Usually before two days of full drift in a weekend, I have trouble sleeping I’m so excited. The need to drive crazy sideways builds up and my brain can’t shut off making it impossible to sleep for a whole week prior to the event. That means that by the time I get to it, I’m dead tired already which sucks balls big time. BUT, some kind of super powered energy kicks in as soon as I slide my way through that first curve and smell the fresh smell of smoke from my sunny tires, it’s like magic I swear. After that it’s all thumbs up during the whole weekend long.
Anyways, I took my Friday off as I had to go to pick up my trailer that was being serviced and had a new tire rack fit. I woke up early that morning and drove 2hrs to pick it up. As I got there, I strapped it on my new tow car and was happy with the result.
Thanks to Daltec for the great work and I felt more confident towing my car on the highway at high speeds (shhhh don’t tell anyone) as my trailer had been properly serviced and checked meticulously. I was especially concerned by the extra weight this tire rack was gona create on my tow hook so that’s why I wanted to make sure the trailer was in top shape. Due to this extra weight, I also decided to finally sell my old tow car (the lex RX) and get something better suited for this kind of activity, this being a 2003 Toyota Land Cruiser 500. Let me tell you this car is a beast, turbo diesel powered monster. Back home a couple hours later, I started loading the new tire rack with my fresh rubber for the weekend.
The only one thing missing to the equation at this point was???? My baby, my ride, my little silvia that I call Silisa. So off to the garage I went to pick her up as she had been working out all morning long. Figure that, she was already warming up, 6hrs on the dyno. This was due to my new turbo being fitted, a GTX turbo by Garrett. So if I make the math here at this point, I was running a new tow car with a new tire rack and new turbo on the S14, man was I pumped to test all this newness out.
I picked up the remaining people that were joining in on the trip, took the high way and my road trip had just started YOUPII. A small 4.5hr drive under the rain passed by so fast due to good company in the car. Once there, we dropped the cars off at the track and then went to our nice hotel. I was kind of bummed at this point as the weekend was not looking nice due to a rainy’n’cloudy forecast. I was not a fan of this, I HATE RAIN.
And I was right, it rained all day Saturday during our practice sessions and due to that and the tons of other drivers, I only managed to have 11 runs all day on the judged course which seemed real nice as it was a first for me on it. Even if I only managed to connect nicely the three turns twice (left hander into a right into another right with a manji in between the last two rights), I appreciated the fact that this course was a third gear rev limiter high speed uphill course, kind of like the Schumacher S on the ring I did two years ago with the IDS.
The only difference is that after the first high speed left hander there was a nice outside wall on the uphill making sure you would just bounce of it and stay on the course if you went too fast into it. If you hit the wall, something like this might have happened to your car 🙁
Thank god the driver of that car was alright as he scared the heck out of us all. The tricky part about this track was not just the wall, changing conditions and weather but seemed like the track had more surprises to offer. Different types of surfaces which made the grip change out of this world, especially before and after the second turn. This grip change made for many spins all weekend long.
So my Saturday was just terrible and it felt like I knew the track less than before. At that point my game plan for the rest of the weekend was: “fuck that, I have no time to think. Full out or go home bro, that’s it.” I slept mad well that night, woke up, ate and off to the track I went. At the briefing the organization modified the schedule and decided to go directly to qualifiers and that meant no time to practice. I dunno why but I had a good feeling about this change and so I raced out to the start line and placed myself third in line. There hadn’t been any rain all night and the track was full dry 🙂 The conditions looked like they were gona change at some point later on so that’s why I decided go in the front as I really wanted to get some fresh dry runs in; All out and balls to the wall.
While we were waiting for the judges to get ready and all, these cool little smart phone looking like devices were put on the back of our cars, some shit called telemetry.
I dunno why, but I kind of like this way of doing. Seems to work well and do me justice.
