Last weekend was the 1st round of the New Series “Hold the Line” by Drift Alliance Founder & Formula D Judge Tony Angelo.
The event was a huge success! I was just about used to my car with the New 1JZ Setup from the previous Club Loose Night Moves Event but only got the real feel when ripping it in 3rd gear around the mushroom course.
Some Shots from Practice
During the first practice session I was having some trouble linking the long straight between turn 2 and 3. When the 2nd session came around, I was starting to do it, but not with any type of style, Just barely making it. After the 2nd practice session, we had our lunch break and I did a tire change. During the practice sessions i was running Nexen tires which lack grip. I went on to change to Kenda Kaiser tire’s which make’s a night and day difference especially in tandem. We got back to grid for our 3rd practice session only to find out that we were behind schedule and had to go right into qualifying. They gave us each one practice run before our qualifying runs. My practice run was pitiful and had me slightly discouraged. My 1st qualifying run was decent, but my 2nd qualifying run was strong giving me a score of 80.5 and putting me 2nd to Mats Baribeau in his JZX90 Mark II.
There were only 14 drivers, 2 of which did not qualify, which left the top 4 qualifiers a bye run for top 16.
In my top 8 battle, i went up against Zach Catlin. He led the first run and I entered on his door. Stayed close the whole way thru turn 1 and 2.
I stayed as close as i could without touching his car but at the apex of the turn in front of the judging stand, i tried to slow down to avoid hitting him by adding more angle but took it a bit to far and spun.
On our second run, i knew i really had to give 110% to come advance to top 4. I came in fast but Zach stayed close.
On turn one I stayed on the gas during my transition and flicked the car fast and hard which gave a decent gap.
I had the perfect line coming around turn 2 in front of the judges along with good speed and angle. As i came down the straight and went to transition, i understered a bit causing me to spin off course towanrd a bunch of media guys. That run became the shot of choice in all the vidoes from this event… it was close! Zach went on to top 4. In the end, Miro Ovcharik took 1st place, Mats Baribeau 2nd, Rapper Dan Savage 3rd, and Zach Catlin in 4th. It was a great event and cant wait until round 2 at Raceway Park Englishtown, NJ On July 16th.
Some Video’s from the Event
Hold The Line – Formula D Pro-Am Rd 1 from Jersey Streets on Vimeo.
Monticello Pro Am from AlacriousMedia on Vimeo.
Hold the Line Round 1- Monticello, NY from Chris Szczypala on Vimeo.
