Weds – Load in Englishtown, NJ is probably my favorite FD event of the year. Both for the fans and the drivers. It has the highest attendance over any other round (30k spectators). It’s also only 3hrs away from where I live in Maryland, so it’s super convenient. We arrived at 3pm, got the car unloaded and set up our pit space. Tirestacks mounts all of our GT Radial tires for us, but they closed at 5pm so we squeezed that in to be better prepared for tomorrow. The team did a nut & bolt check over the car so that it was fully prepped and ready for practice in the morning. PS- this is the FIRST FD event that I am debuting my Wisefab angle kit. We all camped at the track at this round. I had my enclosed trailer, Chad had his Class A RV, so we were pretty set up! They guys stayed up, but I had a super boring night and totally went to bed early at 8:30pm. Thurs – Practice / Qualifying The day started early with putting the car in line for practice at 8am. As you guys know, practice has been shortened this year to only 3 hours so getting a good spot in line is crucial in order to get familiar with the track and its current conditions. While my team was getting the car prepped and ready in line, Mateen and I had a Drivers meeting to attend to at 8:30am. Practice was from 9am - 12:15pm (with a 15 min break halfway through). It had rained the night before, so conditions were wet! But we weren’t anticipating any more rain for the rest of the day so we decided to not waste too much time dialing in the car for wet conditions, considering it would most likely be dry within the hour. Practice went well. I felt extremely comfortable and the car was dialed in from last year’s data. We were able to get 8 practice laps! In fact, we had to stop practice about 30 mins early because we did not bring enough tires! I had brought 14, and we were down to 8. With qualifying approaching, we would only have 6 total for practice and comp the following day. This was NOT enough; it was time to source some tires!!! Shout out to Richard Advani for hooking me up with 10 more additional tires. Qualifying started at 12:30pm. We were the 10th car to go, which was nice since I had just ended practice confidently and I could pick up right where I left off. I go out, run my qualifying lap, and did great! My qualifying run scored us a 76.33. I was pretty happy with that! But as I continued to watch the other drivers after me, I started to get nervous… Everyone was getting higher scores than me. It’s like I scored a 90% on my high school exam, but everyone else in the class got 91% or higher so overall, it doesn’t put me in the best spot in the class. The way that Knock Out Qualifying works is you do ONE qualifying run. Then, when every driver has done their one run, whoever is in the Top 24 is secured and in the competition the next day. For everyone else (the remaining 18 because there are 42 drivers), they have to do a SECOND qualifying run. Now, even if they did a perfect 100pt qualifying run on their second run, they would only be placed in the 25-32 section of the bracket. So watching every driver get a higher score than me made me wonder, am I going to have to do a second qualifying run? I was #24 and there was one more driver left to run. He is a fantastic driver and I was for sure going to get knocked down one more and put into #25th. But this is drifting, and anything can happen. Sure enough, he spun out resulting in a incomplete score, solidifying me in the Top 24 at 24th place! The team and I celebrated slightly, as we were making our way back to the pits to prepare to run again. Needless to say, the night was celebrated with good company, food, and smiles! Friday – Top 32 We had a lot more time to get ready today. Drivers meeting was at 11am. We find out that I’m battling a fellow skateboarder and veteran – Andy Hateley. I’m so excited, this is going to be a great battle! Before competition starts, we have some practice from 12pm – 2pm. Things were going pretty good. Competition starts right at 2, and we are the 4th battle to go. Once again, I love going straight from practice and into the show so that things are still fresh in my mind. The car is warmed up, tires are hot. Its good. However, on my last practice lap (roughly at 1:55pm), I noticed car temps going up…we were starting to overheat. My car normally operates at 187 at idle, 209 after a run, and 218 after a battle. But temps were sitting at 228 and climbing. Knowing that we didn’t have much time to address this, I called all hands on deck! Temp is now at 239. Hood is open, I’m out of the car, there’s containers of distilled water everywhere, radiator cap is off. We were working without much time! The first battle had already gone and finished, they were on battle #2. We are bleeding our coolant system, trying to keep temps stable. Battle #3 is starting, and I’m next! The team buttons up the car as I am getting back into the cockpit strapping up and shoot over to the line. Adrenaline is flowing, heart is racing, but we did it! The car seemed to be at a controlled temperature and no longer rising. Race mode is now 100% active. I’ve got a cleared head, controlled emotions, and I’m ready to race! Andy was the higher qualifier, so he will Lead, and I will Chase on the first part of our battle. The start lights go out, and the race has begun! I shift – 1st, 2nd, 3rd and grab the ebrake for my initiation. I had good proximity and I knew this was going to be a sick run! I release my ebrake and romp on throttle and as I did this, my right foot slipped off the accelerator pedal. Hmm… that was weird, nevertheless, I get back on throttle and AGAIN…my