Going in to round one, the whole team was a little anxious. There was lots of uncertainty due to clutch issues we had at EVD 91; along with forecasted rain, which is something I hadn’t had to deal with yet on the big 5/8ths Pro-am course.

As it turns out, all of the worrying was unnecessary. The car performed flawlessly all weekend. More than anything else, this was a milestone for us. Over the past few events we have been plagued with crazy little gremlins that kept us from driving.

Practice for Saturday went well, and the track was mostly dry. Before qualifying, the skies opened and leveled the playing field for everyone.  We ended up spinning on our second run, but the first run was good enough to get us to 11^th place. Our first battle would be against an Evergreen newcomer, Matthew Coffman. New to Evergreen or not, Matthew has one of the nicest Pro-am cars I have personally ever seen. He ended up getting a little too aggressive on his lead run and tapping the last wall hard enough to be given a zero. Both of my runs were solid and we were moving on to the top 8!

Our great 8 battle was against Cameron Moore. He was set to lead first, and by the time we got to the end of the bank I was low and closing in on him very fast. I tried to adjust and make room for two cars but between the wet track and limited room, I ended up spinning as I came off the bank. My lead run was good, but not good enough to overcome a spin, so the great 8 would be the end of our night.

Nissanfest was on Sunday, and they were having a 5/8^th drifting competition as part of the activities for the day. Not all of the drivers stayed for Nissanfest so those who did were able to get lots of practice time. At one point I didn’t even have to stop at the start line because as soon as you got back it was time to send it again.

Qualifying for Nissanfest went really well, I feel like I drove better on Sunday compared to Saturday but I’m sure it was just because I had a whole day of driving before Nissanfest. Our first battle was against my good friend and recently licensed Formula Drift Pro, Kory Keezer. For those of you that don’t know Kory, he is just about the most reckless guy I have ever met, which always makes for a fun battle.

He led first and pretty much left me at the line. I was able to catch up later in the run and we finished pretty strong. My lead run was another good one, but I could feel him close to me the entire time. The judges decided it was too close to call and asked for a one more time. The OMT battle was very similar to the first one. He gapped me and I tried to play catch up. The next run he followed pretty closely. In the end the judges awarded him the win, and he went on to win the entire event!

All in all, it was a very successful weekend for our whole program. The car worked great, we were able to get lots of seat time, and went a few rounds and had good battles along the way. Now we start preparing for round two on May 18^th! Hope to see you at the track!

Before this season, our car has looked basically the same since 2010, and while I was a big fan of the simplicity of the black and white scheme, it was time for a change. I designed the new layout myself and it’s sort of a culmination of everything the car has become. Some of you may remember I had a orange coupe first, then the black and orange hatch, and finally my familiar black and white hatch from the past two seasons. Now we have come full circle. We are back to the black and orange, with a little twist of course.

In addition to the new look, we are also very excited to announce our new partnership with Nitto Tire. We will be running their NT05 tires, and are pleased with the improved grip and smoke in comparison to our old setup. Nitto is a great company to be associated with and am satisfied with the level of professionalism that partnering with them brings.

We have also made the switch to Sparco seats for 2013. These new seats are incredibly comfortable and FIA approved, so in the event of a collision we know that they will hold up. We went with their  EVO 2 US model and I would definitely recommend them to anyone who is looking to upgrade to a set of real seats.

Needless to say, we are eager to get the 2013 race season underway. Evergreen Drift Pro-Am round one is less than a month away. If you’re able to make it,  feel free to swing by our pit and say hello!

Practice went really well, the car was running perfect and our Falken tires were making tons of smoke. Evergreen drift holds their grassroots competitions the same day as our Pro-Ams, so we qualified after all of the grassroots competitors. After putting down two solid runs we ended up qualifying a little lower then I expected but it was still good enough to get us into the main competition.

Our first match up was against Victor Moore, who coming into this event was second overall in points and gunning for his Formula Drift professional license. Victor out qualified me, so he led first. My follow run started really well and we were nice and tight on the bank. Coming into the power alley I had a small issue making a downshift and Victor was laying down a serious smoke screen. Between those two things I straightened up a little bit but quickly recovered and finished the run still fairly close to Victor. My lead run was a very good one, and I could hear the chase car close behind. It wasn’t until it was all over that I was informed that Victor had spun on the last clip and the judges awarded me the win.

Going into the next round we were paired up with number one qualifier and overall points leader Nik Jimenez. Nik lead first and I followed him in. On the entry I started my drift slightly before Nik, and ended up having to correct and falling to the low line on the bank. My lead run was another good run but this time it wasn’t enough to make up for the mistake on my follow run, so Nik was awarded the win.

Overall it was a good day for us, the car seems to finally be fully sorted out and we ended up 8^th for the day.  Huge thanks to all of my partners for the continued support through all the ups and downs this season.

Also, congratulations to Nik Jimenez, Victor Moore, Rob Primo, and Jeremy Richter for earning professional licenses this season!

This year was a little different from years past because it was my first time driving the car all year. This both added stress and took some away because I wasn’t sure how the new setup was going to feel, but at the same time I could just drive and have fun because so far this year I have no championship points.

