Tony Koch: DMCC Round 2, Edmonton (Part One)

Yo! What’s up dodo-logic.

This past weekend, Edmonton’s Castrol raceway was the host to the second round of the Drift Mania Canada Championship , the weekends round would see some of the most fearless driving and some of the closest tandem battles. As seen above, as an aggressive Jon Schildwachter chased down a smooth and consistent Conroy Ganson.

The action began way before this, at about 8:30 in the morning; I had found myself in the passenger seat of a good friend’s truck, doing a bit over the speed limit, headed down highway 2, for my first drift event ever. Upon arriving, the somewhat cool and collected environment of any given Thursdays Spec-D drift practice was silenced with the up coming and daunting task, qualifying.

After a quick check in with professional driver Matt Haase, and a brand new DMCC Lanyard and Media pass, it was time to get to work. The practice session began slowly, with drivers trying to navigate the fast, but very technical course, the morning’s practice would see its shares of spins, and barrier collisions.

Early on it was round one’s winner Mark Tschritter showing the gathering crowd exactly how he had won the previous round in Calgary. Sadly mechanical problems would prevent Mark’s Cefiro from making a pass at qualification.

Travis Clark, after wrecking into the bank of Calgary’s race city, was back on track, with a freshly pulled and package taped rear quarter, was charging hard throughout the morning practice, driving like a mad man. In the short time I’ve known Travis, I’m convinced he doesn’t believe in the word fear.

Here is Travis chasing down Devin Horsley. These two would once again meet in the tandem battles latter on.

Matt Haase putting the 2004 GTO through its paces, without a doubt the loudest car at the event. The design for the car was a brainstorm by Matt, and a bit of designing by me, and this is the end result. What do you guys think? Hats off to Matt for roller painting the whole car, it isn’t small!

After the practice, I made a quick run back to the pits, dumped off some photos and ate a Seven Eleven Taquito that had been sitting in the truck for about three hours at that point. Surprisingly not bad. The same could be said about the rock star. Then it was back to work with my brand new acquired high visibility vest. Joy!

There was a huge difference in the level of driving between practice and qualifying. And as all racing goes, some are more fortunate then others

First out the gate was Johnny Mendonca. After a rough practice, and damages to the rear end suspension, “JJ” wasn’t able to punch a ticket to the top 16. Certainly not with a lack of effort, running with a zip tied sway bar, he made it through the last section of the course smoothly and definitely went out with a bang.

One of the most impressive runs through out the afternoon was Saskatchewan’s Chris Klein, navigating the small roadster, minus rear bumper, through out the course and into the top sixteen.

After and intense qualifying session, the top 16 was decided, with the top spot going to Conroy Ganson.

The first tandem battle pitted first place Conroy Ganson up against Angus Frank, who had squeezed in to the top sixteen with his unique Nissan S12. It was no match for the power laid down by the 4kruzin Rx7 in the first run, and Conroy easily pulled away. A spin while leading ended Angus’s weekend in the top sixteen

The next contest saw Norm Burwash against Shawn “Shawley Drift” Hawley. This battle was over before it got started, as Shawn stalled in the first run and spun in the second, Norm would move on to the great eight.

John Schildwachter was able to move on by Matt Haase after he spun in the first round…

In the second run Matt entered the first corner like a bat out of hell, and went off the track sending destroyed earth flying through the air.

And when that was done, the tires and spectator’s eardrums had to go as well!

After a mistake in the first run, Chris Klein ran a perfect leading run, but Drift Farm’s Jesse Widney was able to stick onto the little Miata and hold down the win

Alex Lee was able to knock Louren Sansregret out of the competition with a very clean run

Kurtis Goat defeated Andrew Moschuk for his spot in the great eight.

Devin Horsely’s SR20 powered corolla met up with Phil Gauthier’s R32, in what proved to be a quick battle with Phil making critical mistakes in both runs, would ensure Devins spot in the next round.

The last battle of the top sixteen would see Travis Clark taking on Chad Sager. On the first run, Travis came in hot and taped Chad, causing himself to straighten out and lose ground. On the second run Travis ran a clean line through the outer clipping point and Chad took the shallow inside and passed Travis, who stuck on his door the rest of the way through, and won the final ticket to the great eight.