Sit back with Odi Bakchis as he takes us through the debut of his 2013 Formula Drift season at Streets of Long Beach. A completely new chassis with a LS3 engine puts power to the ground with the help of Clutch Masters product. Odi stepped up his horsepower for the new season adding nitrous to his competitive edge for the new year. See how he liks his clutch which helps him with quick starts and is always reliable.
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.
Michael Essa brought out this E46 M3 for 2013 and right out of the box looked insane compared to his Z4. This M3 runs a Clutch Masters 850 Series Twin Disk clutch which according to Essa is working out perfectly for his new drift season. Listen to what he says about his product while he rips around the Long Beach streets course.
Here is some great coverage of the Clubloose Spring Moves event that happened over the past weekend at Englishtown Raceway Park. The drift season is finally back out of hibernation after the winter in the north east. Also note you can now purchase prints of all the photographs in the gallery. Some old timers like Eric O’Sullivan were out at the track and some new drivers with good skills and great looking cars.
Check out the Gallery: http://www.wreckedmagazine.com/gallery/thumbnails.php?album=334
Issue 26 of Wrecked Magazine highlights Fredric Aasbo and his great feats during Formula Drift. After he slayed the champion during Streets of Long Beach everyone put eyes on Fredric Aasbo so we sat down to interview him. He talks about his new RS*R Toyota FT-86 powered by a NASCAR engine. We talk to Melissa Miller who is a girl drifter with a Nissan 300zx in our Girl on Girl section. Our Mustang RTR gets suspension treatment and we go In Focus on the new cars of 2013. Jacob Leveton also answers 5 Questions you might have after the new season started.
Read the Issue: http://www.wreckedmagazine.com/issues/issue26/issue26.html
KW Suspension shows off its 2013 drift team including Chris Forsberg, Dai Yoshihara, Ken Gushi, Ryan Tuerck, and Matt Powers round out the big 2013 team. This interview highlights the team, the changes they made to programs in the new year, and what KW suspension they are running. Sit back and enjoy what the team has to say.
While we covered the ADGP exhibition round with Andrew Hawkins he also stayed for the Formula Drift Asia Round 1 in Melbourne, Australia. The event saw Robbie Nishida, Fredric Aasbo, Daigo Saito, and Mad Mike just to name a few familiar faces in the series. Here is a complete gallery of the action showing Daigo Saito dismiss everyone resulting in another win which keeps his win streak alive. Follow the link below to see all the action.
Check out the Gallery: http://www.wreckedmagazine.com/gallery/thumbnails.php?album=333
The MSC series is well known for its team tandem competitions and less corporate/political vibe than other professional series around the world. Here is a video from TriangleXhamadajyuku showing off team tandem clips and some insane first turn entries by various cars. This one flat black S15 with the largest rear wing I have ever seen on a drift car performs a few entries that are impressive including the one at the closing of the video.
Daigo Saito strolled into Australia with his Achilles Lexus IS and took home another victory in the Formula Drift Asia series. If only life was this easy in America where he was eliminated after being knocked out early by Fredric Aasbo. This continues his reign of victories in Asia and puts him on a road to three-peat the championship. Here is how the top four finished:
1. Daigo Saito (Japan)
2. Tom Monkhouse (Australian)
3. Josh Boettcher (Australian)
4. Fredric Aasbo (Norway)
