June 7, 2008
Let me start by saying, it was HOT. Something like 90-94 degrees with humidity to a maximum. As far as tires go, I was running the new Dunlop Z1 StarSpecs in a size 245. Up to now, I’d been running the DZ101s in a 255 but I used them all up in Erie. I go out for practice and soon realize I have way too much tire under this car. The Z1s are so grippy. I am fighting the car just to stay sideways. It was awful. I didn’t get one clean run all day Saturday. Also, I was still on the same two rear tires I started with. It seemed the track did not wear out tires at all. I got maybe 10 to 12 runs and the tires were still pretty good. Not even close to Erie, where after 4 runs the tires were wasted. I even broke a TC rod on Saturday. Thanks to the efforts of Ray, Tony and Damien, I was lucky enough to weld it back together for Sunday using the welder at the track’s shop. This shop was crazy, we were instructed to make sure everything was back in its place afterwards and told not to make a mess. OMG, this place was a wreck, there were engines lying around all disassembled. The tables were layered with parts and tools. I have no idea how anyone can function in that place. It took 5 minutes just to find a hammer and when we were finished with it we ever-so-gingerly slide it back into its pile.

Talking with Matt Petty about the day, he told me he didn’t know what happened but I sucked! I was pretty upset, not by the comment but because it was true! That night, a friend of ours, Civi, made the comment that I would be fine. He could tell I was trying to learn each turn one-by-one and by Sunday, I would have no issues linking the entire course together and be able to qualify. I guess I never realized I did that…It was a very astute observation.

June 8, 2008
They gave us one practice run before we had to qualify. I did not have high hopes at all; I was resigned to the fact I probably wasn’t going to qualify. Since there were only 21 or 22 drivers, I was secretly optimistic. I did my practice run and it was not very good. I lined up to do my first qualifying run and was ready to go 100%. My saying to get me pumped is, “Go BIG or go home!” I went out and laid it down, not a great run, but a decent one. I knew it was good, because my buddy Damien came flying down the bleachers to meet me at my car. He told me it was an awesome run. I was very happy…..maybe I made it. I went for my second run and tried to go bigger, it didn’t work. I got sloppy. However, I did qualify. During the announcements for top 16, my buddy Matt Waldin of Import Intelligence and I were dead even on score. They used entry speed and we were also dead even. They had to factor in our second run to decide who the higher qualifier was, and Matt won. He had a cleaner 2nd run that I did. He qualified 14th and I qualified 15th.

Qualifying Order
1. Bill Sherman (Nissan 350z)
2. Justin Pawlak (Mazda Rx-7)
3. Forest Wang (Nissan 240sx S14)
4. Jeremy Lowe (Mazda Rx-7)
5. James Robinson (Honda Element)
6.Sammy Tiger (Nissan 240sx S13)
7. Gary Lang (Nissan 240sx S13)
8.Kenji Yaminaka (Nissan 204sx S15)
9. Nick Thomas (Nissan 240sx)
10. Nate Brasz (Nissan 240sx S13) currently 1st in points
11. Aaron Losey (Nissan 240sx S13)
12. Stewart L. (Nissan 240sx S14)
13. John Wagner (Nissan 240sx S13)
14. Matt Waldin (Nissan 240sx S14)
15.Dennis Mertzanis. (Nissan 240sx S14)
16.Brian Wilkerson (Nissan 240sx S13)

For Tandem, I was to battle Justin Pawlak in the RX7 in the first round. Not an easy task for sure. He’s a great driver! His engine was not performing well, but well enough to get him qualified 2nd. After our first tandem battle, the result was a one-more-time. Wow! It’s weird how I keep getting one-more-times against some of the top drivers in this series. We go again and somehow, by luck and/or skill I pull out the win. My tires were worn, but the car was actually drifting the way it was supposed to, so I left them on.

Next, I was up against Gary Lang. He was doing very well this weekend. He had gone up against Nate Brasz, the overall points leader, in the first round and beat him. This battle was surrounded by controversy. I couldn’t believe it myself. Anyhow, after the first run, Gary was up 6 to 4. I led the tandem and had a good clean run. The starter gave me thumbs up, so I moved on. Gary lost the win due to a few mistakes – one being that he ran off course, dropping 2 tires.

My next opponent was Aaron Losey. Good driver, fast car. I’m on worn out tires, STILL THE SAME TWO, these things are dead, showing cords and coming apart. He pretty much killed me….I had a clean run, I did my best, but he killed me.

James Robinson (Ohio local driving the RWD Honda Element) lost to Bill Sherman in the Braille 350z, so it was me against James for 3rd. I had to change tires for the 3rd place battle because after the Losey run, my tires were about to explode. It was the first run on the new tires and I was struggling again to keep the car drifting. Somehow I ended up with a 9 to 1 advantage after the first run, not sure how. My run felt weak. We go again, and this time I’m leading. I go in and just throw the car sideways as hard as I could. The car drifted up to the wall and stayed there….it was a great run, I knew 3rd place was mine.

Final Order
1. Bill Sherman (Nissan 350z)
2. Aaron Losey (Nissan 240sx S13)
3. Dennis Mertzanis (Nissan 240sx S14)

It was a great weekend.

And the man that makes it all happen………………..

