DriftClub Round 4
June 14th, 2008
Hello All,
Round for of DriftClub was by far the best event of the season. It was held at HPI headquarters in Foothill Ranch so the venue was just awesome! Although it was piping hot, all of the competitors made due and had fun anyway! Not only was this the last round of the season, but it was a big deciding factor on the whole point series as well! Anything could have happened that day as far as final placement in points.
Attending this event was Joel "Magic" Johnson, 33-time ROAR National Champion and 2-time IFMAR World Champion, in both off-road and on-road. Oh, and did I mention that he's also head of Kyosho USA? Crazy huh!?! I had the pleasure of giving him some tips on how my car was setup, how I drive my car, what I do differently and even running a few laps next to him and giving suggestions along the way. Other drivers and judges were also there to help give pointers to him as well, so it was just nice to be around that type of friendly atmosphere. He was happening to drive the chassis of HPI USA's president Shawn Ireland too so can't go wrong with that.
This day started off with morning practice and setup. The track was a simple kidney bean shape on paper, but turned out to be one of the best tracks all season. It flowed really well and showed off some really great tandems! Sometimes less is more I guess. Anyway, after that was the drivers meeting, group picture and concourse. I was lucky enough to get top three in concourse! Didn't win, but hey, not too shabby! I was driving the new HPI 200mm S15, which had a pretty cool color. I used Tamiya transparent orange backed with chrome and topped it off with orange chrome and regular chrome vinyl decals. It came out pretty cool in my opinion. Oh, and I also added a 3-d front end with intercooler as well as some new black and chrome Work XSA 02C wheels (that you can get here in the shop =P). I love em, they look really aggressive. The deep dish action is crazy! 
Anyway, after that was qualifying. This was run differently this round. Instead of running one competitor at a time, we did groups of 4-5 drivers on the track at one time. Each driver was judged on two clipping points and was given a total score based on a zone type of system. It was really efficient, not to mention fast! It wasn't boring or anything to watch, which made it enjoyable. I happened to qualify 4th that day, so I did pretty decent.
On to the tandems. You'll never guess who I was to go up against in the top 16. Any guesses? Well, it happened to be Joel Johnson. Talk about nerve racking! It was crazy to go against someone of his caliber! To win that many championships and have to go against him?! Hah! I was super nervous! We took our practice lap and man, did he nail it like there was no tomorrow.
I mean, we were all shocked at how well his practice lap looked, because he looked like he was drifting for years! Mind you it was his first drift comp and all. So we went on to battle. The first lap was scored with my advantage as Joel went a little wide after the switch back and ended up in the wall. The next lap was sort of similar but it was cool. So with that I moved on to the best 8. It was truly a pleasure to drive alongside someone like him. He's a really cool guy!
In the best 8, I faced Val Hoang. I don't know why, but I always seem to go against him for some strange reason. We both kept it clean, but Val ended up going a little wide on the first initial sweeper and hitting the wall. Not sure if his motor cut out and he couldn't power out of it, but that resulted in me moving on to the next round. Good job Val! =D
The top 4. I was going against Sang Nam of team Arai.
This guy was just on this day, well, pretty much like every other day too, and today was no exception. He was top qualifier that day so that proved that as well. The first laps were clean on both ends so it called for a one more time. The second go around we were both running clean laps, but he was a little more aggressive on the ideal drift line, so that gave him the slight advantage resulting in him moving on. Oh well! =)
Battle for 3rd, I had to go against Jon Lawence from team Arai again!!!!
I don't know why, but he's another one I always have to drive against. And lets face it, he's not exactly the easiest person to beat (which to this day, I have never beat him still!). Again, today was no exception, as his clean flowing driving style was able to edge me out of 4th. But just barely. Haha. If your reading this Jon, it's on next time!!! LOL. Just kidding, it's all good with me and him like always. We drive like we're just at Arai, it's never really serious competing, which I love.
Anyway, I ended the day finishing 4th, and it was a good day overall. Team Arai ended up sweeping the entire podium for class-I. And from my understanding, it's a first for them. Also, props to Gil of team Arai for holding it down the whole season and getting 1st in this event, as well as overall in points! Congrats guys!
Oh, and as for the point series, I came out 4th overall. My TK teammate Lloyd beat me out of 3rd by 2 points, and Jon beat me out of 2nd by 8 points. Heartbreaker, i know! Oh well, there's always next season! Congrats to all of the winners and thanks to DriftClub for an awesome season! Thanks for reading!
*Photo credits go to Richard Eslava of Drift Nutz and Dave from DriftClub.
