GReddy event coverage from Formula Drift FDFL 2016

Ken Gushi and the GReddy Racing - Nexen Tires - SR by Toyota 86 Team fought the Orlando heat on their way to a Formula Drift 6th place finish in round 3 of the Formula Drift Pro Championships (and moving back to 6th in the championship with 5rounds to go...)

Looking to repeat, his Top Qualifying result from 2015, Ken laid down a solid first Qualifying pass, netting 89pts, but as trying to better the second run, he ended up making contact with the high speed banked wall.  

After an evening of repairs, the team got the SR by Toyota 86 back to 100% for the 32 bracket of eliminations.  In the first battle on Saturday, Ken drove a smooth and clean lead run which made for  an exciting battle with "Mad Mike's" twin turbo 4rotor MX5 chasing.  In the end, a tire de-beading incident ended the day for the Miata, resulting in a solo 2nd run and easy win for the GReddy Racing Team.

Network A video

During the Formula Drift halftime break, Ken signed autographs and displayed the new Boost Brigade line to the Orlando fans.  Two lucky fans even won the damaged Gram Lights 57Transcend wheels off the 86, in the Friday qualifying run crash.  

The 16 bracket eliminations matched up Gushi vs Bakchis's LS-power Genesis.  After a split decision, Ken upped his smooth performance in the OMT battles with a more aggressive line on the bank and added better proximity to take the win.

The 3rd round in the Formula Drift Great8 brought another tough match-up.  2014 series champion, Forsberg and his V8 NOS powered 370Z.  Again the battles were very close, but a small mistake taking out the 2nd clip on the chase run was enough to open up a gap on the infield. 

For more photos from FDFL and Ken's personal recap, see:
https://www.facebook.com/kengushi/posts/10154901576698222


The next event is just around the corner,
Formula Drift Wall Speedway, #FDNJ - June 17-18

Ken Gushi keeps the podium streak alive in FD Orlando

Ken Gushi and the GReddy Performance x Hankook Tire x Scion Racing FR-S keep the momentum moving with a Formula Drift round 3, Top Qualifier and another Podium finish at Orlando Speed World in Florida.



 







This moves the Gushi into 4th position for the Series Championship and extends the leads for the Scion and Hankook in the Manufacturer's and Tire Manufacturer's Cups.

The race week began early, with some round 2, Atlanta repairs and some preventative maintenance at a local shop in Florida, Rivsu Imports.

From there, the Team moved on to the newest Formula Drift venue, Orlando Speed World.  Being a new track, with new challenges, the team worked quickly to get the car dialed-in to Ken's liking.  Although the layout seemed pretty simple, the changeable weather and multiple bumps in the track made it tricky and very hard on suspension components.  The KW suspension proved to be a big advantage in Orlando.

In Friday Qualifying, Ken laid down an impressive 92pt run, which could not be beat. This gave Ken the Top Qualifier spot.  This would also later, prove to be essential in locking down the podium spot over Matt Field, scoring just one point behind in qualifying and finishing 4th.  (“3rd place in the overall competition is decided based on the highest qualifier of the two losing competitors in the Final Four.")
 



As Saturday arrived, Ken and the Team were feeling confident, but the unpredictable rain could easily complicate matters.  Luckily the weather was perfectly dry for the win against Mohan's 3rotor RX8 in Top32, the Half Time Break and the Opening Ceremonies.

In main 16 bracket eliminations, it started off dry for Ken's lead run against Moen's 2JZ S14, but due to some strange starting line events, the chase run had to wait until after a heavy rain delay.  In the wet, Ken drove a smart follow run to move on to the next round.






In the Best 8 the track was beginning to dry off on the bank, but the infield was still very wet and tricky.  Ken controlled the FR-S perfectly, but Hohnadel in his  V8 S14 was not able to keep control on the wet infield.



This set up the possibility for another amazing Semi Final rematch against fellow Hankook Tire driver Chris Forsberg and his VK-V8 370Z.
Again there were fireworks with this match up.  Ken drove a strong lead lap, with Forsberg fairly close behind.  In the chase, Gushi decided to escalate the battle and showed incredible proximity on the bank, unfortunately, it might have been just a little too much, when the 370Z gave more angle to exit the bank.  This cause the two to make contact and a huge flame irrupted from the Z, bring out a Red Flag.  (see our instagram for a clip) 
Eventually the judges rule against Ken, resulting in a 3rd place finish in Round 3.

Look for the GReddy Team to make a dominating charge at the top step of the Round 4. Wall, NJ Podium later this month, June 26-27.

Congratulations to FD Orlando event winners: 1st Ryan Tureck & 2nd Chris Forsberg

GReddy Performance X Hankook Tire X Scion Racing FR-S 
with Driver: Ken Gushi

 technical partners
  Ray's  | KW Suspension
 Rocket Bunny | Garrett | Supertech | TRUST 

 WPC  | Ignition Projects | OS Giken | FMT | Bluemoon

FD Orlando this Weekend, D2D Episode 3 FDATL Recap

Ken Gushi and the GReddy Performance x Hankook Tire x Scion Racing FR-S will be back at it this weekend in Orlando, Florida for Formula Drift Rd.3

LIVESTREAM:
   http://www.formulad.com/live
   http://www.formulad.com/schedule/orlando

Until then check out the Scion Racing Driven 2 Drift Chapter 3 with a recap of Rd.2 in Atlanta : https://youtu.be/53GYljOpOig

Formula D Round 3 - Palm Beach Int'l Raceway

 Monday Coverage from Formula Drift #FDFL :

This past weekend the GReddy Performance X Scion Racing Team returned to the east coast for Round 3 of the 2013 Formula Drift Pro Championships.  With 60% chance of thunderstorms predicted for the whole weekend, the team geared up with rain gear and we thought we were ready for anything.

