Welcome back DRIFT FANS! The 2019 Formula Drift season has kicked off and it was everything we hoped it would be. There were new drivers, exciting battles, some controversial issues and crashes that may leave a couple of teams out of the next event in Orlando.
Check out this FD edition of our podcast as we go into Joey Redmond’s TOP 10 THINGS LEARNED points from Formula Drift Long Beach! Make sure to share your thoughts with us!
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See you after FD Orlando!
If you like what we’re doing here, please subscribe! We’re on iTunes and Google Play! Additionally, every full episode is uploaded to YouTube! …. (details/cheat sheet below! – Audio )
0:18 | Intro 2:09 | Jeff Jones is the best driver you aren’t paying attention to 5:28 | Chelsea DeNofa vs. Chris Forsberg was Tandem of the day 9:40 | Travis Reeder overcomes tough team weekend with great performance! 19:37 | Podium marks a season for positive tire diversity 22:52 | Forrest Wang strikes 6th podium but still evades a victory 25:18 | What happened to James Deane? 30:47 | Matt Field sees 99 33:00 | Odi Bakchis wants that championship! 37:08 | Can Ryan Tuerck return for Orlando? 42:16 | Frederic Aasbo finds success with old school setup 50:46 | Outro / Contact info
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.
Check out this video that Enjuku Racing just pumped out covering Nate Hamilton at the Super Drift event which took place the week after the Formula Drift Long Beach. This Super Drift event was part of the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach weekend and featured some of the best Formula Drift drivers. The cool part about the event was that it took place on the same course as FD Long beach and provided some additional seat time for Nate to prepare for Formula Drift Orlando. The video is on point and provides an great look at the behind the scenes. Check it out!
It was a wet and rainy weekend for the drivers at Formula Drift Round 1 in Long Beach, CA. with track conditions so bad that Formula Drift decided to cancel qualifying and seed the bracket based on the 2015 season standings. Pat Mordaunt took to the tarmac in his Nissan 350z against “Mad Mike” Widdet in his Mazda with Patrick having an excellent lead run with an advantage but unfortunately Mike created a gap in the second run pulling a victory over Patrick. Patrick and his team is looking forward to Round 2 May 6th-7th at Road Atlanta and hopefully some dry weather! Check out some shots from Long Beach, CA. of Pat and his 350z on Konig Hypergram Flow Formed wheels.
With the 2015 season of Formula Drift underway, and Round 2 just around the corner, the time for burning rubber and sideways sailing is now! It has been good to see the amount of exposure and recognition Formula D has been receiving both nationally as well as internationally. Incase you missed Round 1’s action from the streets of Long Beach, CA. last month, or want to see in exclusive depth coverage of the event tune in for Formula DRIFT Episode 1 – Long Beach tonight on CBS Sports at 8:30PM EST. Be sure to check out Episode 2 on Saturday, May 9th, 2015 at 11:20AM on CBS Sports Network, as the drivers hit Road Atlanta for Round 2 of the Formula Drift series.
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.
