The weekend of June 19th and 20th I took to the track in Florida's blistering heat. I was focused on trying to advance my comfort level with the still-new setup. John at All American tweaked the alignment from last time out, and we were confident she would handle much better. This is a long post with 2 events so don't stop till you find the 2nd video!!
The Saturday event took place at the Tampa Bay area's MLB teams stadium. Tropicana Field hosts the Rays inside normally, but on the outside this weekend, FullAuto Motorsports was putting down some rubber! This event is the 2nd of its kind from FullAuto with a dual sport setup. There is a time trial track setup on one of the 2 large lots. The other lot has an equally sized drift course, where I spent my day. Full Auto brought myself, and a couple others in as professional drivers to instruct the less experienced. We also get to drive in the advance class. As part of the advanced class, we were able to tandem with firegear, which I wore from 9am to 4pm, nonstop- getting crazy looks from people in the near 100* temperatures. Sparco's style and quality was getting me compliments. The drivers are intrigued with the gloves grip pattern and style the most.
I'm really starting to feel great in this new setup. The KSport suspension is set it and forget about it, I never feel like it 'needs adjustments' or that its unbalanced. I haven't touched the settings since Road Atlanta (our first event in the car). The handbrake is also really working out great. It took me some time to change my ebrake memory from the standard style to rally style, but I'm getting used to it quick. On this course I used the handbrake to enter, and had to feel out the inconsistencies and bumps in the parking lot. Once I was able to find the problem spots, I made run after run after run with great confidence. I was really hoping to do more tandem, but the venue cut the allotted time short on us.
I gathered some of the best shots from the various media that were present.
If you have some time, I put together a video after scavenging the net and forums for over a week! This really shows a difference in angle, smoke, and overall consistency in the field. Some skeptics were unsure of my E^3 spark plugs performance level, and I think they have all vanished after seeing the car in action over the last events. So many people were complimenting the car and the driving that when I was giving out rides, there was such a demand for it, less than half of the people got to ride by the days end! The video below shows some solo, some tandem, and even some multiple tandem runs.
-- DAY 2 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
After the FullAuto event wrapped, I went home and refreshed my supplies for the next day's event. I had to get up at 5am and drive nearly 6 hours to arrive at Homestead Miami's road course for a demo with FARA Motorsports. FARA is a Pro-Am racing series that allows us to host a drifting demo during their event. The drift show is mid-day and is probably the ONLY time during the day where the pits and garage areas are clear of people as they all rush to the fenceline and bleachers. I was really excited as the organizer has been after me for over a year to attend one of these, but after a billion schedule conflicts, here I was!
I learn that this turn is REALLY sharper and longer than I anticipated so I just let my amazing car feel out some grip from my Nexen's before dumping on the power as I saw daylight around the corner. The rest of the course was pretty standard and really a fun course. Reverse direction was a harder entry and I felt I could improve next time out, but it wasn't bad!
My Exedy HyperTwin did its job over and over again taking the clutch kicks and full throttling around the course, never a hiccup! And thanks to Mishimoto's quality products, I was the one waiting on others to cool down their cars after a run. Never got into hot temps at either event, despite raging with the car in 100* outside temps.
One of my ENJUKUracing teammates, Patrick Goodin, was driving his own LS1 240sx. A good friend and fellow badass driver, Patrick is currently a rising star in Florida. He is holding 2nd after 4 of 5 rounds in the StreetWise Drift ProAm Series. Look for Pat and his off-the-wall personality to turn some heads very soon!!
The following "HOLY ANGLE" moments brought to you by.... well my amazing sponsors! I like to think I had a little something to do with it too ; )
*our turn 1, race direction =
*our turn 2, in reverse direction =
Again I was told by several spectators and the event organizer himself that I was the most on-point driver of the show, which I was suprised to hear- there was a lot of respectable drivers at this demo. I'm just really excited to be adapting quickly to my new found power!
Judge for yourself, here is the video!!
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