So many thanks for these wonderful photographs go out to donthomaso.ch photography and Lisa Linke photography!
Arrived in Monza, chill people, chill atmosphere, ultra hot weather. Holy crap! Stinking flies and mosquitos everywhere. They kept flying directly into Jo’s nose and mouth, which was extremely amusing to me. Is this heat normal in Italy? We live in the wrong country..
The track was not ready yet, since they still had to put up all the walls and plastic elements for lay out the course. It would be a paddock course, so not the well-known Monza GP Course.
However that was fine with me, since I’d be rolling out the all-new ZÜRIDRIFT S14 for the first time. As you can read here, my old green bird was dead and we had been working on getting the new white S14 somewhat competitive within 2 weeks.
We barely managed to get it ready just the day before. I couldn’t wait to see how it would perform, but I knew it wouldn’t be likely to have a 100% working setup on the first try. Upon a first test run on the fun little 2nd gear course, the car felt quite alright. Engine was a bit laggy but generally I felt quite at home after throwing it into the corner for the first time.
We were having an excellent time doing some drift trains with Andrew, Dirtdrop Phil, Christian Kögler and the other usual suspects.
Then around 2 hours into the afternoon I thought it was about time for my S14 to explode. And so it did. The fuel pump fuse blew because the electrics in the fuel tank were probably installed by an orangutan. The cables of the pump were not isolated, so every time these two cables touched the fuse would blow. Cool.
Then we noticed that one ignition coil was loose, giving me misfires under boost. We fixed both the fuel pump and coil with the help of Martin from Driftteam Switzerland and some of our supporters.
The S14 suddenly ran much better and felt a bit less laggy. Awesome! So for the first time since a long time, I was doing actual driving instead of fixing. Of course the seat position sucked, the e-brake didn’t work properly, the engine would shut off when braking hard, would overheat too quickly and so on but at least the car was running.
Andrew wasn’t so lucky – toward the end of Day 1, his clutch was dead. We started emergency planning – I organized a friend who’d bring a replacement clutch to Monza early in the morning of day 2. Andrew and Jo would go mental on the car, putting it on the trailer and start removing the gearbox. They were determined to make it to the Day 2 qualifying sessions which would end at 18:00.
So they had one full day to get this new clutch in and everything working. But they had virtually no tools, and no proper place to work on the car so I knew it was going to take them a long time.
So on Day 2, I carried on practicing, getting used to the car and doing constant taxi rides for visitors and friends. Andrew and Jo plus many supporters were trying to get his car fixed in the meantime. I felt really bad for Andrew, but I’ve had many events turn out like that for me… I guess the car can’t always work as intended even if you got a solid setup.
I should’ve started testing with different tires and the alignment or fixing up small things that annoyed me on the car. But I was honestly just happy to have a somewhat working car for once, so I only changed tire pressure sometimes and drifted to excite many many taxi guests using low grip tires.
I didn’t really bother too much about the setup. It felt too snappy with huge grip on the rear which wasn’t perfect for this paddock course but I didn’t give a shit and just drove it like an angry pirate to avoid straightening in the slower parts of the track.
Later on one of the judges told me that my runs were looking really good and I was one of the few drivers hitting the outer clipping points nicely so I wasn’t nervous about qualifying. Then there was a huge crash where the „Drifthunter“ hit the fence hard with his E46 BMW. At first it looked like a write-off but it turned out the madman went to some garage and got the car fixed up again later on! Awesomeeee!
In the late afternoon, it was time for qualifying. We had two hours to qualify. Andrew and the crew were already fitting the gearbox back on so I was confident they’d finish in time.
Before qualifying I wanted to try out my high grip tires. I rolled up with my fancy fat tires and low tire pressure. I was instantly asked to do my qualifiers.. I said I’d rather test out these different tires first, but was kind of pushed to start my qualifying directly. I wasn’t too happy about that and felt rushed but I thought „let’s just get it over with“.
My qualifying runs turned out terrible. These new tires had so much grip combined with my snappy rear axle so the car barely went sideways. I banged in three really bad qualifying runs, but since there were only like 14 PRO drivers left, I knew I would qualify either way. But I wasn’t satisfied with my runs after having done so well on low grip tires.
I ended up 5th place in qualifying with a very weak 62 points. That was my worst qualifying score this year so that sucked!
