photos Paul Lopez @toxic_images /toxic.images
words Carlos Cano Estrella @ccedrift /ccedrift
Long Beach, CA – The variable track surface forced drivers to evolve or evaporate as conditions switched from wet to dry throughout the weekend. This made for an amazing event as Chelsea DeNofa and his E46 surged to the top of the podium.
DeNofa’s victories over former champions captivated the Long Beach crowd and left me wondering about the new Mustangs; although Vaughn Gittin Jr. put down some strong laps the Mustang appeared to be dealing with roll center issues and seemed to lack forward push.
The Mustang of Justin Pawlak appeared to understeer at times and this left him exposed as Jeff Jones took his S14 and slid his way into top 16 with a pair of impressive rain laps. It is never easy when developing a car from scratch and I think that both Pawlak and Gittin will come on strong as the vehicles continue to develop.
As mentioned by Joey Redmond of wreckedmagazine, rookie Cameron Moore looked poised enough in his SC300 to take down two-time champion Chris Forsberg in the Z; Moore was helped by his wet weather skills as well as having the support of a solid team like Nameless Performance.
But Joey, I love you dude but I have to hit you with this Kanye rant: I’m a let you finish, and I’m really happy for Moore, he’s my homie from Golden Gate Drift, but Alex Heilbrunn has one of the best privateer teams of all time. And one of the best privateer cars of all time. I guess you and I can bet a drink on it or maybe the loser has to wear the winner’s shirt after rookie of the year is settled.
The weekend saw no qualifying and this put drivers like Fredic err Fredric Aasbo and Ken Gushi, both Nexen Tire SR by Toyota (is Toyota building SR20s now? hehe), on the top of the brackets with a solid chance at podiums. It also gave us a few battles in top 32 that should have happened in top 16 like this thriller between Alec Hohnadell in the S14 and Kristaps Bluss in the E46.
One of the strangest findings from the weekend was the migration of many Hankook Tire cars, models, mechanics, and marketing personnel over to Nexen Tire with their new compound and pattern which even resembles that of the old brand with the little flames. It must have been deja-vu for DeNofa as he beat his former and long time tire sponsor.
All in all DeNofa and the SRs were pulling a premium out there and although many people thought FD was in decline when Blackvue came on board the opposite is evident. I can’t help but wonder what it will be like when you can access a live in car feed of your favorite driver on your phone or tablet as the event transpires; for a while FD was ahead of Formula 1 in terms of online fan interaction and this seems like a move forward in that direction.
CCE and P-Lo signing off.