Monthly Archives: May 2010
EvergreenDrift Northwest Championship Round 1: Rundown & Photos(Gallery)
For full gallery from this event click here…
April 7th, 2010, the day started at 1 p.m. as the drivers begin preparing for today. Today was the first round of Pro Am at Evergreen Speedway. The day looked very promising with no clouds insight. The day before there were over 16 drivers registered for the event. Everything was going fine and things were great. As the day progressed, we learn that more than half the drivers that were currently registered could not make it due to car troubles, the usual. But the people at Evergreen did not look at this at a negative aspect. Instead they did what they could to make the day enjoyable and presentable to the crowd. Around 2:30 p.m. the drivers that were there began practicing the 5/8ths part of the track. This was new to most of them because it is much longer and requires much more speed than the usual 3/8ths that they do. Everyone was prepared to what they had to do later that day. They were practicing over and over to get that 5/8ths down, if anyone knows the track they would think it is scary just by glancing at the length of the track. Everything had to be perfect. Things were going great until the problems started to appear. Cars were just not able to withstand the intense runs that the drivers had to perform. Clutches, motors, turbo leaks, anything you can imagine happened. By the end of the night only about 4 drivers were able to continue to the actual qualifying rounds. In the end, there were three that stood at the top. Those three were Ian Fournier, Peter Funatake, and Mike Phillips, all great drivers who had the endurance to make through the long 9 hour day.
Photos & Story BY: Brandon Thai
Round One-Midwest Drift Union, at Kil Kare Speedway (Video)
Round One-Midwest Drift Union, at Kil Kare Speedway from Mark Lenardon on Vimeo.
Round 2 has just passed us by and what a great event. Since we just found this Round 1 video footage, enjoy it or relive it for those there and not there!
Vernal Equinox: Short Film – By: Clash Productions (Video)
Clash Productions as always gets down with its bad self and released a great short film. Enjoy it above and support them by hitting their site at http://www.vernalequinox-movie.com/
Midwest Drift Union Round 2: Pro-Am Series Rundown & Photos(Gallery)
Photos from Round 2 located here…
“Round Two, serious-face time. Winged Warrior VI, and we were brining the show. It was another cold/early morning as all the drivers unloaded their cars at O’ Reilly Raceway Park this past Saturday. The fast track setup was no joke, and there was no room for error. It started with a fast 3rd gear decreasing radius sweeper from the main oval into the infield for two 2nd gear transitions, ending with a smoky sweeper back onto the main track.
During practice, it took most drivers a little time to get comfortable with the first initiation. Staring down the barrel at some k-rails has got to be intimidating, but even the new guys were trying to rip it up on the bank (I’m looking at you tclange, nice work buddy). As we all know, there is no room for error when you are on the chase to drive at a professional level. There were some love taps and hits during the day but everyone left the event with a running car. That really speaks to the level of talent the Midwest has developed. The last drift event at this track was in ’05, with a less manly setup, with what were high level drivers at the time, and no one ripped it up like our guys did this past Saturday.
The top gun top 8 tandem battle was on with some serious heat. The leader of the season, Clinton Florczyk, didn’t have much luck qualifying, but his other Neukin teammates did; Austin Barron qualified in eighth and Mike Feiock in the second spot. The match ups were the following… first place qualifier Bill Highlife Cook in his blood red 240sx vs Travis LaCombe in his Foxbody Mustang. Mike Feiock vs Kris Hackenson in the shiny S14. Brian Nackers Vrchoticky in the THMotorsports 350z vs Adam Ouziel in his Zerolift Autolab S13 coupe. And finally Cody Tobe of Dayton vs Austin Barron with the DriftClutch S14. All top 8 drivers took their parade lap around the track and there was no turning back.
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