but lets talk about SONOMA DRIFT..... since we started this project in may, we had no idea we would shake up the northern cali drift scene like this. shit, before we even started sideways wednesday events, or even got a chance to talk about it as if it was happening, we didnt even have any expectations for northern california drifting to get any better.
Fast Forward 3 months and BANG!!! the largest drift event in Norcal since back in the hay days of when drifting first took off. being part of this whole Infineon movement i really want to thank all of our sideways wednesday participants, you guys made this event what it was.... i remember the very first events we did, everyone was spinning out, and we had to clean up cones alll damn day long, we would give some of the guys pointer and they were eager to learn, and from that... you guys ended up learning to drive well enough to kill a technical portion of one of the best racetracks in america. i dunno if you guys realized that, because honestly i could just see you guys having a blast not even tripping off of what was going on, it was just about drifting..... as it should be.... but just to let you guys know, the driving that happened was RAD!!! thankyou, that makes all these Voulunteer hours worth it. from getting in trouble at work (for taking too many days off to run these events) to getting yelled at by our women, and paying madd toll and gas to drive there every week... thankyou , when i saw 7 or more of the homies qualify for the top 20 out of 39 drivers that were there, you guys made me proud.
aiight, so past all that... lets get to it.
i had a dope ass plan, but it all seemed to fall apart the week before summer jam. so i wont let yall in on that, because it will happen, just didnt for this event.... anywho, the morning started... and i was dragging ass. dissapointed again, because i missed work, lol... i woke up late... dragging ass, and unenthusiastic. but rob showed up on time, then joe and jess rolled up with lorenze from carsXhype.com rolled up. i pull the car out the driveway, load up the truck, and we mash out to go meet up with Sam attal from Motormavens. while waiting on same i took a quick flick.
we did get quite a few odd looks while we were diving down to the track... i dont know why, i dont see anything odd here, lol.
it's really a grey ass foggy morning, and if i didnt know what lyed ahead, this weather probably would have kept me in a bad ass mood all morning.
and let me be honest... this is the first time i have seen it sunny in richmond, then foggy everywhere else.... it's usually the other way around.
but either way, we get to the track... i pull in behind matt madrigali and his trailer... he gave a few fistpumps when he noticed us driving our comp cars in the track. we headed up to the top of the hill to use the facility perks to wash the car and just have some calm quiet time before the hecktic day starts.
rob and i roll down the hill... get to the pits and peep joe, jess and lorenze already set pit up, so we just park and get to work.
have a slight talk about a few things, and then we go hit the track. here at SD it's all about track time.. the more were driving, the more excited teh crowd will get, the happier the staff is... and let me say, the crowd was starting to show up hella Early. that was cool.
after getting in a few runs, joe and i continued on our tandem familiarizations. this being joes first time on the track, he did alot of following, opposed to @ t-hill where he did all the leading. this helped me get back in the flow, because the entry speeds for me were averaging around 73-76mph. let me tell yall tho.... i was getting NUTS out there. constant dirt drops, like completely nutty... lol. i was having soo much fun, blasting dirt drops on both sides of the track on my transitions, i even had one hell of an off track eating hella cones, lol.
we assembled for team tandem meeting... and seeing as tho, joe and i haddnt really thought about that since our initial plan fell through, we just added matt madrigali and yee xiong. struggling to come up with a name, the tech guy came up with reverse oreo... lol, wtf? it coulda been a normal oreo, since i got the white car, and both of the other cars were black, or a very dark hue... but it was all good... plus we added yee so, w/e.
practice went ok... due to us all being a different speed level. but we had a good lead with matt, and tail of joe. yee and i circulated between number 2 and 3 position. so we really kept with our dark outters and white innards of an oreo, lol.
we finally found a formula we were good with and we begun battle.. out of the 6 teams that entered... reverse oreo finished 2nd, only to the norcal powerhouse of julian and the supporting cast. these dudes can really drive, and let me tell you... it's not a bad thing to be second to them, and we only assembled that day.
after all that, the crew and i took the time to go up to the stands and hang with the drift fans and play around on the nos stage with the talented Shane payton the MC of sonoma drift. the fans have a really good view of the entire run.
i didnt participate in the final open run... car issues were taking place really tough, so we just chilled, washed cars, and kicked it in town. we get back to the track around night time, all the lights are out, and spotlights were going up in the camping area. now imagine this... no one was here but drifters... lol, even the track was open. we had a ton of fun, and didnt really get terribly out of hand. everyone really respected the area, but we did partake in sliding down hills on blocks of ice, on fold up chairs, coolers, all kinda shit. i whopped heads in GT5, while others got drunk, i streamed live some of the antics, but you had to be there to really understand what was going on.
morning comes, and we wake up to the carshow participants assembling right below our camping area. everyone starts to drag ass out of the tents and heading down towards the pit. we left everything where it was, and didnt have to set up a thing. i took my hood off to help with some of the cooling issues i was having, and let me tell you... it worked Perfectly. i stayed on the track for damn near 11 laps straight. got in some good runs, figured out the line i wanted to run during comp. at this time we assembled for comp drivers meeting, and i made sure all my fluids were cool, and took off.
my first run was cool, but my second run sucked. my throttle was sticking pretty good, and was keeping me WOT at times. i had to keep blipping it from time to time, but that ended up throwing me off a bit on my second run, but What ever...
after qualifying, we meet again. deliberate... and turns out my first run was good enough for 3rd qualifing position. woulda been cool to get #1 qualifier, but hey, i was having fun, it aint for points, just for money, lol.
we lined up infront of the crowd for driver introduction, and this was pretty cool. my first drivers introduction, and i atleast did an ok job at qualifying to get a good announcement.
comp was cool... didnt do well, but nothing happened to the car and i was still happy. julian ended up wraping the weekend up with another win, and atleast this one was for some bread... 1k to the pockets of the tall dude... and really hope this means we will see his own personal car come back soon. his car is usually hella swag, so i cant wait to see it again.
we got all our crap together to roll out and head home... and that was actually pretty cool, because i beat the living shit out of my car this week, and i am getting ready to drive it home in traffic, lol.
we were leaving out the front entrance to a sea of cars on the 37... i tried to let this one dude infront of me, but he was so kinda and insisted on me going ahead... bad move on his part... 100 octane and 2 stroke spitting back out of my exhaust didnt make for a plesant trip for him. he tried to sit staggered of my exhaust for relief, lol... but 4 inches of dump made sure he didnt find any. lol, shit was actually kinda funny... cause when traffic broke, and the road went to 2 lanes he wassnt as plesant as he was when he let me in front of him.
my cousin and i took the opporitunity to have a nice spirited sprint down the roadway. pretty fast pulls happened, lol His Mr2 is pretty quick.
getting closer to home, and finally out of all the traffic on the 80... i'm just enjoying the drive home.
the view is beatiful. but the car is acting up a bit at low RPm's. lol, so i was just hoping getting home was in the cards.
next day i attack the issues with the car... sticky throttle.... oil and dirt gunking up my throttle assembly... fixed. oil shooting out my filter in to my engine bay everywhere... over filled fluids.... fixed. sputtering on boost....
fixed i think.... lol.
engine bay as a whole looks a lot better... but i want it spic and span...
but anyway... here is a little bit of footy complied together of the events this week of august.
enjoi, and stay tuned.
0 comments:
Post a Comment