Sleep deprivation, Red Robin and Subway is how I would describe my weekend to most people. However, to the people who get me and what I am about I could break it down into one word – Awesome. That is just what it means to be at one of these events.
Jordan Hall put it best when I asked him what he thought of his first Formula D event. His response was “Formula D is everything a drift event should be.” I couldn’t have put it any better or made it rhyme so well.
I am not going to try and recap the event because others have already done this, and they done it with more style and character then I ever could. If you are looking for that check out Larry Chen’s coverage on Speedhunters, it is almost as good as being there.
Instead, I will try to capture my experience at this years event. As you can probably tell, I am half fanboy, and the novelty of being in the presence of so many drift personalities still makes the 28 year old act like teenager.
What made this event better than last year is the people, the drift community is super down to earth and everyone is super friendly.
The internet is always ripe with criticisms of each event. This year the judges have taken a lot of heat and the rules seem to be always evolving. Hopefully Formula D isn’t always plagued with these growing pains. I prefer to look at the positives, Ken Gushi had a great round in his FR-S.
The poster boy for pro drivers who “Keep Drifting Fun,” earned a second place finish while piloting one of the longest running chassis in Formula D. After leaving a major team, for the much more humble Retaks team last year, it is nice to see Tuerck prove that you don’t always need a lot to succeed.
The FR-S is proving itself to be a great platform, but Gushi couldn’t beat out Tuerck’s V8 S-chassis. Both drivers are doing surprisingly well with a new or new to them chassis this season. The first few days the locals were excited because they had heard that the Tuerck brothers brought along their missiles for the Sunday event. In the end those just turned out to be drift rumors.
Ian Fournier of Drift Safari is till working out the kinks in his supercharged V8. If you are reading this and haven’t liked Drift Safari or Ian Fournier Racing on facebook, click the links and hit like.
Finally Matt Powers, because what is Formula D without Matt Powers?