Top Drift Round 1
By David Karey
A whopping 60 drivers registered to compete in the first round of the popular Formula Drift recognized Pro-Am series, which as always was held at Willow Springs Raceway by Just Drift. Top Drift follows the same bracket style competition that FD uses, 2 drivers tandem, one moves on to drive against another driver, until one driver comes out in first. It's a pretty typical and common drift event, but not when Mother Nature decides everyone is having too much fun in the sun.
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| Willow Springs Balcony was near completely filled to capacity. It goes to show how eager everyone was to go drifting after a winter of no official drift competitions. What a great turnout! |
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Several drivers that had previously held Formula D licenses, came out to earn them again. Chris Licup used to drive a highly modified SR20DET S14 240SX, but ran into some issues after Long Beach last year, which caused him to miss the rest of the season. Driving a car with half the power of his old car, he was able to run the full practice and get a feel for the sport again.
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I like to share some cool cars that always come out to drift events at Willow Springs. I wasn't able to catch up with the driver of this 7M powered Supra, but I've always enjoyed looking at it, and hope the owner is able to develop it into a competitive car in the future.
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George Kilada letting it hang while it was still dry. He always shows up at the amateur events, such as Top Drift and Vegas Drift, etc. Drivers like him are the guys we should be watching, the ones who will someday be competing in FD. You can see the clouds getting closer in this photo as well.
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Anthony Urbano is also a regular, and is constantly honing his skills. |
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Here is something bitchin'. This is Rob Mclnerney's Cressida. I'd love to see more RWD sedans get fully built, tuned and driven at serious drift events.
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This car is owned by Adam Levi . It had so much front camber that it probably would have thrown Kojima into a fit. Good or bad camber? I don't know….but tons and tons of it! Such a beautiful car.
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Ryan Fadera is a drifter who is well known for playing a role in keeping grassroots drifting alive. He is part of a group called the RAD Experience, which is a tight knit group of drivers that hold track events at Willow.
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Spike Chen hangs it all out and gives us a dirt drop. Super boss!
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