We’d like to introduce you Axel. He will support and write for our blog. Axel will share his drifting, judging and building knowledge with us and we hope to get some insights in other drifting scenes all over the world through him!
Who are you?
I am Axel “Freddy2k” Mack, 27 years old, living in southside Germany, drifting since 2006, wow its 5 years now… Working as an engineer at my Sponsor Boom-Trikes.com sometimes as coach at the German Drift-Schule.de and Judging the IDS and other Series. Beside that one of my biggest hobby is building racecars.
Who’s your big idol / mentor
I don’t really have an idol, I dunno why but I like NOB Nobuteru Taniguchi from the beginning, especially his altezza in red with the HKS decals… I like his style and the part that he is a GT Driver and does the drifting just for fun.
What have you done before becoming a drifter?
I started riding motox with an age of 5. Then switched to kart, supermoto and now its grip/drift. I really like trackdays with my friends cause its like going into the karthall and race but faster and harder 😀 Someday my brother booked a drifttraining at the Sachsenring, Instructor was Wolfgang Weber which is a racedriver, we met him on a supermoto event. But my brother got ill or something and gave me his car (330D E46 Bimmer WAGON!) and I drove up the 550km to the Sachenring by night. There I met Martin, Dino and Dimi from the Driftblog, that’s how I got addicted, going sideways in 3rd gear at about 140km/h downhill to the Omega in a “FamilyVan”
Your Driftcar History?
I started drifting in a 540i Touring, I didn’t even know that that was called drifting at this time 😀 Then I did the drifttraining with the 330D from my brother including some Streetdoridori and braking rims and lower arms… Later I bought a 325i E30 convertible which I swapped to 4L V8 a year later. After a Season I sold it and bought a 328i E36 3 months after I had it I begun to swap the 1JZ in it. Never ever drifted the 328 on a event.
EUDM or JDM?
Are you serious? Why do you ask me that? I got a masterpiece of German engineering swapped with a masterpiece of Japanese engineering 😀 I really like German cars, Bimmers, Mercs and some of the Audis. Next project is a German car too, but there are some JDM cars I could imagine to drive like Aristo, Altezza or a Chaser unfortunately they are rare in Europe. I like them big and long cars.
What is important for you as a Judge?
What I want to see is a aggressive style especially entries, I used to like early e-brake entries but since I met Luke Fink I am addicted to highspeed flicks. Every taxi guest is screaming and getting scared when you do a flick at over 150km/h so I got addicted and its harder to hit a clipping point with a flick entry than with a e-brake entry. That separates the lucky bastards from the guys who are accurate.
Second thing I like is when there is a small straight between 2 turns and they try to connect it without a flick. You need power but you also need gut skills and a 100% matching line. That’s what i want to see, car under control every second!
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What is your vision about drifting in central europe / germany?
It’s getting big and its famous worldwide too I think, we have big and fast racetracks, fast cars, good drivers and there is a good mixture of nations on every event. But I think that we won’t reach the attitude like Japan or USA where drifters are payd well from big sponsors. This won’t happen here!
What will influence the european scene more? USA or Japan?
I think the serious drifters here are big influenced by the US, cause they can watch it on the internet live, they know the drivers, some of them already visited Europe and they understand the media. I think the wannabe drifter are influenced by the Japanese more, the show and shine boys, boyracers and so on.
What do you like in Drifting?
It’s a lifestyle for me, hanging around with friends, having fun, having exciting moments on the tracks, fueltalk and so on. I am not really into competition cause it spoils the fun. KEEP DRIFTING FUN or ELSE!
Plans for 2011
Judging the IDS, driving at the SportAuto Events, travelling to my buddies in the States, Czech, Hungary again and having fun on the tracks.
