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2014 – SOLB – Formula Drift Media Day

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So the season starts here and starts now. The mean streets of Long Beach California. We have had the privilege being a Media Partner with Formula Drift over several years now and as they celebrated 10 years last year, we get the opportunity to do the same this year. So as the season begins, we hit Media Day to get some early impressions on cars and enjoy some drifting. It was a good day overall but as Long Beach is known to do. It took several victims out the gate. Dean “Karnage” Kearney and Ryan Tuerck both went in to the tire walls backwards sending them back home for repairs. We should be seeing both of these drivers back at it Friday morning. Enjoy some of what we shot below.

Achilles Radial Announces 2014 Formula DRIFT Roster

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SANTA CLARITA, CALIF., March 31, 2014 – Achilles Radial is proud to announce the roster of talented drivers that will compete on Achilles Radial 123S tires in Formula DRIFT during the 2014 season. Anchored by 2012 Champion Daigo Saito and Formula DRIFT veteran Robbie Nishida, the team includes returning drivers and new faces, both within the PRO and PRO2 ranks.

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Formula D Rd.7 Final Fight Coverage

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Formula D Rd.7 Final Fight 2013

Well the 2013 Formula D Series is in the books and boy was it an amazing year. FD celebrated it’s 10 year of competition at the House of Drift  Irwindale Speedway on October 11-12 to yet another sold out crowd. Michael Essa was able to carry on his momentum from Rd.6 in Texas and take the #1 Qualifying spot and adding much more points to his championship lead.

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Dean “Karnage” Kearney Post Formula Drift Finals & Into 2012

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As Dean “Karnage” Kearney ends his 2011 Formula Drift season on an up note. He was kind enough to give us some time to tell us about how he and Team SHR ended the season as well as some insight on 2012, SEMA and moving to the states…

EverythingDrift: How was it to make it into the Top 16 after the struggles of the season with the Viper having several issues, causing a lower ranking and making yourself and the team struggle?
Dean “Karnage” Kearney: “Irwindale was my second Top16 of the season. My first came at V-LEDS home event in Evergreen Speedway at round 4, the event that I eventually breathed a sign of relief and was also a major turning point for me, the team and all involved. Basically without getting into too much detail about the reasons behind the troubles and dwelling on them, my aim was to focus on the cure and get better results after 3 difficult events. The judging criteria in FD has changed so much over the years and with cars becoming faster and technologically super advanced I guess the old Viper was stuck in a FD time warp and needed some changes to get some more performance from the car and also more performance from me. Basic things such as traction to carry more drift speed was required but like everything, to every action there is an equal opposite reaction. This new found traction and speed suddenly made the car trickier to steer and transition through drift so we needed more angle and quicker lock-2-lock steering rack. Not an easy task, especially mid season to be re-engineering steering, anti roll bar and spindle design to “hopefully” gain an advantage on its current setup without any prior testing or knowledge from someone else to clarify the changes will actually work, a lottery in other words! Luckily after an all nights work in Seattle we basically junked the roll bar and re-engineered the spindles in such a way to have zero Ackermann angle which in turn alleviated the other steering rack issues as the hubs now turned more degrees with less steering input = quick rack. It was a gamble and it paid off this time. The steering improvements along with the teams hard work and dedication to making the car perform 100% at the remaining round such as Vegas where I was disgusted with myself for falling out in Top32 I really wanted to say thanks to everyone with a Top16 or better at Irwindale. On another day Top8 or more was capable but no shame in losing to Tyler on a day where he ended up winning the event….il get you one day Tyler!!” J

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A Quick Catch Up With Dean “Karnage” Kearney After ProDrift Finals

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If you don’t know who Dean Kearney is, he drives the V-Leds Dodge Viper for Team SHR in the Formula Drift series. Dean was kind enough to give us a nice quick wrap-up and break down of his first entry to ProDrift in a while by attending the ProDrift Finals as well as some insight on the upcoming Formula Drift Finals and trying to become a resident in the states for the upcoming new year. Check out what we got from our man Mr. Karnage!

 

 

EverythingDrift: So how was it returning to ProDrift for their final event and Qualifying 6th overall in a car you have never driven? How do you feel you placed overall through out the competition? 
Dean “Karnage” Kearney: Returning to Prodrift was awesome! I have had the idea of returning to Prodrift on my mind for quite some time, even to do the odd event or maybe a full season but to return for what was the best European drift event ever staged to date was incredible. The Prodrift finals had the normal huge domestic entry in excess of 50 cars split into 2 classes over two days while the large number of international champions meant that even qualifying for Top16 was going to be tough and leave a lot of competitors upset! Lets not forget, this was not an exhibition event and there was still a 2011 Prodrift championship to be decided away from the glitz and glamour of all the International names competing. The crowd may have been in favour of all these top drivers competing but there was some drivers who were hoping to wrap up a season strong and could have done without all these FD and current champions from other series. I made a last minute decision to enter after seeing the hype built up around what is called “Japfest” which is held annually at Mondello Park and where Prodrift have used Japfest to stage their finals each year. A large crowd is guaranteed especially with the likes of Dai Yoshihara and Team Need for Speed who are all seasoned Formula Drift competitors so after a few phone calls to try and track down a car capable of being competitive my entry was confirmed on Thursday evening.

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V-LEDS.com Formula Drift Dodge Viper at Wall Speedway, NJ (Video)

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Right before Round 5, V-Leds released this video of Round 4. Check it out.