The Formula DRIFT 2010 season opener at the Streets of Long Beach, April 9-10, 2010 was host to a sell-out crowd and plenty of smoke-filling action. All new cars, all new drivers, and all new sponsors stood up against each other in the ultimate test of sideways driving maneuvers.
Congratulations to FD Rookie Charles Ng for qualifying Top 32 in his V8 LS6-powered RX-7 FC3S!
Unfortunately for Charles, his first round matchup was against Darren McNamara and the 800hp V8, APR-Sponsored Falken Saturn Sky:
Congratulations to Jeff Abbott and his 300hp turbocharged 1.8L Mazda Miata NB for qualifying Top 32 as well!
Better luck next time Alex Pfeiffer!
FD Rookie Forrest Wang literally drifts semi-circles around a frustrated FD Veteran Justin T. Pawlak (JTP) and his Falken Ford Mustang. What a huge upset for JTP!
Joon Maeng and his Full Tilt Poker built-by-Bergenholtz Racing Mazda RX-8 3-rotor drift machine tearin' up the track (Tanner Foust and his Rockstar Scion tC is actually hot on Joon's heels just to the left of this crop):
Hmm...one...two...three...four...is that right? Do we have FOUR energy drinks on board now? Red Bull, Rockstar, NOS, and now Monster!
WALNUT, CA – NOVEMBER 23, 2009 – Toyota Speedway @ Irwindale, was host to the final event of the season - the Formula DRIFT Pro Am National Championship this past weekend. Some of the best up-and-coming drivers were in attendance to compete for their chance to earn their 2010 Formula DRIFT Pro license.
Also known as the “House of Drift,” this race track is known for its high-speed banks and unforgiving concrete barriers. With the course set up in the drifting configuration, the judging stand sits just behind the infield wall where many spectacular crashes have occurred throughout its drifting history.
The Slick Auto / CharlesNgRacing Nissan S13 Silvia, piloted by seasoned racing driver Charles Ng, successfully qualified 7th but retired early due to a spectacular crash during the Top 16 tandem battle.
In round 1, Charles was squared up against Russell Walker and his Nissan S13. Charles led on the initial run while Russell gave chase. After great-looking runs from both drivers, they swapped positions for the 2nd and ever-decisive run. During the 2nd run, Russell sped off in the lead position while Charles gave chase. Russell began pulling away after the first transition while Charles fought hard to maintain pace. Unfortunately, the Slick Auto / CharlesNgRacing S13 came into hard contact with the wall at the transition into the infield. The safety equipment built into the Slick Auto / CharlesNgRacing S13 held up excellently, with Charles walking out of the machine unharmed to a round of applause from the spectators in the grandstands.
The turn of events may have brought the weekend to an earlier end, but qualifying 7th meant that Team Slick Auto / CharlesNgRacing had earned its spot to compete in the 2010 Formula DRIFT Professional season.
The Top 16 qualifying drivers at the Formula DRIFT Pro Am National Championship event were awarded Formula DRIFT Pro licenses for the 2010 Formula DRIFT season.
Congratulations to Charles Ng for earning his 2010 Formula DRIFT Pro license!
Team Slick Auto / CharlesNgRacing would like to thank all our sponsors: APR Performance, Hankook Tires, G-Dimension, Drift Speed, Rising Star Motor, 5Zigen, LS Auto, and TrackHQ.
Team Slick Auto / CharlesNgRacing would like to extend special thanks to: DriftFotos.com (for taking epic action photos), Formula DRIFT (for hosting a great event), and lastly, all our team members and crew who have come out to support us this season.
WALNUT, CA – OCTOBER 19, 2009 – Toyota Speedway @ Irwindale, in conjunction with the Formula DRIFT Pro Championship series Round 7 season finale, was host to the Formula DRIFT Pro Am (official feeder series to Formula DRIFT Pro Championship) final qualifier this past weekend...
...The Slick Auto / CharlesNgRacing Nissan S13 Silvia, piloted by seasoned racing driver Charles Ng in his firstever Pro Am event, successfully qualified 2nd and ultimately took home the 1st place trophy at the Top 8 tandem battle...
Team Slick Auto / CharlesNgRacing would like to thank all our sponsors: CharlesNgRacing, Slick
Auto, APR Performance, Hankook Tires, G-Dimension, Drift Speed, 5Zigen, LS Auto, and TrackHQ.
We brought our Baby Monster Miata out to Willow Springs International Raceway (WSIR) (Rosamond, CA) with Speed Ventures for a day (Saturday) of drifting at the WSIR Balcony and a day (Sunday) of open track / time attack at the WSIR Big Track. Of course, we were not eligible to compete in the Corvette Challenge with our non-Corvette vehicle, so the title of this blog entry is not entirely true. We did however set the fastest lap time of the weekend compared to all other cars, and walk away with a Miata Challenge Time Attack Unlimited Class win at a blazingly-fast lap time of 1:29.637 in 100F weather.
