Big Win at TopDrift Round 3

TopDrift Round 3 was incredible! The judges decided to go with a new track layout this year which turned out to be very challenging. However, even though it was challenging it still made for some great tandems.

I learned a lot about myself from this round and It really helped me become more confident in my tandems.

First: Alex Grimm

Second: Adam Knapik

Third: Sean Adriano

The night was full of awesome battles. I would start the night off by battling Micah Diaz which was the most fun battle of the night. On Micah's follow he made a slight mistake coming into the connector which ultimately gave me the win, but his chase was great!

My great 8 battle was against top qualifier Jason Kim. During our first battle each of us made mistakes on our follows which lead to a one more time. But after I put on an impressive follow thanks to Jason's great driving I would take the win.

My top 4 battle was my worst of the night. Sean Adriano pulled a big lead on me from the start and kept it throughout the run, however on my lead he made a mistake in the connector which gave me the win.

In the final I got plain lucky. Adam Knapik and I battled twice due to a one more time. During the first battle in my lead run Adam made a mistake coming into the connector and straightened out a bit. On my follow I initiated really well and was close to Adam in the beginning of the run, but his car is so much faster than mine he just continuously increased the gap through out the run to the point that it was an inactive chase.

When the second battle started Adam would be leading. It was a similar story, we started close but he just walked away from me. However, during my lead Adam's car had a failure which poured oil over one of his front tires causing him to almost spin on entry, he straightened which gave me the win.

Huge thanks to David Karey from AMDRIFT.com for taking these amazing pictures and just being an awesome dude! Check out their full gallery from the event here ---> Full Gallery from Round 3

New Videos Out!

Recently a good friend of mine @skkppy came out to the track with me to help shoot video. The video came out really well!

This first video was shot on Walt James Stadium, I will be using this for promotions.

This second video was shot a few months ago. We didn't really know what we were doing, the shots in this video were not thought out well so the footage was hard to work with. This video turned out to be more of a compilation video.

Here are a few of the pics that Eric got.

TopDrift Round 2: Horse Thief Mile 6th Place Finish

Had a great weekend at Round 2! I qualified 6th, and won my battle in the top 16 after a OMT. Unfortunately I made a mistake in the great 8 on my follow run and got put out against Knapik. Overall Round 2 was awesome and I learned alot.

 In the great 8 Adam Knapik (@knapikracing) ran a great lead run but i fell behind during initiation and I made a mistake on the downhill entering a little too hot which put me off line.

 During the one more time Adam Feliciano (@jdmbmw) over-rotated on the downhill and he ended up in my door, but luckily the damage is minimal.

Huge thanks to all the media out there! Pictures above are credited to AMDrift.com's David Karey, Petrolheadsmedia.com, and The Beam Team.

TopDrift Round 1 Success!

What a rush! Round 1 was fantastic! There were a lot of good drivers out there with some very serious cars, so there was quite a lot of competition.

Practice on Saturday and Sunday went extremely well, I was able to pick up the new course within a few runs. After some pointers from Taka I was able to get the line down and run very consistently.

When qualifying came around I began by putting down an extremely conservative run, the second time around I pushed a little harder and was able to hit the clips (at least well enough to qualify). I managed to just get by and qualify 16th. I will say however, if I had a spotter I could have placed much higher.

I am EXTREMELY happy to have made it to the top 16. It was my first time qualifying and this was only my second competition.

My YouTube video from the event can be found at 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lSY2C_N6fVM

Sitting on the grid for my qualifying runs.

Driver of the lime green S13 Nate Tuchlinski (on left) and myself Alex Grimm (on Right)

Top 16 qualifiers, I'm in the top left corner.

Top 16, Jason Kim and I were the first up. He took me out after I hit the wall on my lead run. Luckily he went on to win 1st, congratulations to Jason Kim.

On my lead run I went into the last corner too hot and my passenger side rear wheel tapped the wall. The wheel shattered but I just kept on rollin to finish the run. Nothing was damaged besides the wheel.

Huge thanks to all the media out there and especially to AMDrift.com and David Karey who always grabs some of the sickest shots! Also a big thanks to JustDrift for hosting the ProAm licensing series and all the best drift events in SoCal.

I am very happy about the results from TopDrift Round 1, my goal was to qualify and I did. I know what I need to improve on and cant wait for Round 2 at HTM where I will be aiming for 1st!

Follow me on Instagram @DriftTheZ for exclusive videos and content!