Top Drift Round 1

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Top Drift Round 1

The driver of this 350Z, is Jesse Vargas. Jesse is an “account specialist” for Replay cameras. He is in charge of sales, customer and tech support, event staff, sponsorship, etc. Replay has done a lot of the R&D of their cameras on cars at Top Drift events over the past couple of years.

Top Drift Round 1
I don't know much about this driver, Rob Webber, but you can see how much water is on the track. Balcony is very uneven, so you will drift over moist patches of blacktop, and then hit a pool of standing water and screw your drift up!
Top Drift Round 1
Vegas Pro-Am winner Andy Hateley, is out for blood this year. I believe he plans on making all events for Vegas Pro-Am and Top Drift. Andy qualified, but was beaten by Alex Villabrille after going again several times. Mechanical issues may have been at play, but I was unable to get with Andy to confirm prior to writing this article.
Top Drift Round 1
Another former FD driver, Chris Milano, brought this killer behemoth CTS-V out to earn points towards an FD license. Chris completed every qualifying run and was able to tandem later in the day.
Top Drift Round 1
This is how you drive. Anthony Urbano, yet again, uses the entire course and keeps drifting with body panels hanging off his car. This is how it's done.
Top Drift Round 1
George Kilada used every inch of track to achieve some serious angle in the rain.
Top Drift Round 1
The first tandem battle of Top 16 competition, was Eric Hill against Gabe Behrens. Eric quickly took Gabe down.
Top Drift Round 1
Next, #8 qualifier Dan Brockett took on #9 qualifier mega camber Adam Levi. Adam Levi straightened a couple of times on his follow run. When it was time for Adam to lead, mechanical issues, possibly hydro lock, caused Dan Brockett to move on.
Top Drift Round 1
Luke Pakula in his turbo S2000 powered AE86, took on Kelvin Areolla and his RX7. Luke hit the water pretty hard, but was able to take Kelvin down.
Top Drift Round 1
Way too much water! Kelvin lots a ton of momentum, resulting in a bad run and letting Luke Pakula move on.
Top Drift Round 1Top Drift Round 1

Jesse Vargas (350Z) vs. Danny Giraldo (AE86). Both hit the water very hard. Jesse straightened in the puddle on his follow run, Danny moves on.

 

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