Formula Drift Round 2- Road Atlanta
My trip started out well, our flight was suppose to land us in Atlanta at 6:45 pm. Too bad we missed our flight connecting us from Arizona to Atlanta. Haha no biggy, we took the next flight out and got there at 10pm. I thought this was going to be a problem because I needed to go unload the car off the rig it came to ATL on. However, the rig wasn’t there. So Thursday came around and it was time for practice, and my car still wasn’t here. I walked around the pits talking to people and watching EVERYONE else practice, it sucked. My car finally showed up at 3am Friday morning. I unloaded it, worked on it for a second, went back to the hotel and went to sleep.
I woke up at 8am with a little more than 2 hours of sleep. Sweet, time to qualify. I was able to practice with the pro-am guys, as well as practice in both FD groups, but I still only got so many runs. Oh-well, its time to qualify. First run, didn’t account for drop in temp on track and went out with way too much air pressure. I initiated and went right off the end of the course. Not good. Now it is a waiting game, wait for people to do their runs, wait for people to do their second runs, wait for the track to get cleaned up. Ok cool, now its my turn. I get in my car, burn out and wait for Ross Petty to do his run. BANG! His engine explodes and drops oil all on the initiation point, right in front of me. Great. More waiting. The get the track as cleaned up as they could and send me out. It was more slippery than usual that’s for sure, but I made a run. Dirt dropped, but its ok. I qualified low but at least I’m in the show.
Saturday morning rolls around and we get to the track. Top 32 practice went well, more track time is always helpful. The crowd here is freaking awesome! I couldn’t believe how nuts and excited these people get. This is what we drift for. When it came time for my run against Matt Powers I felt ready, prepared, confident. On my follow run I stuck with him charging down the hill, Initiated and tried to throw as much angle as possible. I was close to him, yes, he didn’t get away. Coming into the horseshoe I was on him, didn’t give him an inch. As we exit the horseshoe and begin to floor it going down the hill, he pulls away a little bit. That’s ok, he has like 200hp on me. Its expected. All in all a great run, I really feel it was one of my best follow runs I have ever had in FD. Ok time for me to lead. Leave the line hard and don’t look back. I initiate and begin to slow down, catch grip, catch grip, catch grip I’m thinking to myself. It didn’t. I dirt drop one wheel and keep going. Because I dropped that one wheel it threw my line off and I drop another on the other side of the track, come into the horseshoe and try to cut his line off, it worked. He straightens out right in front of the judges. I finish off the run strong slightly pulling on him as we exit the horseshoe. I knew I screwed up, but I was hoping for a one more time at least. 2 of the judges voted for Powers, one for me. (thanks Tony). He got it, I’m disappointed, but life goes on. All in all it was a good weekend, I actually qualified with very little practice and it being my first time ever at this track, it wasn’t too bad. I had a great time and I can’t wait for next year at ATL!
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