RD 3 Formula D Wall Speedway
I’m not sure why but I love New Jersey! Every time Formula D stops there, I have an awesome event. In 2006 I qualified the RSR S2K 3rd and got to the great 8, in 2007 I qualified the Porsche 1st and got to the final 4 before the motor broke and I took the Porsche to 2nd place in Englishtown last year. So you can imagine how excited I’ve been to head back to Wall in my new Falken Tire Nissan 350Z.
We all flew in on Wednesday and the Falken drivers went into the big apple to take in the NYC, which was very cool and something I’ve never done. We stopped by Ground Zero, Time Square, a New York Pizza joint, and an Irish pub… Then it was down to business! We had practice on Thursday and the ASD guys made a few changes from ATL to the rear end of the Falken Tire Nissan 350Z. Made a few runs to check out the change to the rear end and it proved to be a good one. We then focused on the shocks to help us get over the bumps at Wall Speedway. At the end of the day I was very happy with the car and ready for qualifying on Friday. As I woke up on Friday and looked out the window of my hotel room, it was not looking good. It was raining, and raining hard! When we got to the track it looked even worse. The track was flooded. Long story short, Formula D decided to cancel the day. Qualifying was moved to Saturday morning along with the rest of the event.
The weather on Saturday was much better but the track was still pretty wet so I decided to wait until the end of practice to go out in hopes of a dry track which would simulate the condition for qualifying. I did 2 laps and was happy with the car and ready for qualifying to start. I had a good qualifying run and was scored a 95.9. When it was all said and done, I was tied for first with Ken Gushi but his speed was 1 mile an hour faster so I was placed in 2nd.
Because of the tight schedule we went straight into Top 32 and my first match up was Chris Kregorian. These early battles can be very hard because of the speed difference. I had a clean first run and pulled a gap on Chris. On the second run he broke so I moved on to the Top 16. My next match up was my old team mate Kenji Yamanaka. I knew this would be a close battle and it was. I lead on the first run and pulled out a gap while Kenji made a few little mistakes. On the 2nd run, the lights went green and Kenji took off which created a very big gap. I drove into the bank harder than ever to try and catch up. I brought in so much speed that I grazed the wall and it caused me to come off the bank late, which made for a late setup for the infield section. The run just looked ugly so the judges called for one more time. My runs on the OMT were clean and Kenji made a couple of mistakes so I advanced to the great 8. My next match up would be the same as the great 8 in Atlanta, the battle of the vert 350z with Chris Forsberg. I lead the first run and had a clean run but Chris made a little mistake coming off the bank which caused him to straighten up a bit. The next run I followed him and just stuck to his bumper with no mistakes. This was an interesting battle since we went up against him in Atlanta and he beat us no problem, but the roles were reversed at Wall and I think this is a testament to the work and development that ASD and myself have done on this car. On to the final 4! The next battle would be against my team mate J.R. which is a win win for Falken because one of us is going to the final. I lead the first run and I was slowly able to pull out 2-3 car gap by the end of the run. When I followed I was able to stay within a car length by the infield section so going into the last corner I was going to try and suck up on him. At this point in the run the smoke is very bad in my cockpit and you add J.R.’s smoke and I can’t see anything so I’m going off muscle memory to get into the last corner. This caused me to go wide and straighten up. My mistake and J.R. advances to the ”Falken” final against Darren. So Ken Gushi is the only guy standing in the way of the Falken podium sweep and it’s up to me to make it happen, no pressure!!! Our first run I stuck to his bumper and was going to suck up more to him going into the last corner but I did the same thing I did with J.R. but not as bad but it still was a correction. On the next run I pulled away from him big time and he made a few mistakes. I think the judges thought he sat back knowing that I made a mistake and this year they want to see an all out attack no matter what. They called for a one more time. I knew I needed to finish this so I stuck to him like crazy on our OMT and pulled up alongside him in the last corner and my right front tire touched his door! I pulled away on the next run and I won! Third place is mine and the Falken podium sweep is complete!!!
Getting on the podium in Formula D is hard enough but sweeping the podium is amazing! This was so big on so many levels. All 3 Falken cars on the podium were built by ASD, which says something about their work. Falken brought me on this year to help them get results, so to get on the podium in a new car in only my 3rd event with the team and car was unreal. What better way to thank Falken for bringing me on the team than to help sweep the podium. I’m so proud to be part of Team Falken!