I missed out on 99% of day one but here's my story. I made it just in time for the last drivers meeting but... it was a rough start to my
Formula Drift round 2 experience. After sitting on the DFW runway for over two hours...
Read on for driver and pit pics -->
We had to head back to the terminal for more fuel. Sad faces. So another 45 minutes passed and we were finally on our way to Atlanta for FDATL!
Made it to the track as the last drivers meeting was getting on it's way. Jarod announced the qualifying results so it kinda brought me up to speed with who did what during qualifying. Bryan, one of the founders of Formula Drift, also brought up a "Speed Points" issue that seemed to have some drivers pretty tense. More on that in a bit.
Was happy to hear
Michael Essa qualified first in his Nitto Tire GSR BMW Z4. Essa did very well and was aggressive throughout day 2.
Once qualifying results where announced, they opened up for questions, concerns, complaints, etc. First on the list was the speed gun malfunction controversy. According to FD, the speed gun was malfunctioning so all drivers were awarded the speed points. Some seemed to be okay with it, others not so much. So after a few minutes of accusations and even a little bit of name calling, things calmed down and drivers headed back to their pits to prepare for late night practice.
Oh yeah, a few familiar faces were on deck. Including our friend
Nate Hamilton from Texas and driver of the NOS Nissan S13.
Headed to the pits. Made a quick stop to check out Ken Gushi's Scion FRS.
Next stop was the Tyler McQuarrie Mobil1 GoPro Camaro pit. Said hello to Matt of Yokohama and ran off to say what's up to Ryan Tuerck.
The Retaks
Ryan Tuerck team was hard at work fixing what I believe was some sort of alignment issue. Or maybe it was a wheel issue, who knows. I was dead tired and could have been hearing things at this point. For a minute, I thought I seen two Ryan Tuerck's but it was just Evan Tuerck,
Ryan's twin brother. I had this marketing idea where Ryan would be competing on track and Evan would be signing autographs in the stands or something...
could work.
Look at the pretty lights... Oh, where was I? Oh yeah... The guys were working hard including Ryan. It's always good to see drivers working on their cars with the rest of the team.
Stopped at the Nitto Tire Bergenholtz pit to say hello to my good friend Joon Maeng and the Bergenholtz team. Here's Ron working hard as always. Both Ron and Joon seem to never stop working. One working on the car and preparing the RX8 for battle (among many other things), and the other...
Giving interviews, greeting the fans, signing autographs and answering Tweets, Facebook messages, etc. By the way, Joon kicked ass this weekend.
Side note: Was happy to see Ross sporting the
WE ARE THE MEDIA shirt.
Also stopped by to meet
Toshiki Yoshioka. I have an Enkei sponsorship relationship with him but never got to meet him face to face. I have much respect for Yoshi and he was very welcoming.
Might I add the
Enkei RPF1 wheels look so clean on his RS-R Nissan S15.
The drivers headed to a late night driving sessions and I called it a night. A big thank you to Ryan of Formula Drift and
John of ID Agency for helping me get into the track that late in the night! Day two coverage later this week! -
Alex