But even worse than that – 10 minutes before qualifying ended Andrew had finally finished his clutch repair job. They put the wheels back on, and wanted to start the car for qualifying. But the car wouldn’t start!! It turns out the starter was also dead, so they tried all sorts of tricks to get the engine running.
But it wasn’t to be – at 18:00 the qualifying sessions were over. Andrew could not get the car running on time, and was disqualified. Nooooooooooo!!! I felt so bad for him after they worked all day on the car, determined to make it to qualifying. Aaargh
On top of all that, it started raining hard now.So for the battle day, I was the only driver from Team Speed Industries to battle it out, and now suddenly in rainy conditions. Oh my! Many others had problems too, so it was an instant Top8 because there were only 8 PRO Drivers left.
Before that, we decided it could be a good idea to drive the racecar around the streets of Monza at night. (I had day registration plates on for some testing runs, so it was sort-of street legal)
We were giggling like stoned school girls setting off car alarms and rollin‘ super-slammed gangster style trough the city. Unfortunately, the car then developed a massive water leak in the middle of nowhere in Monza at midnight. I desperately searched for water to fill up the radiator again and finally found the leak and managed to fix it. Not a good preparation for battle day. We arrived in the hotel at like 2AM stressed out and super tired. I guess that’s why it’s called racecar and not streetcar.
On battle day, I woke up feeling like crap. The whole stress of getting the car ready within 2 weeks and everything that happened troughout the weekend seemed to have taken it’s toll on me. I was feeling tired, stressed and really not in the zone..
By the time the battles came on, I was still feeling unfocused, even though I had poured an alarming amount of red bull into my face and even jumped around in circles like a crackmonkey trying to wake up! Really did not like going into the battles feeling like that, but it had to be done.
I rolled up to meet my Top8 opponent – Matthias Burdinski in his orange S13. Matthias is a driver who has grown a lot since I first saw him drive. Since I was not feeling all that fresh I took it easy on both runs. Matthias banged in solid runs, so a one-more-time was called.
This time I put the pedal down a bit harder, but still running safe. I won the battle with a small 1-point difference and was in the Top4. Even this first battle felt like a huge struggle for me, it felt more like the car was driving me than the other way around.
I was now up against Michael Scherr, current points leader in the ranking. His 300zx has really evolved to a extremely competitive, powerful and quick car so I knew I was in for a hard battle.
I tried to focus but knew I as not running on 100% today. My chase run was OK, managed to keep up with Scherr’s beast. After a mediocre lead run from my side, a one-more-time was called again. I increased the angryness a little and chased him down quite well I thought. But then I completely messed up my lead run by hitting two cones. Nooo!
I didn’t even notice that I hit those cones which kinda proved to me I wasn’t fully focused in the battles. Normally, you can just feel if you hit a cone… As expected, Scherr was given the win and went on to the finals. I had to go up against Christian Kögler for the battle for 3rd place.
I always thought we are pretty mad here at Speed Industries. But Christian Kögler, that guy takes the cake. His self-made unspinnable mega angle BMW-powered turbo S13 is just mental, and he’s become a really strong driver as well. He layed down a solid lead run while I managed to keep up but I had a more shallow line.
He had the advantage now, so I knew I had to go all out on my lead run to take the advantage back. I threw it in hardcore upon entry, but right after the first clip I was going too fast, overshot and rammed an outer cone. I managed to get back on the line, but knew Kögler was eating me alive now since I had a bad line and lost lots of speed.
And he really was turning it up, chasing me down with just a few centimeters of distance between our cars. Really strong performance! I knew I was out after that battle, so I rolled away from the start line even before they announced who won.
I was feeling bad for messing up the runs, but at least for once my car didn’t explode right when the battles started or something. It was all down to me, dialing in with my new car but unfortunately wasn’t able to pull out my potential as a driver. Lame!
I’ll need to think how to be better prepared, more rested and more focused for the next battle day at the Finals at the Nürburgring. Because this weekend I went so hardcore on preparing my new car for the event, going mental in practice and organizing the on-site stuff that I was just completely out of energy by Sunday.
Still, I was so happy for all the support from Andrew, our supporters and crew and especially my girlfriend who was there at my side during all of this. Thanks everybody! Hopefully I can pull off some proper driving at the finals, because I know with this new car much more is possible than a mere 4th place position!
In the end, Philippe ‚DirtDropPhil‘ Guillod took the win, with Michael Scherr getting 2nd place and Christian Kögler on 3rd place. Congratulations guys, you deserved the podium spots much more than me that day!