NOPI DRIFT ERIE

Friday, May 30, 2008 I took off about 9.30 in the morning to head to Erie, PA for round 4 of the NOPI Drift series. It took nearly 7 hours to get to the track on Friday. I show up and Matt Petty is there goofing off as usual…that boy be crazy. I just wanna caress his long beautiful locks…..haha. Anyway, he asked if I want to unload the car and do some testing. Hell yea, not gonna pass that up. Here I go to hit the first bank I have ever driven on. The course was a left hander on the bank to a transition on the straight, then left turn hugging the flat infield. IT WAS AWESOME. It was also my first time on the Dunlop Z1 star specs….these tires seemed much grippier than the DZ101s I have been running.

I basically burn up a set of tires and call it a night. My boys, Damien from Drift Brigade and Matt from Import Intelligence, show up about an hour later.

Also, we got to hear the interview between my boy Jason Ellis and JR on Jason’s Sirius radio show, Faction channel 28. It was a good plug for the Drift Alliance DVD that just came out. JR’s a cool dude, and so is Jason. It was a cool interview.

The hotel gave us some coupons for the casino located just down the road. We decided to use our $5 off for the buffet at the local casino and gamble a bit with the $5 they gave us. I ended up hitting a slot machine and won $200, it was great mainly because I didn’t have any cash. So much for needing an ATM, huh.

Saturday, May 31, 2008 was the start of the event and in the early morning it was raining. The course was actually even more fun in the wet than in the dry, but the cars came out really nasty dirty. I noticed half of the field did not drive in the morning session. Not sure why.

We all got in a lot of runs throughout the day, and the weather cleared up by 12 or 1. The boys from Texas (Stewart and Aaron) and Brian from MA Motorsports showed up at 3 or 4 pm, missing the whole day. Apparently, they went out and just got obliterated and couldn’t get up. Sammy also showed up late, he was busy building a new car from scratch.

Sunday, June 1, 2008 was a much nicer day than Saturday, but it was windier and a bit colder. The cold weather really changed the track conditions and made my car want to push on the entry to the bank. Qualifying was a bit scary because the car would push straight at the wall during my clutch-kick entry. I ended up qualifying 9th , this paired me up with Brian from MA Motorsports.

Qualifying Order
1. Kenji Yamanaka
2. Ali Aljibouri
3. Nate Brasz
4. Forest Wang
5. Gary Simmons
6. James Robinson
7. Aaron Losey
8. Brian Wilkerson
9. Dennis Mertzanis
10. Rod Campos
11. Gary Lang
12. Nick Thomas
13. John Wagner
14. Matt Waldin
15. Sammy Tiger
16. Chelsea Denofa

Brian and I lined up for tandem and something happened to Brian’s car. The judges wanted to exercise the 5 minute rule, so if he didn’t have his car up and running 5 min from the time we were supposed to run, Brian would be disqualified and I would move on. I told the starting line guy to tell the judges that Brian and I could move to the end of the tandem line to give Brian some time to get his car straight. After 15 minutes, he got it up and running and we lined up to face off.

My first run, I was following Brian when the car pushed hard into the first turn AGAIN…..I had a great run after that, but it gave Brian a 9 to 1 advantage. I was furious at my driving, so I sat in the car and said, “I’m going big, or I’m going home”. I went out and killed the best run I have ever done. I stepped the car out a little more than I ever have and just laid on the smoke-a-tron. Smoking him out was my only chance along with a flawless run.

IT WORKED. He made a few mistakes so the judges wanted to see us run again….ONE-MORE-TIME. Again, I followed for the first run. It was a good run and I was not too close, but I was there. As we blazed into the tight lefthander into the infield, Brian started to spin….I saw it and grabbed the e-brake and we performed the always cool synchronized spinning routine. I was up 10 to 0. My next run was clean and I smoked him out again. I didn’t make any major mistakes, so I moved on.

So, on to my next opponent, Top qualifier Kenji Yamanaka in his freshly painted S15, that he says he painted himself. I lined up next to Kenji’s beautiful S15. It was my turn to follow. I made a decent run behind Kenji, not too close or too far away. Kenji ends up with the advantage 7 to 3. It’s my turn to lead and I know I have to lay it down or pack up and go home. We take off; I run a great run, easily one of my best. I look at Bear, our NOPI pit official and he motions me to line up again, a one-more-time against one of the best in my opinion.

We run again, this time Kenji is up 8 to 2. I sit at the starting line knowing I have to really work to pull this off. We take off, I’m a car length away as we initiate and enter the first turn. I start to creep up on Kenji…Im holding the throttle down to the floor, watching his car get closer and closer to mine…….I let off the gas for a split second to pull back from him………It throws me to the inside line and now I’m heading straight at Kenji’s rear quarter panel and the clipping cone. I e-brake to get around the cone, slipping my car in right behind Kenji’s.

I finished strong but the throttle lift killed me and Kenji moved on. Overall, I finished 6th.

During the finals, Forest was all over Nate during the tandem runs fighting for first. I think Forest would have pulled out the win had he not hit the clipping point, aka the barrel, during the transition, exploding his bumper. Knowing he was out, Forest gave us all a great smoke show as he took an extra turn around the last sweeper.

Final Results
1. Nate Brasz
2. Forest Wang
3. Aaron Losey
4. Kenji Yamanaka
5. Ali Aljibouri
6. Dennis Mertzanis
7. Gary Lang
8. Nick Thomas
9. Gary Simmons
10. James Robinson
11. Brian Wilkerson
12. Rod Campos
13. John Wagner
14. Matt Waldin
15. Sammy Tiger
16. Chelsea Denofa

I loaded up the truck and headed out for grueling 7 hour drive home. It was a great weekend.

Check out all the pictures on wrecked magazine.

http://www.wreckedmagazine.com/gallery/thumbnails.php?album=34