Formula D in NJ, The good , the bad and the ugly

[PalmerWMD]

I went to the NJ Formula Drift event with Chad aka paemt last weekend.

-The drive there was fu,n got a little crazy and took it up to 130 mph in an undisclosed state

-When we got there parking was on a gravel lot ! Even worse they wanted us to drive thru what amounts a sandpit to get to the parking spots, all this for the low low parking fee of $10..

-Told them I am not driving thru that, they: " you gonna hafta" me: " I am not driving thru there", Guy: " then you gonna hafta leave" Me: "ok give me my money back then I'll park on that strip mall down the street", Guy: " O wait about right here"Me: " Ok"

-Track was small but easy to see all the action

- Vendor had some delicious, yet mess,y funnel cake

-tandem drift was a bit scandalous, Newcomer Conrad Grunewald ( remember that name) in his S13 beat Ryhs Millen very convincingly in the first round of the tandem drift elimination.

All his angles were clean and perfect, almost passed Millen on the inside too.

A clear win for Grunewald, it wasnt even close!

Annoucer guy asked the crowd who they thought won : Crowd:" CONRAD!" Guy: " Ok so the crowd is split, lets ask the judges"

10 sec later " the "Judges" declared Millen the winner.

I was pretty shocked ,even the relatively unsophistaced (at this event) spectators saw Grunewald win.

It seems clear that the "Team GTO" appeal to the US market meant Millen couldnt lose this first elimination round..

Even though he "did lose"

Fred...

[Joe]

thats why im not a fan of drift competitions.

[PalmerWMD]

But it was still a lot of funt o see all the awesome cars in action.

Just abbit more honesty would have been good.

Tye S chassis cars just dominated the event in numbers and performance.

Event organizers clearly like to "foster diversity" by hyping which ever car a S Chassis car was up against.

This was especially obvious vs the Mustang and Viper.

For example when the winner and loser of the drift off l;eave the stage they usuyally hyper the winner and his sponsors,

BUT when the S13 lead the Viper off the track ( passed him inside <during> the drift) theyw ere still busy hyping the Viper and its sponsors MOPAR despite it being the loser.

Still once they beocmne a bit more honest this series will be serious fun!

Fred..

[Onizuka]

I saw some pictures, looks like it was alot of fun. Kind of dumb they would judge unfairly like that, at least we know the real truth.

See anybody from nico there?

[racer98]

Wow !

[paemt6220]

I was great, I will post the rest of the pictures tonight.

He is probably going to get tired of this, but fred is awsome. He drove 120 miles out of his way to come get me thanks!!

I believe a little over 130. Felt like 90. I was afraid to drive over 80.

Conrad not only beat Rhys by a long shot, but he did it in a Indepedently owned car(not factory backed) and it was his first tandem drift EVER!!

That parking lot guy was an ***. His additude changed very quickly when we started heading for the exit.

Like He said, when they become more honest, It will be alot better.

[Spec-R]

i was there, yea it was awesome. especailly the one run where Gushi got passed and then passed the guy back on the next turn. What do you guys think about Millens Air deflectors That are attached from the rear of the cabin to the Wing????? do you think he should be aloud to have them or not??? i'll get a pic to show u what i mean.

[Spec-R]

heres a better shot of them. i mean hes a good driver, no doubt, but i dunno about them being on the car.

[CaoBoY]

que le fawk? how do those work, woudl they help out that much?

[Joe]

i bet they definatley work on higher speed drifts.

[Spec-R]

que le fawk? how do those work, woudl they help out that much?

think about it, when he goes into a drift at a good speed...usually the first turn, those things dont let the air pass between the body and wing...hence giving him resistance. so it lets him get crazy angle and not spin out.

