350Z « ShiftedFrame

Formula Drift Round 4 – The Gauntlet

9:26 AM Sunday morning. One of the team’s mechanics is pounding on my door looking for his backpack and bottle of Johnnie Walker that luckily the police did not confiscate the night before. Stumbling to the front of the room, I run into a concierge cart that mysteriously found it’s way to our hotel room. I reroute to the bathroom and stub my toe on a cooler that is overflowing with PBR and other forms of liquid shame.

We take a few minutes to recollect on the events that took place in the 24 hours prior that resulted in two citations and a hospital visit, but we quickly realize it was a lost cause and just chalk it up to “this is drifting.”

From what I understand, there are a number of Canadians that have photo documentation of what happened off the track. If you one of those Canadians, and you are reading this, e-mail me at AG@illantic.com and I will post up the photos of the madness.

Until then, here are photos from what was, surprisingly enough, the least chaotic portion of our weekend.

There was a serious lack of wind this weekend at Wall Speedway in NJ, the drivers reported having a hard time seeing through the lingering clouds of tire smoke.

Matt Field drove like a rock star yesterday, he put up a great fight after hitting the wall in qualifying.

Matt Waldin in the HELIX Drinks 350Z put up a good fight in his rematch with Otto Graven from Round 3 in Palm Beach, but in the end Otto came out on top.

Due to outrageous flight prices and a busy July schedule, I will not by flying out with the team for Round 5 in Seattle, but we will be firing on all cylinders in Vegas. If you come out for Round 6 in August, be sure to stay an extra night and celebrate my birthday with us!

Tags: 350Z, Chris Forsberg, drift, Formula Drift, helix, HELIX Drinks, matt field, Matt Waldin, nissan, the guantlet
Posted in Andrew Goodman |

Formula Drift Palm Beach – The Invasion

Last weekend I rolled down to Palm Beach with the HELIX Drift team for the third round of Formula Drift. Between drunken go-karting, trying to wrestle alligators, getting evacuated from our hotel, chasing stuffed sharks, and drinking at Swampgrass Willy’s, we managed to find some time to go drifting. Sadly, Matt got knocked out of the top 32 after he drove into Otto Graven’s door entering into the first clip. Go hard or go home. We are ready for NJ, it’s our home track and ShiftedFrame and Illantic will be out in full force to represent!

I also want to give a shout out and a BIG thanks to Secret Entourage and ADV.1 wheels for your hospitality this weekend. Had a great time meeting all of you!

Tags: 350Z, Camaro, drift, Falken, Formula Drift, helix drift, HELIX Drinks, Mustang, nissan
Posted in Andrew Goodman |

Shredding up the LBC

Honestly, if I even wrote about half of the things that happened to us in Long Beach last weekend, I don’t think any of you would believe me. Let’s just put it this way: I’ve been home for 5 days and I’m just now recovered enough to put a post together.

I went out with Matt Waldin and his HELIX Drinks 350Z to kick off the start of Matt’s first full Formula Drift season. Matt has already shown the world he is capable of becoming a serious contender, and with the help of HELIX he’ll now be at every FD event.

He definitely did not leave his new sponsors unhappy. They were thoroughly impressed with his performance, qualifying 13th overall and making it into the top 16. Pictured above is Charles Ng spinning in the top 32 round, advancing Matt to the big show.

In the top 16 Waldin went up against Matt Powers in his V8 S14

It was a close tandem, but Powers came up on top. Waldin officially finished 14th for the day, a personal best in both qualifying and final position. Not a bad way to kick off 2011.

Walker Wilkerson was impressive this weekend, if he makes it out to Atlanta it’ll be interesting to see how he fares with attempting a 4th gear entry in that thing.

And unfortunately all good things have to come to an end at some point. When all was said and done we packed up the rig and got cleaned up so we could go out on the town with some good friends after a great first showing.

Next up: Dirty South. Atlanta time.

Tags: 350Z, drift, forumla drift, helix, helix drift, HELIX Drinks, long beach, Matt Waldin, rad
Posted in Andrew Goodman |

Matt Waldin Racing – New Year New Look

West Chester, PA (PRWEB) – February 11th 2011, Matt Waldin Racing is preparing the new Helix powered 350z for action in the 2011 Formula Drift circuit. This will be the first year the team is running the full Formula Drift schedule.

At the end of last year with the help of Brian Crower, the 350z got a serious kick in power that propelled the team to it’s highest qualifying effort in Formula Drift to date. The team is aiming to continue on the upward trend starting in Long Beach, CA at Formula Drift’s inaugural event. The April 8th/9th event takes place on the streets of Long Beach where only a week later the Indy race is held. The stands are always packed for this event and the cars always look their best since it’s the first of the year.