foot slips off the throttle! What in the world is happening? I completely straighten and was no longer drifting. My high spirits immediately fell down like a heavy rock – I had given Andy the biggest advantage over me. Even though I had made a critical error, I decided to at least attempt to put on a show and catch back up to him and complete the run. Ignition Source TV is my media crew this year for FD. They have cameras all over the car, and luckily they had a GoPro filming my footwork! You can see clearly on camera that my foot slipped off twice upon initiating. I must have had some fluid on the bottom of my shoe when I was in the pits, getting the engine temperatures under control. Going from immediately working on the car, to right into battle didn’t give my shoe a chance to dry causing me to slip right off when I was mashing the pedal. I was SO disappointed. It was time to switch positions, and I would Lead and Andy to Chase. I kept the car in throttle and on track, while Andy ran a safe, conservative chase in order to guarantee him to advance on to the Top 16. Not how I wanted to lose, but this Wisefab angle kit is like cheating. I have ALL the angle I’ll ever need for competitive driving. The car looks better, feels better, and yall better watch out for me in STL, because I’m coming for it! We ended the day with an autograph signing at 5:15pm. I spent the rest of the night engaging with fans and watching the show. Saturday – PRO Competition
PROSPEC no longer participates in scheduled activities on Saturdays. As disappointing as this change was to hear over last year, it allowed me to really engage with the fans all day Saturday since I was able to be at the pits whenever I wanted. I threw the competition on the projector, and was able to watch everything while hanging out with Miss Arya. Sunday – ProBroDown Typically, at every FD event, Sunday is funday. If a FD driver is local, or wants to hang out an additional day, we can drift with local sanction that runs events at that tack throughout the year. This is a neat experience because local grassroots drivers can register to drift that day, and the FD drivers can drift with them. I remember when I was a grassroots driver and this was my favorite event of the year! I would be able to drift with my role models! It was just the coolest thing. Now that I am in FD, I want to pay it back and offer to do that with the grassroots guys. So I stuck around for Sunday. Unfortunately, it rained like a tropic thunderstorm and everyone left. All media, spectators, and drivers got off track. So, I thought it would be a good time to pack up and go home. As I was leaving, I heard car drifting. So I decided to go back and see what was up. To my surprise, the rain lighted up and now the show was back on! By this time, it was 4pm and the event was scheduled to end at 5pm so I just decided to hang out in the stands. I really wanted to drive though, so it killed me to sit back and watch. There’s always next year =] Summary: Pros- -Qualified 1st try. No need to do a second qualifying lap. -I have a lot of new crew members on my team this year. By the end of practice, everyone had become confident and comfortable in their positions. Communication was increasing, and it was a solid team. -We didn’t have a single mechanical all week – minus overheating -No wreaks/blown motors. -Was able to get a private day here 15 days before FD getting goo data Cons- -Almost ran out of tires for comp because we weren’t expecting so many practice laps. -Need more accurate rain data specs with the cars new setup. WORDS: Alex Lichliter PHOTOS: Ignition Source TV NST - NonStopTuning www.NonStopTuning.com
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Round 4 of the formula drift pro series is in the books. Nj is always a tough and intimidating track to drive. With multiple dives into walled corners and super tight tandem action. And this year didn't disappoint. Through practice we focused more evenly on chase and lead laps than the previous events this year. And I felt pretty good going into qualifying. After initiating hard into oz 1 and getting back on throttle I came out of the zone a touch early. I was able to dive into oz2 and 3 nicely however they dinged me hard on line through outer 1. We ended up landing in 23rd place. Going into competition we faced last year's event winner Travis Reeder. We had a good chase run and held proximity and angle through the run, however Travis was fast and was able to hold slightly more proximity on us which ended up being the deciding factor and Travis moved onto the top16. It was a big bummer going out in 32 but we were able to learn quite a bit and plan to come out swinging in st. Louis! WORDS: Alec Robbins
PHOTOS: @grandschemeviews_ | @formulad NST - NonStopTuning www.NonStopTuning.com We're celebrating 86 Day at our Irvine CA location this year, and you're invited! Free Event 9 am to 12 noon Huge Discounts on All Items Raffles & Prizes at the Event NST - NonStopTuning www.NonStopTuning.com Zandara Kennedy recaps her first trip to Atlanta for Round One of the 2023 Formula Drift ProSpec Series. Detailing her team's adventures in the practice sessions, dealing with overnight repairs, and going through her first FD qualifying session. NST - NonStopTuning www.NonStopTuning.com Alec Robbins talks to us about his experiences at FD Orlando, from practice, to qualifying, and through the competition. Check it out! NST - NonStopTuning
www.NonStopTuning.com NonStopTuning, the leader in lightweight pulley kit development and manufacturer of automotive motorsports components, is hiring for a sales & marketing position.
