Ricky Hofmann NST S14 - 2024 Formula Drift Atlanta Recap

The start of every single FD event is pretty similar. Prep starts about a week before the actual event. Packing the truck, making sure you have every single spare part and tool you can possibly have, along with all of the wheels and tents. It doesn't matter how ready you think you are; you'll always forget something. (Side note: Sure enough, I forgot my toothbrush, so I had to buy one at a gas station when I got down there.)

At 12:30am Tuesday morning, my friend and media person, Sara, arrived at my house so we could start the trip down. Being that it's about a 12-hour trip, we started early so that we could skip past DC traffic and make solid time. I prefer to do long hauls at night just to make my life a bit easier on the road. About 4 hours in, we stopped at a rest stop in Virginia to pick up longtime friend and media person Mike Prez. Mike finally made his way out of the truck parking lot and found us since his girlfriend parked in the wrong spot. He and I used to do a ton of road trips together, mostly doing drift demos around the country. Headed off on the road again, Sara jumps in the back seat and knocks out almost instantly. This left Mike and myself to talk about the car and life in general, all while jamming to some music to keep each other awake. 

We got to the track around noon and started the unloading process. It's pretty funny how fast you can unload what takes about a week to load. We got the car together and hopped right over to tech. Tech was pretty easy and simple. I went right through pretty much. A bunch of guys from the FD crew were happy to see me back with a car since I took last year off, which was a nice feeling. After tech, we got to go back to the pits, close up house, and shoot to the air bnb. 

Wednesday, we got to the track around 8 a.m., continued to set up, and hit the drivers meeting. The drivers meeting was pretty straight forward, with judges telling us what they wanted to see. Most of the drivers were dissatisfied with the little details here and there. It's how every drivers meeting goes. After drivers meeting was a track walk, which was nice seeing that I haven't been here since 2016 Gridlife. I walked the track with one of my crew members, Matt Schulman, and we went over some different parts of the track as well as how we were going to set the car up. After the track walk, we went to the pits to set the car up for a test session across the street at Lanier that Dustin Miles set up for all the drivers. 

Finally, it was time to drive my car at full tilt after about 6 months. We had one test day prior, but it didn't go well, and we had to cut it short, unfortunately. Then, with typical New Jersey weather, we didn't get back to testing, so we had to settle to drive the test day at Lanier. I had never been there before, but it was a fun track. It was a bank track, which I love, and it was somewhere in between Orlando and Irwindale for a size comparison. I got to warm the tires up and sent it hard right off the rip since there was limited time. Matt had the car set up well and fast right off the jump. I was hyped by how good the car felt. Fast but controllable, with plenty of room to go either way, we can make the car exactly what we need. Then I cut a few more laps, found some small issues that we fixed, and it was back across the street to get the pits ready for the next day, which was practice and seeding bracket. 

Woke up on Thursday to the worst thing that can happen when trying to learn a new track with a new car. Rain. And not just steady rain, but patchy rain. The worst of the worst. The first practice session went decent; I got a total of 4 laps in just about 2 hours. I wish we could have had more, but with people breaking down and going into the kitty litter, that's all we got. Just before the second practice session, it started to rain hard. The track was completely wet, so we changed the setup on the car for a full wet track. Then, of course, just as I went into the burnout box, sunlight came out. I made a full wet lap, which was decent. Not what the team wanted, but we got through it as we needed to. The next lap was patchy, and I followed somebody who spun out, so that lap got cut short. Without fail, just as I was about to do my third lap, the car started to act up. It was running rough, and not happy. We headed back to the pits and started to mess with everything and anything. We plugged into the Link and couldn't find anything in the log telling us why the car was acting up. Practice was now over, and we got a total of 6 laps. Four of the six were full laps. Well, onto comp we go. 

My seeding bracket was actually against my good friend Matt Bystrak. As much as it sucks going against a really good friend, it's also fun. We had been talking smack for weeks to each other. So much smack talking that Andy Luk from FD got in on it and made a bet with us that the loser takes a whip cream pie to the face.

We line up with Matt, and my car starts to act up again. He leads first, I chase him down the hill, enter with him, transition back, and the car bogs. It created a bit of a gap, but not a ton. I chased him down a bit. We finished the lap clean. He had a good lead, so I knew I needed a heater.
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It was my turn to lead. Sitting at the line, the lights went off. I went to give the car throttle, and it bogged down. I shut it down and forced a restart. I gave the car some throttle blips; it seemed to have gone away. Okay, let me try again, I said. I was in my head like crazy now, but I shook it off. Lights went off, down the hill I went, chucked it into turn 1, went to get on throttle, the car bogged, catching more grip than I wanted, and pushed me just too far out that I dipped tires off the track. I stayed in it, climbed the hill into oz2 and then 3, got the inner clip, and all the way to the finish, the car felt great. The judges went over the replays a few times, but unfortunately, just me going off track with the rear of the car for just a second was enough to give Matt the win. Just like that, the weekend is over. 

Well, not fully over, as I then had to face the grim reaper, AKA Andy Luk, and take a whip cream pie to the face. Not my finest moment in FD history, but when you make a bet, you have to own it when you lose. All in good fun. 

That wrapped up the weekend pretty quickly from there. I did some fan exposure, talked to a ton of people, and had a great time watching Pro go out and put on a freaking show. 

I got the car back to Jersey in one piece, and my crew chief, Gary, actually found the issue that we couldn't find at the track. The car is all fixed up and ready to kill it in Jersey in a few short weeks! Other than my car bogging, everything else was literally perfect. Every NST part that was brand new performed flawlessly and looked even better than it did. As much as the weekend was a big loss, the car made it home in one piece, and that's more than some people can say. We live to fight another day. See y'all in Jersey!! 

WORDS: Ricky Hofmann
PHOTOS: Caitlin Ting

NST - NonStopTuning
www.NonStopTuning.com