Formula D 2012: Road Atlanta Round 2: Pit & Parking Lot
Well Formula D has come and gone in Atlanta, and it was an exciting weekend to say the least. It started early in the week with Atlanta and its situation with the city council regarding drifting at Turner Field (sign the petition here if you have not already). We also had our Texas crew make the trip to town for the weekend and it was the first time I got to meet and hang out with Dennis, Mark, and Jason in person. I am pretty sure we got every angle of Formula D covered as there were at least 7 of us in attendance with cameras trying to catch it all. We had a lot of our hometown heroes having big days during the weekend, such as Chris Ward and Nick Thomas running this year as rookies in Formula D. And for time attack, Papaya Motorsports, Flawless, Deft Motion, and 2J Racing had our attention all weekend.
Like I mentioned before, we have tons of photos from the weekend from every angle and there isn’t much we missed. So it will be split up into a few different parts and it will take a few days to get it all out, so bare with us! This set has almost 200 photos from the pit and parking lot area before the action got started.
Mark, Dennis, and Jason arrived in Atlanta early in the AM, and could not check in until 3pm, so they had to sleep in the Marriott parking lot. We met up with them around 8:30am and we all headed out to Road Atlanta. After setting up our tent up top on the stands, Jon, Mick, Mark, and Jason had to go to the media meeting at noon. We decided to do a lap around the pits and lot before the action started. I’ll try my best to match the drivers and cars correctly. The world of drifting is new to me and it’s taking some time to learn the drivers and their cars so please bare with me…enjoy!
As we walked from our tent area, this thing rolled up and he parked and stepped out. Immediately everyone started clicking away on with their cameras. The car (machine) was built by Cutworm Specialties out of North Carolina and he said he drove it from North Carolina down to Road Atlanta. It has at most 5 feet of interior space, and I am sure does not have the best ride. I overheard someone say it was built in 6 months. You can tell by the copper pieces and amazing weld work it was put together with precision, and to trust the near 200 mile drive the builder must have put together a solid machine!
Marty’s Corolla spotted in the parking lot. It’s one of the nicest 86 builds around. Check out our past feature here.
We saw this bagged WRX at Import Alliance a few weeks ago.
Darrin Ford’s 240 Masterpiece..
Kevin Lu’s S15 sitting pretty
Nermin’s S2k about to meet its speed bump of doom.
Brian, Darrin, and Johnny always come out to Formula D and have a good time..
You know Mazdas are my weakness…this one was LS swapped.
David aka BobbaFresh
Nick Thomas and crew pulling out the car for the day and getting her right.
Chevrolet should really consider sponsoring Formula D because it seemed the whole field was packing them. And I know a lot of drift fans will not like that, but when it comes down to it, it just makes sense for competition, especially with the new layout at Road Atlanta. It demands torque and a lot of power to climb the hill to the horseshoe. The addition of twins really ups the capability in this S14.
Ryan Kado’s Z is V8 powered but with a Nissan VK56 V8 from the Titan.
Bing’s GS in the NOS area
Sean Ho’s Accord in the Zen Motors area.
Krappy’s 240 in the K&N booth…I think it was in the NITTO booth one day and there the other…what a booth slut.
Mia Lyon’s STI in the Synergy Turbo booth. She is the wife of Hurell Lyons whose Evo we featured this summer. Check it out here.
The Falken Team chilling out
Patrick Goodin rolling out to the field.
Matt Power’s lining up to hit the field, this is one of the rare times for the public to get up close and personal to the cars.
Dai about to hit the track
Greg Bucell’s S13 finally painted.
Alex Farrington’s NSX that was recently featured in Honda Tuning by way of ChadBee Photography.
Tony’s GS in the NOS booth
Horsepower Freaks M3 with the Asuka widebody kit.
There was a group selling HellaFlush/Fatlace stuff, I did not know if it was real Fatlace shirts and decals or not. I have never seen anyone other than Fatlace sell their products at events.
Interesting Cressida, seems to have a Tacoma front bumper.
Andy Osteen’s FC. This car has been going through it the last few months. It was wrecked and then hit by a car at a local meet a few weeks after. Glad to see Andy got it back in shape. We featured this car about a year ago you can check it out here.
Jeremy Lowe’s FC was another non-LS powered car, still being powered by the 13B turbo. It’s always crazy to see the fitment on these drift vehicles, most of the time better than most parking lot slammed cars I see!
Jeff Abbott’s Miata still packing the factory 1.8 built from top to bottom. Visually he seemed to be doing a lot better than the other Miata that was LS powered.
Either Taka Aona’s 86 did not get much play this weekend or I just missed it run.
Tony Angelo’s Scion TC. It’s Gushi’s old car from last year. Angelo got pretty far with the car this round. While I was taking this picture Gushi came by and talked to Angelo for a minute. I wonder if he wants it back…lol
Phil Sohn’s FD looking gorgeous as usual in the Exedy booth. Phil is currently building another FD with a 20B (build thread here). He is the organizer of the Deals Gap Rotary Rally and has some of the coolest cars.
Tyler McQuarrie’s team getting the Camaro dialed in for the day.
The Falken team brought out the full fleet.
