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!

Formula Drift Round 2 – Road Atlanta Preview

Formula Drift’s east coast swing is kicking off this week with the series’ annual stop at Road Atlanta for Round 2 of the season. It’s one of the best spectator courses on the circuit thanks to a high speed entry and tight technical sections, though a propensity for spectacular crashes like the one Fredric Aasbo and Vaughn Gittin Jr. got into last season helps contribute to that reputation.

Nonetheless, Fredric, Ken Gushi, Tony Angelo, and the Papadakis, GReddy, and TAngelo Racing teams are all getting dialed in for the upcoming weekend at FDATL, as the amount of points they take off the table should be a good indicator of where their respective seasons will go from here. With the TAngelo Racing Scion FR-S mostly sorted out, it’s pretty safe to pencil Tony in for a solid showing that’ll undoubtedly give fans in attendance something memorable to take away with them. Likewise, the GReddy Racing team is ready to fully uncork the 2JZ powered GReddy Racing Scion FR-S, after just getting their feet wet in Long Beach.

As for Fredric’s Hankook Tire Scion Racing tC, let’s just say that the Papadakis team has their eyes set on a spot on top of the podium. The team has a good track record at Road Atlanta, and in Fredric, they’ve definitely got the talent to get them there. It’s going to be a fun event, and we’ll be looking forward to seeing it all go down. Be sure to catch the Scion Racing teams on race day on the Formula Drift livestream, and follow @ScionRacing on Twitter and Instagram for live updates all weekend long.

Driven 2 Drift 2014 – Episode 1: Streets of Long Beach

We just closed out two of the biggest motorsports weekends of the year with Formula Drift Long Beach and the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach back to back, but if you still can’t wait until FDATL rolls around, we’ve got something to help get you by. Our first episode of Driven 2 Drift 2014 has just landed, and includes all the highlights of Fredric Aasbo, Ken Gushi, and Tony Angelo on the Streets of Long Beach.

Watch the video above to see how the event went down, and catch the new Hankook Tire Scion Racing tC, GReddy Racing Scion FR-S, and TAngelo Racing Scion FR-S in action. Also, be sure to check back for more news and info on all our teams as they get ready for Formula Drift Round 2 in just a few weeks!

FD 2014: Long Beach Recap – Aasbo Makes Top 8, GReddy Debuts new 2JZ FR-S

It’s easy to take the Formula Drift season for granted. When you’re in the garage and on the track week in and week out, preparing your car and listening to motors bounce off the rev-limiter all day, you tend to forget how deafening the silence is during the six-month long offseason. We’re definitely not going to complain about getting some time off to refresh and rebuild, but by the time FDLB rolled around, we were more than ready to get back to work.

If you’ve been keeping up, and we certainly hope that you have, you’ll know that it hasn’t actually been that long since you’ve seen Ken Gushi and the GReddy Racing team tear up the track. The new 2JZ powered GReddy Racing Scion FR-S made its official debut just last week, after a long tease that started out at last year’s SEMA Show.

There were a lot of benefits to the EJ25 power plant that the GReddy Racing team was running the previous two seasons, but with the horsepower race in FD getting almost out of hand, switching over to the Toyota-built inline-6 ended up becoming an easy decision. GReddy has as much experience as anyone working with the 2JZ, and that showed immediately as Ken laid down perhaps the most impressive practice runs of anyone in the field on Thursday and Friday.

Qualifying didn’t go quite as planned for Ken and the team, though they still easily secured a spot in the Top 32, earning the 19th seed and a matchup with Odi Bakchis in Round 1. Though Ken’s one of the few drivers who have been in the series since day one, the battle with Odi was their first head to head meeting, putting Ken at an immediate disadvantage as the starting chase driver.

Because of his unfamiliarity with Odi’s driving style, Ken drove his first run conservatively, and ended up leaving a gap between the GReddy Racing Scion FR-S and the lead car. Though Ken put down an impressive lead run afterwards, the judges ruled against him which effectively ended his weekend at Long Beach.

