Be sure to follow the upcoming United States Grand Prix – Circuit of the Americas in Austin Texas, November 16th – November 18th. In the meantime, head over to Advanti Racing’s Facebook Page for details on how to win a set of 18″ wheels.
Head over to PASMAG For more Performance Auto Sound goodness, and stay tuned for December!
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**This is the official recap written by and courtesy of the Mertzanis Racing team from Formula Drift Round 6: “After Dark” at Las Vegas Motor Speedway – August 24th – 25th**
Right after pulling off the trailer on Thursday night, we went into the private paid practice and started bumper banging on the k-rails, and scraping paint and decals off the rear bumper. With some sway bar tweaks, and a Kenda Tire pressure adjustment, the car felt unstoppable. A full day before qualifying, the car felt fantastic to Dennis Mertzanis and the whole Mertzanis Racing crew.
Friday practice, before qualifying Dennis went out chasing Kyle Mohan, who is one of the fastest drivers on the circuit. Dennis wanted to see how quick the car setup for the weekend was overall. These screen grabs were pulled from our GoPro camera that has a video you can see here.
Dennis explains, “Well, we went flying into the first outer clip together. What is normally a full throttle affair, Mohan went too close to the wall, and hard-braked, slowing down a lot. I was coming in hot and couldn’t slow down fast enough. We made contact and I hit the wall knocking the suspension out of alignment.”
The team worked quickly to get the car back in race trim. Only one KÖNIG Milligram wheel was damaged beyond repair, since it made high-speed contact with the rear bash bar on Kyle Mohan’s Mazda Rx-8. After his two runs, Dennis finished 19th for Kenda Tires, which lined him up against Ryan Tuerck in the Retaks S13. This was a rematch from Round 1 at Streets of Long Beach.
On Saturday, just before competition brought on rain and crazy wind as the drivers hit the track. Luckily, we had a rain setup for the car on standby, but it all dried up before Dennis got on the track for his Top 32 battle. Ryan Tuerck led the first battle in his S13.5 against our Chevrolet Performance Parts powered LS3 S13.4. Dennis held a somewhat conservative, but all around solid follow run behind Tuerck.
After the smoke settled, the judges gave the win over to Ryan Tuerck eliminating Dennis Mertzanis from this weekend’s competition. The team came together and really made huge developments with the S13. Dennis is planning on a huge month of testing in September to get ready for the final round at Irwindale Speedway coming up in October.
Summer is almost over, but PASMAG Girl Mimi Le keeps it hot in the September calendar! Be sure to download the calendar and desktop wallpaper. It will help you keep track of Fantasy Football. Also, be sure to check out the Privat Remember Gold and Silver with new 18″ offerings – In Stock Now!!!
Click either image to download a calendar or desktop wallpaper version!
**This is the official recap written by and courtesy of the Mertzanis Racing team from Formula Drift Round 5: “Throwdown” at Evergreen Speedway, Monroe, Washington July 20-21**
With some rain hovering around Evergreen Speedway, qualifying in Seattle was going to be a tough challenge. Dennis managed to line up for run 1 before the rain came down, and he rode the bank wall, scoring a huge 80 for his run. He came in through the speed traps at 79.5mph (Speed 1 trap point – 65mph minimum for score) and 38mph (Speed 2 trap point – 35mph minimum for score) and landed one of his best performances in his career.
His second qualifying run with the surface being wet was not an improvement due to the harsh driving conditions laid out by the unpredictable Washington weather. His second run fell short at 65, but still put him in a great position for the main event.
The main event Saturday served up a whole new round of conditions and temperature meaning the team had to make some serious and quick changes. The KW Clubsport suspension had to be moved into different settings along with some alignment changes on our SPL Suspension parts. At last, a quick tire pressure change on the Kenda Tires and the car was ready for a Top 32 round against Daijiro Yoshihara.
The morning practice after these adjustments saw Dennis riding the bank wall so deep he was ripping sponsor banners off the bank walls and leaving them scattered around Evergreen Speedway. He even had some great tandem runs with drivers such as former champion Rhys Millen in his 2013 Hyundai Genesis.
The Top 32 tandem battle put Dennis up against the reigning champion in his Discount Tire S13 for one insane battle. In the following run, Dennis managed to go deeper than the champion coming around the bank, but held onto his car at full lock, no problem. He put together a great run leaving a huge opportunity for victory with his lead run.
