Thursday - Arrival/Load In
​
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
​
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. 

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

Join Jayce Habich and crew for a recap of the final round of the 2025 Formula Drift ProSpec Championship in Utah.

​Jayce shares about his battles in the seeding bracket, against Sam Maghmoumi and Christopher Leonard, all the way through to his final battle of the event facing Brian Wills.

While the 2025 season may be coming to an end, the team is already looking forward to next year!

NST - NonStopTuning
www.NonStopTuning.com

Wednesday - Arrival/Load In

The NonStopTuning S13 was on display at Formula Drift Seattle, so we had a 14-hour road trip to round 4 in Utah. We weren't able to leave until early Wednesday morning, which put us at the track at 8 pm. It was too late to drop tires off at Racetreads to get all our fresh GT Radials mounted, so we set up the pit instead. After rallying the troops and creating a plan, we headed back to the Airbnb to get some rest before our 7 am start time.

Thursday - Practice/Seeding
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We arrived at the track at 6:45 am and immediately started prepping the service truck for the pits. This round was another hot-pit event, and definitely the farthest from the main pits compared to the last three tracks. At 7:30 am, I attended the driver's meeting while the crew warmed up my car and made final preparations for the haul to the hot-pit for practice. After my meeting, with no Racetread personnel in sight and practice fast approaching, we decided to head out to the track with our one set of tires in case practice started before we could get new tires installed. Once on track, I took my spotter and media guy to the track walk to get a look and feel for the updated layout.

Last season, we had to drive over a rumble strip to the first outer zone, which was a little hard on equipment and was poorly visible. This season, they added an outer zone on the straightaway, with an inner clipping point on the inside corner of the track. Kind of similar to the 2025 Atlanta layout, except instead of transitioning up the hill in Atlanta, here you carry through the inner clip to an outer zone before transitioning to what was last year's outer 2. I had a feeling this change was coming due to the lack of competitive tandems in Prospec and Pro last year, so I practiced this layout on the simulator plenty before we got here. We spent the rest of the time picking other drivers' brains, especially the Pro 1 guys who have been here every year since they added Salt Lake to the circuit. After picking up some gems, we headed back to warm up the car for the first practice session.

The first practice session was average. I felt really good, but the car seemed to fight my inputs a little bit. We still didn't have any new tires yet, so I pulled the car in after 3 laps and let the crew know how it was feeling. A huge perk of the on-board GoPros is that we can pull video of the run as soon as I get back in line. This helps a ton in diagnosing any steering binds or problems that I don’t notice or mention right away. We talked through it, and they made some changes that made an immediate difference in practice session 2. Between our practice sessions is the Pro’s practice. I like to watch how some of them are running the track and see if I can pick up on anything they are doing. While I watched, they ran back to Racetreads to pick up all our new tires to get as many laps as possible before the seeding bracket started.

The second practice session was awesome. The car did what I asked it to do, and it felt decently fast compared to the competition. One of the major challenges for Salt Lake is the elevation. With the air much thinner than normal, everyone is down on power. Especially the turbo and supercharged engines because they rely heavily on the forced air for boost. With an all-motor nitrous setup like mine, the elevation doesn’t affect it as much, which helps close the horsepower gap. As the session went on, I was able to get really comfortable behind my NonStopTuning wheel. It felt as if I was back home on the sim running laps without a care in the world. This helped build my confidence before my seeding bracket battle with Sam Maghmoumi.

Sam is an experienced driver who can absolutely shred when the time comes. I knew I had to bring it to have a chance at taking home the victory and sealing my spot in the top 32. We had a little bit of a break to calm down and rehydrate because our battle was the last of Seeding 16. The team refueled and reloaded nitrous before sending me to the line to wait for battle.

Sam was seeded below me, so I got to lead first. I fired out of the box and shifted up the gears to fourth and sent it into the outer one. I was a tiny bit off the inner clip, but that was the only fault as the car screamed through the rest of the zones perfectly. 

We lined it back up for my chase run. I felt really good, but I also knew that Sam stuck it to my door really well, so I am going to have to really put on a show to get the win. The lights extinguished, and he got the jump on me going into the first zone. I was able to catch up by the first inner clip and ripped through the rest of the track, camped on his door. The judges awarded me the win after a little deliberation, and I came back to the pits for fresh tires.

In the top 8, we were matched up with our buddy Chris Leanard and his S550 Mustang. I led first and put on another banging lead run. The announcer during the run said I should be sponsored by Men’s Warehouse because of how the track fits my driving style. 

I was filled with excitement when I lined up to chase him, but that might have gotten the better of me. In the final transition, I surged on his door and got too excited, losing the wheel in the process and backing into the last zone. As frustrating as it was, I couldn't feel too bad as I made it into the top 32, and Chris is an awesome driver and a great person.

​We packed it up and headed back to the main pit to watch the Pro Seeding Bracket before calling it a day and shipping back to our Airbnb.

