This last weekend I went down to Portland International Raceway for the Drift Crown series.  I wanted to get in a little track time before Formula Drift Round 2 in Atlanta. I hadn't driven the car since Round 1 and PSI recently installed a one-way differential to replace the spool from last season.

Above: Spool on the left and one-way on the right.

Ialso had the chance to use my new dual brake caliper setup. It's awesome! My ebrake works much better now.

The car felt great, and the new diff is nice and grippy. Returning to PIR was a somewhat spiritual experience for me; I hadn't driven the track since 2008, and I've never had the chance to drive a powerful car on it. I did my best and people responded well to both the car and my driving.

Above: Photo courtesy of Brad Ferreira and NW Coverage.

Above: Photo courtesy of Shane Wall.

The car is currently on it's way down to Atlanta. Be sure to watch the live stream for Formula Drift Round 2, this Friday & Saturday!

Sorry for the delay, things have been really crazy lately! This year is without a doubt the biggest year of my life to date. I'm training to become a computer programmer, moving out in a few short months, getting married and starting my career as a professional drifter! This will be a year of transformation for me, in almost every sense; one for the books, and certainly one I will never forget.

Earlier this month it came time to mash the start button for 2012 with Formula Drift Round 1 in Long Beach! Here's the recap.

It was a weekend full of excitement, new cars, rampant carnage and both fresh and familiar faces everywhere you looked. I was incredibly excited to drive in my first pro event and though my anxiety ran high, much of the stress was actually gone since I already have my license; I can just drive now, without worrying about making it through to earn my license.

Going into the event I knew practice would be short and precious, but I also knew that it wouldn't do me any good to go 100% right away on a new course and risk hurting the car before getting a chance to qualify. It would be better for me to take it easy on the first pass and build up from there.

I ended up getting 3 practice runs, just enough to start getting familiar with the course. Unfortunately I wasn't able to find a solid line by the end, but I knew what to expect from the course layout and I was able to drive each section of the course respectably well.

My first qualifying pass was a 0-point run; I did fairly well until the rear end came around on the exit of the last corner, a 180° hairpin. I knew I had to keep it clean for my second pass so I could put some points down, otherwise I didn't have a chance.

I entered the first corner a bit faster than before, pushing my line out and forcing me to transfer earlier. I bobbled for a second during the transfer to avoid smashing into the Bil Baldwin "Santa" wall and had to recover with a lot of e-brake in the sweeper. Luckily I did make the required speed and was able to put up a score of 39. Normally the cutoff isn't too far above that, but with the large number of drivers this year the cutoff ended up at 61 points.

Suprisingly none of the NW drivers made it into the top 32, though the highest score among us was a respectable 57.5 by Walker Wilkerson. It's a tough course, and with little practice time it quickly becomes do or die for those who aren't venue veterans. While I didn't qualify I still had a great weekend and learned a lot, and I'll come out swinging for Round 2 at Road Atlanta!

Thanks to Speedhunters, Blat Blat Pew Pew, OMGDrift and PSI for the awesome coverage!

Links:

Blat Blat Pew Pew Round 1 Gallery

Speedhunters Round 1 Coverage - Through My Lens

OMGDrift Round 1 Coverage - Attack Of The Rookies

PSI Blog - PSI Goes To Long Beach For Formula D

PSI Blog - Formula D Long Beach Qualifying

PSI Blog - Online Media Coverage Of Formula Drift Long Beach

This year will be my rookie season in Formula Drift! I'm very excited to join the ranks of the pros and take my driving to the next level. I have a new pit mechanic (more on that later) and the car is undergoing a few changes to stay up-to-date and competitive.

One of the main changes is a head package. We had a lifter failure at a local event toward the end of last season, and since we already had to remove the heads and cam we decided it was a perfect time to upgrade! The motor is nearly ready to be re-assembled. We've also added some front tubing sections for increased durability.

CNC ported LS3 heads, ready to rock! These will flow significantly more than the previous heads, providing an expected 40+ whp/tq over our last numbers.

As I mentioned, we experienced a lifter failure toward the end of last season. To solve the issue we will be using a different type of lifter with less movement and a rocker arm designed for it.

To comply with the Formula Drift rulebook, we installed a fire suppression system with nozzles in the fuel cell, driver compartment and engine bay. This is much safer and more effective; instead of reaching over/around, releasing the extinguisher and spraying the fire myself (which would hopefully only be in one area), I can pull the release on my dash and douse the whole car with extinguishant.

While the car is being prepped, we will also be putting together an arsenal of backup parts, preparing the the transport, getting new decals printed and developing my program marketing. Stay tuned for more on my new crew member, news updates, a new wallpaper and more!

Links:

Portland Speed Industries (PSI)