Join Alex Lichliter and the team for a recap of the third round of the 2024 Formula Drift ProSpec season, in St. Louis! From battles on track, to diagnostics and changes made to the car, to our mega raffle, this one has lots of bonus footage including all the extra fan interaction. You may even spot yourself or your friends!

NST - NonStopTuning
​www.NonStopTuning.com

FDSTL
Wednesday – Load in
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LETS FREAKING GO!!! We had a HORRBILE round at NJ and redemption is finally here! I made it to the Great 8 at STL before so spirits are high! Car is running great, team morale is fantastic, and I couldn’t be more prepared for this round. I even pre-mounted all my tires so that was just one less thing we would have to do at FD. We arrive several hours earlier than anticipated.  Unloading and setting up legitimately took an hour or so and we were done with everything around 1pm. Weather was truly astonishing! Low 80’s during the day, and 60’s at night. Historically speaking, this place has high temps in the 100’s and severe tropic thunderstorms. We are drowning in good vibes! We decide to head to our Airbnb, freshen up, and go out for a nice team dinner.

Thursday – Practice/Seeding 
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We arrive at the track comfortably at 8:45am. There’s a Track Walk at 9:30am, which is extremely important to do as a team. Mechanics/spotters get to see the variables you don’t get to see on tv. Camera men get an idea where they want to shoot. And let’s be real, it’s fun to be out there as a team scoping it all out. We did notice the track workers installing jersey walls along OZ1. This is unique, because there has never been a wall there before. Seems like they were also painting new lines for all the zones, which is great for us drivers so we can see the track clearer while racing. As soon as the Track Walk ended, it was time for our Drivers Meeting. In the Drivers Meeting, we had some concerns. Apparently, the jersey walls they were installing for OZ1 were not “pinned.” The act of pinning jersey walls, combines the walls into one whole wall. This is for safety, so that if you were to hit a wall, they would all move together upon impact. Without them pinned, any wall that hits would move, leaving any unaffected walls sticking out. This is super alarming, and as drivers we were concerned of our safety performing our best in a dangerous environment.  Also, OZ4 was not painted entirely, and there was previous paint that was in the wrong places. This was making it challenging to see where the zone was. We were told that they were looking for solutions, and would communicate them to us as soon as possible. 
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Practice is scheduled to begin at 12:15pm and its allotted for 90 mins.  FD was able to make the wall in OZ1 safer by adding a second set of jersey walls against the first set. This should prevent jagged corners upon impact. But adding this second wall, cut into our practice time. They were trying their best, but we lost about 20 mins of practice because of this. Then, just after a few drivers had gone out for a few laps, there was a bad incident. One of the drivers had hit the wall in OZ1, and the car actually rode up ONTO the wall. So a crane had to come in to remove the car off the wall, and this process took about 45 mins. Overall, this practice session only ended up being about 30 mins long which only gave me one practice lap before it was over. All the drivers were denied extra practice time due to these variables. 

During our break, the mechanics pulled the data log and discovered that the Intake Air Temperatures (IAT) were very high (240 degrees)! When the IATs are this high, the computer will adjust timing to protect the motor. This process takes away horse power, and makes it run more lean which is how motors can blow up. After they told me this, I did feel like the car was down on power towards the end of the run. But it was so hard to gauge, since it was my only lap. Luckily, we had some time to fix it before our next 90 min practice session at 4pm. We were able to swap out fluids, bleed out any potential air bubbles, add an additional fan, and hope for the best!

For our second practice session, we were able to get 3 laps in. We now were experiencing an additional issue with the driveline. It appears that the clutch isn’t holding up to the torque of the motor. Quick side story: the clutch is a very important, expensive part of any race car. We had some issues with the previous clutch, and were unable to source the correct replacement in time for this round (since NJ was so close to STL). So, as a temporary solution in a pinch, we knowingly put in a clutch that had a lower power rating than the previous clutch. We had hopes that it would hold, just for one weekend and get us through the competition. To be fair, this clutch was still functioning, but under hot temps, it was not holding up to what we needed. This, in combination with high IATs, resulted in us discontinuing practice and letting the car cool to get ready for our Seeding Bracket Battle. 

We are scheduled to be the 4th battle in the Seeding Bracket. We are battling our friend Rudy Hansen. We have driven with him many times, and have even battled here before. Rudy is now a PRO driver, but he is also participating in PROSPEC as well. This is unique, and not many drivers do this. Nevertheless, this allows him to get twice as much practice, twice as much Seeding Battles, and competition time. To be more competitive in PRO, he also had to upgrade his power to over 1,000hp. Given the current conditions on my car, he’s most likely almost double what I have. Luckily, this is one of the most slowest, technical courses in FD, so I’m not intimidated by any of this. If anything, I’m hoping for an advantage. 

​The first battle was a bye run, so that went quickly. The second battle someone called their time out, so they skipped that one. The third battle a driver didn’t show up, so that person won by default. So long story short, Rudy and I were the actual first real tandem battle. This is why you HAVE to be ready at any time! He Leads first, I chase. Instantly off the line, he pulls car lengths away from me. Maybe horse power is playing a bigger factor than I anticipated. No problem, I’ll catch up to him throughout the course! But I was wrong, every turn he was able to pull away leaving me in the dust. It was my turn to Lead. I maintained drift throughout the entire course, but I was shallow everywhere. I was just trying to drive through the mechanicals the best I could. It had nothing to do with grip. Infact, we added air pressure to the rear wheels before going out to help loosen the car.  I was able to run the course correctly, there wasn’t any collations or spin outs in either run. At the end of the day Rudy had won and I was knocked out. 

