Here we go, our first round of Formula Drift Prospec competition. Over the last year we have been putting in countless hours to get this car built and ready for battle. When I imported this car from South Africa I knew we would have to rebuild this entire car in order to compete in FD and the reason we kept this car was because it was right hand drive and it was still cheap enough to import the car rather than start with a whole new build.

​Just 3 days before we made the 4500 km drive to Atlanta from Canada we managed to get the NonStopTuning Mustang out for some testing. We got 4 laps of testing in and I was not feeling as comfortable as I would’ve liked after those few laps. The seating position, steering position, peddle position and feeling of the car was so foreign to me. The entire car has been completely rebuilt, I hadn’t driven this car in almost 2 years, we haven’t had much test time but here we are about to drive 4500 km to our first round of FD.

Tuesday:
After 4 days of driving we finally arrived at Road Atlanta, it was a surreal moment for me. Coming through the gates and realizing that we have arrived to compete in our first round of FD Prospec. Tuesday was tech day, we decided to get the earliest slot as possible incase we needed to make any changes to the car, then we still had a full day to rectify any issues. Fortunately everything was great with the car and we could go find our pit spot and start setting up.

​As we found our pit space we got tornado and flood watch warnings. We then decided we weren’t going to set anything up, packed the Mustang back into the trailer and called it a day. We went on to our Airbnb to get some much needed rest, unfortunately our Airbnb was not what we had seen in the pictures or reviews and we were left scrambling to now find another Airbnb to house myself and the team. Luckily we found one a bit further away and Airbnb helped us get a refund from the old place. Now we could get some much needed rest.

Wednesday:
Wednesday was a relatively relaxed day, all we had on our schedule was a drivers meeting and track walk. The weather was still not great, with rain and high winds lurking we left the car in the trailer for as long as possible. In fact I think we left the car in the trailer the whole day so it did not become the local swimming pool being a convertible.

​Drivers meeting was great, I met some of the drivers, teams and FD staff for the first time and reminded myself about all the hard work myself and the team has done to get us to this point.

​Track walk was a real eye opener, seeing the track in person for the first time and realizing how narrow the track really is was a shock. The elevation from the starting grid to turn 1 and then back up to the keyhole was wild to see in person. Watching it live does not do it any justice. I then got a good understanding of where I need to put the car and try to find some points along the track that I can use as markers. Now we head back to the pit area and call it a day.

Next time we were out on track was the warm up for seeding. The track was dry and now we could finally start getting some dry runs in. We managed to get 2 runs in during warm up and now we were getting ready for our top 16 seeding battle against Christian Cotrone. We were leading going into this battle and I tried laying down the best lead run I could, with the minimum laps we got in practice I was still figuring out the car and track. Christian had some mistakes in the chase and was dealing with some car issues. Going into my chase run I knew I just had to have a clean chase and stay on track. As I initiated in the lead I had almost no handbrake, I was pumping it and fortunately had just enough to get the car to rotate. Christian then over rotated in the keyhole and we got the win. Moving us into the top 8 of seeding but more importantly giving us a spot in the main event top 32.

​I quickly went on the radio and told the team we had a handbrake issue. After getting back to our pit box we noticed the handbrake caliper bolts were missing and the caliper was jammed up against the footbrake caliper! Fortunately the team next to us had exactly what we needed and we were able to get it fixed before our next battle.

​Our next battle was against Tyler Mayer in the top 8. Tyler is a great driver, very smooth and calculated. I knew I had to give out some really good runs to get this win. Tyler was flawless and he managed to knock us out in the top 8. We were happy we made it into the top 32 and that was our main goal for the seeding battles! We then got back to our main pit and prepared the car for Fridays battles.

Friday:
Friday was the big day. Top 32 and we in the main event for our first round of FD! Thursday night we decided to do some changes to the car so Friday morning the team got busy making the changes while myself and Justin went to drivers meeting.

After our drivers meeting we had an autograph session where we met so many great people. It was such a great feeling being back in competition and meeting all the amazing fans! 

We then got ready to head out for our first and only practice session on Friday. We got there early and was second in line. While I was in the burnout box getting the tires and car ready I noticed my engine temps were rising rather quickly, I asked the start line guy to please look under the hood to see if I had lost a belt, he then confirmed that by throwing my broken belt on my lap. I rushed back to the hot pit and the team quickly threw some new belts on. We then managed to get 2 runs in before practice ended and were kind of ready for our top 32 battles!

Our top 32 battle was against Collin Zielinski. We knew this was going to be a tough battle and had to lay it all down on track. Collin lead first and I was in chase. The run was going great until the last corner, Collin over rotated, I slammed on the brakes trying to avoid him, unfortunately making contact with him and I went flying backwards into the wall. It was quite a hard hit but fortunately it was just cosmetic damage.

​We then went into the 2nd run of our battle where I would be leading, I knew I had a massive advantage and just had to lay down a clean lead run. That was enough to get us the win and move onto top 16.

Going into top 16 was such a great achievement for us. We knew now we would go into the top 16 parade and be a part of the opening ceremonies. Standing there listening to the USA Anthem play was a moment I will never forget. After watching this on TV for so many years I finally get to be a part of this for real.

​Our top 16 battle was against Adam Heishman, another fellow Mustang driver. I’ve watched Adam before and knew I had to lay down yet some more killer runs. When Adam was in the chase position, he hit me going up to the keyhole and broke something on his car ending his run. We then got the win against Adam and we were now in the top8!

Our top 8 battle was against Dustyn Farrel, this I knew was going to be one of the toughest battles of the night. We both pushed extremely hard and both had some mistakes, Dustyn's mistakes were slightly more than mine which gave us the win and we were now moving on to the top 4!

We were against Dmitriy Brutskiy in the top 4, two time Prospec champion! We knew this was going to be a heavy task ahead of us but we were ready for it. Each run we got better and better and I was feeling better with each run I did. Brutskiy lead first and it was a strong run until the last corner, Brutskiy ran wide and dropped 3 wheels off track, I was following him and when he went off track it lead me off track too. They put that on Dmitriy and I had an advantage going into my lead run. I tried laying down the best and cleanest run I could and I made some mistakes but nothing big enough to offset the mistake that Dmitriy had in the lead.

We got the win and now we actually made it into the finals of our first Formula Drift Prospec event!

We were up against last years Atlanta winner Cory Talaska, oh boy did we know this was going to be an amazing battle!

​I knew I had to give 120% to give us a chance of beating Cory. Cory’s lead was flawless, he put the car exactly where the judges wanted and he was fast! I fell behind slightly and knew he had the advantage going into our next run.

​I tried laying down the best lead run I could but I came up short in the keyhole and Cory’s chase was better than what we could give him. Cory got the win, we got 2nd place and what an amazing achievement for our debut event here in Atlanta!

The car ran great, my team was amazing and we are fired up heading into round 2 in Connecticut. Huge shout out to our sponsors for supporting us, NonStopTuning, Vex Performance, Mia’s Racing, Drift Farm Motorsports, Dynamic Range Media, Link ECU, Hot Line, Iwon Performance and Peak Simulators!  See you all in Connecticut!