See you all at the finals in 2 weeks!
Arrived in Monza, chill people, chill atmosphere, ultra hot weather. Holy crap! Stinking flies and mosquitos everywhere. They kept flying directly into Jo’s nose and mouth, which was extremely amusing to me. Is this heat normal in Italy? We live in the wrong country..
The track was not ready yet, since they still had to put up all the walls and plastic elements for lay out the course. It would be a paddock course, so not the well-known Monza GP Course.
However that was fine with me, since I’d be rolling out the all-new ZÜRIDRIFT S14 for the first time. As you can read here, my old green bird was dead and we had been working on getting the new white S14 somewhat competitive within 2 weeks.
We barely managed to get it ready just the day before. I couldn’t wait to see how it would perform, but I knew it wouldn’t be likely to have a 100% working setup on the first try. Upon a first test run on the fun little 2nd gear course, the car felt quite alright. Engine was a bit laggy but generally I felt quite at home after throwing it into the corner for the first time.
We were having an excellent time doing some drift trains with Andrew, Dirtdrop Phil, Christian Kögler and the other usual suspects.
Then around 2 hours into the afternoon I thought it was about time for my S14 to explode. And so it did. The fuel pump fuse blew because the electrics in the fuel tank were probably installed by an orangutan. The cables of the pump were not isolated, so every time these two cables touched the fuse would blow. Cool.
Then we noticed that one ignition coil was loose, giving me misfires under boost. We fixed both the fuel pump and coil with the help of Martin from Driftteam Switzerland and some of our supporters.
The S14 suddenly ran much better and felt a bit less laggy. Awesome! So for the first time since a long time, I was doing actual driving instead of fixing. Of course the seat position sucked, the e-brake didn’t work properly, the engine would shut off when braking hard, would overheat too quickly and so on but at least the car was running.
Andrew wasn’t so lucky – toward the end of Day 1, his clutch was dead. We started emergency planning – I organized a friend who’d bring a replacement clutch to Monza early in the morning of day 2. Andrew and Jo would go mental on the car, putting it on the trailer and start removing the gearbox. They were determined to make it to the Day 2 qualifying sessions which would end at 18:00.
So they had one full day to get this new clutch in and everything working. But they had virtually no tools, and no proper place to work on the car so I knew it was going to take them a long time.
So on Day 2, I carried on practicing, getting used to the car and doing constant taxi rides for visitors and friends. Andrew and Jo plus many supporters were trying to get his car fixed in the meantime. I felt really bad for Andrew, but I’ve had many events turn out like that for me… I guess the car can’t always work as intended even if you got a solid setup.
I should’ve started testing with different tires and the alignment or fixing up small things that annoyed me on the car. But I was honestly just happy to have a somewhat working car for once, so I only changed tire pressure sometimes and drifted to excite many many taxi guests using low grip tires.
I didn’t really bother too much about the setup. It felt too snappy with huge grip on the rear which wasn’t perfect for this paddock course but I didn’t give a shit and just drove it like an angry pirate to avoid straightening in the slower parts of the track.
Later on one of the judges told me that my runs were looking really good and I was one of the few drivers hitting the outer clipping points nicely so I wasn’t nervous about qualifying. Then there was a huge crash where the „Drifthunter“ hit the fence hard with his E46 BMW. At first it looked like a write-off but it turned out the madman went to some garage and got the car fixed up again later on! Awesomeeee!
In the late afternoon, it was time for qualifying. We had two hours to qualify. Andrew and the crew were already fitting the gearbox back on so I was confident they’d finish in time.
Before qualifying I wanted to try out my high grip tires. I rolled up with my fancy fat tires and low tire pressure. I was instantly asked to do my qualifiers.. I said I’d rather test out these different tires first, but was kind of pushed to start my qualifying directly. I wasn’t too happy about that and felt rushed but I thought „let’s just get it over with“.
My qualifying runs turned out terrible. These new tires had so much grip combined with my snappy rear axle so the car barely went sideways. I banged in three really bad qualifying runs, but since there were only like 14 PRO drivers left, I knew I would qualify either way. But I wasn’t satisfied with my runs after having done so well on low grip tires.
I ended up 5th place in qualifying with a very weak 62 points. That was my worst qualifying score this year so that sucked!
But even worse than that – 10 minutes before qualifying ended Andrew had finally finished his clutch repair job. They put the wheels back on, and wanted to start the car for qualifying. But the car wouldn’t start!! It turns out the starter was also dead, so they tried all sorts of tricks to get the engine running.