On Saturday, we scrambled hard to find the right tire/wheel combination for drifting at the Balcony. We tried our 225/50R15 Toyo RA1 on 15x8 on the fronts, but the low ride height combined with Secret Element Super Angle tie rods / tie rod ends made it impossible to get anywhere near full lock without having the tire contact the frame (yes, the frame!). Then we tried to run some old 195/60R15 Falken Ziex-912 on 14x7 on the fronts, but the wheel would not clear the VW Corrado big rotor upgrade kit. We even lost the right-side vertical underbody skirt during a spin (we'll have to add some washers to the rivets next time).
We scrambled all morning to find another set of wheels and/or tires to run at the front. It just so happened that Aaron Bitterman of Speed Ventures needed to get rid of his old 205/50R15 Nitto NT01 tires. So we took them all and had a pair mounted onto the 15x8 wheels, put the pair onto the front and put the small Falkens on the rear. We were finally able to get full lock with no tire contact with any part of the car. We made some adjustments to the shock settings and performed some test runs on the Balcony course.
Once it was all set up, we handed the car over our guest driver for the weekend, Charles Ng (http://charlesngracing.com/). He is a phenomenal driving talent, with proven ability to consistently drift or set fast lap times in every car he's ever hopped into.
On Sunday, we were having problems with engine heat in the 100F ambient temperatures. A 20 minute session while feathering the throttle was not a problem, but when it came down to getting that one fast lap, the engine would begin to overheat within 1/2 of that fast lap. Even with the engine water re-route and several other cooling upgrades, the harsh weather conditions proved to be very difficult to work with.
We figured out that we could get nearly 1 blazingly fast hot lap by:
1. Starting with a completely cold engine.
2. Watering down the oil cooler, intercooler, and radiator.
3. Going through the 1 outlap (warmup) lap at a snail's pace.
4. Then bombing through 1 single hot lap and slowing down immediately for 1 cool down lap.
Our 275/35R15 Hoosier A6 tires had no problem getting "up to temperature" in this weather, as the high ambient and track surface temperatures pretty much ensured the tires always were up to temperature.
Since our last event at this track (Redline Time Attack @ Big Willow), we had made adjustments to the suspension ride heights and performed additional aero modifications to allow the car to work better at this track. With our car at 2230 lbs. (1/2 tank of fuel, no driver) and no more than 250whp (with a very limited band of usable RPM), a stock C5 Z06 was still able to walk away from us on a straight.
So we directed even more of our recent efforts to improving the overall aero balance of the car. The left-side vertical underbody skirt was still intact, as well as all the other aero goodies we previously added. Despite the unimpressive power-to-weight ratio (compared to other high HP cars), we still hoped that our little Miata could be recognized as a fast "Big Track car." As long as the car could run reliability, we knew we could set some fast lap times.
Take a close look at this static vs. high speed ride height comparison picture below. The picture on the right was taken from next to the starter tower on the front straight. We didn't have data acquisition running, but the RPM and gearing gave us indication that the car was traveling somewhere north of 130 MPH at this point. See how much closer to the ground the car was, and check out those front and rear tire-to-fender gaps!
(click to zoom in)
Do you believe in aero yet?
With the S2000 Challenge on Saturday, the Corvette Challenge (which included the very well-sorted Alvaka Networks T1 Corvette race car) and Miata Challenge on Sunday, a Viper ACR, and various other fast cars at track, we knew it was not going to be easy to achieve our goal. Our toughest struggle turned out to be the heat issues in the 100F weather. Once we found the work-around for that, we were able to set the fast lap we had been looking for.
All our hard work had paid off for the second weekend in a row (see our post about SOWS from the previous weekend). We successfully reached our goals and brought home these amazing results:
1. 1st place, Miata Challenge, Unlimited Class.
2. Fastest lap time of the weekend vs. all other cars in attendance.
3. Only car to hit a sub-1:30 lap time during this weekend.
4. Official WSIR Big Track record for a Miata during a competition event, at 1:29.637.
(Congratulations to Andrew Kidd on his fast lap time...he has a lightweight turbocharged Miata with some aero mods too!)
Here is a short blurb from Charles Ng with regards to how he felt in the Slick Auto Baby Monster:
"The car and its aero setup gives me tons of confidence. Braking power is awesome and it takes twice as much effort to lock up the brakes...very predictable setup and absolutely amazing cornering Gs, one of the best balanced street-modified time attack cars I have driven"
Check out this action-packed video of the weekend with Charles behind the wheel, including both Balcony time and the 1:29.637 hot lap on the Big Track:
Here's a short video of me behind the wheel at the Balcony:
We hope that sharing our experience here can effectively demonstrate what well-balanced aero modifications can do for a slightly-overweight (compared to other Miatas), under-powered (compared to non-Miatas) at Big Willow. Do we still think Big Willow a horsepower track? Sure, why not? If we had another 100 HP on tap, we would probably have seen mid-1:25.xxx lap times...in the same 100F weather.
We'll be back to Big Track again, but perhaps not during the middle of summer. We're now working to improve the efficiency of the cooling system (we'll share updates on this as we go along) and we'll get back out to another local track for some more testing soon.