While the result wasn’t as high as we know Ken and the GReddy Racing Scion FR-S are capable of, the team’s already back in the garage, using the data to prepare for the rest of the season. They’ll be back at Long Beach this Friday to compete in the Motegi Racing Super Drift Challenge, and will be ready to hit Road Atlanta for Round 2 later next month.

Since Tony’s appearance at the Scion Racing Pre-Season Test Session, he’s given the TAngelo Racing Scion FR-S a refreshed livery with new graphics that match both his car’s nose and wheels. Last season was essentially a development year for the TAngelo Racing team, as they worked to get the FR-S chassis dialed in, and they’re ready to see the results of that this season.

Though Tony and his car looked solid in practice, the team ran into some setup issues when it came time to start qualifying. Despite the problems, Tony managed to wrangle the car into the Top 32, which got his team off to a solid start for the year and gave them some extra time to get the car prepped for the main event.

Tony’s widely known around the paddock as one of those guys who are in it for nothing more than their passion for drifting, and for that reason, we’re always happy to see him succeed. While he had a tough Top 32 matchup against Tyler McQuarrie, the work that the TAngelo Racing team put in to get there would’ve been more than enough to match that of any team at the top of the bracket.

There’s still a lot of work left for Tony and the TAngelo Racing squad to get done, but we know that they’re well on their way there. With an east coast swing coming up on the calendar, the team will have more time to get the car dialed in at Tony’s Snakepit shop, and should be a lock for more main event appearances throughout the rest of the year.

As for Fredric Aasbo and the Papadakis Racing team, there’s not much more left to say that hasn’t already been said. For the fourth year running, Fredric finds himself Formula Drift’s best, making the Hankook Tire Scion Racing tC one of the most feared builds in the series.

The new Rocket Bunny kit on the tC has given the car the aggressive appearance it needed to match Fredric’s style, and with everything else in order, he proceeded to rip up the Long Beach track like he has so many other times in the past. The team earned the 5th best qualifying score of the weekend with ease, which set them up for a first round matchup against Canadian driver Marc Landreville.

It’s become standard fare for Fredric, but while Marc put up a solid battle, Fredric moved on to the Top 16, but not before participating in the event’s opening ceremonies holding a hammer that matched his “Thor” nickname. From there, he took out Conrad Grunewald in his Top 16 battle, before facing his countryman Kenny Moen in the Top 8.

Last season, Fredric was the only driver to place in the Top 8 at every single event, a streak that he doesn’t appear to want to let go of anytime soon. Judging from the driving that he’s shown early on, it doesn’t seem like that’s anything he’ll have to worry about either. Still, one of the draws of FD is that anyone can be taken down in any given matchup, and Long Beach just so happened to be a great event for Kenny Moen.

Fredric’s weekend ended with that battle, but despite the exit, he still managed to pick up enough points to grab the 5th spot in the race for this season’s Pro Championship. Likewise, his finish allowed Hankook to take an early lead in the Tire Manufacturer’s Championship standings, as well as help Scion Racing get to 4th in the OEM Manufacturer’s Championship.

Next weekend, Fredric and the Papadakis Racing team will be joining Ken and the GReddy Racing team at the Motegi Racing Super Drift exhibition, as part of the Toyota Racing Grand Prix of Long Beach. It’s going to be another exciting weekend of motorsport, and we’re hoping to see you there. If you haven’t already, check out both the Toyota Racing and the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach sites for the weekend’s schedule, and be sure to keep riding along as we take you through the 2014 Formula Drift season!

Photos from Formula Drift Round 1 – Streets of Long Beach

Last weekend, Fredric Aasbo, Ken Gushi, and Tony Angelo, were out on the Streets of Long Beach, taking on the first round of the 2014 Formula Drift season. Fredric and the Papadakis Racing team once again showed the consistency that made them one of the series’ top teams last year, adding another Top 8 finish in the Hankook Tire Scion Racing tC to their resume. Meanwhile, Ken Gushi debuted the new 2JZ GReddy Racing Scion FR-S to a Top 32 finish, while Tony Angelo and the TAngelo Racing Scion FR-S followed suit.

We’ll have a full recap of FDLB ready for you tomorrow, but in the meantime, check out our photo gallery of the Scion Racing drift teams at the event.