While we were still waiting for qualifiers to start, my boy Nico Maunoir was there schnoozing around with the staff and trying to get some extra cookie points or what not, sneaky little bastard…
I was thinking, bro why would you want some extra cookie points when you can get free burgers at Geneva’s best burger place Inglewood if you win this event!!!! He told me “you’re right; I should just win as I want those amazing free burgers when I get home”
If ever in the area, you have got to go eat there, here’s their site for contacts www.inglewood.ch.
I’m happy for my boy Nico, very ambitious guy who’s only in his first season of drifting and has already landed a couple little sponsors, one being free burgers (SICK MIAM MIAM I WANT) and the other MP Hygiene.
So off I went to my qualifiers and boy did the dry feel well. More speed, more angle and finally connecting all in a fluid manner. OH BOY it was about dam time, WooHooo. I was happy with my three runs and I had reason to as I ended up qualifying 8th out of 40-50 drivers. I’m telling you this telemetry is the Shiznit.
I was so happy as much pressure was released from that point. Feeling confident for my battles as I would be going against the 25th driver as it was the top 32 drivers that moved on. Since I passed qualifiers very early and there were like a gazillion others to pass, a little nap with the team was more than appreciated. Like they say, “Siesta baby!!”
In my first battle, I ended up going against the guy who was behind me in qualifiers, a blue E36 M3.
Half way through qualifiers it already started raining again and throughout the battles also. In my lead run I managed to keep a nice line and seemed like my opponent straightened out during the manji which gave me the lead. In my chase run, I decided to let him take some distance as I knew I was faster than him. The problem is that I gave him too much distance and he just took off. This making me kind of worry and rush so I accelerated aggressively and my drift was not fluid with no angel and by the time I got over the hill of the second turn, guess what? I SPUN OUT. I couldn’t believe it; I had lost my battle and was so angry and disappointed. Tears were almost coming to my eyes as this was supposed to be an easy win for me. That was it, my weekend was over 🙁
Enjoy this video and laugh at me as it shows the inboard camera of when I spun out and my reaction. I deserve to be slapped in the face for this. I hope it will never happen again and see you all for next rounds coverage.
EpicFail from Dr Drew on Vimeo.
Peace
DrDrew
Usually before two days of full drift in a weekend, I have trouble sleeping I’m so excited. The need to drive crazy sideways builds up and my brain can’t shut off making it impossible to sleep for a whole week prior to the event. That means that by the time I get to it, I’m dead tired already which sucks balls big time. BUT, some kind of super powered energy kicks in as soon as I slide my way through that first curve and smell the fresh smell of smoke from my sunny tires, it’s like magic I swear. After that it’s all thumbs up during the whole weekend long.
Anyways, I took my Friday off as I had to go to pick up my trailer that was being serviced and had a new tire rack fit. I woke up early that morning and drove 2hrs to pick it up. As I got there, I strapped it on my new tow car and was happy with the result.
Thanks to Daltec for the great work and I felt more confident towing my car on the highway at high speeds (shhhh don’t tell anyone) as my trailer had been properly serviced and checked meticulously. I was especially concerned by the extra weight this tire rack was gona create on my tow hook so that’s why I wanted to make sure the trailer was in top shape. Due to this extra weight, I also decided to finally sell my old tow car (the lex RX) and get something better suited for this kind of activity, this being a 2003 Toyota Land Cruiser 500. Let me tell you this car is a beast, turbo diesel powered monster. Back home a couple hours later, I started loading the new tire rack with my fresh rubber for the weekend.
The only one thing missing to the equation at this point was???? My baby, my ride, my little silvia that I call Silisa. So off to the garage I went to pick her up as she had been working out all morning long. Figure that, she was already warming up, 6hrs on the dyno. This was due to my new turbo being fitted, a GTX turbo by Garrett. So if I make the math here at this point, I was running a new tow car with a new tire rack and new turbo on the S14, man was I pumped to test all this newness out.
I picked up the remaining people that were joining in on the trip, took the high way and my road trip had just started YOUPII. A small 4.5hr drive under the rain passed by so fast due to good company in the car. Once there, we dropped the cars off at the track and then went to our nice hotel. I was kind of bummed at this point as the weekend was not looking nice due to a rainy’n’cloudy forecast. I was not a fan of this, I HATE RAIN.
