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.

Behind the smoke

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.

Formula Drift Rd 4

Formula Drift Rd 4

Formula Drift Rd 4

Formula Drift Rd 4

Formula Drift Rd 4

Formula Drift Rd 4

Formula Drift Rd 4

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

Formula Drift Rd 4

Formula Drift Rd 4

Formula Drift Rd 4

Formula Drift Rd 4

Formula Drift Rd 4

Formula Drift Rd 4

Formula Drift Rd 4

Formula Drift Rd 4

Formula Drift Rd 4

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.

Formula Drift Rd 4

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!

AG

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!

JR Under the Lights

Burnout

Getting Ready to Rock

Falken Mustangs at the last clip

Conrad Entry

Shredding Tires

Wilkerson

Tuerck

Falken ladies

Matt signing hero cards

GO

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!

Godzilla

What’s better than shooting a GT-R on a Sunday? Shooting two GT-R’s on a Sunday, obviously. Enjoy.

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.

Formula Drift, Wall NJ

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.

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.

DSC_0116

DSC_0123

I remember seeing this guy at D1 last year, hopefully he gives FD Wall and XDC Englishtown a shot this year.

DSC_0153

Waldin representing illantic. We love it.

DSC_0165

Nick at Elite JDM was tearing it up in his real RHD S13

DSC_0218

DSC_0576

DSC_0742

DSC_0167

DSC_0173

The stereo was playing some pretty sweet tunes in the grandstand

DSC_0742

DSC_0504

DSC_0026

DSC_0075

DSC_0100

DSC_0096

DSC_0105

DSC_0110

Nissan Sentra SE-R Commercial

Makes me want an RC car haha. Unfortunately the SE-R’s baby brother is AWD and not FWD. Still it is an incredibly innovative commercial

Great Drifting Angles

Saw this video posted on someone’s facebook wall and had to show it here. These guys at Nikko Circuit in Japan do some insane backwards entries, reminds me of Kawabata’s style.

Drift Documentary : We Are Drift – Backwards @ Nikko from Luke Huxham on Vimeo.