Well, I am back safe and sound after going through the gigantic fiasco in getting ready for Bristol Motor Speedway's drifting exhibition thing that was going to be going on during this car show / drag racing day put on by Ride Revolution ( Some shop that opened up near there).

Ben Schwartz called me up last week or so and said he would like me to attend as the fourth driver for the demonstration. The other three drivers would be Himself, Erik Jacobs and Tony Schultz. Three pro drivers, and here's me being asked to be the fourth! !! I was totally flipping out over it, because I never see myself as an equal compared to those guys, they are bad-ass drivers with more seat time than me by alot.

Either way, I talk to Enjuku Racing and we decide it would be a blast to go to. So we go for it! Everything goes awesome, we get everything planned and ready to go. Order my Sparco Suit up (Red and Black of course) and we were going to drive up thursday to Orlando, and leave early Fri morning for the event. Suit was going to arrive thursday morning also for embroidering, etc etc etc.

Everything went downhill on Thursday morning.

As I'm getting ready to drive the car to school, I hear a faint noise.. Sounds like a noisy injector or an exhaust leak, or something. I am sitting at the stop light and all of the sudden I smell oil.
What the hell? I thought. I rev it up and the smoke slighly goes away. Damn! My turbo seals are blown, and it leaks oil at idle now. Oh well!
I go to class, all is well, but when I get out of class, and start the engine back up.. I hear it.

Connecting rod bearing was loose and just the slightest rod knock could be heard by revving it to 2500 rpm. DAMN DAMN DAMN! I almost felt like crying. I wanted to go to this event so badly, and really get my name and Enjuku racing's name out there as another set of guys from the East Coast that have their shit together! And now my motor was blown on the night I was supposed to be driving up and putting the car on the trailer for the long hall!

I Call E, he doesn't answer. He txt messages me back, and I txt him the best joke ever.
me- " Knock Knock"
E - "who's there?"
me - "Rod"
E - "Rod who??! wtf is your pborlem matt"
me - "ROD KNOCK "

E - "don't worry about it, see if you can get here early, we will replace the motor and get it taken care of, i'll call you right back.

And so that's waht we did. We planend and left early, got our butts upt to orlando by 6:00 PM, and by 8:00 pm the motor was out. It wasn't going to be any easier though. We needed a motor that was going to withstand at least some abuse, so the RPS13 black top we put in received the following mods before being installed

1) COMP ValveSprings
2) Cometic Headgasket
3) Greddy Rocker Arm Stoppers
4) Enjuku Racing Turbo Kit

Apon removing the turbo kit manifold and wastegate from the blown up motor, i played with the shaft just to see if it haad any play. EGADS!?!??!?! IT WAS HITTING THE SIDE! MY FING TURBO WAS BLOWN ALSO!
So now we had to
5) Install brand new turbocharger as well! icon_sad.gif

Either way, with the new throwout bearing installed and all the other minor odds and ends we had to do, working non stop with only a short dinner break, we got everything back together up and running by 4:30 AM. We now had to get the car loadedonto the trailer, get everything loaded up, get everything locked down, and get a shower before leaving for Bristol TN on NO SLEEP icon_sad.gif icon_sad.gif ThANK goodness my dad was sleepnig for a few hours (And he works nights so he's used to it) in the back of the Nissan Titan (Our tow vehicle) So Estevan Ray and I were sleeping while dad was driving there.

15 hours later (Lots of traffic, stupid map quest, and all sorts of stuff) we arrived at our La Quinta Inn, so happy to be there. A few hours later we met up with Ben Schwartz who had just rolled into town. Kevin at C&R was on his way to meet us also, but we decided to find food without him. NOTHING WAS NEARBY! But we found a Shoneys with all you can eat buffet. YAY. So we were all full, we drove back to the apt and went to sleep.

Wake up the next morning and get to the track. ITS SO SMALL!!! 300'x200' and it was super hard barriers all around, the kind that kills your car when you hit them. man, I was scared! But as soon as I got all into it, it wasn't that bad.
But it seemed like mycar was louder than normal and I was down on power....
My wastegate almost falls off! The gasket blew out and the bolts were loosening out, I had no boost at all! @$)(*@$ STUPID THING!

We pull it back under the tent, jack it up, burn the shit out of ourselves(THANK YOU SO MUCH ETEVAN AND RAY) And they get the car back together for the next session... )

I get back out ther eand BAM Shits all fixed! Car runs much better, and I start putting some heat into the tires. That's when it happpens.

Erik jacobs' car breaks a tierod~ Comes inches from the barrier! PHEW Erik, good thing you have those stop tech brakes onthere!!!! Tony and Ben were rocking the mic so hard, it was awesome watching them. Those two are incredibel drivers, I have lots to learn from all of these pro guys I was with.

I think I am going to do all right, and I want to raise the level to the level of these guys who I look up to. I throw the car fast, kick it and spur and here we go, but it goes all the way around on me. How is it doing this?? My tires must have been way too hot and greasy! STUPID NITTO! I am now going backwards toward the wall ass first! NO! STOP! !! HELP!!!! CRUNCH..

ouch. icon_sad.gif
I looked back and I didnt see the carbon fiber hatch messed up or the taillights bent in, so I kept with it! did some more donuts and stuff, and drifted around some more. came back in, and enjuku team said that it was just a scratch and to go out some more! HAHAHHA I FELT LIKE AN ASS

So People started doing some donuts and stuff, and ben and i thought it would be funny if we just did standing burnounts and the twin donuts and stuff, adn that was great and everybody cheered.

After I put on the ST115's - OH MY GOD - Those are like the best tires ever.. And I've used a LOT of tires.. I worked on getting better at tandem, and getting more speed up. I was having major transmission problems all day long, the car didn't want to go into first or second or anythign at all.. The narrow powerband was also hurting me. But we'll get it there!!

All in all had a GREAT TIME ! THanks Ben and Tony and Erik for reccomending me as the #4 !! You guys rock, the whole time rocked, everybody rocked. Videos, I NEED SOMEONE to host!!! icon_smile.gif


SPL THANKS VOSKO TO HOSTING THE VIDS MORE COMING SOON



http://www.vosko.net/media/drift/mat...tbendonuts.wmv

http://www.vosko.net/media/drift/mattback/mattrun.wmv

 

Congrats on the invite man! That's awsome! Sorry about your luck though, it seems like shit like that always happens though when you need your car the most, I know mine does.

 

I always miss out on all the fun

Charles

 

I hate stupid unnecesary barriers.

its like project going to Bristol. I can't wait to see more videos

 

+1 on the congrats!

You're better than you give yourself credit for.

A few months ago, Erik's car would have totalle hit those barriers

 

lol thats so awesome man, arjay was told me this during school one day.... i was like whoaaa 4th driver aye... dude is that I and E convo the one that was going on that day i walked by you at school heh... great videos i sent them to mark at d unit and that will be linked in your profile... stuff is getting in the works

 

Thanks guys! Pics up soon!