Just a drizzle

As much as I like this Mercedes AMG Petronas umbrella, I thought it would be sitting in the display after it’s first and only use in Austin.  Since this is Socal, there’s not much use for rain gear.  So when the opportunity to attend a Formula D event, with a possibly of rain.  Just couldn’t pass that up to watch some drifiting use this high performance umbrella.

Fd long beach

 

It's about 6a.m. on a Friday morning.  Just hopped off the train in Long Beach Ca. It's cold, and i'm hungry.  Jumped over the fence into the Formula d pit area (not a good thing).  Searching for Taka's pit spot. What the hell was I thinking?

Road Trip 07/12: Seattle Day 3

Last episode, taka's car was feeling a little pooped.  After some discussion that night with Taka and crew chief Dan, it was agreed to pull the head.  Went to bed pretty late, but I still woke up at 6 a.m. (i'm still on the work bio clock).  While everyone was still sleeping I headed down for my continental breakfast of waffles, yogurt and coffee (this was the norm for the whole week.). 

Let the rumble begin.

Being the motorsports spectator that I claim to be. The season of motorsports is in it's early blossom and I must head out to the smell of race gas and burning rubber.  I love the rumble of the V8 with cars tidy paint jobs.  But thanks to Steve C. for the ticket, I am able to fulfill my motoring passion.

"Break a leg"

Something I'm sure we've all heard before, usually to wish someone good luck. Unfortunately it was taken literally by good friend Taka A. at Formula D Seattle. Get well soon buddy, the people await the "Flying 86".

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Hello Las Vegas

Formula D Vegas, it's the first time i've been to Fd Vegas event. The last time I was here was when D1 had their events here. The course is different from the D1 event. It seemed a tad slower, but still exciting. My only gripe was the amount of one more times that were being thrown down. It just really sucked and just sucked up so much time. Even the audience seemed a bit fed up with the one more times. Don't get me wrong, i'm not challenging the judges since I know that they are drivers, not photographers/magazine editors, and have a better clue of what's going on than any internet drifters. Maybe some audience participation on whether to go one more time should be used.

I didn't too many pics since I was spectating in the grand stands.

Looks like Steve C. has made a new friend.

ITB's x8 Daijiro's Discount tire Lexus IS.


Motley Crue Mattly Crue out to support their boy Matt Powers.



Ryuji v. Tommy

Couple of snaps of Vegas before the event.








After a long day we headed out instead of staying the night. Since an Ultimate fighting championship was being held the same day traffic on Sunday would be terrible. Too bad the neighbor didn't take my warning seriously.

For the rest of the pics swing by here.

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Yes. Friday is good

For Good Friday I had the day off. To take advantage of this rare weekday off, I headed in search of tools. Sure I probably could have assisted in helping a privateer in the Formula D event this weekend. But i'm semi retired from wrenching and nobody asked.


In a nondescript building in Huntington Beach, California, is a tool distributor known quietly selling Beta tools. Fortunate for me they just opened up the show room just a week ago. I can't say I have a tool fetish like some others, but I do own some rare tools that have some european heritage. This is where Beta comes in, it's the Snap On of europe and have supplied tools to


Formula One and MotoGP.

Here some stuff if you're a Ferrari owner and need tools to work on your prancing horse, cause you know will. But you probably take your car to Luigi anyways rather than work on it yourself.



Another thing that may tickle your fancy is that Beta is just a side business. The place is actually called California Hot Rod Shop. Their main business is of course high end hot rods. If you've seen the show Chop, Cut, Rebuild on Speed. Then you'll know of this shop. It's where they built the bonneville car. I was given a small tour of the shop and it is definitely a cool shop to see.

Finding the place is also very easy. As most racers know of Sube Sports, this place is right up the street from them.

And no the shop doesn't look like this. This was actually the shop up in Denver, Colorado. It's closed down and all operations are at the Huntington Beach facility.