Formula Drift 2011 Schedule:
April 8th/9th – Long Beach, CA – Streets of Long Beach
May 6th/7th – Atlanta, GA – Road Atlanta
June 3rd/4th – Palm Beach, FL – Palm Beach International Raceway
June 17th/18th – Wall, NJ – Wall Speedway
July 22nd/23rd – Monroe, WA – Evergreen Speedway
August 26th/27th – Las Vegas, NV – Las Vegas Motor Speedway
October 7th/8th, Irwindale, CA – Irwindale Speedway, CA

Rendering of the Helix powered 350z:
mwr1

The new look of the car has been finalized and is a great representation of the new partnership between Helix Drinks and Matt Waldin Racing. Mike English, head of Marketing and PR at Helix Drinks comments “we are excited to see the design come together and we couldn’t be happier, Matt and his car come at a perfect time as we accelerate our push into national retail markets.”

The team at Import Intelligence is hard at work making sure that everything on the car is in perfect working order and it’s ready to do battle. Matt commented “The whole crew is pumped to have a fresh start, new look and equipment for the following year. Its a major undertaking for to run a full season of any racing series, the guys at Import Intelligence have already proven they are up to the task.”

Back on board for 2011 is BC Racing Suspension. BC Racing Suspensions have always been the best balance between performance and cost. MWR firmly believes that it is important to use the products that normal consumers will be purchasing. A properly setup car starts with the suspension, “BC Racing Suspension was simply a perfect fit into our program. With years of racing heritage and great customer service, we would be silly to use any other company.”

MWR is also proud to announce the team will be running on Federal Tire’s 595RS-R sports tire. This particular tire was born on the racetrack but quality and process standards make this tire 100% street legal. The 595RS-R is highly acclaimed and is the “go-to” tire for many drift and sports car enthusiasts worldwide.

Matt Waldin Racing is proudly partnered with

Mishimoto Automotive
HELIX Drinks
Federal Tire
BC Racing Suspension

MWR would also like to thank our associate sponsors:
Import Intelligence . Competition Clutch . K&N Filters . NGK Spark Plugs . Brian Crower . EBC Brakes

Tags: 350Z, BC Racing, drift, Federal Tire, Formula Drift, HELIX Drinks, Import Intelligence, Matt Waldin, mishimoto
Posted in Editorial |

SF Coverage – FD Wall 2010

I had a great time this weekend with Matt Waldin and the Mishimoto/Import Intelligence crew at Wall Stadium for Formula Drift.

It was hot, sweaty, messy, loud, and absolutely insane – but unlike last year we managed to avoid the projected thunderstorms all weekend which meant the smoke show was on.

Along with many of the DA boys, Wall is Matt’s home track on the FD circuit. He threw down some solid runs which lead him to qualify 18th in the field – his personal best in Formula Drift.

Thanks for repping illantic, Matt!

Unfortnuately, Gushi knocked him out of the top 32, but not without a fight.

Here are some more snaps from the weekend:

Loved this shot

RT and ACP

Nice to see ACP in something other than a NOS Evo for once

JR throwing it down

Tanner did much better than last year.

Drift Emporium… crazy dudes

Can you tell I’m obsessed with fire?

Clipping point got mangled this round, lots of drivers had trouble with the switchback

Russell Walker came out as a privateer all the way from Texas and qualified just out of the top 32. Tough break this weekend but he’s a cool guy and a good sportsman. I’m sure we’ll be seeing more of him.

Mad Mike lives up to his name

Total accident shot of a burnout, but I really love the way it looked when I got it to my computer. I might actually make a print of it.

Drift GT-R… does it really need any more of a caption?

Hope you all enjoyed the photos. Before I wrap this up I just want to put out a HUGE thank you to Matt for all of the hospitality this weekend, Fred from Rockstar Energy for the swag and for keeping us hydrated, Ed from Tuner Icons for the baller trailer, the Formula Drift staff for taking care of us in the Media tent, and all the other media people I met this weekend for spreading the drift love and expanding our social networks – haha.

Next weekend I hit Montreal for the F1GP – stay tuned.

Tags: 350Z, Andrew Goodman, drift, FD, Formula Drift, Illantic, Matt Waldin, mishimoto, nissan, Rockstar Energy, Wall Speedway
Posted in Andrew Goodman |

Club Loose – Spring Moves

On Saturday I had the opportunity to roll to Englishtown with my favorite professional drifter, Matt Waldin, to drift with Club Loose and get some photos of his Mishimoto sponsored Nismo 350Z drift machine before he goes and scrapes a bunch of walls with it.

The car was running consistently all day, and there is no doubt in my mind that he is ready for FD and DMCC this year.

This was the first event of the 2010 season for Club Loose, appropriately named “Spring Moves”. The guys were all happy to see each other again, and wasn’t hard to tell that they are a tight-knit group of enthusiasts. Between the A, B, and C groups there were about 30 cars running on the track, and plenty of spectators enjoying the day.