Thursday was the first practice day for the Pro-Am drivers. We set out to get a good feel for the car and the track because when Formula D comes to town barriers are added to both protect the media guys and keep the drivers on top of their game.  Our practice went well, and within a few laps I was feeling good in the car again and ready for Friday qualifying.

Friday showed what us Washington drivers are used to, insane amounts of rain in the morning. So much rain that our morning practice actually got cancelled. By the time our qualifying rolled around at 6pm, the track was dry. Because we got no practice Formula Drift officials let us each take two practice runs before our two qualifying runs. It wasn’t an ideal situation but under the circumstances it was more than fair.

My two practice runs went well and got me reacquainted with the track. My first qualifying run wasn’t so good. I dropped tires off course coming off the bank and got a very low score of 38. I wasn’t too worried about it because I knew I had a second run and was confident I would score well enough to qualify at least mid-pack.

When I was next in line for run #2, I did a small burn out to get some heat back in the tires and then pulled up to the line. Right before I was about the get the green light track officials started yelling and giving me the “shut it down” signal. I shut the car off and coasted down to a grassy part of the track, only to find out my motor had pushed a soft plug out of the block, and all of the water had drained from the motor in about 30 seconds.  Just like that qualifying run #2 was out the window and now I had to rely on a very underwhelming 38-point run to get me into the main event on Saturday.

Immediately after qualifying was a drivers meeting to announce who made it and where they placed. I left the car with my crew and headed over to the meeting, knowing we could have the car fixed overnight and be good for Saturday as long as I qualified.  At the meeting the judges announced the scores, and unfortunately for us we missed making the field by a single point.

I sat through the entire meeting then made my way back to the pits to break the unfortunate news to my crew, who actually had the car fixed and ready to go by the time I got back just incase we made it.

While we obviously were hoping for a much better outcome, we still had a lot of fun and enjoyed watching both the pro and pro-am cars run the main competition on Saturday. This whole season has been incredibly full of struggles, but sometimes that’s part of the game and we are already looking ahead to next season.

When we got to the track, we unloaded and went through the normal preseason tech inspection because we hadn’t yet done so. The car passed with no issue and I used the time before the drivers meeting to walk around the pits and see all of the people I had been missing during my time away from the track. Drifting really is like a big family, and it was nice to finally be back among the people I’m used to seeing almost every weekend.

After the drivers meeting, I suited up and took the car out to the back section of the track to warm everything up and just get reacquainted with the car because I haven’t driven it as much as I normally do, and with all the changes things were bound to feel slightly different.

I did a few pulls, a couple doughnuts and a burnout to scuff in some new tires. I was very happy with how to car felt, and decided to go back to my pit and wait for practice to start.

When I pulled into my pit space, we noticed the car was smoking very badly from the exhaust. I immediately shut the car down and we inspected things to try and figure out the problem. A slight amount of oil was coming out of the valve cover breather due to an improperly routed catch can. With the can rerouted we started the car again, and the smoke was still there.  Finally we realized that during my little warm up our turbo had let go and oil was making its way past the seals into the exhaust, causing all of our smoke. We had been suspect of our turbo for some time, but the smoke was never bad enough to warrant a replacement until now.

Monday morning we disassembled the old turbo and confirmed what we already knew. The housing was covered and oil and everything was a mess. Instead of a rebuild, we wanted to go with a whole new turbo setup in the hopes of finding better spool time with the same amount of total power.

We ended up choosing a Bullseye Power S252 turbo complete with the Batmowheel upgrade. On paper this turbo will spool faster then our old setup, and make the same or more top end power.

With the turbo installed, I called down to John Reed and setup another dyno appointment to dial in our newest setup. Our appointment is June 12^th, and right after that we head to Formula Drift Seattle to compete in the Evergreen Drift Pro-Am round 4 that is held alongside FD.

With any luck, everything will finally come together and ill be able to put on a good show for the crowd, and all my partners that will be in attendance at Formula Drift.

This was not an exact replica of the previous motor. There were a few things that we decided to change while we had the opportunity. This motor features Brian Crower H beam rods, JE pistons, and Brian Crower cams/springs/retainers. In addition to all this, we also decided it was time to upgrade our injectors, so we switched over to a top feed fuel rail and Injector Dynamics 1000cc injectors.

Because of all this we needed a new map setup on our MoTeC system. Our tuning appointment was Thursday June 7^th with our tuner John Reed. We have been working with John for the past two seasons and he is simply the best at what he does. It’s amazing to watch him work and the car always leaves the shop making awesome power.

The previous motor made 407whp/377wtq at 25psi. With our new setup, John was able to make more power and torque on less boost. When he was finished the car was putting down 418whp/404wtq at 20psi. Like I said, the guy is amazing and we are incredibly fortunate to have him on board for another season.

Next event is June 17^th, and we will be there ready to go!

Dyno Video:

Hopefully some of you noticed I wasn’t at round one either. From the very first practice day of this year, the team and I have been plagued with engine issues that eventually culminated in needing to build an entirely new motor, one week before round one.

