Show and Go... Back to North Carolina

A week before Streetwise Drift’s Round 4 at Charlotte Motor Speedway, we did a stop with a local group for a car show. All American Street Car Performance was a show sponsor and asked me to display, and a few days before, NOS Energy became a sponsor and I was asked to work! We pulled double duty and got a nice street side spot, right at show entrance. This way I could handle car questions, while still providing the show with the ice cold NOS drinks!

We set off for Charlotte and drove through the night. Arriving around noon, there was much work to be done. ASD was able to help frankenstein my previously broken LSD with another used stock differential case. I have still had the quick welded diff in from the FormulaD Palm Beach event. The parts were left there from last Charlotte ProAm at Zmax. Luckily, the weather was full opposed to me getting anything done and poured buckets on us the last 15 miles to ASD. We got there, waited, waited, drove to the hotel, checked-in, drove back, and it had finally let up; a full 3 hours later. Due to the weather threatening to ruin Hayden Horton’s partially built 350z, I was unable to use the lift where his car was parked. Instead, we got down and dirty in just an open floor bay. With my friends Ryan Kaufman and crew, we overcame a few obstacles and got it all in and ready about 6:30pm.

 
Ready to roar, we get to CMS bright and early. Checking out the road course for the first time I was amazed at how banked this infield course was. It looks so flat in videos, but it has a dip on entry and just an odd flow the rest of the way. We got all set to go and headed out for practice.

First few runs I could tell the car had some adjustments needed. For one, we were getting so much wheel travel due to the dip to bank at high speed, that the outside rear tire was hitting the underfender. The car was also very tight, so anytime I wanted to lift throttle, she would try to straighten up on me. We had some down time in our group when another driver ended up bunny hopping the wall (miracle?).  I took the car into the garage and adjusted some suspension settings, to help free up the car some. We pull back out and get some more passes in.

Last run of the practice session, I am following another competitor at 85mph drift speed. I’m reeling him in, closer and then he gets really slow and cuts right into my path. Nothing to do but hope its minimal damage. We hit corners and both are able to drive off. My car sustained mostly cosmetic damage to the fenders and some on the bumper.

Back in the garage we see the caster on the driver’s wheel is way back in the wheel well. It is far enough back the wheel cannot turn without colliding with the rear of the well. So we check out the suspension, seeing that the bracket for the tension rod sheared off a bolt and has a bit of play in it. We tighten it down best we can, and adjust the caster to make up for the slack in the bracket. Next short practice is tied into the qualifying session for my group. I make 6 passes, feeling pretty good really and I park on the hill to get some fresh air, and save the car for qualifying. 20 minutes pass, and as I head back to the car, I notice the caster is way forward all of a sudden. I bend over to see the bracket nearly 2 inches off the mounting point (flexing) and rush to the garage.

"Putting some of my ASD knowledge to use, you can see here the insane grip I was having. The car is in a full on drag launch while in the middle of a 85+mph drift! We actually had to adjust the settings some, to help release the tightness the car had from all that grip."

With qualifying under way, and only a handful of cars in my group, we have about 10 minutes to solve this. Best idea we (myself, Jeremy Lowe, Pat Goodin) came up with was a ratchet strap hooked on both sides, pulling up. We get it on, look at each other, shrug, and head out to grid.

I go do a few donuts to feel if it’s about to snap off, seems ok, but the motor is having hesitation again! This same thing happened last event at Zmax and even with all the checks and new parts, we didn’t solve it! CRAP! I can’t wait or do anything else; it’s my time to run.

I pull to the line, launch, and barely get to speed, enter, the car falls on its face when I ask it to spin 4^th gear… I give up on the run and pull back around, giving her a bit of rpm on the way back. It’s like having that phlegm in your throat you keep coughing up, but can’t get it all… I pull back to the line, give her a nice healthy rev and launch hard. Still breaking up I just go in with faith that it’ll clear… WRONG… she straightens briefly, I snap into 3^rd and let the clutch out and floor it, still not really getting the job done, I start to partially engage the clutch again to free up some of the strain to the motor. It’s WORKING! I’m cheating the motor’s hesitation with the clutch play! I link the remainder of the lap with only the lone bobble. As I exit the final turn, RPMs RIP and the motor is back on 100%. THANKS GUY… could have used that about 30 seconds ago! Then it hit me…. My control arm fix held! Hahahaha. We park and wait in anticipation for the qualifying results. Fello Ambivero’s crew offered to weld my tension arm bracket to the car, just in case we made Top16. Its so hideous, but, we didn't have much choice.

Turns out, this course was pretty hard and even with that sloppy run, I ended up in 11^th place for the round of 16. There was some discrepancy in the top16 ranking (some people had written down scores that placed the top 5 people differently) First battle would be against Dominic Frascella in his red BMW. By the time Top16 got under way, storms were approaching. Already sprinkling, a car spins off and brushes the wall… Then, the battle before mine, one competitor went off, striking the wall, and was not able to get off track. I watched as the clouds got overhead and 1…2…3-4-5—80 rain drops start falling. GREAT! We get to throw in with a monsoon. As everyone scrambles, I take off to the pits to adjust settings for the rain, surely they have to give us a moment. Before I even get 2 steps out of the car, the entire field of drivers is pulling in. The rain was too severe to drive in, and the event was on rain delay for some time. After a long while, a meeting was held to discuss options. The track is very slick in the rain, and SWD wanted to address that. Possibilities of ending the event then, or continuing buzzed around. In the end, the drivers decided to battle.

We were to get a few runs in the rain to feel it out in practice, and Dominic, my competitor, was in line first. Watching him and others spin so easily, I entered in softly, and nearly linked the course until I spun 3 times just trying to roll on throttle near the final turns… WOW, its slick. We are then told its time to run battles…. What happened to practice I don’t know!? Dominic squeezed in one last practice run before battles, spun again, hammered on it, and broke his differential a bit. So as we line up and he prepares to go, it gives out fully. I get a bye-run and take it as a practice- linking the entire course, stunning myself with the speed and angle I carried.

Top 8 was against Chris Ward. I was right on him on entry and as he got some distance. From the video below (@2:03) it appears he was set and on throttle just before the wet area and I was in the water when I started to accelerate. This gave him the gap, and as I tried to close up the rain just instantly made me rip to the rev limiter, over and over, I couldn’t stop it. Wiggling my angle and eventually losing some drift trying to stay off the limiter, Chris has advantage. On my lead run I scare the hell out of myself with my entry, and put on a great show as I was right on line and only had a slight correction near course end. Judges took a few minutes and decide Chris moves on due to my wiggles.  Sadly, other competitors were getting as many as 6 runs due to how sloppy each driver was performing. There are quite a few runs in the video showing cars off course, spinning, and hitting things in the wet conditions.

We were all insanely tired after 15 hours at the track. Everything is soaked. The car looks really depressing.  And the next day was the long road home. Still, I was pretty excited. How I drove in the rain, how I didn’t let hardships get me down, and how far we got, considering what we overcame to have her still holding together.  We are in 7^th place after 4 of 5 events in this tough season.
The next round is to take place at VIR (Virginia) on the Patriot Course, on September 9^th. We have decided to not attend this event because of a conflicting event. Since I am unable to mathmatically out of points race, we have found other avenues to attain a license for 2012. The event we will replace this with is the Holley LS Fest where they have a new Drift Challenge . The dates range from September 9^th-11^th and takes place in Bowling Green, KY. This event promises to be huge with thousands of spectators and an Only LS-Powered Drift Competition. 

Street Wise Pro Am 4 (2011).