For more information on Beta tools USA please take a look at the site. For the Italian site click here

Do you know him?

Looks like he'll be putting down some rubber at Long Beach for the first round of Formula D, according to everythingdrift.com. He'll be under the Drift Speed banner piloting their S15. And if you were at the Red Bull you would have seen him bust some ridiculous initiations that even Dai didn't expect. Too bad he's not in his signature AE86, which pretty much made him and the Corolla a household name to the mainstream. Should be an interesting year.

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look at me.

2008 Formula D Pro Am at Redbull

i haven't seen too much coverage of the pro am event. which is a bit sad since it was the grassroots drivers who brought drifting mainstream. but then again there wasn't much coverage before that either. props to wrecked magazine for the coverage of pro am that everyone else seems to turn the other cheek. now i can actually seem myself smash into the wall. @ 1:21 baka....

Red Bull WDC 2008

Since my day was over, rather sulk the whole weekend. I indulged on the many things that was the Red Bull WDC. But before that, I lent some parts to Eric O' Sullivan driving the Rockstar AE86. He had an unfortunate running with a k rail and damaged some suspension bits. Since my car was down I gladly offered my car as the parts car.


Taka and Richard removing parts for the Rockstar AE86

O' Sullivan's strut on the left. Ouch
Team Ireland feverishly working on the car before qualify rounds.

The teams efforts and my parts were able to bring Team Ireland into the top 32. Unfortunately, they crashed and were not able to move on.

Since I was still in pain, i made my way to the Red Bull hospitality tent to make my self feel better.


And better I did feel.

That's until Cyrus showed up. Drunken bastard.

Overall it was an awesome event. The Driving was spectacular and the drinks were non stop. Red Bull sure knows how to throw an event. I didn't take too man photos of the hot chicks at the event. Hmm maybe i need to get my head checked, must have suffered a concussion,but enjoy.

Aftermath, WTH

With the late nights and $$$ spent to get the car ready, what happened? Victorious I was not. From the beginning my mindset was in all the wrong places. Was it because I was tired or just plain negative. Nevertheless this clouded my judgement which resulted in a horrible injury to me and the vehicle. I sit here typing one handed due a broken left hand, the machine I have built from the ground up sits in ruin outside my window. Now I contemplate what's next for me. Do I rebuild, start all over, or just walk away. I'm not saying due to the crash I'm giving up racing. I just feel for the time an effort I ended with pain. But that's racing right? It's the money pit I love to give to for years, but as I get older, where do I stop. Money will probably be the biggest factor since I don't have much of it. I'll contemplate where I stand on this subject in the next few weeks and where I go on from here.
But seeing this everyday won't help my cause

Thanks to a few people for helping me out in no particular order:

Naoki K. and drift day staff for having awesome events

Ash N. for lending me some parts

Matt p. hope you didn't burn your hand on the hot manifold.

Taka A. pillaging parts off my car and helping me put it back together

Alex P. Super dope parts and awesome cage from a crazy mother f!$%%r

Steve C. He has breakfast before he will change tires b$%^h

Steve R. letting me use the dyno the night before the event.

Henry S. for providing such a kick ass tune which i only use 3 times.

The neighbors for letting me use the welder

Wesly H. lending me 2 extra wheels for the event and some safety tips

Formula D for providing a cool venue where I can crash.

Pro Am: Final Battle

The date and location is going to be the same weekend as Red Bull World Finals. As far as I know it will utilize the same track configuration, with no changes, as the pro drivers that weekend. Which means 100 mph entries, no room for mistakes kids. Now comes the final preparations for my car to be Formula D legal. This time all cars invited will need to prepared according to the Formula D rule book. As a privateer, i'll be chowing down on ramen for about a month and a half.

Pro Am Arizona

The destination Tucson, Arizona, with temperatures hovering at the high 90’s dabbling around 100 and humidity that I only used to see when I used to live in the dirty south. Drift Association and Turn Style Drift held the next round of competition for Formula D Pro-Am qualifier. But you may ask why am I here since I qualified at Utah. I helped out Kat tow her car out to compete and to take photos on the side.

