Qualification Preps
Night fell, and went. We met up in Zurich and drove back to the track. I knew I had to be there early because some work needed to be done to my car – The clutch pedal kept getting stuck to the ground causing me to miss gears from time to time.
We settled on bleeding the clutch system and hoping for the best for qualification.
Hard at work bleeding my clutch
Toby acting all hardcore
It was slightly less hot than yesterday which was a welcome change. Lots of supporters arrived to cheer for Speed Industries, our little pit area was surprisingly packed with people!
It was awesome to meet all you guys out there, we had a great time with many laughs and Toby even took out the grill for some sweet Speed Industries BBQ action!
Marco Bolognese from Trackdays.ch was filming all day
Qualifications
There was no more training time, it went right into qualification for the Pro class.
We lined up to wait our turn. I now started to get quite nervous – not only because I wasn’t confident about my line, but also because I couldn’t test if bleeding the clutch solved the gear change problems.
To qualify for the twin battles, we had to make it into the Top16.
Tobias and I hung around for a bit and watched some of the other guys qualification runs.
Suddenly, it was my turn. I turned on the GoPro camera to record my runs and went off!
It was a three-lap stint with 1 warm-up lap then 2 qualification laps. The better one of those 2 qualification laps counted.
I went in full speed for my training run and tried to hug a tight line to carry a lot of speed into the long final corner. As I hit the 2nd gear limiter I tried to get into 3rd gear and dumped the clutch.
I failed, the car fell into turbo lag mode and straightened out. Since it was just the warm-up run it was no biggie, so I decided not to try 3rd gear anymore in this corner.
Now it was crunch time. 2 runs to qualify and I had to make them count. First lap I went for a safe run, making sure I don’t straighten out or spin just going with medium speed. It went quite well, I could connect it entirely with acceptable entry speed, good angle and a bit of smoke.
Me taking a tight line into the first corner and to the transition
This meant I could push it for the second qualification run. This time I nailed it down nicely with good entry speed, good angle and acceptable smoke so I was pretty much certain I had qualified.
I didn’t see Tobias qualification runs, but the guys told me he ran very smoothly with a nice line and even more smoke than me so I was relieved to hear that!
Toby ripping trough the final corner with good angle and smoke. He qualified easily
Weirdly there was no more Top16, because some cars got mechanical problems and some dudes crashed so they ended up making it a Top12 battle instead.
In the end Tobias qualified on 5th place,and I qualified on 3rd place.
It was suddenly looking better and we were feeling more confident. The tension was gone, which felt good.
Street-class qualifying
Now it was time for the street category qualifyings. Our runner up rookie Don Icon was trying to tear it up in his Skyline.
He wasn’t feeling too confident all of a sudden, since he only had 2 training laps the day before. He watched all the Pro-class qualifyings to check out their lines and entries.
Here’s a quick rundown from his view:
<<Three,Two, One, ACTION. My first warmup lap was a horrible experience. I flew in with quite a bit of speed, but started to realize the damn first corner really is invisible while coming uphill! Blackout! Where do I go, where do I initiate the drift? Aaah! I spun out early in the run, but finished the rest of it more or less OK.
I had very mixed feelings for the 2 qualifying runs now.
On my first run, I played it safe – I just wanted to avoid a spin. I managed to pull it off– no idea how, but I did a clean run on this foreign track. Wohoo!
First qualifying run went quite well for Icon
So for my second qualifying run, I thought it’s really time to speed things up. My entry probably looked just like D1…. The only problem was I had overspeeded quite a lot!
I flew into the dirt and pretty close to the photographers, who all got a nice dose of dust in their faces! Sorry guys!
So the lesson for me was: Don’t compete with just 2 training laps! Still, it was an awesome experience!! >>
Super D1 style entry speed. Unfortunately, the rest of this particular cornering attempt didn’t go quite as smoothly
Eat my dust, photographers!!
Get Ready to Rumbleeeee
After hanging out with the supporters in our pit area for a while we were informed about the rankings, and asked to line up for the twin battles. Now we were truly getting excited.
Since we qualified so well (Top6) we could skip the first round of battles and advanced to the second round automatically. We waited for the first round to finish and prepared for BATTLE.
First Contact
I was up against a guy in a dark BMW 3-series compact for my first battle.
The madman had put the engine from an M3 in it, so the little thing ran like HELL! Off the line he totally annihilated me. I was chasing in this round, so I pushed hard to keep up on the straights and up to the first entry.
On the first transition I fucked up slightly because I missed the gear. I lost the drift, straightened out and he took a noticeable lead. I managed to catch up again by the end of the run but he clearly had the advantage now.
Now I had to lead for the second run. I knew it’s all or nothing at this point, if I couldn’t manage to pull away and smoke him on this run it’s game over. I pushed haaard on the straightway to build a lot of speed. My opponent didn’t break a sweat and followed me very closely.
And then I lucked out – just after entering the first corner sideways with quite a bit of speed, the guy in the BMW overdid it. He overspeeded, dirtdropped into the grass and spun out. Whew…
The beemer overspeeding in the second run
The first battle was mine, although I was lucky. I guess if he had managed to follow on the second run, it would’ve been a ‘One more time’.
