The Florida drifter Zoltan Hajdu is no stranger to anyone in the know focused around the southeast drift scene. Way back when he drove a black beat up BMW and now he has this Stage 6 Nissan 240sx. Zoltan will be a rookie this year in Formula Drift with this all out turbo LS2 machine. He shouldn’t lack power at the big tracks like Las Vegas and Seattle but interesting to see how this setup fares at some other events. What do you think of the car? Full build sheet if you click read more below.
Drifting is kicking off again with 5 rounds of the Midwest Drift Union scheduled for the 2012 calendar year. The schedule takes local drivers from Ohio, Wisconsin, and Indiana. The end of the year includes an awards banquet in Indianapolis on October 6th to recap the seasons events.
Round 1 – Kilkare Speedway (Xenia, Ohio) April TBA
Round 2 – USAir (Schwano, Wisconsin) May 27th
Round 3 – Lake County Speedway (Cleveland, Ohio) July 7th
Round 4 – Lucas Oil Speedway Indy (Indianapolis, Indiana) August 11th
Round 5 – Kilkare Speedway (Xenia, Ohio) September 15th
In case you ever tried to convince someone that drifting wasn’t just full of hooligan kids doing random hood-rat shit in the time between robbing liquor stores and mugging old ladies then please don’t show them this video. All joking aside this Bloodmasters Part 1 video shows off some intense skill and entertainment all focused around Raceway Park in Englishtown, New Jersey. The video features some Formula Drift drivers such as Ryan Tuerck, Chris Forsberg, and Tony Angelo who all seem to be driving “missile” car S13′s as they slam into each other, parts of the track, and about anywhere else you could think of around the race course. My favorite part of the video falls around 3:13 when they have a five car tandem (two cars going one direction on the track and three going the other way) all at the same time. This is shown in screen capture three above. Follow the link after the video to see a full list of credits for the Bloodmasters Bloodbath Part 1 video.
If your looking to move your status from Am to the Pro Am in hopes of climbing the ranks into Formula Drift driver status then look no further than this great series in Texas. The Lone Star Drift series will kick off in March 2012 at Greyhound Park in Houston, Texas with great partners such as SPEC Clutch and Kenda Tire.
What better way to end 2011 other than a grassroots drift event hosted
by Streetwise Drift on New Years Eve. The frigid, North Carolina morning, quickly
turned into a beautiful day with temperatures topping out around 60 degrees.
The “End of the Year Bash” was held at the Metrolina Expo in Charlotte, NC. There
was something for everyone with an AWD Dyno, 5 car tandem drifting, and a
covered car corral!
The “End of the Year Bash” allowed novice drifters to get out and have some
fun. Some drivers used this day to obtain some track time and experience, while
others were able to dial in their car for the upcoming season. This event marked the
end of Streetwise Drift’s 3rd year of operation, and boy was it a great one!
Drivers such as Kurt Durjan drove all the way from Florida towing his 1996
Turbocharged Miata. Jodin Lejune showed up with his Drift Emporium
supercharged titan swap Infiniti G35 from Georgia, giving ride alongs to anyone who
asked.
Initially there was going to be a team tandem drift competition.
Unfortunately, there were not enough teams interested in participating, so the day
quickly turned into a drift day for all to enjoy with nearly unlimited track time for all
the drivers! At the end of the day, there were no winners, there were no crashes,
and there was nobody hurt, making for a great end to the 2011 Streetwise Drift
season!
A writer at BMWblog.com a few days ago named Shawn Molnar wrote a great piece about why BMW should start providing factory support in Formula Drift. The first BMW to enter Formula Drift back in 2005 was Andy Sapp with his black 3-series. Following in his footsteps several BMW projects have come and gone from the sport. Most recently and noteable has been Michael Essa with his Z4 and 335 (pictured above). Here is part of his compelling argument of why BMW should get involved and you can follow the link below to read the full story:
“BMW has long spent marketing dollars in creative ways. We’ve seen BMW throw money at sailing championships and golf championships – and considering the economic stature of the spectators, we weren’t surprised to see marketing budgets partly devoted to these sports.
BMW took a hiatus from their Hollywood product placement efforts, but they’re now back in the game with the i8 scoring a lead role in Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol – playing in theaters now. When potential buyers are paying to see your advertisement, you know you’re on to something. Previous Hollywood product placement certainly did no harm for the brand, and the young audience that Hollywood captures represents a key target market to focus on, since these youngsters will be buying the cars and motorcycles of tomorrow.”
The video at PGP highlighted some holiday drifting which was filmed by Loren Haleston with a Canon 7D. The northwestern grassroots series is quite awesome group of guys who clearly have the dedication to go drifting during the holidays when the weather is far from permitting in the region. This is one of our first pieces we have posted from Loren Haleston but we dig his work as well.
The 2012 Just Drift event series is locked in at Willow Springs just north of Los Angeles, California with plenty of events for Am drivers to get practice and excitement in for 2012. At least one event from February to December in 2012 provides drivers and fans with tons of entertainment.
1. February 25/26 – Horse Thief Mile – Open Practice/Drift Clinic
2. March 24/25 – Balcony – Top Drift Round 1
3. April 28/29 – Balcony – Open Practice/Drift Clinic
4. May 26 – Balcony – Open Practice/Drift Clinic
5. May 27 – Horse Thief Mile – Top Drift Round 2
6. June 23/24 – Horse Thief Mile – Open Practice/Drift Clinic
7. July 28 – Night Streets – Top Drift Round 3
8. August 24/25 – Speedway – Top Drift Round 4
9. September 15 – Speedway – Night Open Drift Session/Drift Clinic
10. November 17/18 – Horse Thief Mile – Open Practice/Drift Clinic
11. December 15/16 – Balcony – Toy Drift 2012
The team is half street gang and half missile drift crew which is composed of several Drift Alliance Members, a few Drift ALliance Aces, all mixed in with a few new bloods of the sport. The video boasts Ryan Tuerck, Chris Forsberg, and Tony Angelo tearing up Englishtown Raceway in what has to be one of the best drifting videos we have seen in a long time. While the Drift Alliance these days is all but dead (except for Rhys Millen joining the team) this just marks the feeling of 2004 Drift Alliance or dare I say the “Bad As Hell” days. Sit back and enjoy one awesome drifting video.
Dan Jenkins reported for duty at the 100 Drifters of December event which included drivers such as 2010 Formula Drift champion Vaughn Gittin Jr. The gallery features over 500+ images from the weekend. Our favorite car we found is the silver 5-Series BMW sliding sideways on the track!