Are you looking for an opportunity in the motorsports industry? Looking for flexible hours (20 hrs a week) and the potential to earn up to $30K in your first year working part-time? If yes, you should reach out to us! Resumes will only be accepted via email Please include “WE’RE HIRING” in subject line NST - NonStopTuning www.NonStopTuning.com Going into Round 3, we were expecting a normal rain-filled event that always seems to take place in Florida. However as the days got closer, the weather ended up clearing with only a few spotty showers on practice day. We did what we could to get some laps in before qualifying, but the track conditions were not ideal. Things ended up drying up enough before qualifying to get a few good lead laps in during warm up. Qualifying in Orlando is always close because the layout is pretty simple once you get the flow of it. I was able to lay down a great run with a score of 90 that put us in 9th place. Unfortunately after qualifying we were doing some maintenance on the car and found a leaking rear main seal that had to be addressed. Due to this being a night event, we had to wait until morning to get the new part. Saturday morning we ended up running into a few issues during reassembly causing us to miss most of practice. I was finally able to get out for a practice lap only to discover the car had a bad vibration. After going over everything, we were unable to find the cause of the vibration and I knew that I would have to drive through it as best as possible. Going into competition, we had not had any chase practice. Our first battle placed us up against Darren Kelly in his Aston Martin, I laid down a great lead run and knew I had to just try and keep good proximity in the chase. I was able to run a pretty good follow through the first half of the course, however I ended up transitioning too soon and got lost through the smoke. I had to hand brake a bit to keep from going off course and incompleting. That correction killed my momentum, causing me to fall back a bit on the second outer zone. Ultimately it was a close battle but we did not end up advancing into the Top 16, making this the first event that we were out in Top 32. Luckily we were able to spend some time in the pits interacting with fans and watching the remainder of the competition which was a nice change of pace. We finally have the car home for maintenance after being on the east coast for the last 2 events and are hard at work getting it prepped for New Jersey in a few weeks! WORDS: Alec Robbins
PHOTOS: @grandschemeviews_ NST - NonStopTuning www.NonStopTuning.com Alex Lichlither recaps his first trip to Atlanta for Round One of the 2023 Formula Drift ProSpec Series. From the early test and tune process, through practice, and qualifying. NST - NonStopTuning www.NonStopTuning.com Wednesday - Practice
First stop - Road Atlanta! I have been waiting for 6+ years to drive here. I was absolutely ecstatic that this was now a Prospec round for us in Formula Drift. I have a new team, new media crew, and new parts on the car so it was time to go to work! Being this is the first FD event of the season, we have our annual tech inspection. Our tech inspection was scheduled for 10:40am. One of the new additions for all drivers in the series is the Type S Decel lights. There are now two light bars going from roof to hood on each side of the front windshield to display when we are accelerating, deaccelerating, on in a neutral state. These lights are controlled by the LINK ECU’s internal accelerometer. This is a tool for judges (as well as fans), to have a better idea of what the driver is doing while racing on track. Drivers meeting began at Noon. After the meeting, we had to get our pictures taken for the headshots to be used during the livestream. Practice was from 3-6pm. It has been shortened this year. We get less time and now there are more drivers than last year. During practice, I got 6 laps in. Two laps were a wash from drivers making mistakes. But I also went off track in a couple of my lead laps too so I know I messed up some laps for other drivers as well. I ended practice wishing that I had had a bit more… We ended the day with a drivers meeting at 7. My first ever round as a competitor in Formula Drift is in the books. From the moment I arrived at the track, it was clear that I was in a whole new world - the level of professionalism and attention to detail was on a completely different level than I had ever experienced in drifting, from the tech experience to the driver's meetings, everyone was so on point. |
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December 2023
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