Ken Gushi

I recently got the opportunity to send some questions to Ken Gushi regarding the Long Beach event.

For those that don't know Ken Gushi was able to beat Jeremy Lowe and Odi Bakchis to make it into the Great 8 during his first event with the Scion Racing/GReddy FR-S.

Here are some of Ken's thoughts heading into the event with the new car.

With the new FR-S chassis was there anxiety or anticipation coming into Long Beach? Coming from a chassis I have been driving and battling for 4 years, it was definitely a challenge to get the new FR-S chassis to work in my favor. The car itself is amazing. Greddy did an amazing job building the FR-S from ground up. Our partnership with Cosworth and their engine program also played a huge role in getting the car competitive.  It's just getting the new chassis to perform competitively against a field of roaring V8s was tough. I don't think anyone knows how little time I had in the FR-S to get it dialed in. But with the help of Chris from KW, the process was sped up. He helped me understand the car better and improved the way the car felt. But we didn't have much seat time. In fact, the car was not even dialed in going into Long Beach.
To be honest, I was very nervous on the very first run. This was the very first time driving this car with this new set-up and I didn't have the trust in my car to do what I wanted it to do. By the time the 3rd practice lap came up, I knew I had to change my driving. I didn't know if the car would listen to me, but I accelerated towards turn 1, pitched the car sideways, and floored the acceleration pedal to the floor as the car came to life. I became very familiar with my new car from that point and confidence was coming back. 

Photo credit to Wrecked Magazine.

Were you hoping to see yourself matched up against Tony Angelo in your old tC to see the new car against it? I never thought about it but it would have been interesting to see myself drive with Tony in his tC which i drove for the past 4 years. During the private Scion Racing test day, I saw that he was very comfortable in the car while I was struggling. If i were to drive with him then, he would have probably out-shined me. Ask me again today, and i can say that i have the confidence in my car to outdrive the tC.

Photo credit to RallyXD.com.

Do you feel there is more or less of a learning curve with the FR-S vs. that of the tC?
The tC and the FR-S both drive in very different ways. The tC has a longer wheel base which makes driving much easier. The FR-S is snappier, and accelerates better. I felt like I was learning how to drive again. If i can remember 4 years back, I feel like I had a tougher time trying to tame the tC.

Was there any concerns coming into Long Beach regarding the newly paved surface?
As soon as I heard that Long Beach was repaved, I felt very heavy. First of all, I have a new car with a new engine, new suspension, new team, new tire size, new everything, and now you're telling me that the track surface is new? Never have I felt that kind of pressure especially going in with on the most highly anticipated car of the year. But after the very first lap, that concern went right out the window.


A HUGE thank you to Ken Gushi for taking the time to answer back to me in such a short amount of time.  I look forward to watching how he progresses with the FR-S throughout the season and hope to see him at the top of the podium again.

Vegas Drift Results

According to the Vegas Drift twitter...here is the top three from the event yesterday.

1st Garrett Nikolich
2nd Forrest Wang
3rd Brandon Wicknick

Coming soon...

Coming soon I'll have interviews with Formula Drift co-founder Ryan Sage and Scion Racing driver Ken Gushi.

Drift Indy RAGE Shakedown

The crew at Drift Indy, will be having a Drift Indy RAGE Shakedown on Saturday, May 12, 2012 at Lucas Oil Raceway Park.  The cost is $55 for Pre-registration (before April 29) or $75 for Late Registration.

For more information on the event, vist http://www.driftindy.com/events-drift-indy-rage-shakedown/

Wrecked Fantasy Drift

If you are a fan of fantasy football or baseball and want something similar to fill that niche for your love of drifting.  Check out Wrecked Magazine's Fantasy Drift.

It will give you an excuse to follow the news of drifting like you would for baseball or football.

'Mad Mike' Awarded

Mad Mike Whiddett was awarded three awards at the NZ Aftermarket Industry Awards.

The awards included NZ Drift Nationals, Personality of the Year, and International Ambassador.

Congrats to Mad Mike on the awards.

Here's a shot of Mike with his new wall hangings.

VegasProAm Round 2: Drivers List

Aside from Clubloose, there is also drifting in Vegas this weekend, with round 2 of VegasProAm.

Here's a list of the drivers slated to compete in the event.  According to Twitter, it looks like Joon Maeng of Formula Drift is also planning to attend this event.

01. Taylor, Christopher – Nevada
02. Edginton, Derek – Utah
03. Estrella, Manny – Arizona
04. Baer, Tanner – Nevada
05. Prince, Shawn – Nevada
06. Hilsabeck, Traverse – Nevada
07. Hateley, Andrew – California
08. McGuire, Josh – California
09. Chen, Spike – California
10. Nyberg, Nicholas – Arizona
11. Gutierrez, Eddie – California
12. Martinez, Ulysses – California
13. Cisneros, Tony – California
14. Strohmeyer, Robert – Nevada
15. Vincent, William – Utah
16. Lopez, Derrick – Utah
17. Hanson, Billy – California
18. Sproul, Joey – Nevada
19. McInerney, Robert – California
20. Lind, Josh – Arizona
21. Wolfson, Tyler – California
22. Villabrille, Alex – California
23. Tecson, Mark – Nevada
24. Wang, Forrest – Nevada
25. Nikolich, Garret – Nevada
26. Tatsumi, Jase – Nevada
27. Guild, Joshua – Nevada
28. Allen, James – Arizona
29. Wicknick, Brandon – Utah
30. Ganotisi, Gary – Hawaii
31. Sopkin, Vitaly – Arizona
32. Shuyama, Yoshie – California
33. Child, Dino – Nevada
34. Yatprachum, Etop – Nevada
35. Garcia, Uri – California
36. Kuo, Daniel – California
37. Patterson, Leonard – California
38. Malachikhin, Vladimir – Nevada
39. Smith, Shawn – Arizona
40. Tomanov, Vitali – Nevada
41. Aguilar, Edwin – Nevada
42. Zietara, Luke – Australia

