The 2012 Xtreme Drift Circuit series has just announced a schedule that has 7 events on the calendar down from the 8 events last year. No more PGP for 2012 and an additional event in Buffalo, New York at Dunn Raceway Park.

Round 1 – Irwindale Speedway (Los Angeles, California) – March 3rd
Round 2 – Firebird Raceway (Phoenix, Arizona) – April 14th
Round 3 – Central Florida Racing Complex (Orlando, Florida ) – May 19th/20th
Round 4 – Summit Point (West Virginia) – June 16th
Round 5 – Dunn Racewa (Buffalo, New York) – July 21st
Round 6 – DMCC in USA Vs. Canada (Montreal, Canada) – September 2nd/3rd
Round 7 – Texas Motor Speedway (Dallas, Texas) – September 22nd

We have three builds rolling out to the 2011 SEMA Show this year and here a preview of them. We are bringing three vehicles out to the show all in part of the launch for our new website. The first one is the 2012 Hyundai Veloster above we built with our parent company as a Universal Technical Institute Race Support vehicle with Snap-On Tools and Mechanix Wear gloves. We imported a ton of parts from Korea, slammed it with KW Suspension, and built out an awesome interior while keeping a great street build.

1. 2012 Hyundai Veloster – Hyundai Booth (#24387) 

The second car we are bringing to SEMA you might recognize as our Wrecked Magazine Project V8 240sx. The car this week has jumped way ahead of our blog posts as you can see (they will be updated here after we recover from SEMA) and we cannot wait to wheel it into the Kenda Tire booth at SEMA. Our LS3 crate engine from GMPP is all setup in the 240sx with fuel coming from Aeromotive and cooling from Mishimoto. A huge suspension overall from ISIS and APEX’i has the car setup in competition form. Some fresh paint from Dupont, a new widebody kit, and some Enkei RPF1 wheels complete this awesome S13.

2. 1991 Wrecked Magazine Project V8 240sx - Kenda Tire (#40017) 

This is the old Jeff Jones Formula Drift Mazda Rx-7 that we have been working on tirelessly this week. The car looks insane with a new body kit and a 2JZ engine swap. We will have much more of an update on how things went down with this car on our new website Fuelculture coming up. The car has tons of great sponsors and some insane looking gaudiness that takes this car straight out of the Middle East.

3. 1993 Mazda Rx-7 R1 – Konig Wheels Booth (#45033) 

One of the coolest projects we talked about around this 2011 SEMA Show is the Sideways to SEMA which is put on by Chelsea DeNofa. The 2011 XDC champion is driving his new BC Racing BMW. The car looks to be a gold/purple mix and carries most of his same sponsors like ACT Clutch. This car will also be in the BC Racing Booth for the show. You can check it out in the BC Racing booth at SEMA in booth #24955.

Follow the Tour: http://www.apexusblog.com/2011/10/sideways-to-sema-stint-three-ft-worth-to-albuquerque/

Found this snapshot on Facebook and it looks like Will Parsons got tagged and went for quite a ride after Dan Savage made contact with him in the Sikky S13. Will Parsons went airborne in his AE86 and flew off the track at XDC this weekend. What a ride he went on after they made contact.

The 2011 XDC season is in the books after a great event at Texas Motor Speedway. Chelsea DeNofa is the overall 2011 XDC champion making him a back to back champion with the XDC series. Former FD driver Doug Van Den Brink pulled off a great event in his Ford Mustang with a second place finish. Elite JDM’s Nick D’Alessio finished it off with a podium spot. A great podium and close to the 2011 season with XDC. Here is how the podium finished:

1. Chelsea DeNofa
2. Doug Van Den Brink
3. Nick D’Alessio

The qualifying session is over for the weekend at XDC. The season comes to a close after today at Texas Motor Speedway which had 2010 champion Chelsea DeNofa qualify first. Here is how the top 16 stacked up:
1. Chelsea DeNofa
2. Doug Van Den Brink
3. James Evans
4. Dan Savage
5. Will Parsons
6. Nick D’Alessio
7. George Marstanovic
8. Justin Garner
9. Fielding Shredder
10. Nate Hamilton
11. Josh Steele
12. Steve Angerman
13. Stewart Leask
14. Aaron Losey
15. Aaron Smith
16. Brock White

Cheralyn Smith from ACT Clutch just wrote up a great article on fraudulent sponsorships over at the company blog. Here is a sample of the post she made on the subject which continues over at the company blog. Feel free to follow along here and follow the link below to read the complete story.

Being collateral damage or being swindled by a fraudulent sponsorship is something no one wants. When you might see hundreds to thousands of sponsorship proposals in a given year in the motorsports industry, especially at the busiest times of the year like the build-up to the SEMA show, how do you filter the good from the bad?

“I’ve been working in the industry and dealing with sponsorships for 15 years,” said Cheralyn Smith, Marketing Manager at Advanced Clutch Technology, “At ACT, we get hundreds of proposals in a given year, and usually sponsor 40 to 50 of them. However, it seems like in the last couple of years, the amount of fraudulent proposals we receive is growing.”

“With the advent of social media, it seems easier for people to put together fraudulent proposals,” Smith said. “The information is readily available and they can pull images of someone else’s car, logos, car build information and use them in their fake proposals.”

Many of these fake proposals are often a way for the requestor to get cash, or free parts and other goods to turn around and sell for profit. Manufacturers can equip themselves with simple verification measures. Dino Rossi, Jr., Product Manager of Vibrant Performance offered one way Vibrant Performance verifies the legitimacy of the proposals they receive.

“If you don’t know them, structure the deal so you can’t get burned,” Rossi said. “If the person seeking sponsorship is unwilling to accept your terms, walk away because, in most cases, they need you more than you need them.”

Read the Full Story: http://advancedclutch.wordpress.com/2011/09/23/is-that-sponsorship-proposal-legitimate/

Here is the 2011 drivers list for the big Round 7 finals in Texas. The event takes off over at Texas Motor Speedway and lacks some of it’s common drivers due to a DMCC conflict this weekend in Montreal. We have our eye on a few specific drivers that we think will do really well over the weekend. Here is who has entered so far:

DougVan Den Brink
Fielding Shredder
Chelsea DeNofa
George Marstanovic
Buckey Laing
Stewart Leask
Vitaly Sopkin
Will Parsons
Nick D’Alessio
Sarah Burgess
James Evans
Nate Hamilton
Steve Angerman
Dan Savage
Joshua Steele
Brad Hettinger
Robert Turnbow
Timothy Smith
Brock White

Jeremy Glover attacked some USA Vs. Canada mayhem with his lens over the past weekend. While Americans celebrated Labor Day around the country some drivers went and invaded Canada. They didn’t seem to care about our holiday and threw one hell of a Round 6 which they dubbed USA Vs. Canada. The Americans took home the victory in the end but check out how much fun everyone had in the process.

Check Out the Gallery: http://www.wreckedmagazine.com/gallery/thumbnails.php?album=261

Walker Wilkerson down right dominated the weekend by qualifying 1st, winning insane entry, and finished second overall for the weekend. In his final battle against Nate Hamilton he blew out his differential giving Nate Hamilton the victory. XDC is winding down with just one championship round left in Texas. Here is how the podium looked:

1st- Nate Hamilton
2nd- Walker Wilkerson
3rd- Mike Phillips