Round 2 of Formula Drift Canada brought the competition closer to home in Toronto and to say it was a tough round for the team would be pretty accurate. All weekend long we were suffering from mechanical issues, which was unusual since our car is very reliable.
During the Friday practice, we had fuel delivery issues and suspected it was the fuel pump, so we rushed back to the shop and changed out the pumps. We only got about 2 laps of practice that night.
Saturday morning, I was feeling good and ready to tackle the competition head on feeling confident we had fixed the FR-S. However first lap out during the first corner, all of the sudden the car lost all boost. The intercooler split wide open causing a major boost leak, resulting in the car not making any power. We couldn't find an aluminum tig welding at the track so I had to send one of my guys back to my shop over an hour away to weld it up. We had roughly 2 hours of practice, a 1-hour break, then moved on to qualifying. It was going to take my guys about 2.5-3 hours to get the intercooler back to the track, so the timing was definitely tight!
In the end, we got the car back together just before my first qualifying run! My first lap of qualifying wasn't bad considering it was technically my first lap of the day. I think the score was a 69. On my second qualifying lap I scored a 73, which put us in 9th position.
Entering Top 16, we were to go up against Jonathan Guitard. He's always been a contender and one to not take lightly, and with our very few laps around the track that weekend (I had done about 5 up to that point) it was tough for us to make a good car set choice. I decided to run as much grip as possible, more than we had run all weekend. I was to follow first. I struggled to stay sideways behind him, I figured Jonathan's car would of been much faster than it was and my FR-S was making a ton of grip, so it wasn’t my greatest lap. On my lead lap I rocketed away from him, and had gaped him about 5 car lengths into the final turn, but then my transmission broke... We lose.
Now back at the shop, we have installed a new transmission, a new clutch, an entirely new fuel system, and a new differential. I’m really hoping this is the end of the mechanical failures for us this season!
Next up for the team, we are off to Montreal for FD Canada Round 3 this weekend. And while we’re getting ready for the race, I'm also moving my shop Cyrious Garageworks to our new 5000-square foot facility (hence the delayed report) so it’s been a busy summer!
Hopefully we’ll have better news to report next time. Thanks for the support!
Photography: Formula Drift Canada
