Jayce Habich NST S13 - 2025 DriftCon Afterdark Event Recap

Thursday - Arrival/Load In
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Fresh off the Formula Drift season, we had an opportunity to jump back into battle at our home track Evergreen Speedway. Driftcon is a premier drift competition and car show in the northwest, with every round walking distance from our shop. This round was extra special because it featured the ⅝’s layout. The very same one that Formula Drift uses! We prepped our car, and mounted tires from 1:30 pm until 7:00 pm when our longtime friends and fellow drifters from the Spec-D series arrived at our shop. After greeting everyone and unloading cars we headed to dinner before calling it a night.


Friday - Final Prep/Practice

After breakfast I packed up my car in the trailer and the crew and I helped mount tires for everyone, and do a last minute headlight install on Shawn Hartum’s Rx7. Shawn is the creator of Spec-D who now drives for fun as well as coaches his 14 year old daughter Emily on her own drifting journey. After buttoning up the last car we made the 2 minute journey to the track, and set up our pits. We had 6 cars between 5 drivers running in the event, so our pit was more like a mini car show with quite the spread. 3 Rx-8’s, a Rx-7, a New Edge Mustang, and the NST S13 all pitted side by side!

Practice started at 4:30 pm and began with the Double 8 layout. We used the time to prep the car and set it up so it could glide on the bank. Around 6:00 pm big bank practice began and immediately the car felt amazing. The ⅝’s can be intimidating. You have to drive your car as fast as it will go and throw it at a solid wall with the pedal to the metal. My car was built with this in mind. Every single time I shifted through the gears and flicked it towards the wall it just did exactly what I asked of it. Coming off the bank into the infield can be a little tricky because the grip level changes by the minute. After 2 or 3 runs the session ended and I came into the pits to prepare for the next one. I had a test day a couple of weeks prior and the gear set was too short, causing me to be redlined through the bank. With the new gears we put in, the car ripped through the bank with the engine pegged just before the limiter. It was perfect for the layout. The second session began and I did 2 more laps before feeling confident enough to park it for the night and help out the rest of our drivers. Practice ended around 9:30 pm and we all went for dinner and called it a night.

Saturday - Competition Day
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We arrived at the track around 9:30 am and began setting everything up. Practice wasn't until 1:00 pm so we had a good amount of time to eat breakfast, wipe the cars down, and make a couple setup changes. The car felt great in practice, but it was at night time and the comp is during the heat of the day so the grip level is different. After these changes however I had a tough time coming off the bank into the infield. The track felt completely different compared to the night before. This problem bled into my first qualifying lap. I did a great job on the bank and into the first outer zone in the power alley but when I went to transition the car washed out and fell out of power. I had to play it safe and put down a run to make it in the show on my second attempt, which resulted in a measly 66. I wanted to better my 97 from last year but sometimes things don't go your way. I qualified 5th and pulled Carlton, my FD crew chief and longtime friend. Sucks to go against your friends in the first round of competition, but we were determined to put on a show. After Qualifying I pulled my car on track for fan fest. It was awesome to interact with the fans, and show up for the people who cheered me on all season. Fan fest concluded, and I went back to the pits for some lunch and got ready for battle.

Carlton and I were the second battle up. We both did our warm up burnouts and lined up at the start gate. We drive the simulator together every night and have battled a couple times before. We both knew we had to give 110% to win. I led first and Carlton rubbed on my door the entire way! We both were revving and pumping our arms on the way back to the line. We lined up for the second run, and awaited the light. I stayed on his bumper as we took off down the straightaway. Carlton is known for his big flick initiations so I anticipated his first flick and as I was going to surge onto his door I noticed he wasn’t rotating back in time and was in trouble. I stomped on the left foot brake to not allow the car to travel any higher into him and escaped disaster by the vinyl on my bumper. Unfortunately when Carlton flick initiated, his car gripped up and drove up the bank making him have to lock up the brakes and slam into the tractor tire guarding the wall. I immediately turned around and confirmed he was okay. It was a really scary moment, and I am just glad he is unharmed and his car is fixable.

Now I had to shake the crash off mentally and prepare for my next battle vs Matt Rusiecki. Matt is this year’s Spec-D Drift Series Champion and FD Prospec licensee so he’s no slouch. He also beat me in the last driftcon, and I wanted to even the score. He was the #1 qualifier which means he leads first all day. 

We fired off the line and sent it full throttle through the bank and onto the infield. I was able to stay on his door consistently and made a statement in the final zone being inches from his door. In the lead I just tried to be flowy and consistent and the NonStopTuning S13 was just that. It felt just as if I was across the street in my shop driving my simulator. I took the win putting me into the finals to battle David Dodge.

David is a fierce competitor out of Oregon with a LS powered Brz/86. It was his first time competing on the ⅝’s and he was looking really good. He led first and I chased him down. We put on a decent run, I was maintaining proximity and we nailed every zone. In the final zone we got really close and David’s wheel exploded! At first I thought I killed our Gopro because I saw chunks flying and hitting my car but it was his wheel. His tire was completely de-beaded and if the judges decided there wasn’t contact his day would be over. I didn’t think I hit him at the time but I still told the race officials to allow him to change his wheel to be able to run. Winning by technicality sucks, and I am glad I did it because after reviewing our Gopro footage, I definitely hit him. After his crew changed his wheel we lined back up and threw down a heater. Judges and fans liked it so much they went one more time to give the fans another show.

I took the win in the rerun, and I celebrated with my crew until the podium ceremony later on in the night!

It was a fantastic event, and a great showing for the NonStopTuning car. To get back to back wins on the big bank feels amazing!

The crew kept the car together throughout the event. Which was a chore because I kept hitting the final wall and tore my rear end up pretty good.

​All the NST products worked perfectly, and looked incredible while doing it.

Thank you all for reading, and supporting all season! Stay tuned for all the things to come!

WORDS: Jayce Habich
PHOTOS: @Firstandlastnamephotography

NST - NonStopTuning
www.NonStopTuning.com