Thursday practice brought us our first surprise of the weekend, with an strange glitch preventing us from turning up the power to normal performance levels.  This didn't prevent our driver Ken Gushi from learning the course and completing solid practice runs.  Following practice, the team worked into the night and finally getting the power back up late in the night.

Unfortunately, the same technical returned for Friday practice.  And the team was not able to resolve the issue in time for qualifying.  Ken did a great job with the car down on power, but was not able to qualify get a high enough score for Run1.  Then in Run 2 another problem arose prevent Ken from finishing his qualifying run for Top 32 tandem eliminations on Saturday.

So in the end, instead of bad weather, we ended up with some bad luck.   The team is now busy working hard on preparations for the Rd.4, which is in less then 3 weeks away...
Photos via Scion Racing


Congratulations to FDFL evnet winners: 1st Michael Essa , 2nd Daigo Saito, 3rd Robbie Nashida

GReddy Performance X Scion Racing Drift FR-S
Driver: Ken Gushi

 technical partnersHankook Tire | Ray's  | KW Suspension  Takata | Rocket Bunny | TRUST 

 WPC  | Cosworth | Diamond | DTA | Alpinestars

The next two events are just around the corner:

• June 21-22 - Formula Drift Rd.3 - Wall, NJ  (GReddy FR-S / Ken Gushi)
• June 30 - Pikes Peak International Hill Climb - Colorado Springs (GReddy tC / Takeshi Aizawa)

Next Event Formula D Rd.3 - Florida

Friday, May 31st & Saturday, June 1st
Palm Beach International Raceway, Jupiter, FL
(formerly Moroso Motorsports park)


Ken Gushi and the GReddy Performance X Scion Racing Drift FR-S Team head back east to South Florida for round 3 of the Formula Drift Pro Championships...


Come out and Cheer us on or follow us via social media. (FB, Instagram, Twitter and our new Vine)
Live stream: http://www.formulad.com/live/




See what last year's Palm Beach was like in the Scion Racing Driven to Drift Episode from last year

GReddy Performance X Scion Racing Drift FR-S
Driver: Ken Gushi

 technical partners
Hankook Tire | Ray's  | KW Suspension
  Takata | Rocket Bunny | TRUST 

 WPC  | Cosworth | Diamond | DTA | Alpinestars

Formula D Palm Beach Coverage

with the GReddy Performance X Scion Racing Drift FR-S

Round 3 of the Formula Drift Championships took the GReddy Team to the hot and humid weather of Palm Beach International Raceway in Florida. 

The team was really looking forward to putting our new Cosworth-tuned Anti-lag feature into action.  Both the FR-S and Ken Gushi were preforming great all weekend.  With solid comments from other drivers all weekend, the team was excited to do well.

Ken ran a solid and safe first qualifying run, but didn't quite get the score we needed from the judges.  And the 2nd run added some bad luck with rain.  In the end, we still made it into the Top32, feeling very optimistic for Saturday's Eliminations.  

Ken advanced pass the Top32 eliminations by being very close to #2 qualifier, M. Ovcharik in is S13 in the following run and getting a good gap on the lead run.

In the main 16 brackets, Ken faced off with K. Moen in is 350Z. Ken had a great follow run, keeping the FR-S right on his rear fenders the who lap.  And the lead run was solid, with a larger gap.  Unfortunately the Judges wanted the pair to go "One More Time"  On the next follow run, Ken was just too aggressive and ended off line and hitting the Z, ending our FD Palm Beach run in the Top16.

The GReddy X Scion Racing Drift FR-S move up in the standing to 14th in the championships. 

Congratulations to FD Rd.3 Winners
    1st - Daigo Saito     2nd - Chris Forsberg     3rd - Daijiro Yoshihara

GReddy Performance X Scion Racing Drift FR-S

 technical partners

Hankook Tire  |  Ray's Engineering  |  KW Suspension  |  Cosworth  |  TRUST  |  DTA  |  Alpinestars

p.s. Thank you to 30plus customers, who took advantage of this past weekend's www.ShopGReddy.com #GReddyRaceOffer  The next special is in just 2weeks, June 22rd-24th.

GReddy FR-S at FD Rd.3

http://www.formulad.com/schedule/pro-championship/palm-beach.php

The GReddy Racing Team along with Ken Gushi and the GReddy Performance X Scion Racing Drift FR-S will be back in action this coming weekend, June 1st-2nd.  Come cheer on the team at the Formula Drift Rd.3 - Palm Beach International Raceway. (or watch the Live-feed online)

http://www.shopgreddy.com/greddyraceoffer.html

Also returning is our www.ShopGReddy.com #GReddyRaceOffer for another race-weekend.
(See our post in the GReddy pit area or follow us on the official GReddy_Power twitter)

GReddy Performance X Scion Racing Drift FR-S

 technical partners

Hankook Tire  |  Ray's Engineering  |  KW Suspension  |  Cosworth  |  TRUST  |  DTA  |  Alpinestars