Cyrious Report: Season Recap

Formula Drift Canada's biggest round of the year was set to take place at the home of Canadian drifting, the place where it all started for me, Autodrome St.Eustache!

The track is about 30 minutes outside of Montreal, and over 10,000 people came out to watch. The fans are truly the best in the world, very vocal about what they like by cheering loudly or chanting one more time when there is a close run. It's quite an electric feeling at St. Eustache, and one that I look forward to attending each and every year.

Going into this round we decided to freshen up the tune in our 2JZ-powered Scion FR-S, so Sasha from Onpoint Dyno came in and together we were able to get an extra 80lb-ft and 40hp. We also changed our alignment settings to get the maximum amount of mechanical grip possible. The car was as strong as it could be for the weekend.

Practice day was on Saturday. We did a few laps working on our set up, but the rear gearing wasn’t right. I always come to events with 3 differentials with different gear ratios, so we decided to swap the one that was in the car for what we felt was a ratio better suited for the track. Unfortunately we had some problems installing the new differential, so we didn't have a chance to test it out that day but we would be ready for battle the next day!

Qualifying day. The track layout we were running is one of my favorites. Despite the lack of practice the day before, I was confident that we would be able to get the hang of it quickly. We started our second day of practice strong. Our rear end gear choice was spot on! For the rest of the day I pretty much ran the same lap. Placing the car in the same spot every time. My first qualifying lap was pretty good. Typically on the first qualifying lap, I drive with a little bit in reserve and pulled off a good run with a score of 85. On my second lap I went all out and put down probably my best lap of the weekend! That gave me a score of 91 with a final qualifying position of 3rd place!

The competition was set up as a top 32, and our first battle was against Riley Sexsmith. Riley and I are good friends off the track so it was a bit disappointing for both of us that we had to go against each other in the first round. I was to lead first. I ran a lap very similar to my qualifying lap, Riley kept up but made a few small mistakes in the follow position. When we switched positions, I stuck with Riley through the course and was awarded the win. Next up, top 16…

The Top 16 ceremony was pretty cool. I rolled out with my fellow Scion Racing driver Fredric Aasbo. It was my birthday that day as well so the crowd gave me a loud "happy birthday" after my introduction! After the intros were done Fredric and I did tandem donuts while Lisa with Scion Canada rode in my car shooting live on Periscope! You can check out the video below.

In the top 16 I went up against Dean "karnage" Kearney in his Dodge Viper. I led first, and once again ran the same line I had been running all weekend. Dean stuck with me through the entire course until we got to the last clipping point, where he got too close, bumping into me and causing me to spin. When I spun around he proceeded to drive over my right front wheel, damaging my steering. We rushed back to the pits to assess the damage. The steering rack, rack spacer and inner tie rod was bent. The judges declared Dean at fault, so we were given about 25 minutes to fix my car. We scrambled to get it straight, I had a spare inner tie rod and spare steering rack but there was not enough time to do the rack. So we bashed it straight with a hammer the best we could. Time had run out and my car was far from perfect with the front toe being out almost 2 inches, but I wasn’t ready to back down from this battle. I pulled up to the line first and the crowd cheered very loud. I was a bit worried about what my car was going to do in the first corner when we initiated drift, but Dean slowed down a lot more than I expected and I straighten out. I spent the rest of the run trying to catch up. The Judges called for "one more time". But as I drove back to the pits my clutch started to slip really badly. I had hoped it was just over heated and that during the tire change it would cool off enough to do our next run, but it didn’t. The car wouldn't move at all, which meant that our weekend was done.

Overall it was a great event. Everyone was saying it was the best drifting they had ever seen me do and the support and love from the fans made it one of the most memorable weekends of the season. I am really feeling at one with my Scion FR-S and we're only going to get better in the years to come! We’ll be racing again soon and our clutch is out getting rebuilt so it won’t be long before I’ll be sideways again.

Thanks so much for the support!

Scion Life

Some newbies out there might think of Scion as just another automotive manufacturer spewing out small gas saving cars designated by variations of 2 or 3 letters with alternating cases. For those who really know, it’s much more than that. Scion owners are a breed of enthusiasts that cannot be duplicated. Their passion for Scion is unparalleled. It’s not a hobby, it’s a life. It’s the Scion Life.

When the first xB was unveiled in North America back in 2003, Toyota took a risk to start a new brand and bring over their rolling box 
into our market. The quirky styling of the first generation Scions were different from anything available at the time. Were people ready for the xB? You bet they were. In the first year, almost 100,000 Scions were sold and hit a chord with every demographic. In the blink of an eye, you would see xB’s and xA’s being represented by tuners, fabricators, racers, hip hoppers, families, old people, and young people. It was at this point that everyone recognized the Scion Life and the industry would never be the same.

Fast-forward to present day and you can’t drive one city block without seeing a Scion, either stock or fixed up. In Vancouver, Mati Ma of 604 Scion saved up his money for nearly four years in order to buy the xB that he always wanted (that’s a lot of top ramen lunches and dinners). Mati enjoys the west coast cult status of Scion but sees it spreading quickly through Canada on the eastern borders. Canadians will have no trouble customizing their rides according to Mati, “There are tons of companies making parts for Scions in a gazillion styles so it’s easy to start fixing up your car right away, customized to your own style.” His rapidly expanding group provides support, event coverage and meet-up details to BC owners and enthusiasts.

There are thousands of diehard Scion owners that devote their lives to a brand that fully embraces their supporters, which is rare in this day and age. I guarantee that if I grabbed 100 Scion owners off of the street, their descriptions of the lifestyle would have miniscule variations, if any at all. In fact, we chased down a couple more Scion owners just to prove that point.

Martin Trujillo reminisces about his first encounter with Scion as “funky, cool, and different. Like nothing I had ever seen before.” He’s met so many people by modding up his Scion that he couldn’t get out of the Scion Life if he tried, not that he wants to. When we asked Kirby Quinto what set Scion owners apart from the rest, he said “We don’t steal from each other. To me, Scion owners are how automobile enthusiasts should be. We show togetherness and embrace any new owners that introduce themselves in the scene. It’s not about how your car looks or how fast. It’s about you as a person showing love for the Scion brand.”

Scion Life is more than just a trend, it’s a worldwide movement. And if you’re lucky enough to be reading this from the front seat of your new Scion this new world will soon open up to you in time. Just remember to continue spreading the Scion Life to everyone that you come in contact with to ensure that the daisy chain will never end.

Scion Life was originally published in Issue 3 of Scion Magazine. To read more, visit scion.ca/magazine