Jayce Habich NST S13 - 2025 Formula Drift St Louis Recap

Tuesday - Arrival 

Round 3 of the Formula Drift Prospec Championship brought us to the home of Barbeque and Jazz, St. Louis, Missouri. World Wide Technology Raceway gates didn’t open until Wednesday so we hauled the truck and trailer to our AirBnB. The place we stayed was incredibly unique. It was an old log cabin built in the 1950’s and shipped to Illinois in 1975! With it being on a 2 acre farm, and only 25 minutes from the track, it made for a perfect spot to rest, and decompress from the long days of racing.

Wednesday - Load In 
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We arrived at the track to load in at 10 am. By this time it was already heating up, temperatures upwards of 90 degrees paired with high humidity scorched us as we unloaded the trailer and got set up. I loved how fast, and smooth the car felt in New Jersey, so I didn’t want to make any jurassic changes to the setup before this round. My spotter and I then went to fill up nitrous and have lunch with Mike from NonStopTuning. My other crew Carlton, and Tuna stayed back to finalize the setup, and wash/wax the car. Following a great meal we zipped up to the airport and picked up the rest of our crew, before heading back to the farm cabin for the night.

Thursday - Practice/Seeding 
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We arrived to the track at 8:30 am and got the hot-pit ready to go before my driver’s meeting at 9 am. A hot-pit means during practice and competition, teams are able to come out on track or somewhere adjacent to the track and set up a temporary area to change tires, refuel, etc. Most teams load up their trucks and tow their tools from the main pits all the way to the hot-pits which can be a treacherous haul. To make this process easier on us, I put a service body on my tow rig with all the tools organized in drawers/boxes. It also has a pipe rack which I converted to hold all of our wheels. This makes it so we only have to load the tents, and coolers in the truck and take off. After my driver's meeting, I met up with some crew and walked the track. 

They changed the layout a little from last year, beginning with the chicane being moved back 10-15 feet. The next tweak was in outer zone 1, where the start of the zone was 2 car lengths later than it was previously, and the infamous jersey wall had disappeared. This was done to encourage drivers to stay in the zone longer, because if you transition too early out of 1 you will hit the rumble strip before outer 2. The final change was in the last zone, where they cut the corner in half to keep the drivers away from the tire wall, and off the bank. Once we walked the track we headed back to the hot-pit and got all geared up for practice session 1 of 2.

The first practice session was good, not great. The crew diagnosed and fixed a misfire issue quickly after the first lap. I put together a couple of decent leads but I couldn’t get a good chase in before the session ended. One of the things that makes Formula Drift so much more difficult than a Pro-am or Grassroots series is the practice time. In FD you are lucky to get 6 laps per practice session, that’s all. This makes the laps you do get crucial for confidence and setup. In the first session 2 laps were wasted due to the lead driver falling out of drift, and another lap was lost because we ran out of fuel. That only left 3 runs for us to gather data to improve the car. We knew we had to do a better job getting quality laps in the final practice to have the best chance in the seeding bracket.

We made lunch during the break and talked through the changes I wanted to make before practice, as well as where I can improve my driving through the track. One area I needed to clean up in practice was my depth at the beginning of outer zone 1. I kept that in mind and got some awesome laps in with Carsen Ruger, and Trevor Root. Building a lot of confidence going into my seeding battle with Matthew Bystrak.

We were the second to last battle of the bracket so we had to wait for what felt like forever to get on track. The time finally came to battle and I was in the lead position first. Lights extinguished and I got a great jump coming off the line. I shifted up to forth and waited a split second longer than usual to make sure I filled outer 1. Unfortunately I was a hair too deep and my right rear caught a rut made by the previous battles ripping my car off track and into the grass. Thankfully nothing broke and I was able to drive out of the mushy grass I was in to get to the line for the second half of this battle.

​I knew I had to force Matthew to make a mistake in his lead for me to have a chance so I put it on him the best I could and gave the fans a show! Matthew is an experienced driver and put down a great lead advancing him onto the next round and ending our day. Luckily for us, I was seeded as the #2 driver in the bracket meaning we were locked in win or lose. We watched the rest of the battles before packing it up for night to prepare for the big day tomorrow.

Friday - Competition Day 

We had a late start for comp day with the gates not opening to fans until noon. We got to the track around 10:30 am and got the car ready. With no damage being done in seeding, there were no major repairs to be made. We packed the truck up again and drove over to the hot-pit to get the car in line nice and early. First in line equals more practice time in theory so it is really important to get in line early if you can.
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There was only one practice session, so we had to make the laps count! The car performed amazing throughout the session. With every turn of my NonStopTuning wheel the car reacted just as I anticipated. We got some awesome laps in with Adam Heishman, Collete Davis, and Alex Jagger before parking it to prepare for battle.

My battle was with Dmitriy Brutskiy for Top 32. He is also a Pro 1 driver and former Prospec Champion, so I knew I had to come ready to risk it to get the win. He was seeded higher than me so he got to lead first. I was decently close on initiation, however I left just a little bit too much room. I then jumped the transition to close the gap which worked and I stayed with him nicely the rest of the run.

​Now it was time to put an awesome lead down and take my spot in the Top 16. Lights extinguished and I shifted through the gears, barrelling full speed down the straight into the first zone. Went for a nice early flick to ensure a smooth, flowy lead run only to have the car grip up and miss the entire zone. I gave a couple pumps on my NST handbrake and it got me back on the ideal lead line, but it was too little too late. If you miss a whole zone in drifting 99 times out of 100 you lose, and that is exactly what happened. Incredibly frustrating way to lose, especially because I had the opposite problem in seeding where I was too deep instead into outer 1.

​I helped the boys pack up the hot-pit and took my car over to the NonStopTuning booth before running up to the autograph session. I stayed and gave out as many of my autograph cards as I could before packing up and watching my fellow competitors duke it out in the Top 16. After 16 we tore down the tents and parked the car in the trailer before heading back to our cabin in the woods. ​

Saturday - Pro Day

We unpacked and set the car up for display at the NST booth for fans to see and interact with. It was an awesome time meeting fans and customers from all over. I educated on product installation and options, and handed out as many raffle tickets as I could. Now that we're three quarters of the way through the season, the fans know about the company, as well as the event giveaways because let’s be honest, Who doesn’t love free car parts? I had a great time hanging out with everyone there. From seeing the kids' excitement sitting in my car, to the other drivers and fans that came over, it was an awesome experience. We did the giveaway at the break between Top 32 and 16 and it was a major hit. The crowd formed a complete circle around the booth eagerly waiting for the number to be called. The winner was found on the very first ticket again, and he was stoked to be going home with a NonStopTuning Handbrake!

Overall, I am incredibly proud of my team and our performance. We battled through the heavy heat and any issue that came our way with no complaints. We have progressed a long way this season and we are ready to put the pieces together and make a statement in Salt Lake City for the Prospec season finale.

​In the meantime the NonStopTuning, First Air Motorsports S13 will be on display at Formula Drift Seattle! Be on the lookout for that as well as our youtube video coming later this week.

Thanks for reading!

​WORDS: Jayce Habich
PHOTOS: @johnhongproductions, @nickelbag_media

NST - NonStopTuning
www.NonStopTuning.com