In the first 2 articles of “What It Takes”, we visited the subjects of the cars and also the behind the scenes work. So, at the FD finale, I went around and basically asked some questions that I could use to bring this series of articles to a soft landing. I feel we’ve learned a lot in the first 2 articles, and I hope that by reading these, any driver looking to enter Formula Drift can say that it helped them prepare for the big stage.
Drifting is about making your mark. You have to find a way to set yourself apart from all the other drivers and cars. 2 guys that manage to do just that, are Rapper Dan Savage and James Evans from the Sikky Manufacturing camp, who both came into Formula Drift this year with 2 cars that you definitely cannot miss. These guys saw success in the Pro 2 series with James taking a podium in Texas, and Dan taking home the Pro 2 overall championship. Besides the setup, which would obviously be tailored to either Dan or James, the cars are extremely similar.
As we learned in the last article, a beast of a machine under your foot is required to run Formula Drift. Formula D isn’t a place where your 500whp car can make it, unless you have some serious skill or a beefy setup with enough grip that allows you to change the Earth’s rotation at any given time. But, it’s not just the car that makes you successful in Formula D, you have to know everything behind the scenes. It’s more than just hopping in the car and driving. As a follow up to the first “What It Takes” article, I decided to go deeper with the drivers and show a little more behind the scenes, and how dedicated you have to be in order to run a season of Formula Drift.
We joined Formula Drift at Irwindale Event Center to cover the final round of the 2014 championship. As everybody prepared for battle, the question around the pits, stands, and everywhere in general, is who would hold on to win Round 7? Would a rogue driver put a wrench in Chris Forsberg or Fredric Aasbo’s fight for the championship title? Would Forsberg and Aasbo meet in the very end to battle it out in one of the most epic drift battles in history? Who would come out on top? That’s what we came to find out.
On one hand, drifting is one of the most fun things you can do, if not the MOST fun. But on the other hand, drifting is also one of the craziest things you can do. Once you enter Formula Drift, you’ve probably made the best and one of the most costly decisions of your life. How, might you ask?
Texas Motor Speedway was the 3rd stop on the Formula Drift Pro 2 schedule this past weekend. With one more round to go in the Formula Drift season after Texas, the results of Pro 2 Round 3 were bound to mix up the points just enough to make for an exciting race for the championship. Geoff Stoneback is currently on top of the points, with 6 drivers nipping at his heels for the title.