Drifting season for the Cyrious Garageworks and Scion Canada drift team has returned! I've been looking forward to the beginning of this season all year long, so it was nice to get back behind the wheel of FR-S again!
Over the off season we have made a few improvements to the car to make it faster and more responsive. I was excited to see how we would stack up against the competition at Round 1 of Formula Drift Canada.
Practice was a bit rough for us. We were fighting a random mis-fire problem in the engine, which took the team a while to figure out, so by the time we had that sorted out, there was only enough time for about 3 laps of practice, which didn’t really give us much time to play with the car set up and they weren't my best laps by any means. But on to qualifying we went!
First lap out I messed up and missed my downshift from 4th to 3rd gear in the braking zone, resulting in my car straightening out, zero score. Do or die lap. This time going into this lap I decided I wasn't going to downshift, just keep it in 4th and see what happens. Well, it worked great and we qualified 2nd!
Top 16 was in front of a huge crowd and the weather couldn't have been better! My first battle was against Stephen Van Sleuwen. We had a decent battle and I was able to edge him out and take the win!
On to the top 8. We were to go against Youri Levesque. He's been around for a few years now and has been one of those drivers with potential. I led first, he followed me closely but made a few corrections and drifted at less angle to stay close. When I followed him, I wasn't as close but my line and angle was better. And while I didn’t have any corrections, he was given the win.
Like all race events, we walk away with lessons learned and know where we need to improve for the next one. I will be driving much more aggressive from here on in, I can promise you that. Next round is finally just outside Toronto, so I look forward to seeing all of you local fans at Sunset Speedway on June 25th!
Thanks for the support!
Photography: Jeremy Alan Glover, Formula Drift Canada.