But it wasn’t to be – at 18:00 the qualifying sessions were over. Andrew could not get the car running on time, and was disqualified. Nooooooooooo!!! I felt so bad for him after they worked all day on the car, determined to make it to qualifying. Aaargh
On top of all that, it started raining hard now.So for the battle day, I was the only driver from Team Speed Industries to battle it out, and now suddenly in rainy conditions. Oh my! Many others had problems too, so it was an instant Top8 because there were only 8 PRO Drivers left.
Before that, we decided it could be a good idea to drive the racecar around the streets of Monza at night. (I had day registration plates on for some testing runs, so it was sort-of street legal)
We were giggling like stoned school girls setting off car alarms and rollin‘ super-slammed gangster style trough the city. Unfortunately, the car then developed a massive water leak in the middle of nowhere in Monza at midnight. I desperately searched for water to fill up the radiator again and finally found the leak and managed to fix it. Not a good preparation for battle day. We arrived in the hotel at like 2AM stressed out and super tired. I guess that’s why it’s called racecar and not streetcar.
On battle day, I woke up feeling like crap. The whole stress of getting the car ready within 2 weeks and everything that happened troughout the weekend seemed to have taken it’s toll on me. I was feeling tired, stressed and really not in the zone..
By the time the battles came on, I was still feeling unfocused, even though I had poured an alarming amount of red bull into my face and even jumped around in circles like a crackmonkey trying to wake up! Really did not like going into the battles feeling like that, but it had to be done.
I rolled up to meet my Top8 opponent – Matthias Burdinski in his orange S13. Matthias is a driver who has grown a lot since I first saw him drive. Since I was not feeling all that fresh I took it easy on both runs. Matthias banged in solid runs, so a one-more-time was called.
This time I put the pedal down a bit harder, but still running safe. I won the battle with a small 1-point difference and was in the Top4. Even this first battle felt like a huge struggle for me, it felt more like the car was driving me than the other way around.
I was now up against Michael Scherr, current points leader in the ranking. His 300zx has really evolved to a extremely competitive, powerful and quick car so I knew I was in for a hard battle.
I tried to focus but knew I as not running on 100% today. My chase run was OK, managed to keep up with Scherr’s beast. After a mediocre lead run from my side, a one-more-time was called again. I increased the angryness a little and chased him down quite well I thought. But then I completely messed up my lead run by hitting two cones. Nooo!
I didn’t even notice that I hit those cones which kinda proved to me I wasn’t fully focused in the battles. Normally, you can just feel if you hit a cone… As expected, Scherr was given the win and went on to the finals. I had to go up against Christian Kögler for the battle for 3rd place.
I always thought we are pretty mad here at Speed Industries. But Christian Kögler, that guy takes the cake. His self-made unspinnable mega angle BMW-powered turbo S13 is just mental, and he’s become a really strong driver as well. He layed down a solid lead run while I managed to keep up but I had a more shallow line.
He had the advantage now, so I knew I had to go all out on my lead run to take the advantage back. I threw it in hardcore upon entry, but right after the first clip I was going too fast, overshot and rammed an outer cone. I managed to get back on the line, but knew Kögler was eating me alive now since I had a bad line and lost lots of speed.
And he really was turning it up, chasing me down with just a few centimeters of distance between our cars. Really strong performance! I knew I was out after that battle, so I rolled away from the start line even before they announced who won.
I was feeling bad for messing up the runs, but at least for once my car didn’t explode right when the battles started or something. It was all down to me, dialing in with my new car but unfortunately wasn’t able to pull out my potential as a driver. Lame!
I’ll need to think how to be better prepared, more rested and more focused for the next battle day at the Finals at the Nürburgring. Because this weekend I went so hardcore on preparing my new car for the event, going mental in practice and organizing the on-site stuff that I was just completely out of energy by Sunday.
Still, I was so happy for all the support from Andrew, our supporters and crew and especially my girlfriend who was there at my side during all of this. Thanks everybody! Hopefully I can pull off some proper driving at the finals, because I know with this new car much more is possible than a mere 4th place position!
In the end, Philippe ‚DirtDropPhil‘ Guillod took the win, with Michael Scherr getting 2nd place and Christian Kögler on 3rd place. Congratulations guys, you deserved the podium spots much more than me that day!
See you all at the finals in 2 weeks!