This past weekend was DMCC rd 5 at Autodrome Montmagny just outside of Quebec City, and I'm proud to say we finished on the podium in 3rd place!
Going into this round we finally got our new transmission set up in the car, and luckily were able to test it a few days before the event. It worked well but I was worried my gear ratios would be off as the new transmissions ratios are much different than the stock 6-speed. After our first couple of laps of practice in Montmagny, we realized the ratios were pretty much spot on, I just had to drift the car in 3rd gear instead of 4th.
Our first practice session went very well but the weather was being unpredictable. It was dry when the session started but by the end the rain came in and pretty much didn’t stop for the rest of the event. The track was very difficult when wet. Over the off-season there had been some track renovations – they widened it in certain spots and did some repairs in other spots, so with that some of the track had new asphalt and some of it was old. When wet the new sections of the track had a decent amount of grip, but once you hit the old surface all grip was gone! So it made it tricky as you had to remember where the surface changes would be and compensate for it.
My first qualifying lap was good. I made a small error on entry which cost me some points but we still managed to get locked-in in 6th place! My first battle of the day was with a rookie, Youri Levesque. I was to lead first, ran a clean lap and as I rounded the final corner I checked back and Youri was a good 10-15 car lengths back. On my follow lap I ran a clean lap again, but had trouble gaining ground on Youri and wasn't able to get as close as I wanted, but even with that the judges gave me the win!
In the great 8 we were to go against Tommy Boisvert Bellemart. I had beaten him the last round, so I knew he would be out for revenge this time! Once again I led first. We entered the first bank together, Tom was right on me pretty much the whole way around but his line was shallow going into the braking zone. I started to slow down and Tom had nowhere to go but into me. We bumped and both spun, giving me the advantage. I ran a good follow lap but still not as close as I would have liked to be, but it was good enough for the win!
For the final 4 we had to go against Kevin Morin. And again I had beaten him twice this year, so I knew he was going to want it bad this time. I led first. By this time it was dark as this was a night round, and the rain was coming down really hard. We entered into the first corner, my line around the first bank was great. I switched back through the center section of the course towards the outer wall the judges wanted us on. This time though I was coming in on the wall too quickly, so I had to straighten out to not crash into it. It was a big error and Kevin stayed with me through the course so I had a feeling he had the advantage. On my follow lap I was able to stick closely to him and his line was not what the judges wanted to see, so I was really hoping for a "one more time" call but we didn’t get it. Kevin moved to the finals and we were going to have to battle for 3rd place.
For the 3rd place battle, we went against Martin Langlois. I led first, laid down a decent lap and Martin stuck with me for the most part. On my follow lap, I did the same so there was no clear advantage, so the judges called a "one more time." I led again, did a good lap placing the car where it needed to be, and Martin wasn’t able to close in on me. I drove back to the start line and saw that Martin had pulled into the pits. It turned out his throttle cable had broken and he was unable to fix it in the 5 minutes they had to do it in, so I was given the win!
It felt great to finally get on the podium with the FR-S! This also marked the first time that a ZN6 chassis had seen a podium in professional drifting in North America! Next up for us is probably what is going to be the largest event in Canadian drifting history, FD Canada at St. Eustache on Sept 1! The day after we get back from that, I hop on a plane and head to China for a week to do some drifting demos there for Carvolution! This will be my first time overseas and I can’t wait to see what it’s like over there! More to come on that later!
