A great weekend at Golden Gate Drift saw another young gun perform very well and take home a win in his second competition ever. While it isn’t the first Subaru we have seen drifting ever we sure do think it is the first wagon and first Pro Am victory by a Subaru in American drift history. Here is how the podium finished up this weekend:
1st. Dave Forman
2nd. Chris mills
3rd. Nick Bayatti
Check out all the action coming down from USDrift’s big return to Pro Am drifting. Englishtown was invaded by memorable talented drivers who took on the weather and opponents to rank during the drift weekend. I made a results post for USDrift Round 1 which can be seen here or you can enjoy our huge gallery of images showing everyone who drove over the weekend. Remember that every single print is available for sale in various print sizes.
Check out the Gallery: http://www.wreckedmagazine.com/gallery/thumbnails.php?album=341
The Evergreen Drift Pro Am series but Round 2 in the books after quite a dramatic Round 1 earlier this drift season. From some sources at the track we hear this round went much smoother thanks to the great staff present at Evergreen. Here is how the Pro Am results finished up yesterday and the grassroots round happens today.
1. Ian Fournier
2. Cameron Moore
3. Erich Hagen
One of the original Pro Am series returns this weekend with a debut 2013 event at Englishtown Raceway Park. The weather was far from perfect over the course of this weekend but it didn’t stop some amazing driving and competition from happening. Here is how the top four finished up:
1. Geoff Stonebeck
2. Paul Beiswenger
3. James Evans
4. Resse Marin
If you happen to be one of the 43,000,000 homes that picks up MAV TV which includes a ton of great motorsports programming then set your DVR to record today at 5:00pm EST or Saturday again at 12:0pm EST to record The Racing Insiders. Our head editor Joey Redmond joins the cast to talk about the state of drifting in Japan and the United States. The cast mentions going to spec cars and where can you practice to become a pro in America? All these questions and more answered on The Racing Insiders today!
The Streetwise Drift series kicked off this weekend the day after Formula Drift Round 2 with a big event at Gresham Motorsports Park. Kelsey Rowlings who we interviewed in Issue 25 qualified 6th but spun out in her Top 16 tandem run. Brandon Wicknick left Road Atlanta on Saturday and landed a much more desirable fourth place in the Pro Am Round. The biggest scoop of the weekend is Alec Holendell who we are told has been driving less than one year and is still in high school managed to land a big second place finish! Sounds like he is one to keep an eye on for the next few years. Here is how the results finished up:
1st Brad Heyl
2nd Alec Hohandell
3rd Ron Ewerth
4th Brandon Wicknick
Here are some photographs from the Round 1 weekend at Midwest Drift Union which took place over at the Lucas Oil Raceway in Indianapolis, Indiana. The photographs were taken by Jason Carroll who also shot the No Star Bash for us. Follow along the action from a Pro Am weekend that is breeding some of the new drifting stars of the future from the midwest.
Check out the Gallery: http://www.wreckedmagazine.com/gallery/thumbnails.php?album=340
After hearing about rookie Kory Keezer winning back-to-back events at Evergreen Speedway a few weeks back, we caught up with him to get some insight into how things are going his rookie season of Formula D.
Wrecked: Showing up to Long Beach for your first professional event had to be intimidating. What were your impressions of the event overall?
Kory Keezer: I earned my license from the Evergreen Drift series, and at the Evergreen track, the ProAm drivers compete on the same day and on the same course as the Formula D drivers, so I feel like we have an easier learning curve than some of the other series. The biggest difference with jumping into the pro ranks is that you have to be ready for anything and everything. You have to be really organized because you’re competing against well-funded programs that have been around for a long time. Long Beach was my first event and I didn’t get past qualifying, so I didn’t get the full experience just yet. I’m looking forward to Seattle to really shine and show my stuff.
Wrecked: How did the Long Beach event go for you and the team?
KK: Long Beach was so short since there is no Thursday practice, even though I walked the track, it’s not the same as driving it. The entry to turn 9 is a lot wider on camera than it feels in real life in a drift car. I don’t have a quick-change diff in my car, so I was limited on what I could do for gearing. Everything mechanically was going pretty well for me, unfortunately I crashed in practice and missed my first qualifying run because I was trying to get the car back together when it was my turn. When I did get my second qualifying run, the track conditions had changed from what I had experienced in practice and I wasn’t able to put down as good of a run as I would have if I had my initial qualifying run. That’s the way FD goes though!
One of the original founders of the Pro Am series with Drift Association back in 2005 are returning to hold an Am series in the north east. The 2013 schedule is four events and kicks off this month at Englishtown with the guys over at Clubloose. The USDrift crew helped run XDC for a while but officially split ways with the sanctioning body at the beginning of 2013.
The USDrift Pro Am series will feature five judges who include Formula Drift champion Chris Forsberg, Matt Petty, Mike Schneider, Dan Summers, and Formula Drift judge Brian Eggert. Two sets of judges will watch the same criteria during qualifying and their scores will be averaged. For example, Judge 1 and 2 are line, Judge 3 and 4 are angle, and Judge 5 is style. The idea is to eventually have 9 judges, with 3 judges for each criteria and then dropping the outlier scores (highest and lowest). Tandem format will remain the same and still be majority rules. What do drivers think of this new judging format USDrift is bringing to the table? Below is the schedule for the 2013 season:
May 18th Round 1- Englishtown, New Jersey (Clubloose)
June 14/15th Round 2- Summit Point, West Virginia (Hyperfest)
July 26/27th Round 3- New Jersey Motorsports Park (ARCA)
August 18th Round 4- Summit Point, West Virginia (Drift Nirvana)
The guys at Evergreen Drift announced that some errors were made at Round 1/Nissan Fest weekend which we reported on and removed a third place finisher after some heavy debate in the comments and no exact answer yet from Evergreen. Well they have released quite a book of information on what happened and how they are fixing the situation in Evergreen. Read up if you are interested below:
1. Communication.
a. it had come to our attention only after the event that Pro-Am drivers were unaware that the first two runs during qualifying were practice runs.
b. some drivers and pit crew were given wrong times to suit up and bring their cars to staging.
c. some drivers and pit crew were not notified of second drivers meeting.
d. drivers and pit crew were not notified specifics on judging criteria, specifically the ruling on one or two tires off.
A lot of simple fixes to take place with communication. A Less congested day with only Pro-Am cars will help with the juggling as well.
2. Brackets.
a. Both grassroots and Pro-Am fell victim to right side brackets being setup backwards, making the lower qualifying go first.
**** 3. Judging and Event Procession.****
During the Top 8 Battle: Michael Klingele VS Matt Vankirk, judges ended up basing their decision on the drivers leading runs. On Michaels Chase run he spun out and on Matts chase run he shut down and stopped drifting (both 0 runs); So based on just the lead runs the Judges did award MATT VANKIRK the win, however; since his car was broken, WE made the mistake of defaulting to the only running car (Michael) on to top 4.
This was a HUGE MISTAKE on our part. Matt Vankirk should have been progressed into top 4, with him out to technicalities; it would have meant a By-Run for Erich Hagen into 2nd place. Since this was completely our fault we have decided to leave no driver at penalty.
- Erich Hagen will now also be awarded 2nd place in a “tie” with Michael Klingele, and both will receive 88 points.
- Matt Vankirk is moved up to 4th place and will receive 69 points.
- Michael Klingele will keep his 2nd place position and points.
Evergreen Drift recognizes our errors and that none of the drivers or pit crew are at fault in any way. These mistakes are purely on Evergreen Drift and we apologize to the drivers, pit crews, and fans for any issues this may have caused.
