Dennis Mertzanis » Las Vegas, NV – Formula Drift Round 6 HOT HOT HOT!!!!!!

Las Vegas, NV – Formula Drift Round 6 HOT HOT HOT!!!!!!

Las Vegas – Round 6 of Formula Drift

It was so dang hot, 110 degrees F in the heat of the day. I brought a portable AC unit to the track, but it was so hot, it overheated immediately and shut off. I rigged something up and it worked fine the rest of the weekend. Whew, dodged that bullet. We installed some HID lights from a pillaged Hyundai EQUUS headlight.

Thursday practice was challenging. The first issue I had was the car stalling in the first turn. I would initiate for the big left-hander, ebrake like crazy and then back on the throttle and there was nothing there. After a few rounds of checking stuff out, I raised the idle with the throttle body screw and it never happened again. Second issue was the power steering. I changed the pump before this event because the other one was dying.

These things when they heat up have a tendency to spill fluid out of the reservoir and onto a hot manifold, sort of self-leveling. This was no different because it looked as if my car was on fire at times. We removed a ton of fluid and off I went. I only got a solid hour or so of practice.

Friday was a great day. It was hot, AGAIN, but I learned a few things. The real key to this course to me is the 45 degree kink as you approach the initiation point. In practice, I could not go fast through this point and it really screwed up my run into the entry. I made some dampening adjustments at the advice of a good friend and mentor of sorts. The car was 100% better in the kink. To be honest, I think I could have run full throttle through the kink, but I never had the guts. In hindsight, I wish I had tried.

So here is where the event got weird. In the drivers’ meeting, there were 3 things that were questionable.

First, the judges said to be sideways no later than the first cone at the initiation point outer clip. Second, the judges wanted us to ride the outer line into the second outer clip. Third, they were very clear about how important the second out clip was and how you should sacrifice some angle to get out there. OK, pretty clear and easy, right. Due to my lack of speed into the entry, I had to pull some angle out to get to the second outer clip. I ran this line for each qualifying run and it yielded a somewhat low score. There were guys that would do a big entry, fall way inside, miss most of the clipping points and then get a great qualifying score. At the time, we should have changed our qualifying strategy and only worried about doing a big initiation.

But it was too late, I qualified 26th and was pared with Dai, the current points leader. That’s fine because last year the car sucked so badly I didn’t even qualify.

So, I watched Dai all night in practice and all day the next day before top 32 tandem. I had a strategy of sorts. I got up to the stage for top 32, ready to take on the points leader, and found out I was going against Mohan instead. Well that’s great; I didn’t watch Mohan at all. What the heck happened? Apparently, FD judges didn’t get the speeds right and changed the bracket around a bit. Whatever, I ran Mohan in Long Beach, so I knew what to expect.

Tandem was good. Following, I got pulled at the kink so there was a deficient to overcome right away. I got some of it back at the second outer clip, but then lost it in the infield. My leading run was good I felt, good angle in the entry and pretty smooth. Again, the infield killed me as Mohan was on my butt. So I lost. Awesome weekend though.

Also, a big thanks to Eric from Kenda for coming out to the event. It was great to hangout this weekend and watch some drifting.

Me following

Me leading

Mark Lenardon also did some photo shooting of the car. He does great work for sure.

Thanks Sponsors

Susan – My girlfriend and spotter on this trip…remember to push the correct button on the headset baby, xoxo Also, nice work winning all that dough this weekend.

Sams Auto Land

Will Kramer – Thanks for painting the car.

Dave Epifano – Thanks for coming out and helping. YOU ARE THE MAN!!!!