Formula Drift: Round 2 “Pit Notes”

Tyler McQuarrie had a cam position sensor go out on his Falken 350z, and there wasn’t another available. So after Darren McNamara made his first qualifying run, the Falken team transferred his cam position sensor into Tyler’s car so Tyler could make a pass.

Chris Milano broke a rear suspension arm on his first qualifying run, causing his right rear wheel to have several degrees of negative camber. He borrowed an arm from the Forsberg crew and made his second pass with proper camber.

Ken Gushi’s steering rack went out yesterday during the open practice so he’s been driving without power steering all day.

Eric OSullivan’s Rockstar Hankook STI had more power than in long beach, but had issues with the ebrake cables. Only the left rear tire would lock up which was fine for the right hand entry in long beach, but wasn’t sufficient for the left hand entry in Atlanta. Several adjustments were made thru the weekend, but it still wasn’t working properly.

Several drivers struggled with the sticky surface in Atlanta. The track in Atlanta was repaved around 2 years ago and is the grippiest surface on the FD tour.

Ron Ewerth’s supercharged VK-powered G35 was freshly painted in Mazzoria orange, and has had nearly no sleep all week. Kenji Yamanaka’s VK-powered s15 wasn’t finished in time for the event, so he is driving Kazu Hayashida’s old R34 Skyline.

Taka Aono has comitted his roof and rear window to the names of all sponsors who helped fund his trip to Atlanta.  Jeff Jones also had some good runs despite his last minute efforts to raise funds to make it to Atlanta.

DA Aces John Wagner and Brian Wilkerson both had great runs and made their first top 32 events. The crowd was hugely supportive of their East Coast drivers, and was cheering loud during all of their runs.

Tanner’s car was pulled apart after long beach and redone nearly from the ground up. The car also had additional testing, and the car is much smoother than at Long Beach.

Rhys Millen’s car sounds much different than at long beach – perhaps he is actually using the Hyundai Motor!

JR’s Mustang broke a suspension arm yesterday in practice, but the car was repaired overnight and is running great now.

Pat Mordaunt barely finished making repairs to his car earlier this week after his collision with Matt Powers at the Long Beach Team Drift event, and thus missed his transport. Pat drove 36 hours straight alternating with a friend to make it to the event.