Aug 26 2009
CW FD3S x Sonoma Formula / IRL
My FD on display at the Need For Speed Booth during the Formula Drift / IRL weekend at Infineon Raceway from August 21-22.
Archive for August, 2009
Aug 14 2009
Calvin @ Thunder Drift Vid by iPhilms
I brought my Falken RX-7 out to Thunderhill Raceway with the Fatlace / 360 Video / Graphtech crew this past Tues. Thunderdrift set up a full track drift day with does not happen too often on this track because the tracks get so busy throughout the year. So I also like taking advantage of these relax drift events to enjoy my cars and to get in extra seat time with some friends. This track has some of the most amazing rhythm sections and variety of corners that makes it so fun to drift on. You can connect turns 2 through 7 as well as many other sections of the track. 360 Video brought out some pretty fancy gear to get some of these unique camera angles. Check it out.
Aug 14 2009
Seattle FD x Falken S15
I was pretty excited to get back in my Falken Tire S15 after coming back from an awesome trip in Japan. Plus I was eager to finally compete in my car this time around since I did not get a chance to during the previous Las Vegas FD round. This was due to the fact that I had to give up my S15 to fellow Falken teammate Darron McNamara who’s engine seized up in the Sears Auto / Falken Sky before qualifying. He was leading the series for 1st place, so upon Falken’s request, I had to sit that round out and root my team on from the stands. Unfortunately Darron had a lot of trouble drifting my S15 and ending up spinning and not driving good enough to qualify into the top 32 for that Vegas round. That made 2 of us with zero points for that round.
So come Seattle round, I am all excited to drive my S15 again, but unfortunately I had to fight some chassis gremlins that plagued me all weekend at Evergreen Speedway. My first lap out a hiem joint mysteriously breaks on the rear control arm and had to spend a bunch of practice time fixing and readjusting the car’s alignments and settings to get the car to handle correctly. Later on in the event, ended up hitting the wall slightly during my last run of Friday night practice which tweaked the alignment even more. So next morning, I had to wait through most of Saturday’s practice session for the car to get realigned. Luckily I got a chance to get one practice run in to see how the car felt before going into Top 32 tandems.
The car felt a little loose but pretty decent on that one practice run. Nevertheless I was pumped up for competition and got matched up with Chris Forsberg in Top 32. I followed first and then lead. I knew he was going to drive pretty clean so I just stuck with him during the main banking and closed in on him at the exit of the bank. But right when I went to get back on the throttle to run with him into the infield, the car wasn’t able to hold its angle at that speed and just came around on me. To top it off, on my lead lap, the tranny ended up not downshifting into 3rd on that same bank exit. And just like that, my podium pursuit in Seattle came to an end.
I was really happy to have Falken’s newly acquired chassis engineer, Mike Kojima, around the whole weekend. He help me adjust the Falken S15 back into spec during all of the misshaps. Without him, I probably would not have been able to even drift the car much. Mike’s level of expertise brings a new level of professionalism to the Falken team. I am looking forward to working with him again for this Sonoma round so that I can redeem myself for this past round.