Hello All,
Round for of DriftClub was by far the best event of the season. It was held at HPI headquarters in Foothill Ranch so the venue was just awesome! Although it was piping hot, all of the competitors made due and had fun anyway! Not only was this the last round of the season, but it was a big deciding factor on the whole point series as well! Anything could have happened that day as far as final placement in points.
Attending this event was Joel "Magic" Johnson, 33-time ROAR National Champion and 2-time IFMAR World Champion, in both off-road and on-road. Oh, and did I mention that he's also head of Kyosho USA? Crazy huh!?! I had the pleasure of giving him some tips on how my car was setup, how I drive my car, what I do differently and even running a few laps next to him and giving suggestions along the way. Other drivers and judges were also there to help give pointers to him as well, so it was just nice to be around that type of friendly atmosphere. He was happening to drive the chassis of HPI USA's president Shawn Ireland too so can't go wrong with that.
This day started off with morning practice and setup. The track was a simple kidney bean shape on paper, but turned out to be one of the best tracks all season. It flowed really well and showed off some really great tandems! Sometimes less is more I guess. Anyway, after that was the drivers meeting, group picture and concourse. I was lucky enough to get top three in concourse! Didn't win, but hey, not too shabby! I was driving the new HPI 200mm S15, which had a pretty cool color. I used Tamiya transparent orange backed with chrome and topped it off with orange chrome and regular chrome vinyl decals. It came out pretty cool in my opinion. Oh, and I also added a 3-d front end with intercooler as well as some new black and chrome Work XSA 02C wheels (that you can get here in the shop =P). I love em, they look really aggressive. The deep dish action is crazy! 
Anyway, after that was qualifying. This was run differently this round. Instead of running one competitor at a time, we did groups of 4-5 drivers on the track at one time. Each driver was judged on two clipping points and was given a total score based on a zone type of system. It was really efficient, not to mention fast! It wasn't boring or anything to watch, which made it enjoyable. I happened to qualify 4th that day, so I did pretty decent.
On to the tandems. You'll never guess who I was to go up against in the top 16. Any guesses? Well, it happened to be Joel Johnson. Talk about nerve racking! It was crazy to go against someone of his caliber! To win that many championships and have to go against him?! Hah! I was super nervous! We took our practice lap and man, did he nail it like there was no tomorrow.
I mean, we were all shocked at how well his practice lap looked, because he looked like he was drifting for years! Mind you it was his first drift comp and all. So we went on to battle. The first lap was scored with my advantage as Joel went a little wide after the switch back and ended up in the wall. The next lap was sort of similar but it was cool. So with that I moved on to the best 8. It was truly a pleasure to drive alongside someone like him. He's a really cool guy! In the best 8, I faced Val Hoang. I don't know why, but I always seem to go against him for some strange reason. We both kept it clean, but Val ended up going a little wide on the first initial sweeper and hitting the wall. Not sure if his motor cut out and he couldn't power out of it, but that resulted in me moving on to the next round. Good job Val! =D
The top 4. I was going against Sang Nam of team Arai.
This guy was just on this day, well, pretty much like every other day too, and today was no exception. He was top qualifier that day so that proved that as well. The first laps were clean on both ends so it called for a one more time. The second go around we were both running clean laps, but he was a little more aggressive on the ideal drift line, so that gave him the slight advantage resulting in him moving on. Oh well! =)Battle for 3rd, I had to go against Jon Lawence from team Arai again!!!!
I don't know why, but he's another one I always have to drive against. And lets face it, he's not exactly the easiest person to beat (which to this day, I have never beat him still!). Again, today was no exception, as his clean flowing driving style was able to edge me out of 4th. But just barely. Haha. If your reading this Jon, it's on next time!!! LOL. Just kidding, it's all good with me and him like always. We drive like we're just at Arai, it's never really serious competing, which I love. Anyway, I ended the day finishing 4th, and it was a good day overall. Team Arai ended up sweeping the entire podium for class-I. And from my understanding, it's a first for them. Also, props to Gil of team Arai for holding it down the whole season and getting 1st in this event, as well as overall in points! Congrats guys!
Oh, and as for the point series, I came out 4th overall. My TK teammate Lloyd beat me out of 3rd by 2 points, and Jon beat me out of 2nd by 8 points. Heartbreaker, i know! Oh well, there's always next season! Congrats to all of the winners and thanks to DriftClub for an awesome season! Thanks for reading!
*Photo credits go to Richard Eslava of Drift Nutz and Dave from DriftClub.
posted by marq at
3:11 AM
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