This has been my most challenging year in FD. Everyone tells me that I have been too lucky in the past with having such a reliable car. They are telling me I’m finally paying my dues. They are telling me every driver has the one year that was just so terrible and this is my year. They tell me I’ll look back years later and say 2024 was horrible, so glad that’s over. These are all inspirational things to say, but at the end of the day, it sucks. I have the best sponsors, the best team, and the best support I have ever had year to date. To be going through this now is SUCH bad timing. I guess there’s never a “great” time, but I know I can drive. I want to show everyone. You have all seen me drive well in the past, or at other events outside of FD. The final round of PROSPEC is in Salt Lake City – my favorite track. We have about 29 days to get the car prepped and out there. That’s not much time, but I HAVE TO DO GREAT. I HAVE to show my team, and my sponsors that their hard work, time, and investment is worth it. Its emotional for me to even write this all out. It’s not fun losing. 

I’m looking forward to telling you guys how I do in SLC, because it’s not going to be a sad story. It will have victory! I have one moment, one more opportunity to make it all work. I’m not giving up. I’m going for it. See you soon =]

Let's just start off by say FDNJ is a very special event to me. It's a home town event, being that it's less than 15 min from my house, and I was one of the first people to test the track after it was paved. 

Having a terrible showing it Atlanta due to car issues, we made sure the car was perfect. I even went to drive a couple events before FDNJ,  the car performed flawlessly. Vibes were high. The car was good. We are local, and ready to kill it!! 

Practice number 1 comes around, and I'm the first car in line to do a lead run. I have zero stress that I'm going to lay down a heater lead run to start the day. We have the car set up perfect, and everything. I pitch the car hard into turn 1, car feels great. I transition and this is where stuff goes wrong. The car goes to over rotate and almost spins me out going into turn 2. This made zero sense to me, I've driven this track a ton of times and this has never happened. The track felt really slick, lacking grip for some reason. I thought it was that, and I finish the lap. I get back into the practice line, and my team is checking the car out a little, and they tell me something looks off in my rear suspension. I drive back to my pits, and the back end seems to be walking around when I'm going around turns. Well this seems to be the reason why I almost spun the car out. 

Hoping it's going to be an easy fix, we aren't stressed or anything. We jack up the car, take the wheel off and to everybody's surprise, the passenger side traction arm mount is pushed forward into the chassis, and the toe arm mount is starting to rip off the subframe. We are mind blown. There was no hit, I didn't go off track, we were mind blown for this amount of damage. Now over the course of the year, in years past, we typically bend the traction arm mount forward. It's a common issue on S chassis subframes, but for it to happen this fast in the year, and this aggressive, we were shocked.
With no choice, we pull the wheel back to the around about area it should be, and I start to weld the subframe back in place. We add some metal in places, and do whatever we can to make this hold for the event. Finish up welding, we toe plate the car, get back in line for practice and just as I'm about enter the burnout box, practice is over. We didn't get to make a lap. 

We are a little beaten up now, it's 98 degrees out, and just a little shocked. But the vibes are still good. The car is fixed. We are ready for practice session 2. Practice session 2 starts, we go out there to make a lap, and the car just does not feel good. We managed to put down a decent lead lap, but it wasn't at the pace we wanted, and the car just felt like the rear was dancing around on me. We make some shock adjustments, and get back into line. I go to make my next run, and throwing the car into turn 3, bam the car losses what feels like all grip and tries to turn me around again. I'm thinking maybe we killed the tires earlier than expected. We go back to the pits, and to our shock, the driver side traction mount of the subframe ripped off, even worse than the passenger side one did earlier today. We are in shock and mad and just totally disgusted in what is going on. We rush to get the car up and welded just like the other side. But with this side being even worse, we have to add metal in, trying to wedge back the traction arm as much as we can. Hammering and pulling with ratchet straps. And it's just not going well. 

With time running out because now practice 2 is over, and it's time for comp. I put enough metal in there to hold, we have just enough time to put a fresh set of tires and out we go right to the burnout box. No time to align the car. Out we go. Comp time. I have 2 full laps under my belt for the day. The car has an unknown rear alignment. It's patched together with some random metal we found, but it's time to throw down.

We warm up the tires, get in line and here we go. I know the track. I'm confident, just need my car to hold up for me. We go out there and throw down a decent chase. The car wasn't as responsive as I wanted it to be. It didn't have the grip it normally had for me to run up on people. But it was good, and we made it through it. Now time for the lead run. I hard charge to turn 1, throw the car in, and it doesn't flick out the way it normally does for a lead run. Not sure if it was from the alignment, the car being super hot since it's not over 100 degrees. But the car is not acting right. I miss outter zone 1 by a good foot. Which in drifting is a mile. I throw the car into turn 2, and nail outter zone 2. I nailed the inner clip perfectly, and I throw it hard into outter zone 3 perfectly. Came across the finish. I'm happy we got through the battle. The car is still together. Had a little mishap on outter zone 1 but I'm just hoping my opponent had a mistake somewhere to push the needle my way. 

Unfortunately for me, he did not. He has a good lead and a good chase. Me missing outter zone 1 by 1 foot, just ended my weekend. Ended my weekend at my home track, and another horrible weekend for the team. We get the car back to the pits, check out the rear of the car and it is wacked out. The alignment is no where near, one wheel is basically jamming itself into the chassis of the car so bad, there is a mark from the tire and rim rubbing the chassis under load. But it's what we had to work it. For what we had, it was a decent showing but still not what we as a team are capeable of. Tough start to the first half of the season, and we are looking forward to St. Louis to show what we can do! 

Join Alex Lichliter and the team for a video recap of the second round of the 2024 Formula Drift ProSpec season, in New Jersey. 

NST - NonStopTuning
www.NonStopTuning.com
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