Delayed Monday Coverage from Formula Drift #FDNJ :
FDNJ Recap: Aasbo Makes the Great 8, Ken Gushi Returns to the Main Event 25 June 2013, 12:48 pm
Scion Racing takes on Formula Drift New Jersey, Wall Speedway
When you’re sitting in the stands, a tandem battle between two
drivers seemingly passes before you can really even begin to process
what you’ve just seen. One moment, your eyes are lingering on where the
bright red starting lights used to be, and the next, you’re busy trying
to find the outline of the course through a plume of tire smoke.
Ken Gushi doesn’t see things the way the rest of us do. Like most
other professional drivers, part of what makes him great is his ability
to slow time down in his head, and in fractions of a second, react to
even the slightest of changes in front of him. Unfortunately, when
that’s the way you’re wired, two consecutive events sitting on the
sidelines for reasons beyond your control gives you a lot of time to
think.
We don’t know exactly what’s been on his mind, but judging from his
very first practice sessions in the GReddy Racing Scion FR-S, he seemed
intent on taking it out on the car’s Hankook tires. Run after run, Ken
was shredding up the car’s rubber, filling the bowl of Wall Speedway
with smoke seemingly even faster than usual.
Thanks in no small part to the work of the team, the GReddy Racing
FR-S was keeping pace the entire way, putting power down nicely during
each of Ken’s runs. We’ll still be keeping our fingers crossed, but it’s
looking increasingly as though most of the car’s mechanical issues have
been ironed out, giving Ken a relatively clear path through the
remainder of the season.
Their path on Saturday, however, wasn’t quite as inviting. Ken’s qualifying performance the previous day had him seeded 22nd
overall, which meant that he was set for a Top 32 matchup against
Vaughn Gittin Jr. We’ve had more than our fair share of run-ins with JR,
both figuratively and literally, having been matched up against him at every event thus far this season.
The way Ken had been driving, however, he probably could’ve been
matched up against anyone and it wouldn’t have mattered. During their
first run, Ken hung right on Vaughn’s door the entire way, and put on
one of the best performances we’ve seen from him in a while. For a
moment it seemed as if he had a legitimate chance to put a serious dent
in JR’s championship aspirations, but the battle ultimately was called a
One More Time.
Ken pushed just a little bit too hard on his lead run during the OMT
battle, and ended up being pulled off course by Wall Speedway’s
unforgiving bank. Top 32 was earlier than we wanted to see him go out,
and we’re sure that Ken feels the same way, but a little more seat time
should have Ken and the GReddy Racing team back to full strength for the
next stop in Evergreen Speedway.
Because we went straight to Colorado Springs for the GReddy Racing Scion tC's Pikes Peak Hill Climb challenge directly from FDNJ, here is an excerpt from the Scion Racing event recap...