April 9th 2010 – Long Beach, Ca. Formula Drift Long Beach was the scene of the very first appearance for the KENDA Tire sponsored drift machine driven by Dennis Mertzanis.
Dennis will be doing recaps for us. Just some brief thoughts he had from the event. Make sure to stay tuned for his words after each event. Here is his story from Long Beach…
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“The first event of the year is always full of excitement for fans and drivers alike and the introduction of a new tire company into the Formula Drift Professional Drifting Series further fueled the excitement. I am happy to be working with KONIG Wheels, Extreme Dimensions and Competition Clutch for the 2010 season. KONIG was a last minute addition, so we had to pick up the wheels from the LA area and the Gardella Team was nice enough to let us use their tire machine to mount the new KENDA rubber on the new KONIG Lace wheels. The car is looking great.
On the streets of Long Beach, practice and qualifying went awesome; running with the big guys was very cool. I qualified 30th and was paired up with JR in the Monster Energy drink 2011 Mustang. I knew I had to have a perfect run in order to move on. I had 2 good runs, but JR had the power and the skill, so he moved on. No worries, I did my best runs of the weekend during that battle, so I can’t be too upset. Also, anytime you can end the weekend without crashing or breaking the car, it’s a good weekend.
I look forward to the Road Atlanta event in May. Last year, the crowd was fully involved and rowdy during the event (www.teamrowdy.net). It really charged up the whole event. I hope this year will be the same. It’s my hometown track, so the pressure is on to perform well in front of my hometown crowd.
I look forward to see all the fans very soon!
Dennis
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Thanks to Dennis for his write up. You can find more about Dennis on his website.