Jade Crew NSX
Tony Brakohiapa’s Ford Mustang packing big heat with the Vortech V-7 YSi Supercharger. Someone commented on this photo on our fan page and said it made around 1200 horsepower and was tuned down to 700 for competition. The car sounded crazy! You could hear the air being sucked in all the way out in the stands. We were told the car is actually a 2005 Mustang with a newer generation front end.
Ken Gushi talking to a fan, I overheard him and this guy talk about the FR-S drifting capability. Ken was saying the car is really twitchy naturally and is a bit of a challenge to drift. I would credit that to the car being completely new mostly. I was surprised about how casual the conversation between the Gushi and the fan was. He seems like a real down to earth guy.
For me this was the first time I saw a FR-S in person and I really like the car. The Gram Lights and Greddy kit had a lot to do with that I do believe. I liked it so much I bought a Greddy lanyard and plate frame.
Fredric Aasbo’s 2nd generation Scion TC.
Toshiki Yoshioka’s well known S15 getting setup. Another non-LS swap candidate powered by the VQ38dett out of the GTR.
The one and only Smoke Train.
One of the pit guys with the Achilles team posed for a pic
Got a picture with Daigo
A photo of Daigo and the Achilles Tires team. If you look in the hand of the guy in the white Nike polo shirt, that is a SouthrnFresh sticker. They said they were going to put it on the car and I waited around a little while for them to do so, but I did not see them put it on. When we go down to Palm Beach I am giving them another one and demanding this time…lol
The smoke train conductor himself Daigo Saito
The heart of the Smoke Train makes 1200hp, and sounds just as mean as the V8s
Listen for yourself…
Joon Maeng’s 3 Rotor Turbo Rx8. Over the weekend this car became one of my favorites. Every time it ran the crowd gave it a round of applause. Part of it was due to the smoke trail and the rest was from the sound and fire spitting by the 3 rotor.
Mazdatrix built 500hp 3 Rotor which are very conservative numbers for a 3 rotor.
The sounds this car makes is just beautiful.
Jacob Tanaka and Ken Gushi chillin
PG+K Jay came in town from Cali and got on the grill, always a treat when Jay gets on the grill.
Its all business on that grill….
Richie chilling showing Brando love.
Topy’s (Papaya Motorsports) son getting some track practice
After I ran through the drift pits, I got some shots of the Global Time Attack cars, starting with Papaya Motorsports of Tennessee in their K20 powered EK. The car placed an overall 2nd, but by the end of the day it took some pretty bad damage. Hopefully they can get another chassis for New Jersey. If you are in the Tennessee area and have or know of an EK for sale, contact them via their Facebook page.
After one of their runs on Friday they ran into a busted radiator caused by the alternator rubbing against it.
The driver of the car, Wynn Suebhongsang, maybe best known for Wynn’s Burgers & Cream, in Tennessee. Wynn closed his doors to the business and has put some more time into Papaya Motorsports. He also has a S2000 that he tracks from time to time. Check out the last meet at Wynns Burgers & Cream here.
Joe Ippolito’s VQ Sentra was a terror on the track as usual and it ended up picking up 1st place running 1:36.092 in the limited FWD class. Joe is an Atlanta native, so Road Atlanta was his territory but that does not take anything away from the car and driver. I met Joe about a year and a half ago when went out to a NASA event and took some photos of the car back when it was first put together (check it out here & here). It just keeps getting faster and faster too. Back when we first met Joe, he was doing 1:39 and this weekend he pulled a solid 1:36. Check out 2j-Racing.com.
The Tanaka Racing Corvette is back but this time doing time attack. This time last year, this car was running in Formula D. I have to say I never really liked the side graphic, but once I hear the car running it all makes sense. Unfortunately, the Tanaka team had an abrupt end to the evening that we will show later!
AMI Racing Porsche did what Porsches do best and won the Unlimited RWD class with a 1:27.
Bryan Hedian and the Wired Race Team took home 2nd in the RWD street class.
GST Motorsports Unlimited AWD class winner running a 1:23. It sounds just as nice as it looks.
The bodywork on the car was a work of functioning art.
One of my favorite cars running the Time Attack, dont think it had a single issue all weekend. I would like to know more about the car so if anyone has some background on it, hit us up!
Matthew Brueck’s Miata of Flawless & iTrack Motorsports running street limited RWD, finished 3rd place.
Matt getting interviewed and being a superstar.
Todd Reid and the Reid Speed/Fortune Auto Honda Civic came in 3rd in the Limited FWD class.
SOHO Motorsports G35 driven by Kevin Parlett. They ended the day rough in a pretty bad wreck, so hopefully the car can be repaired soon or they can get another chassis back on the track asap.
Zen Motors IS300 driven by Vince Spadea ran in the street RWD class. I was told they reported themselves to the officials once the realized they had a illegal Cat on the car, and they were Disqualified.
The Spec Clutch Nissan 240SX driven by Dave Norton ran a 1:33:92 and took home first in the Limited RWD class.
Element Tuning’s Subaru STI driven by Phil Grabow finished 3rd in AWD Street class.
Chris Rado’s wild TC was running in the Unlimited FWD class running 1:25.
Rado had some issues all throughout the weekend. Once resulting in sending the car off the road and a few other times for some minor car issues.
Pure Tuning Honda Civic DX driven by Aaron Byram was also running in the same class as Chris Rado, which was crazy to me.
Thats all of the pit photos from Friday and Saturday. Next post we will be getting to the action!
