FORMULA DRIFT PRO 2 ATLANTA, GA 2019 – ROUND 2

Kelsey’s drifting for April 2019

After a power steering pump failure led to a bad crash in the first round of Formula Drift Pro 2 competition, my team and I were crunched for time with only a week to repair the car for round two at Road Atlanta. We were determined to make it happen, and with the help of our friend Billy Mitchell at Sanford Paint and Body, we were able to get the car on a frame machine as early as possible.

The damage had pushed the strut tower in, but we were able to get it back to “close enough,” to align and compete with. We knew the car was not going to be perfect, it just needed to work. We were able to get our vinyl quickly reprinted by Socal Sign Craft, and our good friend Tahir at Guardian Wraps made himself available to re-wrap the damaged parts of the car on short notice. Including some sleepless nights for repairs by my crew chief, it was a true group effort, which ultimately gave us time to take a couple of laps on the skid pad of OSW right before we left for Atlanta, to make sure our newest power steering pump and changes in the system were working.

While the power steering pump seemed to be working, I was noticing some resistance and notching in the steering. We discovered that the tweak in the firewall had slightly changed the angle of our power steering shaft. We already didn’t have a lot of room with our steering shaft passing between runners of our exhaust manifold, and the damage was just enough to cause a problem. We spent some time sanding down the steering shaft, which appeared to help, and we continued on to Atlanta.

Our first practice session was pretty decent considering we only had time for 2 laps. They weren’t laps up to my standard, but I knew they were laps I could build upon in the next session. When the next session came around, I started noticing the resistance in my steering again. I radioed to the team and we figured that the amount of heat in the engine bay was causing everything to expand and rub again. When we were testing, we never ran the car long enough to let it experience the same levels of heat.

With qualifying quickly approaching, we decided to pull out of the line a little early to address the steering shaft. We borrowed a file from another team and tried to hand file the parts that appeared to be rubbing based on the score marks on the steering shaft, and just turning the wheel side to side in the air. We hoped that the additional filing of the steering shaft and allowing it to cool before qualifying would help our problem.

My goal for the first qualifying lap was to take somewhat of a safe lap to get a score and make sure the steering was feeling better. While it definitely wasn’t my best, it gave us a score of 62 and it was something to build off of the next run. Unfortunately, not long after my first qualifying lap, the skies opened up and it started to pour.

We were forced to take a break due to the heavy rain and lightning, but we were able to continue once the storm lightened up. The only difference was that we now had a wet track and completely different driving conditions from practice, and it showed. My 62 managed to keep us on the board up until our second qualifying lap. I knew I could improve on it and get a safer score to keep me in the competition for the top 16 battles the next day.

I took my sight lap and quickly discovered that the track was like ice all the way through the entry and first outer zone. The car was able to find a bit of grip through the horseshoe, before losing it again on the way back down and up the hill to the start line. Being from Florida and pretty confident in the rain, I felt good about my lap all the way up until I tried to throw my car into the first turn.

Because of the wet conditions, I knew I didn’t want to flick the steering wheel too hard. I tried a small flick, went to grab my handbrake, and suddenly realized there was no pressure. My car simply bobbled with my little flick because my rear wheels didn’t lock up. I desperately yanked on the hand brake a coupled more times to build pressure and then threw it sideways heading towards the first inner clip. I was pretty sure I was past the final initiation cone, which would result in a zero, but I was determined to put down a good rain lap.

I made my way around the up the hill and into the keyhole. I clutch kicked where I found grip and rode the slide down the hill and transitioned into the final turn up the hill. It was a solid wet lap, besides the entry. My suspicions were confirmed and I was given an incomplete run due to my entry. I was disappointed in the hand brake failure, but proud of the lap otherwise. Our win in Atlanta was being able to show up with a fixed car that was able to make it around the track. We now have some issues to sort out before St. Louis, but I know that we can make some magic happen now that we have a little more time to spend on the details. On to St. Louis!

All the best to each of you!
Kelsey (aka Drift Chick) and Dan Rowlings

www.driftchick.com
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Kelsey is running Konig Hypergrams in 17×9 et 25mm front and 18×9.5 et 25mm rear. The Konig Hypergram is Flow Formed.