonoma, CA on June 16-17, 2012 joining the National Auto Sport Association for their big summer racing festival. For more information visit www.gogogear.com or www.ustcc.com

Moen Invasion at Road to the Championship Atlanta

Posted on by Konig Wheels

May 11th Braselton, GA

Formula Drift always puts out an exciting event. Round 2 at Road Atlanta was no different. It was certainly shaping up to be a solid even for Kenny Moen #22 and the Lutz Performance / KÖNIG Wheels sponsored 350Z.

Moen qualified with 91pts on the first pass, and 92pts in the second pass with a 5th place (overall). In the top 32 Moen was assigned to match up against Walker Wilkinson. While looking good and driving well in this round of the top 32, Moen experience suspension difficulties on the 3rd pass.

The control arm broke which caused the axle to break. Even with the damage on hand it was not over. The rules state that 5 minutes would be supplied to fix the vehicle. The Lutz Performance team gave it their best effort to carry out the repairs on the car however the time seemed to prove too much of a match for them.

Running out of time closed the round 2 chapter on Moen / Lutz Performance and the team. They will be back though, and are vowing to make Round 3 the best yet! Formula Drift Round 3: “The Invasion” in Palm Beach Florida is fast approaching and Kenny and the team are pushing for that coveted spot atop the podium.

Check out this awesome video segment of Kenny Moen at Round 2, which was put together by Ross Fairfield.

Moen at Formula Drift Round One: Long Beach

Posted on by Konig Wheels

KÖNIG is proud to be partnered with Lutz Performance and Kenny Moen for the 2012 Formula Drift Season. Check out the FD Round 1 recap from Lutz Performance below.

Last year, Lutz Performance had the opportunity of partnering with Kenny Moen and helping him with the 2011 Formula D season as a sponsor. Fast forward to today and we are pleased to announce that we are this year’s title sponsor for car #22. This is the FIRST time in Formula D’s history that a local performance shop is the main sponsor on a car.
We obviously couldn’t do all of this without the help of our other sponsors:

KÖNIG Wheels, Carbonetics, Stance Coilovers, GT Spec, Powered by MAX, VIS Racing, SPL Parts, Prosport Gauges, Falken Tires

Round One

Went a lot better than we had expected for our first round as a Main / Major sponsor. Our first run was against Darren McNamara in Falken Tire’s Saturn Sky who unfortunately crashed on his first run and knocking himself out of the event.

Next we took on Conrad Grunewald in the Hankook Camaro and defeated him and advanced to the top 8. Up next we had to beat Matt Powers in the Need 4 Speed 240sx to make it into the top 4.

Unfortunately, that didn’t happen and our Round 1 experience came to an end. Although we did not have a podium finish we feel that the team did a great job for our first event,
we hope this is the beginning of a great season with much more to come. We are also pleased to announce that Kenny Moen has signed with team Lutz Performance for the 2013 FD season, look out for his 2013 season car design being release after Round 6 in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Images courtesy of Wrecked Magazine and Lutz Performance

Formula Drift RD1: Streets of Long Beach

Posted on by Konig Wheels

Images and words by Fuel Culture | Article

Dennis Mertzanis came off the 2011 season with his best career finish in the series. During the off season, a new car and a wildly more extreme Chevrolet Performance Parts engine set the stage for Round 1 Streets of Long Beach this past weekend. His new car is a 1991 Nissan 240sx with a S14 kouki front end. The car started its life as a Fuel Culture project car and was publicly debuted at the 2011 SEMA Show in the Kenda Tire booth.

New to Mertzanis Racing for the 2012 season is Fuel Culture which is a virtual car garage where users can come and rate, review, and price compare aftermarket parts for their car. Another great website coming into the picture this year is www.rentreporters.com which is a great innovative service that allows renters to report rent payments to the credit bureaus. Everyday, they are helping renters build credit for something they are doing every month already! SPEC Clutch has come on board to provide us with the best LS clutch technology that money can buy. Rounding out the new sponsors is BodyArmor which is a superdrink packed with antioxidants, electrolytes, vitamins, and nutrients on top of being an all natural beverage.

The new chassis features a Chevrolet Performance Parts crate engine LS3 which is producing over 500whp and receiving all of its fuel needs from Aeromotive parts. We are running VP Racing 100 octane fuel to reach this horsepower output. We teamed up with KW Suspension and SPL Pro Suspension parts for the most lightweight and adjustable suspension you can throw at a Nissan 240sx. Dennis still remains on Kenda Tires for 2012 and continues to run the Kaiser KR20 using Konig Milligram 18 inch wheels which are lightweight thanks to MAT technology. And rounding out the return sponsors, Dennis continues to support Petfinder.com to help great dogs and cats find a forever home.

When Dennis hit the Streets of Long Beach, it was his first official drift event with a V8 engine and he couldn’t believe how the torque helped him keep up around the track including that drag race to the first turn. He was able to keep up with any car on the track when following in drift including the event winner Justin Pawlak during practice.

When they lined up for qualifying, the Mertzanis Racing team was still working on some setup changes to the car but qualifying had to go on! After watching 40+ car runs in front of him, it was time to put on a show! Dennis sadly missed the 53mph minimum trap speed with his qualifying pass but managed without 10 points for speed to lock him in for 32nd place. This meant lining up in the main event against Ryan Tuerck who was the events number one qualifier.

During Saturday morning practice, our support team Ryan Clemens and Dave Epifano made some extreme suspension changes and we found the car now running through the speed trap at 57mph which is over 8mph faster than where we qualified. Now facing off against Ryan Tuerck, the team threw everything we could at him during competition. Dennis was so solid through Turn 10 of the LBGP course, he caused Ryan Tuerck to make a huge correction and straighten out. It was a hard fought battle and the judges actually had to go through deliberation before declaring Ryan Tuerck the victor. This moved Ryan into the Top 16, ending the weekend for Dennis Mertzanis. The team is set on doing a few more test sessions this month to be ready for a huge finish at Road Atlanta in front of the team’s hometown crowd.

Fuel Culture | Dennis Mertzanis Racing | Formula Drift |