doug in nc
Spectator
It's just before bed time but I wanted to update the viewing audience with some details of what was going on for the drivers, teams and rest the day before we play King of the Mountain tomorrow. This is the second annual Streetwise Drift Formula Drift Pro-Am event here at RA and the season opener for our Pro-Am Series. Many drivers are new to the venue but there's also a big list of drivers trying to compete at the Pro-Am level for their first time. I've not raced on the course before but I can tell you from a "slow" pace in the pickup truck taking course workers out that it's not flat like it may appear in the video games and it may be an eye opener for many first timers.
Tech was a bit of an eye opener for many folks today as well with some folks having to work late in to the night to bring their cars up to spec. Our goal has been and will continue to be building a field of drivers who not only have skill behind the wheel but also the support staff and skills needed to prep the cars pre-event and remedy any deficiencies that may arise from pushing a car to it's limits. In order to get the car to the limits though you must first pass tech and that was very challenging for many of our drivers, new and experienced.
We ran in to several roll cage issues both from the configuration as well as the quality of the welds. Honestly, this would have been a deal breaker but much to our amazement there was some SERIOUS team work and fellowship going on today. I saw one driver actually working on another driver's suspension shortfalls, there was a guy RE-WELDING and adding the proper tubing on sight for a couple of fellas and folks trading out parts to get EVERY car through tech today. Honestly... I'm in awe at the commitment the drivers have to themselves, their cars and their fellow drivers to truly get each other fixed up for the main event tomorrow. There were a few harness issues both on age as well as routing that needed some fixing and we had a nice long.... correction, we had SEVERAL nice long chats about mufflers. I don't want to touch that topic but I will say I'm glad I brought every FD rule book I could get my hands on to help some folks maintain their impact rating in line with what's permitted.
All in all, it was another tech day at Road Atlanta for us. A lot of deficiencies that we managed to work through, a few less than smiling faces and some interesting tech discussions which always keeps us on our toes. But at the end of the tech day.... plus another two and a half hours AFTER tech was supposed to close we managed to get the drivers through and not send anyone home already. There was a strong showing from the local folks as usual and it was good to see a lot of returning faces. I'm pretty sure Florida is now a suburb of Atlanta because there's easily 1/3 of the field from there. NC and SC were also repping hard with a few throat chops and WOOs to remind me I can't hide from the Flair. All in all, today was a pretty good day and it's back to driving for the guys and I'm sure they'd rather be behind the wheel than under the hood.
Best wishes to the drivers for tomorrow, hope to see the stands pack with spectators and look forward to seeing many of you at future events. Thanks for reading,
Doug Moseley
Chief of Tech
Streetwise Drift
Tech was a bit of an eye opener for many folks today as well with some folks having to work late in to the night to bring their cars up to spec. Our goal has been and will continue to be building a field of drivers who not only have skill behind the wheel but also the support staff and skills needed to prep the cars pre-event and remedy any deficiencies that may arise from pushing a car to it's limits. In order to get the car to the limits though you must first pass tech and that was very challenging for many of our drivers, new and experienced.
We ran in to several roll cage issues both from the configuration as well as the quality of the welds. Honestly, this would have been a deal breaker but much to our amazement there was some SERIOUS team work and fellowship going on today. I saw one driver actually working on another driver's suspension shortfalls, there was a guy RE-WELDING and adding the proper tubing on sight for a couple of fellas and folks trading out parts to get EVERY car through tech today. Honestly... I'm in awe at the commitment the drivers have to themselves, their cars and their fellow drivers to truly get each other fixed up for the main event tomorrow. There were a few harness issues both on age as well as routing that needed some fixing and we had a nice long.... correction, we had SEVERAL nice long chats about mufflers. I don't want to touch that topic but I will say I'm glad I brought every FD rule book I could get my hands on to help some folks maintain their impact rating in line with what's permitted.
All in all, it was another tech day at Road Atlanta for us. A lot of deficiencies that we managed to work through, a few less than smiling faces and some interesting tech discussions which always keeps us on our toes. But at the end of the tech day.... plus another two and a half hours AFTER tech was supposed to close we managed to get the drivers through and not send anyone home already. There was a strong showing from the local folks as usual and it was good to see a lot of returning faces. I'm pretty sure Florida is now a suburb of Atlanta because there's easily 1/3 of the field from there. NC and SC were also repping hard with a few throat chops and WOOs to remind me I can't hide from the Flair. All in all, today was a pretty good day and it's back to driving for the guys and I'm sure they'd rather be behind the wheel than under the hood.
Best wishes to the drivers for tomorrow, hope to see the stands pack with spectators and look forward to seeing many of you at future events. Thanks for reading,
Doug Moseley
Chief of Tech
Streetwise Drift
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