[USsil80]

wasn't there... wish i was though.... buit from what fred posted sounds like they are trying to hype the majr sponsors.. this series is still new so they need those big sponsors to make it happen.... imagion if they lose in the first round all the time... no more big sponsors money .... sucks to be that way i think... just my 2 censt though

[northstar ninja]

i was there... i was amazed and dissappointed all at the same time... honestly i dont remember conrads car, else id prolly remember that tandem drift... imo the rsr honda and rhys had some of the best first round laps. personally i liked the g35 driven by c wan... he did well till toward the end, i guess physics just can be reckoned with too much... it did seem that with the exception of millens gto the lighter car almost always won... i was impressed with the cars, with the approachability of the drivers, and the fact that they just like to have fun... like the viper doing a burn out till the tires caught on fire... i really would have liked a nissan to take first, but like as was said the other cars seem to be hyped up alot... i give alot of credit to the driver of the toyota chaser... that thing cant be easy to throw around... it was also inspiring to see the s13 "tire killer" which appeared to be daily drive and mostly stock... actually my friend said the driver told him it was stock, but it had to have some form of lsd... but its cool to see the underdog just getting into it make it... im sure he will probably be able to get sponsored now ...anyways sorry for the long post... but al in all i think it was a good day, if not just for the cars and drivers...(ps my friends girl got a tire signed by all the big drivers in some sort of pit area and she said they were all drinking... maybe that affected some of the tandem rounds outcomes...)-g

[paemt6220]

Still Looks great after 130MPHA few bugs though(they were so thick you could have scraped with a piant scraper and not even touched the paint!!)He's got more stickers under the hood than most honda owners have on thier doors! I told him I would have to come up with some good captions for these 2. Feel Free To Help!You'll be happy to know it only took him 15 Min to find it^^LOL now for the race Pics



Just before he spun out^









Wrecked his Skyline on Friday. Track Car = Not so good drifting. He sure tried though.













I don't like Fords, but here ya good^

AND WE SAVE THE BEST FOR LASTCool!

This Car was REALLY loud.

Some people are very lucky!

Thats Fred Again, He is wearing that same jacket in almost all the pictures of him on this site. LOL It must work, supposedly he attracts the younger women! He says they all think he is like 26 or something. I don't know, I guessed 38 but I was wrong. Would you believe He is 52!

I'll expect one of those next time we meet!

I took more pictures but my camera was acting up.

It was a great trip over all.

Chad

[fireheadmt]

heres some more pics that i took, looks like we were sitting in the same area.

[fireheadmt]

yeah enjuku,

driver was definitely a good guy too

[fireheadmt]

my current wallpaper

[fireheadmt]

and my favorite SOUNDING car.

an s14 with a RB25de (non turbo)sooo clean sounding, i wish i had a clip

[PalmerWMD]

Aaargh: From looking at the pics I just saw:

Life as a civilian is turning me into one fat bastard..

Note to self:Need to run again, I am going to log off and run right now

[Spec-R]

looks like a Sr to me

[Spec-R]

i was very tempted to go grab me a set of the new azenis.

[Spec-R]

tarzan's viper

[Spec-R]

she only likes him cause hes JDM

[Spec-R]

haha...mazda got owned...thats a Sr in a Rx7

[fireheadmt]

woops, maybe i wass thinkin of the wrong car... haha it was a 9 hour day and lots to see, minds a little fuzzy haha

all i know is there was a car with a non turbo rb25 that sounded amazing

[MainEvent212]

2 corrections



you said "some people are lucky"

i believe this is the JIC magic race car...not a street car all decked out...it used to live in japan..maybe it's here on vacation...i love the wheels none the less though

and alsothis car is local to me, it's the team lexus grand-am cup car. They just put new wheels and tires and give it a shot at drifting. I believe the driver's name is Jerry (Not the usual grand am driver, but a local drifter around my area) and he does NOT own a skyline at all

he does have an alltrac celica (jdm style) and a s13 sponsored by ssauto (turbo, mani etc... )

[paemt6220]

The S-15 is thier Drift car. I just meant some people are lucky just because they get to drive one.

The Lexus was driven by James Bondurant, grandson of Race school owner Bob Bondurant. I believe he was driving a skyline in practice on Friday and backed it into the wall.

[PalmerWMD]

Much about this event was excellent tho.

The cars and Drivers were as accessible as I had never seen them before.

Fred...

[northstar ninja]

i might be wrong but i thought it was an s13 with the na rb in it... it also had r33 taillights if i remember correctly...

[PalmerWMD]

Did anynody get any pics of the big NICO stickers on each side window of the Enjuku Drift Cars?

Chad got some but they didnt come out.

Also they both had Pual Souder RIP stickers too.

Fred...