Peep the video by Jesse Wood from JWoodmedia.com
After our adventures in Atlanta, the car went to Raw Brokerage and Dan tore the front end apart to find out what was causing all the steering issues that had been plaguing us from the get go. He got the front end sorted and aligned while we were home, as well as fixed a few issues with the 350z axle set up we were testing. Needless to say that setup won't work, and may have destroyed my diff sadly.
Jesse and I set off for Florida at 4am on Monday, and were drunk by around 8am. Good times were had traveling and after our layover in the complete wrong direction (SLC), we landed in Orlando around 4:30pm. Tommy was nice enough to scoop us up, take us go karting, and let us stay at his house. Tommy is probably one of the nicest people I have ever met, and I cannot thank him enough for everything that whole week! We even went mosquito fishing in a leaky canoe.
We tested at OSW thanks to Pat Goodin setting us up some time to test, and Matt Coffman was there testing as well. The car started overheating almost right away, and had somehow lost 1 gallon of coolant... We filled it back up and off I went getting the most seat time in the car I have had all this season. The car felt 1,000X better than it ever had, and I know we can tweak it to make it better.
After that, Jesse and I picked Aoki up at the airport, met with Michael from Studio one, and then off we went to Miami. Sadly Aoki got some bad news mid way there, and had to leave back home the next day. Dan From Raw was suppossed to help as well, and ended up having a baby (Congrats!!!), so for the start of this round of FD it was just JWoodmedia.com and I manning the show. I think we did pretty good that practice day considering Jesse is the media dude. Lucky for me, the people in FD are awesome, and Tyler Wolfson lent a hand during practice, and qual both days changing tires and what not. <3 you guys!!! Antics were had and goodtimes rolled. Raw Brokerage even closed shop and headed down to help out on Friday, so big thanks to you as well, you rock.
Practice on the course was tough with the 380 HP we ended up turning the car down to. It was full tilt boogie all the way into 3rd, then quick flick and e-brake, to hold shallow angle and let it eat as long as it could, to grab a ton of e to get it to the next corner. It started raining about half way though practice and I was able to learn the correct line, and had it pretty dialed all things considered. The rain stopped however about 1/2 an hour before Pro II qual and the track conditions were rather different than I expected. On the long ebrake haul at the end of turn 1, I straightened something fierce as the car gripped up and snapped back on me. Needless to say, I think I scored a 16? Tied with Tyler Wolfson for 17th place. He beat me out by 1 style point. Needless to say, I was finally able to destroy copious amounts of Hankook tires this round, and boy do those things have grip for days.
Next day, practice for Pro. I was somehow able to link the course in the complete dry, and it felt really good. Not award winning good, but I had just done a full 4 hour practice the day before, and now I had ran an hour of practice in the dry and finished the course. I ran my first run, and ended up getting a 49. My first qualification score in Formula D. Not the best score in the world, but a milestone nonetheless. I was ready to give it hell for run two, and blew a boost hose off the line before I could even start. Autocross award goes to me this season.
Lucky for me Hankook is an awesome sponsor, and goes far beyond just providing tires to the team. They really treat us like family, feeding us, changing tires, encouraging us, providing the awesome spotter guides for the autograph signing and even letting us hang out in the AC during the sweltering Florida heat. We did some interviews with the models and the section will be in the video above! On top of they they were nice enough again to let me put my car in front of their tent. Thank you for everything guys!
After watching a fun event, we went home tired but fulfilled. The car made it all the way through an event, I got a full qual lap in the books, and learned a lot.
We spent sunday heading to Orlando with Fredric Aasbo (dat jawline), to hit up OSW for aftermath. We hung out, watched some rad water taps and dropped the car back off at Raw. That next day, Aasbo, Jesse and I spent the morning on jestskis racing around, chasing dolphins and having a blast. Thanks Fredric for carting us around all over Florida and being an all around rad guy.
See you next time for White castle fueled antics!
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