TN State of Drift Round 1 coverage

Two Fridays ago, a new drift series had its first event in Bowling Green, Kentucky. The new series, TN State of Drift, is put on by 3 organizations: Tennessee Drift, out of Nashville; East10 Drift, out of Knoxville; and Traction Optional, out of Memphis.

Photos and Words by: Ty Cobb

The series consists of six rounds, where competitors earn points, similar to Formula Drift and many other pro-am organizations. The object behind this particular series is to help drivers improve their skills in order to compete at the pro-am level. For those not yet ready for competition, the coordinators encourage beginners to participate as well, offering open practice for them before qualifying and competition began.

As more and more drivers got accustomed to the track, the wall of the first sweeping turn drivers faced claimed several cars throughout the night. While some were not very severe, Abram Heath definitely hit the wall the hardest, unfortunately totaling his S13. Another car with notable damage was Daniel Stephens’ Lexus SC, sporting some interesting design cues thanks to encounters with the wall at previous events.

The event also had vendors set up, including tents from all the sponsoring organizations. Grip Royal made the trek with the Traction Optional crew, and brought along the Grip Royal “fancy missile.” Scott Allinder of Grip Royal built the car from donated parts. “Well basically, I got tired of seeing my friends not having anything to drive at events because their cars are broken. So we had a lot of people donate parts and we built this. It’s basically so if somebody wants to drive and can’t, we can all share the car,” Allinder said.
Pictured below is Traction Optional president, Andrew Chang, driving the GR fancy missile, since his personal S13 is having transmission issues. When I asked Chang about driving the car, he said the following: “I’ve never driven this track, I’ve only watched people drive, so I just want to make sure I don’t put Scott’s car in the wall. He’d kill me!”

As practice finished up, competitors prepared to do their qualifying runs. Driving solidly since his first practice run, and qualifying first was Hooman Rahimi in his Nissan 350Z. He also had some of the fastest entries into turn 1 throughout the night.

One of the best things about shooting at Beech Bend is the variety of angles you can play with as a photographer.

Some drivers took a buy in the first round to move on to the next round. As competition started to heat up, the tandem battles were getting closer! Since event organizer Barry Clapp had a buy in the first round, his next competition came in the form of Brian Crutcher. Crutcher put up a good fight but in the end was defeated by Clapp, advancing him to the Top 8. Clapp went on to compete against Hooman Rahimi after Rahimi’s defeat of William Mueller (FC RX7) for a place in the Top 4. Both runs were so close, the judges ruled one more time! Rahimi’s driving out shined the driving of Clapp in the end, advancing Rahimi to the finals.

Clapp would face the winner of the battle between Jonathan Hurst in the silver 350Z and Bryan Broberg, in the teal and purple S14. Hurst went on to win the battle, setting him up to compete and eventually win against Clapp for 3rd place.

The final battle came down to a battle between Brent Brooks and Hooman Rahimi. Unfortunately due to focusing issues throughout the battle, I was unable to get a crisp enough photo during the battle. Brooks battled hard against Rahimi, but in the end couldn’t take him down. Finishing in 2nd place for Round 1 was Brent Brooks, after being defeated by Rahimi, who is the winner of Round 1. Congratulations to all the winners!

Round 2 is on May 17, at the Smokies Stadium in Kodak, TN (close to Knoxville). Standings going into Round 2 are as follows.
1st: Hooman Rahimi- 6 points
2nd: Brent Brooks- 4 points
3rd: Jonathan Hurst- 4 points
4th: Barry Clapp- 2 points
5th: Brian Crutcher- 1 point
6th: William Mueller- 1 point
7th: Bryan Broberg- 1 point
8th: Stephen White- 1 point

Like us on Facebook!

Follow us on Instagram @Southrnfresh

Full Resolution photos here!