Looks like Drift Jesus was on my side in this battle.
JDM 13 vs. EDMS13
Meanwhile Tobias was going into his first battle as well.He was up against an S13, with a rather rookie driver.
He followed on the first lap, but took it easy and left quite a bit of distance to his opponent in front. There was quite a gap but since the rookie driver made some weird moves, Toby could close that gap fast.
While leading Tobias just did his thing and smoked him!Wooohoo things were looking good!
Germany vs. Japan
I was up against another BMW, this time a turquoise 5series with a V8 engine. I had seen some of his training runs and it looked like he had plenty of smoke and balls to cause trouble.
I was leading on the first run. From the start, I tried to carry a lot of speed into the fast 3rd gear corners.
This seemed to work as he already fell back in that section. I had a slight lead coming into the first transition, but now he was suddenly catching up.
I took a very tight line just centimetres from the clipping points to carry as much speed with me as possible. It didn’t look spectacular at all, but it was quick as I finished the first run with noticeably higher speed and a huge lead.
I knew I had the advantage now. For the following run,I just needed to make sure to stay right on his ass from beginning to end.
I messed up the entry slightly, had to clutch-kick once to get out of turbo lag mode. Other than that I was on his tail trough almost the entire run and that earned me another win.
First encounter with the Soarer
Now it was time for Tobias next battle. He lined upagainst a mean looking green Soarer, which ran on Biofuel and had a solid driver behind the wheel. Toby was leading for the first round and built a huge gap right off the start. Things were looking good.
In the second run Tobias was chasing and it was getting dark.
The Soarer did a crazy initiation for the first corner. Tobias was caught off guard for a split second managed to keep up nevertheless.
Toby closing in on the soarer
The Soarer was pretty slow and it was easy to catch up but very hard to adjust the speed to match his. So this round was equal with a 7-3 and 3-7 in the two rounds.
The judges wanted to see a one more time.
This time the Soarer was leading first. Toby did a waybetter run than the first time so he knew he only had to get a solid run while leading.
He went in HARD with wonderful angle and speed, but unfortunately too hard as he spun out the only time this weekend but in the most critical situation. The Soarer went on to the Top 8. Nooooooo.
They come at night
The sun was setting now, the track was becoming quite dark. This is when we noticed that a.) the track itself was not illuminated atall b.) most opponents had no functioning headlamps
This would be interesting for sure.
The Speed Industries supporters making some noise!
I was getting even more excited at this point. This was my first twin battle in the dark. The feeling of tension when it’s just you against your opponent in the darkness was awesome.
I didn’t feel nervous at all at this point, just pumped up on adrenaline und red bull.
Semi-Finals
Please excuse the wall of text, but by this point it was so dark that even a pro like DonThomaso couldn’t get any more decent pictures at these speeds.
This was already the Semi-Finals, and I was going up against the same guy who had smoked Toby. His Soarer was big and heavy, but it had plenty of power to make sure it goes into the right direction. Also, the guy driving it clearly knew what he was doing as he proved by beating Tobias.
We launched off for the first run – He was ahead, I was following. On the main straight the guy suddenly started Manji drifting on the straightway long before the first judged corner even came up.
I realized I can’t just drive straight while he’s already drifting so I took it sideways as well and tried to copy his special line which proved quite hard to do.
We flew into the first corner. I had to brake quite alot in this battle because the heavier Soarer lost more speed in the transitions. I suspected he had the advantage after this first battle, because by braking a lot while following I almost straightened out at one point.
On my leading run, I tried to carry a lot of speed because I knew my chance was to open a big gap between him and me using the advantage of having the lighter car.
He managed to keep up more or less despite that, and the judges wanted to see a ‘One more time’. And so we did. I was leading again, and started pushing really hard. Again I tried to run away right from the start, with not so much smoke and angle, but tons of speed trough the 2nd gear corners.However, in the first transition I missed a gear and my drift aborted. Where’s Drift Jesus when you need him!
That’s probably why the judges wanted yet ANOTHER ‘onemore time’ after that run.
I was chasing him in the next run and noticed that my opponent’s tires were starting to tear apart – There was a constant stream ofsparks flying out from underneath his car. It looked super awesome because it was pitch black dark, except for our headlamps and his tire sparks.
His worn out tires allowed me to catch up quite a bit on the fourth run. In the final corner I closed in hard, leaving just the smallest of gaps between his car and mine going full throttle smoking out of the final corner! The crowd was loving it. And us two were having a blast as well.
Closing in hard in the final corner
When closing in on the final corner, I lifted the gaspedal for a split-second because I thought I was about to hit him. By doing so I straightened out slightly, and had to reinitiate the drift.
This was probably the decider for the judges – I had been smoked. By the same guy who smoked Toby.
Nonetheless, since this was already the semi-finals I could now have a go to battle for 3rd place.
Battle for 3rd place
I was up against a german guy who works for a big german car magazine. He is a test driver there, and seemed to be using a pretty stock looking BMW 3series drift car. It wasn’t a big spec car. No monstrous wings onthe back or anything.
