Diaries

There have been a few changes to the car since last year, and the last time I was on this track, the bank and I got into an argument that I did not win. I was feeling more confident this time around, but after a few laps, we lost oil pressure. Our crew chief, Kevin determined that bearings in the engine came apart and ate up the oil pump, and the only option we had to stay in the game was to replace it with a used one from a salvage yard 200 miles away.

Come Saturday morning, we headed back to the track to find the car ready and waiting for more drift abuse. The Nissan felt strong during the entry of my first qualifying pass, so I threw it into the bank hard. Black smoke kicked off the rear tires and I put the Z's rear bumper inches away from the wall, without any hiccups. After sliding through the infield with big, wide angles into each clipping point, I cleared the course and was tied for First place. I jumped out of the car and ran over to my crew and hugged each one of them, thanking them for all their hard work.

Going into tandems, I was paired with Ryuji Miki -- a pretty straightforward driver; no tricks and not too many mistakes. I was the chase car on our first run, so I made sure just to keep up with him. We entered the bank about three car lengths apart; a gap I quickly closed. As he got on the brakes to extend his line and slow down for the outside clipping point, I added angle and went full throttle; we entered the infield side by side and with an extra 20 degrees of angle. We flipped to the left and I throttled through the transition and got on his rear fender. After flipping back through the hairpin, I thought for sure we had the advantage, so on my lead run, I hammered through the course with as much speed and angle as I could, putting Miki a solid two car lengths behind me as we approached the infield. I thought we had the win; I thought wrong. The judges declared a tie, so we went one more time. At this point, the car was starting to act up, sputtering and misfiring as the temps started to rise. On my chase run, I was not as close to him as the previous runs, and on my lead run, the car dropped off the bank too early and missed the wall clipping zone due to the lack of power and control. We had been defeated. At least we got a handful of points, everyone on the team did a great job, and we kept our Top 5 spot in the championship.

Nos Energy Drink
www.drinknos.com

Maxxis Tires
www.maxxis.com

Drift Alliance
www.driftalliance.com

Formula D Diaries: Monroe, WA
Dai Yoshihara
After a second place finish in Vegas, Dai and his GTO managed to break out of his unlucky number four position and is now sitting pretty in third for the season in a tight points chase.

I won last year's Seattle event, so I like this track! This course is suited for my GTO; its major weakness is accelerating from low speed corners to higher speed ones, but since this course decreases in speed towards the finish line, I didn't have to worry.

I felt great all throughout practice, and concentrated on getting as close to the wall as possible. Maybe I was getting too confident, because I ended up hitting the wall slightly in practice. There wasn't any major damage, only scratches on the bumper and wing. Rain cut my second qualifying run short, but since my first run went well, I qualified Fifth going into tandems.

The sun came back out for the Top 16 round, and I was to run against Ryan Tuerck. He beat me at Round 2 at Road Atlanta, but I wasn't worried since the track layout was good for the GTO. We both drove so well against one another, that the judges declared a "one more time" battle. All of a sudden it started to rain again. WTF?! The GTO slipped so much that it just didn't want to go forward. I drove it as well as I could, but I couldn't keep up with Tuerck. He was faster on the wet surface, so my race was over.

Bridgestone Tire
www.bridgestonetire.com

Pacific Rim
www.ilovedrifting.com