Friday - Competition Day
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It was a little later than usual, with us arriving around 8 am. I had another driver's meeting, and the crew got the car shined up and the truck packed for the long day on track. The weather was perfect, sun shining, a couple of clouds in the sky, paired with a nice breeze to keep cool and move the smoke. Today’s top 32 matchup was Brian Wills. Brian and I are longtime friends, ever since he came up to my home track, Evergreen Speedway, and won the licensing shootout. We also started competing in FD the same year. Our crew and their crew help each other whenever needed, and we have the utmost respect for their team and program. Brian and I never battled in FD, but we drive together on the simulator all the time, so he knows my style and I know his. This was going to be an all-out battle where the loser would simply be whoever made the first mistake.

Warm-up began at 9:45 am, and the NonStopTuning car felt as good as it ever has. Lap after lap, I was riding the edge of the track. I even got in the habit of riding the rumble strips into outer zone three for the smoothest line. I got six laps in before feeling good enough to shut it down and wait for my battle. We were the third battle of the day, so I knew as soon as the competition started, I needed to be lined up and ready. I used the ten minutes I had to go to the restroom and rehydrate while the crew prepped the car for battle.

Ranked lower than Wills, I was in the chase position first. I could barely contain my excitement as I pulled into the burnout box. Here I am on the biggest stage in drifting, and I get to put on a show with a good buddy in front of the fans. The lights went out, and Brian and I took off like we were being chased by a monster. We fired into the first zone together and through the first zone. I backed off to transition and shot through the smoke to where I thought he would be. He created a bit of a gap, and when I tried to transition through the smoke, I just got more smoke. Without sight, I still pushed to find his door, but found the edge of the track instead. Both rear wheels went into the dirt, and I slid off track. Nothing on the car was broken, so I drove back to the start line for my lead run. At such a deficit, the only thing you can do as the lead driver is put on an amazing lap and hope the chase messes up. Brian did exactly what he needed to do in the chase and camped on my door as I led him around the track. He took the win and bragging rights this time around.

After the top 32 concluded, we went back to the pits to stage our car at the NonStopTuning booth as well as do a meet and greet with fans. I talked to tons of people interested in the car and/or NST products. It was a great time. I couldn't stay for long because Autograph signing was starting soon, so I zipped over there to show my appreciation for all those who support us drifters. Unfortunately, we weren't able to stay for Saturday as this round falls at the same time as our local county fair. We park thousands of cars on our shop property during this time, and we left a skeleton crew back home while we went drifting. We had to head home late Friday night to get home before the busiest weekend of the fair.

Overall, I couldn't be prouder of my team and our performance this year. With a quarter of the size of the crew from last year, we were able to overcome more challenges than ever before without complaint. Round one started with destroying the car, and we bounced back. Round two, the car got beaten up again, and we bounced back. Our transmission blew on our tow rig, and we drove it through a tornado. None of this could break the crew’s attitude and willingness to come to every round ready to work.

​I also cannot thank Mike and the entire NonStopTuning team for all their help this season. There is nothing better than working with a company that will listen to a driver’s needs and deliver!

​We have some giant changes coming to my car this offseason, as well as some awesome new NST products to show off, so don’t go anywhere.

Stay Tuned!

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

NST - NonStopTuning
www.NonStopTuning.com

​NST - NonStopTuning
​www.NonStopTuning.com

NST - NonStopTuning
​www.NonStopTuning.com

How would you feel if we told you NonStopTuning offers a track proven shifter, backed by a full warranty, at an affordable price point?  And all orders include Free Shipping, for all customers!

Enjoy the video above, as Formula Drift driver Alex Lichliter shares all the benefits of the NST chassis mounted Box Shifter, including a complete DIY Install Guide from start to finish.  The video concludes with Alex taking us along for a ride along, putting the short shifter through its paces.

Check out www.NonStopTuning.com to order your own shifter for your Nissan, Toyota, Honda, BMW, and more popular makes and models.  

NST - NonStopTuning
​www.NonStopTuning.com

​Join Jayce Habich and crew for a recap of round 3 of the 2025 Formula Drift ProSpec Championship in St Louis. Jayce shares about his battles in the seeding bracket all the way through to his final battle of the event. You'll also get a sneak peak of what the drivers and teams evaluate as they do their "track walks" leading up to competition!

NST - NonStopTuning
www.NonStopTuning.com

NST - NonStopTuning
​www.NonStopTuning.com

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 
​
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.

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.
​
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.

​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

Join Jayce Habich and crew for a recap of the second round of the 2025 Formula Drift ProSpec Championship in New Jersey. Jayce shares about his battles in the Thursday seeding bracket, taking him all the way to a seeding bracket podium! The video continues to cover the rest of the event, including Friday's Top 32 action and more!

NST - NonStopTuning
www.NonStopTuning.com