That didn’t happen, and we knew it wouldn’t. One week was just not enough time to pull the motor, source a new block, order and receive new parts, get machine work done, reassemble everything, and then set up a time with John Reed to get a fresh tune on the fresh motor. Everybody was disappointed we wouldn’t make round one, after all we waited the whole off-season and thought everything was in order, but in motorsports these things happen. So, round two was going to be our first competition day.

That didn’t happen either. Which brings me to another thing that does happen in motorsports quite often; things take way longer than expected.  Due to mix ups with our machinist and the fact that we run a somewhat non-traditional motor, machine work took about 4 times longer than expected, and we actually still don’t have our block back yet, but last I heard it was going to be finished up early next week.

Once we get the block back in our hands things should move along rather quickly, because we shouldn’t have to wait on anyone else. Now it’s easy to see all of the negatives in this situation, but there have actually been lots of positives.

First off, we have amazing partners. Without the help from ASD motorsports and Brian Crower, we would’ve likely missed the entire five round season. Brian Crower supplied most of the internals for the new motor, and ASD made sure everything got to me as quickly as UPS could manage. John Reed Racing is ready to give us a fresh tune on our MoTeC M84, because this new motor will have some things the old one didn’t have.

Round three is in one month, and there is a lot to do between now and then but with the machine work nearing completion I’m confident that our ASD Motorsports/Falken Tire s13 will be back and better than it ever has been before.

The teaser just went live today, so check out the link below and share it with your friends!

As you should know, if you read my updates, we are switching to a z32 transmission for this season. To complement the change and free up some power, we also installed an ACT prolite flywheel and while we had everything apart another ACT 6-puck un-sprung clutch. This is the same clutch I’ve ran since the first day I drove my current motor setup, and its always been rock solid. Honestly it didn’t need replacing, but it was done as preventative maintenance because reliability is a huge factor in a competitive drift program. A z1 motorsports short shifter was also used due to the completely different shifter design of the z32 transmission.

This season we also completed a major brake system overhaul, something that I have wanted to do for a long time. To start with, we purchased the best hydraulic handbrake money can buy from the boys over at ASDmotorsports.com. I opted for the 16” pull back version, but they also offer 10” pull back, and pull up varieties to suit everyone’s driving style. Expect a full review of the ASD brake and a comparison between my old and new handbrake setups.

My new ASD handbrake is going to be plumbed directly to its own dedicated set of z32 rear calipers so there is no interference when using the footbrake and Ebrake at the same time. To accomplish this we got a hold of George Marstanovic and picked up a set of his dual rear caliper brackets. These brackets are CAD designed and real world tested to ensure durability. If you find yourself using both brakes at the same time, be sure to pick up a set of George’s brackets.

Running a top mount turbo can create a lot of heat at the brake master cylinder, I personally have fought this issue multiple times experiencing brake fade at tracks like PGP and once I even melted a brake line, causing fluid to drip onto my manifold and create a small fire. To combat this issue, we ditched the booster and converted to manual brakes for this season. Doing this moves the master cylinder much farther away from the turbo and should keep things cooler.

The first open drift of the season is less than two weeks away and we are working overtime to make sure the car is ready for testing on that day. I’ve got 10 new Falken RT615k’s mounted up and ready to go, and we can’t wait to kill them. I hope to see everyone out at the track!

To start things off, the motor was pulled from the bay and torn down for inspection. This was the third full season for this motor, and last time we did a leak down test the numbers were enough to make this decision for us.  Considering the nature of the sport, and the fact that we run 30psi of boost, our little motor was surprisingly clean on the inside. Fresh bearings, rings, and a slight hone were all that was required to get everything sealed back up.

If you followed our program at all last year, you may be aware that we fought wastegate issues at almost every event. My feelings are that the problem stemmed from the simple fact that we were asking too much from a street oriented wastegate. To solve that problem this year, we ordered a Tial MV-R wastegate from our friends over at www.asdmotorsports.com.  The MV-R should be exactly what we need to solve all the issues we had last season. It uses -4 water-cooling ports to keep the temps in check and vband flanges for a perfect seal every time. Tial also includes every available spring option with the purchase of one of their gates, so we have the ability to fine tune the spring pressure as well.

Another issue that fortunately never affected us last year, but has in the past is our stock ka24de transmission. We are past the safe power limit for these transmissions, and because of that we normally go through 1 or 2 a year. This year, we are making the switch to a 300zx twin turbo transmission, which is a much stronger unit with ratios that are extremely close to the stock 240sx ratios that I’m used to.

We also switched to a mid-mount intercooler setup, which simplified and shortened our intercooler piping significantly. We hope to see improved spool time and increased reliability from this new setup.

We have a few other things on the table for 2012, but nothing else has been confirmed as of yet. Look for updates as they happen at www.facebook.com/TYGRRacing and @TYGRRacing.

Thank you to Autosport Dynamics, Falken Tire, Mechanix wear, Heatshield products, and John Reed Racing for the continued support in 2012. Here’s to a great season!