He told me it’s supercharged, but still made 200hp at most.
But that guy knew how to take the maximum out of the car he was using – From what I saw in the trainings, his entry speed was pretty sick and his driving very smooth and controlled.
I knew it’d take a few perfect runs to get that sweet 3rd place podium finish.
We blasted off into the darkness, I was leading.
It was SO DARK at this point that you could really not see where the corners were anymore. I just pulled the handbrake hard and hoped for the best.
Upon entering the first corner, I almost thought it’s game over as I overspeeded quite badly and had to brake hard to avoid flying off into nirvana. But I managed to keep the drift going with a wider line and pulled trough.
I then kinda messed up the first transition as I fell into turbo lag mode and had to switch to 1st gear for a few seconds. Other than that it was a tidy run.
Since I took very tight lines close to the clipping points and had the power advantage it allowed me to pull away quite a bit on the long final corner.
Things were looking good, I thought I have the advantage now. Just needed to follow that guy one more time as closely as possible.
But he was having none of it – The guy fired off likea rocket right from the start. I knew he was in full battle mode when he didn’t even seem to lift the throttle trough the fast 3rd gear corners. I could barely keep up even tough I had a lot more power!
It sure was inspiring to watch him go like mad in a relatively stock BMW.
I was expecting one of his kamikaze style entries to get away from me. We flew in with huge speed and nice angle, I was even catching up to him during this fast entry, it felt wonderful!
But then it all went wrong. On the next transition to the left I was pretty close to him and wanted to ease off the gas just a tiny bit to make sure we don’t crash together. That brief instant of letting off the gas was the decider, as I spun out and came to a halt right on the transition. The line I had taken sucked too, so that probably didn’t help either.
I cursed, slammed in 1st gear and burned hard trying to make up the time I had lost.
I managed to catch up a bit again until the end of the run, but my spin at the start was enough to convince the judges.
I had been smoked, again.
It was clear that I was out of the competition at this point, but I just could not stop grinning… He had earned the win and I was just happy to have been able to have a part in these incredible battles!
After waiting for the final to finish, we rolled off the track, getting cheered on left and right by the audience. We flashed my highbeams, revved the engine and waved to everyone, even though they couldn’t see us anyway. It didn’t matter, we were having a ball!
We rolled out of to the pits, and were greeted by lots of spectators cheering and waving. We made some noise to forge a path to get back to our tent.
Results
A bit later, the winners were put on the podium.
Congratulations to the guy from Team DarkDog for taking 1st place! 2nd place went to Sebastien Anger in his green Toyota Soarer, the guy who smoked both Tobias and Myself. Well done!
3rd place went to Uwe Sener from the big car magazine. I believe he really earned the podium against me with a better performance in our final battle. Nice going!
I was up in 4th place, and Tobias grabbed 5thplace. We were quite happy with the results, but swore that one of us will need to get a podium finish at the KD Race 2011!
We received a few gifts from the big sponsor DarkDog Energy Drink. 24 cans of energy drink, and a bag of goodies like hats, pens, t-shirts, keychains and the like. The podium winners received a set of tires to go with it.
But the biggest surprise of the night was our prime rookie Don Icon who managed to grab 4th place in the amateur class! Sweeeet man! We couldn’t believe it ourselves, especially considering he had almost no training time at all! Wohoooo!
We went back to our tents, hung out with our supporters some more and had another late-night BBQ. Then it was unfortunately time to call it a day. We started packing up and loading the racecars onto the trailers.
I was still so pumped on adrenaline and caffeine that even after getting home at like 4 am, I was wide awake.
The next day I paid for it with what I call a drift hangover or “Driftover”. I could barely move and everything hurt. But it was so worth it.
Special thanks
Overall we’d like to thank Team MSO for the organization of the event – I couldn’t believe how many people came to watch,and there was such an easygoing vibe all across the track. Random people came to congratulate us after the battles, it was awesome.
Many thanks to Marco Bolognese from Trackdays.ch – he was risking his ass all day filming every run right next to the track. His labor has already shown fruits, as you can see his splendid movie of KD Race 2010 on top of this Blog entry.
Thanks to Thomas Jucker from donthomaso.ch for documenting the entire weekend with his badass photography skills and uber camera equipment. All the pictures you saw here were taken by Thomas. Big props man!
So many thanks to all visitors and supporters, it wouldn’t be half as fun without you!! And of course a special thanks to the sponsors who made this event possible.
Last but not least we’d like to thank the guys from Anneau du Rhin for renting the racetrack to a bunch of mad drifters. Even though drifters have the reputation of destroying all the plants and tirewalls on any track at any given time by crashing into everything. Awesome!
Coming soon
We will report back soon with results from our upcoming events. In 2 weeks time Team Speed Industries will be attending the second round of the German IDS Drifting Championship at the Nürburgring.
Before that, Icon and me will go tear it up the coming weekend at the second round of the French FDC Drifting Championship in Pousy. I can’t wait for that! I’ll try to do a writeup of that as well.
Over and out.
Alain
PS: What, still reading? Then I will thank you for reading all the way trough with a few more random pictures! See you soon
