So last weekend I decided to head out to Summit Point WV to drive the 2nd annual 100 Drifters of December. This is not like the regular Drift Nirvana events just running Shenandoah Circuit (3 loops), this event has all courses open (Summit Main Course & Jefferson Circuit). I mainly wanted to go to try out the Main Course. I have never had the chance to get on the main course since it only opes for drifting for Hyperfest/XDC and now 100 DOD.
We headed out on Friday Late Afternoon and got there around 9:30
Got to the track about 8:30AM and it was cold! I unloaded the car, let it warm up and adjusted tire pressures.
I went out for my first run, and instead of driving around a bit to warm the front tires, i decided to start drifting. Coming around the last corner, my car did not want to transition, rather understeer straight off the track and into the barrier.
Got back into the pits and assesed the damage..
it looked alot worse that it actually was.. The Left Headlight was destroyed along with the corner lights and my oil cooler.
Hood & fender had some cracks, but no big deal. The worst of it was the top of the rad support was pushed in a bit, and with 10 mins with a ratchet strap and a hammer it was back to its original form. I removed the oil cooler and looped the line and i was ready to head back out on the track.
After driving most of the day, I was taking my last runs & tried to enter the first turn of the bridge course and as i clutch kicked, lost all gears in my transmission.
Someone at the track had a transmission available but it was already getting dark and i was contemplating packing up and just hanging out on Day 2 since the car was going to get torn down for some off-season repairs and modifictions.
I woke up on Sunday morning with the thought of not being able to try out the Main Course (whole reason I went in the first place) and decided to swap the trans in the 20 degree weather. With the help of Jacob Shoemaker, a friend/customer, who came along for the roadtrip, We swapped it out so I was able to get some seat time on the Main Course.
I shook down the the trans on the shenandoah circuit then I went and did some driving on the Main course…
I had a blast!
Some shots from Sunday!
here is an amazing video from the event by AWOL.tv
AWOL Short: Driftcember from AWOL on Vimeo.
and some other videos I found…. some are painful to watch but have some good footage!
Nice post! And thanks for including our AWOL vid
Good post… enjoyed it…
Good reading bro
nice.. it was painfull just looking at a pic of you changing your trans in that weather.
Solid post Nick! Sad to see the machine get tweaked but thats what we do!
[…] runs to be had. This was my 2nd time on Summit Main. The 1st time was last December for the 100 Drifters of December 2010 event. I only got a handful of runs that event because i broke my […]