Dennis once again went in deep into the bank and came flying into the power alley at full lock and throttle, getting ready for the tight turns to finish the course. All was looking fantastic as his earlier adjustments made the car look like it was going to be a victorious battle.
Tons of smoke was pouring out of the Fuelculture S13.4 as the Kenda Tires screamed through the power alley. Right at this point, Dennis Mertzanis was unable to rotate back with the car and wound up putting it into the k-rail, ending his tandem run early and resulting in damage to his front suspension. This ended the weekend a little early, but the Mertzanis Racing team is ready for Las Vegas now that everything has been replaced from the Seattle battle damage.
**This is the official recap written by and courtesy of Lutz Performance from Formula Drift Round 5: “Throwdown” at Evergreen Speedway, Monroe, Washington July 20-21**
Round 5 was pure madness the entire time. From two weeks before the event, to the final judging call against Ken Gushi in Top 32. With a new motor in the car and with the help of a Brian Crower stroker kit and cams, we were looking to make some big power. This big power came at a cost because we broke a camshaft. Luckily the old cams were roughly the same size. We were able to get the car running in time for Hal from Dynosty to get it on a local dyno. We ran into some ridiculous wiring issues that prevented us from tuning the car and ended up spending the next 4 days sorting it out. We finally solved the issues which were related to a brand new alternator and power wire that we had put in a few days before. Then on the dyno we had and issue with the AEM base map unlocking the cams, and some fuel delivery issues which maxed us out on fuel way too soon. We then had to tune around that and only ended up making 600 HP. With the car strapped in we left Dynosty happy that we finally had the car working right and headed straight for Monroe.
Thursday morning we got in, set up, and got ready for practice. This was a true test of all of our efforts thus far. Starting out good we felt that the car may be a little underpowered after half the session, so we keep our focus on setting the suspension for the bank. By the end of practice the wiring bugs came back. This was causing the fans to cut off randomly resulting in some very extreme over-heating situations that we were lucky to stay on the good side with.
Friday morning we fixed the fan issue and swapped out the diffs to help move through the power a little easier. We also made some small alignment changes that helped settle the car and made Kenny very happy. So from here everything seemed golden….. But evil would show its face yet again. Kenny started complaining of downshifting issues coming into the infield. As practice went on the issues got worse, and mimicked the same issues that lead to our early defeat in New Jersey. Kenny powered through the issues for the remainder of practice and qualifying, even top32 practice that night. However you could still see his discomfort. So with HUGE THANKS to Bridges Racing, we got to work on getting the clutch out before the end of the night, again huge thanks to them for letting us do this.
Saturday Morning was early, chilly, but much drier than Friday. So we got in early and started immediately on clutch swap as we only had 2.5 hours before the Top 32 practice. We were able to complete this task just in time, dropped the car down and swapped on some fresh tires just as the first few cars started to make a pass. Practice went very smooth, and Kenny was very happy. We were paired up with Ken Gushi for the 2nd time this season, and we knew it was going to be a tough one. The battle ended up going to Gushi after Kenny dropped a tire over the line coming off the bank and ended our long journey early in the fight. Sucks to take a blow to the gut like that after so much work, but hey that’s racing. The only thing we can do is come back better and harder for Vegas. And we will be out for blood!
Linkin Park and Incubus have joined forces for this summer’s Honda Civic Tour. The tour begins this August in Bristow, VA, and tickets are on sale now!
KÖNIG Wheels is proud to be a product sponsor of the Honda Civic Tour for yet another year. This year, Linkin Park and Incubus have teamed up to create an incredible show, which the Honda Civic Tour has been known for. This will be a very unique blend of talented musical artists, and a great turnout for fans and car enthusiasts alike.
The 2012 Honda Civic Si Features 18″ KÖNIG Deception wheels in a matte black finish, which were then painted two-tone. The spokes were painted bright orange, which pop in contrast to the Civic’s custom airbrushed paint job that gives off the illusion of the car breaking out of a cocoon. Other features of the car include Toyo Proxes 4 Plus tires, and an Exclusive Honda Factory Performance Kit, which boasts a complete aero body kit with front, side and underbody spoilers.
To view the KÖNIG Deception on our website click here: Click Here
For more information regarding the 2012 Honda Civic Tour such as Dates & Tickets, Bands, Sweepstakes and the Custom Civic visit: Honda Civic Tour
June’s calendar is here just in time for Summer. PASMAG model Shan Jones heats things up with the KÖNIG Flatout. Choose from either the calendar or desktop wallpaper calendar version!
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.
