Jeff Jones has a new 2012 build after demolishing his poor S13 at Team Drift last month. The new and improved build has a LS powered Chevrolet engine and CX Racing as a sponsor in 2012. He is slated to appear in this car next week for Formula Drift Road Atlanta which is Round 2 of the 2012 series. Good luck to Jeff with his new build which he is currently testing at Willow Springs as we type.
XDC reached out to us to so they can cover issues with the staff and driver debt. I spoke with Mike Collins who is the new chief steward at XDC on the phone this week and he seems like he has the drivers in mind and a good focus on the right topics. Here are some issues they addressed from the corporate office of XDC.
Staff:
As Brian Eggert moves from XDC to become the third judge for Formula Drift, Mike Collins will step into his role as Competition Director. Mike Collins has been the Chief Steward of XDC since its inception and has been involved with drifting since 2001 with US Drift as Chief Steward and Event Director putting on events in the Mid-Atlantic region as well as a national series. With over 10 years of experience in managing drift events and being deeply rooted in the grassroots drifting scene he will be able to step into this new role and help XDC continue to grow as a national series. When asked about the his new role and the direction he would like the series to go in, he had this to say;“I am excited to fill this role as Brian moves on to his new position and I am looking forward to taking the same drift staff from last year, with a couple new additions, and moving the series forward. We want this series to be a place that gives drivers the opportunity to compete on a national level against a highly skilled field without having to have a major sponsorship and not losing the grassroots feel of their local drift event. The series is still growing and learning from mistakes but we have a good base and we will take the experience from the past two years and make this series into a place where drivers want to be and can highlight their skills.”
Filling Mike’s role as Chief Steward will be Tim Johnsrud who has been the Technical Director for XDC.
Keeping things consistent all three judges from last year will be returning; Chris Forsberg , Matt Petty, and Mike Schneider.
Also, joining the staff is John Wagner and Dan Summers, both have extensive experience in the drifting scene on the East Coast with Club Loose and LookOut Drift. They both will be serving as support staff at the events, with John also filling the role as the back up judge in the case of one of the three primary judges is unable to attend the event.
Driver Debt:
Going into the 2012 season there were issues from the 2011 season that would need to be taken care as quick as possible. The company headed by David Lane, XDC Events, now has no part in the Xtreme Drift Circuit. The series is now under new management and also will be getting help from Hot Import Nights (HIN). The new management is striving to make sure all the drivers are satisfied with the series as a whole and that they will continue to run in the series. Just as before the first event in Arizona a lot of hard work was put in to make sure drivers in that region that may have had a bad taste in their mouth from the previous year were contacted and a plan was put in place to make sure they continued to attend the events. Just as this was done before Arizona the same will be done before Orlando with the drivers from the east region and we hope that all the drivers are satisfied with the efforts put forth and continue to run in the series just as the drivers from the west coast have continued to do. The drivers are what make this series great and we want to make sure that they are taken care of and continue put on some of the best drifting competitions to date.
We noticed Chris Forsberg at the Clubloose Spring Moves event with his competition Nissan 370z and wanted him to spend a minute talking about his experience since starting in drifting with Clubloose and why/what you should be doing at a local grassroots drift event. The next two paragraphs are his words on the local New Jersey series and why you should be drifting local in your area.
Chris Forsberg – “Club Loose is the longest running drifting organization in North America (and almost the world!). There are several reasons why Club Loose has been building pro drifters since day one; regularly scheduled events, access to an enormous high speed road course, and Matt Petty’s unparalleled dedication to running drift events.
On top of that, several pro drivers are usually in attendance and the east coast spirit of “lending a hand” ensures that new and old drivers will get the help they need to learn quickly. Tandem practice is encouraged as long as you meet all the safety standards and are hand picked to drive in the advanced group from Club Loose staff.
I love attending the Club Loose events because of the camaraderie and non stop fun. The events are super laid back but once you are on track, it’s serious time. Even when I come in with my pro car for some testing on their road course, the atmosphere remains the same as if I were in my missile… KDF.”