The event was held at the Southwestern International Raceway aka SIR. I wonder if a lot of Civics like racing here?

Kat putting on her game face before competition. I’m jealous cause she’s rocking the Recaro SPG bucket. I want one to replace my old ratty Cobra Sebring I’ve had for too long.

Everyone must follow the rules or else Naoki won’t be happy.

Hiro Sumida made a surprise appearance to judge with Taka. The day before, they were prepping their competition cars for a dyno session. Yet they still had time to come and judge the competition.

Taka setup a pretty fast course, which some of the local competitors weren’t expecting. But leave it up to Taka to setup a kick ass course.

Not knowing any of the local drivers, I was really amazed with their skill. The level of driving was really impressive as they were laying it down like pros.

This particular car caught my eye with consistent runs all day long. Toyota Cressida powered by a JZ turbo engine. With it’s sick wheel selection it looked great on and off the track. It just needs a bumper from BN Sports to complete the look.

Here’s something you don’t see at any drift event, Nissan 200SX chassis code S12. Known as Silvia from it’s birth home of Japan. Powered by the CA18DET. The driver was also very skilled made some excellent runs.

The only AE86 in the field is actually a real deal Japan import. Powered by a 4AGZE under the hood. The car sports N2 flares and a front bumper grafted from another car. Importing the Japan street style to the states.

As night loomed over me, I decided to quit taking photos since my camera sucks at night.

Thanks to Drift Association and Turn Style Drift for putting up an awesome event. And everyone else who helped with event.

Congratulations to all who competed and who qualified for nationals.

For photos click here.

Congratulations!

Photo: Third Eye Photography

Toshiki Yoshioka for the win in Formula D RD. 4 Las Vegas. Now I really regret not going. I seen him drive during previous D1 events and it was nothing less than spectacular.

Formula D Long Beach 2008

It's been a while since I was a Long Beach for a motorsports event. Back when Long Beach Grand Prix when Champ Car was still Indycar World Series. Where I was rooting for Marlboro and Team Penske, even though I didn't event smoke. This past weekend I went for a visit to Long Beach for Round 1 of Formula D. I've been too many west coast events, but yet I never went to Long beach. Looking at the schedule, I didn't feel like going in and standing around for hours to see a 2 hour competition.
I had arrived there around noon time to catch the last half of the qualify session. Unfortunately, the Corolla hero Toshiki Yoshioka didn't make the cut. Qualifying 18th, missing the next round by 2 spots.

Taka and Seigo looking discussing life as a drifter? Unfortunately they didn't make the cut to move to the top
Hayashida checking out the qualifying session.
After qualify we met with a few friends working the event, but decided it would be best to cool down at Rockbottom restaurant, which is a pretty good place to eat and have a good brew.


Titan toothpicks and a red lager. What better way to enjoy Long Beach. We kept cool and our tummies full until we were ready to head back to see the top 16 battle.



I brought my point and shoot Olympus camera for all the shots, which really sucks cause I didn't know how to use it to my advantage. And add insult to injury, the battery decided to go at the start of the top 8 round.

I didn't see the end cause I had a premenition that Sam would come in first, he usually does. 2nd place would go to Forsburg, Tanner coming in at 3rd with Mohan in 4th. Boy was I wrong, after reading everythingdrift.com Damn I guess should stick it out next time, with drifting it's always anybodys game.

I think the topper for that event was Kyle Mohan. I remember when that guy was rocking the 1st gen RX7 at the drift days. And yeah he still killed it with that car. For a privateer to come up and lay the smack down to some of these competitiors a much bigger budget and horsepower to a fourth place finish is awesome. He's worked really hard to get where he's at right now and deserves it. Probably more if his transmission didn't go out. Congratulations!


Here's a couple of pics I took of the event here.