Monday, June 2, 2014

Formula D Rd.3 - Homestead, FL

  • Monday GReddy coverage from Formula Drift #FDMIA 2014
Images courtesy of Scion Racing for more see: http://www.scion.com/scionracing/

Coming into Round 3 of the Formula Drift Pro Championships in the 11th position, the GReddy Racing Team was excited to get back to drifting.   This year the trek to Florida lead us to a new venue,  Homestead Speedway (a world-class NASCAR track about a hour from Miami)

The new track layout utilized the inner track of the Speedway and seemed to be pretty straight forward.  A driver's course with smooth and flowing lines, not difficult for Pro drivers in Pro cars to drift, but a real challenge in tandems to stay in close proximity.  Great fun for the drivers like Ken to drive, but perhaps difficult for Judges to score the intricate details of every the run.  Luckily the rain predicted for the weekend stayed away, while the drivers were on track.  The times with overcast skies actually help with the hot and humid weather.

In final Friday practice the team, had to make an emergency chassis/suspension fix right before qualifying.  The team was able to get things back together in time for both qualifying sessions and Gushi was un-phased scoring a solid 81pts. and 80pts.  This seated him in the 9th qualifying position for the main 32 bracket of Saturdays eliminations.

The Top 32 Brackets made for a FDATL rematch of Ken Gushi (9th) vs. Robbie Nishida (24th). As expected, the first run with Ken in the lead against his good friend Robbie in his 2JZ-powered Lexus was super tight and too close to call.  In the second run, and with Ken following, Ken had a great wide line, but was unfortunately unable to get the win.

 Next round, #FDNJ will be in Wall Speedway on June 20-21st...