Wrecked Magazine
Well-Known Member
Here in Florida, you can tell when the weather is steadily approaching the end of summer: it gets hot. Damn hot. It’s like summer becomes a beast in its death-throes and in one final attempt to survive, it beats you down with the kind of sweltering heat guaranteed to overheat oil pans and brain pans alike. It really puts a damper on outdoor activities, like our beloved drifting. I mean, who wants to be out there on a sun-scorched track, in a drift-missile – sans air conditioning – for hours? Well, when you’ve got the twin powers of NOS Energy and the Central Florida Racing Complex watching your back, we do.
This past Sunday was the Central Florida Racing Complex and NOS Energy’s 2nd annual Summer Slide Fest tandem competition. The event this year was simultaneously a salute to summer and a middle finger to the underwear-soaking-heat it always leaves us with (right before the turbo-friendly, cool winter revisits us): a water-park themed drifting event.
So here is how it went down: 40 drivers from Orlando to Tampa and Gainesville came to heat the drifting blood up of over 1,000 spectators at CFRC’s NOS Energy Drift Park. Once the chirping waste gates, screaming engines, and shredded tires set the crowd on fire (not that they needed the help with over 100-degree weather), CFRC was ready to cool them down with a two-and-a-half-story high water slide and water-gun equipped staff.
Like the past CFRC drifting events, Summer Slide Fest attracted both novices and experienced third-gear shredders alike. Drifting neophytes could come and cut their teeth, practice holding a line, and just rip on their rig without worry of other motorists or fear of Johnny-Law. The more experienced participants could be found on both sides of the judging table. Laying down the verdicts on the tandem competition were Formula D slide jockeys, Bill “Wild Bill” Sherman and Tom Barnhart, with Orlando favorite Brandon “McNasty” McDowell.
Fresh from Street Wise Drift, Floridians Jason Jiovani (Nexen Tires) and Pat Goodin (Enjuku Racing) threw their helmets in and gave us a taste of how they’ve been representing our little state in National drifting. Goodin is currently second in the Street Wise Drift standings. Back from the latest SWD event, Jiovani said, “I’m just here to have fun.” Between the veteran Jiovani and Goodin and the novice drifters, there were other drivers looking to bust into competitive sliding themselves.
Kurt Durjan, owner of Kurtrox Customs said, “I’m out here to get noticed.” Durjan and his team were out with their 1996 RHD-converted Mazda Miata. Originally a show-car, Durjan’s roadster now handles its business sideways on the track – sporting a Garrett T-25 turbo on 14 psi using race fuel. Durjan’s business started last April and he said he has since been determined to bust into drifting. How determined is he? – his team and him put in 60 hours last week just to get the car’s cage in so they could compete in Summer Slide Fest.
Goodin, Durjan, and Jiovani alike were going to have to bring some judge-satisfying drift game amidst the blazing Florida heat: the judges had their minds set on what they were looking for from Sunday’s competitors. Barnhart said he wanted to see some smoking tires and lots of nice angle. “I want to see as much of it as possible. Most people use angle mods but only to say they have them or get them out of a spin-out,” said Barnhart, “I want to see it used for what it’s for.”
“Wild Bill” Sherman said he’d like to see consistency from the competitors. “Get the line, stick to it” he added. Sherman said he wasn’t going to be looking for anything too fancy, like wall-tapping, but that didn’t stop him from getting out in his Mk.III Toyota Supra and showing driver and spectator alike how he ‘kisses’ the wall.
For seven blisteringly-hot hours, the audience and drivers alike battled the heat as the elimination round thinned the grid to the final competitors. Ultimately, it came down to a three-way battle between Nexen’s Jiovani, Durjan, and Orlando local, Jonathan “Chino” Heinsen in his 1991 red S13 hatch. The heat really did play a role in testing the drivers as did the other competitors.
Jiovani in particular said the heat battled both himself and his car. “It was insanely hot out there and with the torque from our TrickFlow kit, I can keep the car in third gear on the rev-limiter,” said Jiovani, “that’s a lot of wheel speed without much flow to the radiator.” He added that he began overheating as much as his car, needing two bottles of water to drink and a third over his head to keep himself focused and hydrated.
In the end, Jiovani took Heinsen out, putting him in third place – while Jiovani and Durjan then battled for first. A spin out by Durjan then sealed the podium, with Durjan in second and Jiovani (Mr. “I’m just here to have fun” – nothing but love Jason) taking the win home from Summer Slide Fest 2011.
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