And I was right, it rained all day Saturday during our practice sessions and due to that and the tons of other drivers, I only managed to have 11 runs all day on the judged course which seemed real nice as it was a first for me on it. Even if I only managed to connect nicely the three turns twice (left hander into a right into another right with a manji in between the last two rights), I appreciated the fact that this course was a third gear rev limiter high speed uphill course, kind of like the Schumacher S on the ring I did two years ago with the IDS.
The only difference is that after the first high speed left hander there was a nice outside wall on the uphill making sure you would just bounce of it and stay on the course if you went too fast into it. If you hit the wall, something like this might have happened to your car 🙁
Thank god the driver of that car was alright as he scared the heck out of us all. The tricky part about this track was not just the wall, changing conditions and weather but seemed like the track had more surprises to offer. Different types of surfaces which made the grip change out of this world, especially before and after the second turn. This grip change made for many spins all weekend long.
So my Saturday was just terrible and it felt like I knew the track less than before. At that point my game plan for the rest of the weekend was: “fuck that, I have no time to think. Full out or go home bro, that’s it.” I slept mad well that night, woke up, ate and off to the track I went. At the briefing the organization modified the schedule and decided to go directly to qualifiers and that meant no time to practice. I dunno why but I had a good feeling about this change and so I raced out to the start line and placed myself third in line. There hadn’t been any rain all night and the track was full dry 🙂 The conditions looked like they were gona change at some point later on so that’s why I decided go in the front as I really wanted to get some fresh dry runs in; All out and balls to the wall.
While we were waiting for the judges to get ready and all, these cool little smart phone looking like devices were put on the back of our cars, some shit called telemetry.
I dunno why, but I kind of like this way of doing. Seems to work well and do me justice.
While we were still waiting for qualifiers to start, my boy Nico Maunoir was there schnoozing around with the staff and trying to get some extra cookie points or what not, sneaky little bastard…
I was thinking, bro why would you want some extra cookie points when you can get free burgers at Geneva’s best burger place Inglewood if you win this event!!!! He told me “you’re right; I should just win as I want those amazing free burgers when I get home”
If ever in the area, you have got to go eat there, here’s their site for contacts www.inglewood.ch.
I’m happy for my boy Nico, very ambitious guy who’s only in his first season of drifting and has already landed a couple little sponsors, one being free burgers (SICK MIAM MIAM I WANT) and the other MP Hygiene.
So off I went to my qualifiers and boy did the dry feel well. More speed, more angle and finally connecting all in a fluid manner. OH BOY it was about dam time, WooHooo. I was happy with my three runs and I had reason to as I ended up qualifying 8th out of 40-50 drivers. I’m telling you this telemetry is the Shiznit.
I was so happy as much pressure was released from that point. Feeling confident for my battles as I would be going against the 25th driver as it was the top 32 drivers that moved on. Since I passed qualifiers very early and there were like a gazillion others to pass, a little nap with the team was more than appreciated. Like they say, “Siesta baby!!”
In my first battle, I ended up going against the guy who was behind me in qualifiers, a blue E36 M3.
Half way through qualifiers it already started raining again and throughout the battles also. In my lead run I managed to keep a nice line and seemed like my opponent straightened out during the manji which gave me the lead. In my chase run, I decided to let him take some distance as I knew I was faster than him. The problem is that I gave him too much distance and he just took off. This making me kind of worry and rush so I accelerated aggressively and my drift was not fluid with no angel and by the time I got over the hill of the second turn, guess what? I SPUN OUT. I couldn’t believe it; I had lost my battle and was so angry and disappointed. Tears were almost coming to my eyes as this was supposed to be an easy win for me. That was it, my weekend was over 🙁
Enjoy this video and laugh at me as it shows the inboard camera of when I spun out and my reaction. I deserve to be slapped in the face for this. I hope it will never happen again and see you all for next rounds coverage.
EpicFail from Dr Drew on Vimeo.
Peace
DrDrew