Clubloose Season Opener

This weekend at Midvale Speedway, Clubloose is holding their season opener.  The events at Midvale will be taking the place of the events previously held at BeaverRun.

$75 prepay $85 at the event to drive
$10 for spectators

http://www.midvalespeedway.com for track info
http://www.clubloose.com for rules and other info
http://www.facebook.com/#!/events/277965855616626

With any drifting event that is put on with any sort of though behind it, there are rules to be followed. You can find them here...http://www.clubloose.com/clubloose/CLRules2012.pdf

I wish I could make it out to this event, but I am not able to.  Get out there and kill some tires!

Rd 2 Atlanta Drivers List

Here is the list of drivers that are signed up to compete at Formula Drift Round 2 Atlanta.  Last season Dai Yoshihara, Darren McNamara, and Toshiki Yoshioka took the podium spots with Conrad Grunewald taking the top qualifying spot.  The event also featured a strong run by John Russakoff who finished fourth overall, beating Grunewald, Matt Waldin, and Chris Forsberg in the process.

1. Fredric Aasbo
2. Jeff Abbott
3. Emmanuel Amandio
4. Tony Angelo
5. Taka Aono
6. Odi Bakchis
7. Tony Brakohiapa
8. Dave Briggs
9. Jhonnattan Castro
10. Andrew Coomes
11. Nick D’Alessio
12. Chelsea DeNofa
13. Michael Essa
14. Matt Field
15. Chris Forsberg
16. Danny George
17. Vaughn Gittin Jr.
18. Patrick Goodin
19. Conrad Grunewald
20. Ken Gushi
21. Zoltan Hadju
22. Brad Hettinger
23. Corey Hosford
24. Jeff Jones
25. Ryan Kado
26. Alex Lee
27. Luke Lonberger
28. Jeremy Lowe
29. Joon Maeng
30. George Marstanovic
31. Darren McNamara
32. Enrique Mendoza Jr.
33. Dennis Mertzanis
34. Rhys Millen
35. Kenneth Moen
36. Patrick Mordaunt
37. Robbie Nishida
38. Maurico Omelas Jr.
39. Miroslav Ovcharik
40. Justin Pawlak
41. Matt Powers
42. Daigo Saito
43. Mike Skudlarek
44. Gabe Stone
45. Nick Thomas
46. Ryan Tuerck
47. Chris Ward
48. Walker Wilkerson
49. Daijiro Yoshihara
50. Toshiki Yoshioka

XDC Lawsuit

While looking at the Wrecked Magazine site, I came across an article regarding a lawsuit between Englishtown and the eXtreme Drift Circuit.  It states that there are unpaid fees from XDC to Englishtown Raceway, but the official word about the lawsuit is a "disagreement in the contract" that is "financial in nature."


The issue stems from the March 2011 event when HIN and XDC where not a partnered entity.  It is stated in an article that the attendence of XDC suffered due to the HIN being three weeks prior and therefore they did not want to pay the fees.  A lawsuit was then filed with the New Jersey Courts and settled for $25,000.


XDC/HIN is also having other issues, as Efrain Olivares is stating he is also owed money as of April 13th and the Shift Communications Group is not longer doing PR materials for them. "I can't let people think at this point that I'm still involved," Olivares said. "You can lose your reputation very, very quickly here, and I don't want to do that. I've worked too hard to keep it where it is."


"I've been with XDC since day one, since the end of 2009," Olivares continued. "I helped out with the original announcements and put out all the XDC press releases. The first year was all good. I got paid on time, every time, and there was no haggling in year one. But in year two, I never got paid once on time and I still am owed money. When I brought it up to Mike last, he hid behind a new corporation and 'that wasn't this company, it was that company, and I've always taken care of you.' I just figured at a certain point that I wasn't going to get paid so I stopped worrying about it."

So far most drivers are declining to comment regarding allegations that they are not being paid by the series.  Will Parsons is one of the drivers that noted he had unpaid debts from XDC, but was able to work out an arrangement with the series regarding 2012 travel expenses.

Michael Collins is now stepping in for Brian Eggert as the event manager for XDC and things appear to be turning for the better for them.  Nate Hamilton is on record as stating the drivers were paid cash at the end of the event at Firebird Raceway.

Hopefully, this will continue to be the case and XDC/HIN will be able to polish their perceived reputation due to these claims and proceedings.

The Start Up

I am hoping to get this blog going to pass along news and information I find relating to the quickly growing sport of drifting, mostly in the US.  When reporting on events, series and driver updates, I will try to remain unbiased with only the facts that I have read and not something that is just my opinion.  Though I will occasionally put my opinion, but it will be noted that it is opinion and not fact, if/when I do.