Most importantly, we were changing the style of tie rods and ends to better accept the lowered stance of the car. Recently, I have been experiencing such a hard binding in the steering I was at the mercy of the car, not a good feeling at 80mph sideways I can assure you! The new arms lower the pickup point to improve the geometry of the steering.
Secondly, we took a good amount of time to level out the suspension side to side. After sides were balanced, we raised the front while lowering the rear just a bit. The goal was the same, to increase the steering response and balance. I felt that the weight of the car was too far forward causing the tires, and suspension to get overloaded with braking and weight shift and then ask them to turn as well.
This event I had a new friend join me, Chris Haskell. This was the first time he had been my crew and he was my only crew. I know him from local events and just his overall great attitude about drifting and just a good guy in general.
I fell way behind in car preparation with my jobs keeping me working for nearly 3 weeks solid. Also had family in from Michigan for a few days, and Mother Nature decided during all of my afterwork time it should be raining. The night we were set to leave I got off work to get the car finished in the rain. Finally, with the new parts installed and the car balanced with my trusty tape measure, Chris and I loaded up and headed for Concord, NC. 9 hours later we arrived in the Charlotte area.
We had nearly a full day to spend in NC so we went and visited Autosport Dynamics (ASD) where I had been for the informative class in January as part of the ASD Mob. We were able to check out the Team Falken ASD cars and Chris was really impressed with the professionalism and perfection that ASD seems to effortlessly put out. We got to see Hayden Horton’s immaculate 350z in progress and it is very intense. We left to get some food and meet up with other Florida drivers who made the trip. Team Florida for this event consisted of myself, Jeremy Lowe, Patrick Goodin, Fello Ambivero, and Ryan Kaufman.
Saturday morning we pulled up to Z Max Dragstrip and started to get ready for the days event. Immediately I wanted to test out the ‘eyeball’ alignment from the new tie rods… no good! We put the car up and made some adjustments to it and amazingly, it came out driving nearly perfectly straight. I would have to go with it, no time left and it was honestly really decent.
This event I had some new tires to test. I have only ever used the N3000 from Nexen but I had 2 sets (265 and 255) of the N6000s. Right on the first run I noticed the added bite in the rear from the n6000s and after a few runs, I loved it. I was feeling great on the track and best of all, NO BINDING in the steering!
Qualifying came and went and I placed 6th, my best of the season (finally having steering fixed matters!). Tandem I was lined up with a newer ProAm guy, Tyler Nelson. After 2 runs the judges didn’t hesitate and I moved on.
Next, I had to face Doug Vandenbrink, former FormulaD driver and really superbly setup car. I had my doubts if I could beat him, but I wasn’t afraid either. Doug easily was able to pull a gap on me with both more power and grip. However, I felt I was closer to the clips. 2nd run I lead and after entry I am ON THE PERFECT LINE in the first turn. I even vividly remember thinking “Holy [----], I’m doing it! I’m beating him!!” Quickly telling myself to relax and finish the run, I was insane on the clips again and pulled up waiting the decision….. One more time is called!
We do another round of fierce battle and no mistakes from either give Doug the win on pure speed aspect. I was really happy to have given him a fight and not given him a free pass with a spin. Later, I learned that on the first set of runs, Doug actually nailed a inside clipping point…. This left me rather confused as that should have EASILY given me the win before a one more time was called. After all, this cone was not a course marker, but THE clip; the whole sport is based off of getting close to clips without hitting them. It is what it is now, and I will just have to clarify what is acceptable in the judges eyes before round 4 unfolds.
Going into the final 2 rounds, I will have a huge mountain to climb as I am behind in points. I am already looking forward to 2012 and how I could run FormulaD with the right support, I really want to step it up!
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