What’s up SpeedHunters! I’m usually writing about my ALMS race weekends but this time I’m writing about my trip to Irwindale for the last Formula Drift event. I got the invitation from Rod to come out to for the last round and do a little work for Need For Speed. I had the option to head to their campus in Vancouver for the work or in Irwindale. Vansterdam is awesome but I couldn’t turn down the ‘House of Drift.’

I went to one Formula Drift event last year, at New Jersey, and was instantly hooked. Like any kind of motorsport, it’s way better in person. I see all the pictures here on SpeedHunters and have been watching the events on the live stream when I can but seeing these guys, in person, run the right rear inches away from the wall, or sometimes on it, really gives you a much better appreciation for what their doing.

I arrived to the NFS booth high up at Irwindale to meet up with a couple of the guys and check out the latest offering from Need For Speed and talk about the plans for the next day. That was over in about 10 minutes and the rest of the time I sat in the seats outside and had a perfect view of the practice runs going on.

Drifting, for me, just looks like fun. I get just as much satisfaction ripping up the backroads at home as I do doing huge drifts when it snows, big smokey burnouts in my M3, or bringing the rental cars back after race weekends with two proper flat spots. Drifting feeds all of those addictions at once.

Cars and hotties – Enough said.

Mad Mike’s rotary is just flat out nuts. Sofa king loud. I love the sound of rotaries and this one does not disappoint, at all. I think my little ‘76 2002 needs one…

 Sweet capris, Linhbergh.

Back to a little work. If you guys remember, I did some video with the NFS crew for the first NFS Shift. Here I’m testing a new NFS product. I’ve always been a pretty big gamer, especially racing games. So for me, I wish all racing games were perfect. I’m trying the game out and passing along some comments about the little things that I notice that could be changed. It’s pretty cool to be a part of the development process of these games and see how it all works.

Rod scored one of the last E60 M5’s in BMW’s fleet for us to ‘putt’ around Irwindale in. I’m more of a light and nimble kind of car guy myself but for an everyday car, it doesn’t get much better. The V10 just transforms this car. It goes from every-day-CEO-mobile to 500hp-raging-screaming-beast one stomp of the pedal.

This is how I practice the Nordschleife. Eyes closed. 

Just hanging out in the NFS Lounge and checking out Hot Pursuit. I burned the originals down and was the first time I got to sample cars like the McLaren F1, NSX, Ford GT90, etc. It’s amazing how much the video games used to introduce you to these cars. Now, you can find all of them online, quickly. 

I got to the track early on Saturday morning to do some video for NFS and then the rest of the day the plan was just to hang out and enjoy the drifting. I had a cool chat with Matt and Mike just about drifting and how they both got started into drifting. Everyone in motorsport always has a pretty cool story about how they started but the guys in drifting, I’ve met, have the best ones.

It’s pretty cool to see that drifting is growing fast enough in the states here that you’ve got all these guys from all over the world, coming to the US to drift. Guys like Mad Mike and DMac who all are stars in the respective home countries and now over here. It makes the show that much better. Both Matt and Mike were cool to talk to and makes you wanna root for them, even if I was jealous they were out there and I had to watch.

It’s not often you get “The Rodfather” as your personal photographer for the weekend but clearly he’s slacking on his job here – haha.  

I think one of the things I was looking forward to the most of the weekend was adorning this awesome neon yellow vest and getting right close to the action. I wouldn’t be disappointed there, that’s for sure.

Falken, as always, is a great host and gave me passes for their VIP area which was by far the best place to watch from. The cars come right at you and we had a sick view many times as guys were running their right rear right up on the wall. We were close enough that I think I’m still picking little pieces of rubber off my clothes. 

It’s always cool to see that guys like Peter Tarach from Modified Magazine know who you are and what you do. We had just won the Manufacturer’s Championship for BMW the weekend before so a lot of the guys were asking about that and knew about it. I was, and still am, really stoked about my 2010 season.

We stopped by the Falken trucks to check out their cars and talk with JR before his championship day would start. Vaughn is a total pro. That was a big day for him and, as you’d expect, he was calm and knew that if he just did what he had done all year long, he’d be in good shape. When you’ve only got 30 or 40 seconds in a run and any and every small mistake is a big deal, there is huge pressure there, but you’ve got to just put that out of your head and just let it happen.

Next stop was Bergenholtz Racing. Again, I’m a big fan of the rotaries so I was interested in the car but those guys were awesome. There couldn’t be a nicer and more enthusiastic group of guys in the paddock there. Maybe everyone knows this but, I was surprised to see Joon, who was a super nice guy out of the car, turn into this maniac in the car. As I watched the Top 32 and Joon threw down some sick runs, at the line, he was punching and slapping his helmet and getting super amped. Really cool.

Jarrod stopped by and had a quick chat with him. The one thing I noticed about all of these guys that you meet at these events, from the fans, to the announcer, to the crews and drivers. Everyone is there because they’re addicted to motorsport and because it’s their passion. It seems like everyone knows everyone and they’re all sharing stories about the party last night or whatever. It’s an awesome atmosphere and makes you want to come back for more.

Coolest moment of the weekend, by far, was watching two cars take off from the starting line and head off to the first turn. I watched them both basically spin their tires all the way to the initiation point and then just flick the car into the banking with smoke pouring out of the back of the car. It was one of those moments where I watched that and just said to myself, “Siiiiiiiiiick!”

DMac was on fire all weekend. I thought he was the one to beat. He had a swagger that no one else had during his runs.

Burn it down – I’m still figuring out cars and drivers but I think this was O’Sullivan who burned this thing down. Last run of the year though right? Why not.

The universal racing language – You can’t talk about driving without using your hands.

I hate doing the dishes but Mad Mike’s lip on those rear wheels is naaasty! I’m not a big fan of chrome but it just works on this car.

Formula Drift puts on an awesome show. The format is awesome (except Aasbo and JR should’ve gone One More Time!), there is the right variety in cars from outrageous to simple, and just the right atmosphere. The excitement builds throughout the night and then at the end you have this titanic battle between the two best that day.

I was having just enough fun to forget the fact that I wasn’t out there myself. I wondered more times than not if the M5 could make it all the way around the banking, sideways. Maybe FD should introduce a rental car category and all the teams enter one of their rentals.

DMac and TMac were both on their game all day. I still can’t figure out how either one sees anything. Both cars fill up with smoke so fast. Insane.

The Champ. Congrats to Vaughn again for a huge win. It’s interesting to watch his and guys like Tanner’s driving style compared to some of the others. Tanner and JR both make it look easy where some of the others you can tell are giving it all they’ve got and more.

An awesome weekend for sure. Now I just want to be out there instead of just watching…

-Tommy