Darren McNamara apparently needs some new transportation for Formula Drift Round 2 after his big crash at Streets of Long Beach which you can watch again by viewing it in this post below. The 350z of controversy is back after a feather shaking Las Vegas last year with Justin Pawlak stepping into it while removing Tyler McQuarrie. Now in 2012 the 350z is collecting dust over at ASD and getting prepped for this debut at Road Atlanta. I am pretty sure this is the first time DMac will be driving LHD in competition. We hope that he will have some time at Lowes Motor Speedway to test before the big event at Road Atlanta in the car. Darren has stepped onto the podium many times in Atlanta so a new car and a huge lack of points in Long Beach really is going to put pressure on him to perform at this event trying to stay championship points relevant.
A great new video straight from Japan is a mounted camera on a D-Max Silvia for five minutes of tandem battles in video. One great film showing how the Japanese practice tandem is fantastic which involve missile cars and another D-Max partner. Not often to do we get a chance to post some fun and unique content from Japan but here is a glimpse. What do you think of these runs?
More and more quality coverage coming at you in 2012 from Englishtown in New Jersey. Our photographer on the scene is Dan Jenkins who is always producing the best content in the north eastern United States. Even a couple Formula Drift stars turned up including Chris Forsberg with his NOS Energy Drink Nissan 370z. Check out the new builds for 2012 and the new talent that has shown up to Clubloose this year.
Check out the Gallery: http://www.wreckedmagazine.com/gallery/thumbnails.php?album=279
A southern California adventure took place as Vaughn Gittin Jr. hit Hollywood Blvd., Venice Beach, and the Santa Monica Pier before finishing up with Formula Drift in Long Beach. The video shows an awesome wall tap and his insane follow run against Odi Bakchis in Top 32 of Formula D. The Monster Energy x Falken machine will be out at Road Atlanta coming up with Vaughn focusing on some better finishing results.
A great production from Streets of Long Beach highlighting how much fun the drift event was from the eyes of big drivers like Matt Powers, Daigo Saito, and Justin Pawlak. The three minute piece really highlights the quick paced action that went down over the weekend. It even looks like he lost a camera to the death of Joon Maeng’s wing on the back of his Mazda Rx-8.
Another great Vegas Drift weekend called Heating Up was a great representation of the drift action and local weather here in Las Vegas. This green S13.4 coupe took home top honors over the weekend with a great first place finish beating former Formula Drift/XDC driver Forrest Wang. This is how the podium finished up.
1. Garret Nikolich
2. Forrest Wang
3. Brandon Wicknick
Here is a comprehensive list of drivers that will be in action at Round 2 Road Atlanta. Get ready for what will be one of the best round of the 2012 Formula Drift season. Enjoy the drives list below. With 50 drivers signed up this is most likely the largest grid in Formula Drift Road Atlanta history.
1. Fredric Aasbo
2. Jeff Abbott
3. Emmanuel Amandio
4. Tony Angelo
5. Taka Aono
6. Odi Bakchis
7. Tony Brakohiapa
8. Dave Briggs
9. Jhonnattan Castro
10. Andrew Coomes
11. Nick D’Alessio
12. Chelsea DeNofa
13. Michael Essa
14. Matt Field
15. Chris Forsberg
16. Danny George
17. Vaughn Gittin Jr.
18. Patrick Goodin
19. Conrad Grunewald
20. Ken Gushi
21. Zoltan Hadju
22. Brad Hettinger
23. Corey Hosford
24. Jeff Jones
25. Ryan Kado
26. Alex Lee
27. Luke Lonberger
28. Jeremy Lowe
29. Joon Maeng
30. George Marstanovic
31. Darren McNamara
32. Enrique Mendoza Jr.
33. Dennis Mertzanis
34. Rhys Millen
35. Kenneth Moen
36. Patrick Mordaunt
37. Robbie Nishida
38. Maurico Omelas Jr.
39. Miroslav Ovcharik
40. Justin Pawlak
41. Matt Powers
42. Daigo Saito
43. Mike Skudlarek
44. Gabe Stone
45. Nick Thomas
46. Ryan Tuerck
47. Chris Ward
48. Walker Wilkerson
49. Daijiro Yoshihara
50. Toshiki Yoshioka
