Ricky Hofmann NST S14 - 2024 Formula Drift New Jersey Recap

Let's just start off by say FDNJ is a very special event to me. It's a home town event, being that it's less than 15 min from my house, and I was one of the first people to test the track after it was paved. 

Having a terrible showing it Atlanta due to car issues, we made sure the car was perfect. I even went to drive a couple events before FDNJ,  the car performed flawlessly. Vibes were high. The car was good. We are local, and ready to kill it!! 

Practice number 1 comes around, and I'm the first car in line to do a lead run. I have zero stress that I'm going to lay down a heater lead run to start the day. We have the car set up perfect, and everything. I pitch the car hard into turn 1, car feels great. I transition and this is where stuff goes wrong. The car goes to over rotate and almost spins me out going into turn 2. This made zero sense to me, I've driven this track a ton of times and this has never happened. The track felt really slick, lacking grip for some reason. I thought it was that, and I finish the lap. I get back into the practice line, and my team is checking the car out a little, and they tell me something looks off in my rear suspension. I drive back to my pits, and the back end seems to be walking around when I'm going around turns. Well this seems to be the reason why I almost spun the car out. 

Hoping it's going to be an easy fix, we aren't stressed or anything. We jack up the car, take the wheel off and to everybody's surprise, the passenger side traction arm mount is pushed forward into the chassis, and the toe arm mount is starting to rip off the subframe. We are mind blown. There was no hit, I didn't go off track, we were mind blown for this amount of damage. Now over the course of the year, in years past, we typically bend the traction arm mount forward. It's a common issue on S chassis subframes, but for it to happen this fast in the year, and this aggressive, we were shocked.
With no choice, we pull the wheel back to the around about area it should be, and I start to weld the subframe back in place. We add some metal in places, and do whatever we can to make this hold for the event. Finish up welding, we toe plate the car, get back in line for practice and just as I'm about enter the burnout box, practice is over. We didn't get to make a lap. 

We are a little beaten up now, it's 98 degrees out, and just a little shocked. But the vibes are still good. The car is fixed. We are ready for practice session 2. Practice session 2 starts, we go out there to make a lap, and the car just does not feel good. We managed to put down a decent lead lap, but it wasn't at the pace we wanted, and the car just felt like the rear was dancing around on me. We make some shock adjustments, and get back into line. I go to make my next run, and throwing the car into turn 3, bam the car losses what feels like all grip and tries to turn me around again. I'm thinking maybe we killed the tires earlier than expected. We go back to the pits, and to our shock, the driver side traction mount of the subframe ripped off, even worse than the passenger side one did earlier today. We are in shock and mad and just totally disgusted in what is going on. We rush to get the car up and welded just like the other side. But with this side being even worse, we have to add metal in, trying to wedge back the traction arm as much as we can. Hammering and pulling with ratchet straps. And it's just not going well. 

With time running out because now practice 2 is over, and it's time for comp. I put enough metal in there to hold, we have just enough time to put a fresh set of tires and out we go right to the burnout box. No time to align the car. Out we go. Comp time. I have 2 full laps under my belt for the day. The car has an unknown rear alignment. It's patched together with some random metal we found, but it's time to throw down.

We warm up the tires, get in line and here we go. I know the track. I'm confident, just need my car to hold up for me. We go out there and throw down a decent chase. The car wasn't as responsive as I wanted it to be. It didn't have the grip it normally had for me to run up on people. But it was good, and we made it through it. Now time for the lead run. I hard charge to turn 1, throw the car in, and it doesn't flick out the way it normally does for a lead run. Not sure if it was from the alignment, the car being super hot since it's not over 100 degrees. But the car is not acting right. I miss outter zone 1 by a good foot. Which in drifting is a mile. I throw the car into turn 2, and nail outter zone 2. I nailed the inner clip perfectly, and I throw it hard into outter zone 3 perfectly. Came across the finish. I'm happy we got through the battle. The car is still together. Had a little mishap on outter zone 1 but I'm just hoping my opponent had a mistake somewhere to push the needle my way. 

Unfortunately for me, he did not. He has a good lead and a good chase. Me missing outter zone 1 by 1 foot, just ended my weekend. Ended my weekend at my home track, and another horrible weekend for the team. We get the car back to the pits, check out the rear of the car and it is wacked out. The alignment is no where near, one wheel is basically jamming itself into the chassis of the car so bad, there is a mark from the tire and rim rubbing the chassis under load. But it's what we had to work it. For what we had, it was a decent showing but still not what we as a team are capeable of. Tough start to the first half of the season, and we are looking forward to St. Louis to show what we can do! 

WORDS: Ricky Hofmann
PHOTOS: Caitlin Ting

NST - NonStopTuning
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