This past weekend was round 4 of the XDC Drift series. This was my second round that I was able to attend. After getting 4^th place in West Virginia, I was hungry for a podium finish.

During my time off in between XDC rounds I drove a few local clubloose events to get some more tandem practice in. I was starting to feel much more confident driving, and following in the solstice.  Tuerck drove my personal S13, while I got practice following him in the solstice. This helped me out a ton! At XDC West Virginia I was really struggling when it came time to follow.

So it was time to load up the rig and head to Englishtown.  Luckily for us, it’s only a half hour drive from the Race shop, which is definitely nice for a change.  Bruce and I got to the track early Friday morning to set up the rig for the weekend.

We had a quick drivers meeting before we hit the track for practice. They reviewed the track layout and clipping points as usual.

So we hit the track for practice. I was struggling to make consistent clean runs. Scott radioed me in to make a few minor alignment changes. Once we did that it was like a night and day difference. I started putting down much better runs.

Once it came time for qualifying, I was feeling confident. I watched a few other drivers and there were a lot of guys killing it so I knew I had to really put it together! I did my two runs and they felt good, but I knew I could have done better. So we went back to the drivers meeting, I ended up qualifying 8th.

Day 2, we got a good amount of practice in and I got some decent tandem practice. After practice we had a lot of down time so we did the usual maintance to the car, and got all the Falken tires mounted and ready to rock.

It came time for Top 16, the bleachers were packed, and everyone seemed to be really excited!

My first line up was against Evan Tuerck, he was looking really good in practice. I followed him first and he spun on the entry. When he followed me we both put down really solid runs, but due to Evan spinning out, I advanced.

Next up was Nate Hamilton. He was the number 1 qualifier, and was putting down some serious runs. He led first and both of us had big entries. When exiting the bank I got to close to him, and tapped into his rear fender which caused us both to spin.

It was unclear if Nate was on the brakes or not, so the judges called for a One More Time. We both made a few corrections both runs, but Hamilton ended up advancing on.

We finished in the Top 8, which is still good. I learned a lot more about the car over the course of the weekend, with a little more practice I think I’ll be ready for Texas.

Id like to thank Gary Gardella, and the whole Gardella Racing crew. Scott, Mike, Tueck, and Bruce, with out them none of this would be possible.

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