July 15, 2009 (Signal Hill, Calif.) – Kyle Mohan, Formula Drift Pro Championship driver – and for the first team, team owner – got his weekend at the fourth round of the Formula Drift Pro Championship in Las Vegas started off on the right foot with his best qualifying effort of the season. On a newly-configured Las Vegas track that featured a fast entry and long initiation that claimed cars all weekend, Mohan laid down an 80-point qualifying run that put him 12th in the field, putting him against good friend Patrick Mordaunt in the first round of competition.
The first pair of runs were a war, with Mordaunt and Mohan alternately giving chase and neither driver having a clear advantage. The judges called for a One More Time, but after two runs, the judges could not decide on a winner and a second One More Time was called. Mohan led again for the third time and impressively laid the rear bumper of his Mazda RX-8 against the concrete intitation wall and into the first clipping points – effectively enough that Mordaunt made a minor mistake. Mordaunt led the second run, and Mohan also made a minor mistake while giving chase. Judges are only allowed to give two One More Times and had to select a winner, and voted 2-1 to advance Mordaunt.
“It’s disappointing to not move on, especially after such a great battle,” said Mohan. “We didn’t have any idea which one of us they would advance until it was announced. That was the hardest battle I have had in Formula Drift, but Patrick and I have driven with each other before – we did Team Drift together and we did a tandem at Adams Motorsports Park a couple of weeks ago, so we kind of knew what to expect. I’m glad we put on a good show for the fans.”
“Our Mazda RX-8 ran great throughout the battle – it did everything I asked of it, and we got great smoke and grip from our Cooper 2XS tires even as we wore them down after six runs.”
Earlier in the day, Mohan got to celebrate for the first time as a team owner when Johnny Kanavas wheeled the KMR / Mazdatrix / Cooper Tire Mazda FC3S to second place in the Pro-Am competition sanctioned by Vegas Drift. Recording the highest entry speed in the competition at 94 mph and qualifying in the top-5 for tandem competition, Kanavas triumphed in two tandem battles before facing off against former Formula Drift Pro Championship driver Forrest Wang in the final. Kanavas made contact with the wall on his first run but still put enough pressure to force a One More Time, but Wang ultimately prevailed. In his first tandem competition, Kanavas brought the KMR Mazda FC3S home on the second spot of the podium.
“This was unbelievable, such a fun way to start out in Formula Drift,” said Kanavas. “I really want to thank Kyle Mohan, Mazdatrix, Cooper Tire and Adams Motorsports Park for their support this weekend. We struggled a bit on Friday, but made some changes and focused hard on the job at hand today and we are really proud of the result.”
‘Johnny K’ was awarded cash and prizes from Longacre Racing Products and EXEDY Clutch, as well as an invite to compete in the Formula Drift Pro-Am Nationals in December.
July 8, 2009 (Signal Hill, Calif.) – For the first time, Kyle Mohan will not only be the lead driver for the team that bears his name, but will slide into the role of Team Owner as his team enters a car in the Pro-Am competition at Las Vegas. Mohan, of course, will be back behind the wheel of the 2009 Mazda RX-8 that he has competed in during the first three rounds of this year’s Formula Drift championship. Since the previous round in New Jersey, the KMR team has undertaken extensive testing and development of the car, making it more potent for the fast Las Vegas Motor Speedway course.
“The Las Vegas course is very fast, and really makes you push yourself,” said Mohan. “I really enjoy that part of it. Our Mazda RX-8 also works very well in fast, high-speed courses. This was not one of our better events last year, and the team has been working hard to make sure we put together a very strong car for this weekend.”
In addition, the KMR team has been busy preparing the KMR Mazda RX-7 FC3S, which will be driven in the Las Vegas Pro-Am by former MAZDA Team-Drift driver and road racer Johnny Kanavas. Mohan and Kanavas have driven together with the Mazda Team Drift at the Long Beach Grand Prix as well as the Portland Formula D Team-Drift competition in 2008.
“Johnny comes from a road racing background, but also has quite a bit of drifting experience.” said Mohan. “I have driven with him numerous times in practice, testing, and Team-Drift competition and he is an extremely capable drifter. I’m excited to see him compete in Pro-Am and I’m glad that we’ve been able to put together a two-car effort for the first time with help from Mazdatrix.com and Cooper Tire. We’ve been trying to make this happen for a long time and the Vegas Pro-Am came together nicely and the timing was perfect.”
Kanavas is a professional driver and driving instructor with experience from drifting and karting to SPEED World Challenge, Playboy MX-5 Cup, 24-hour endurance racing and more. Kanavas has worked with several auto manufacturers, driving/racing schools, hot-lap events and promotional racing programs. Las Vegas Pro-Am will be his first solo Formula Drift competition.
“I’m really happy we were able to put this together for Vegas Pro-Am,” said Kanavas. “Kyle has been tremendous help with my transition to drifting and I look forward to working with KMR. I am enthusiastic about this weekend, and would like to thank KMR, Mazdatrix.com and Cooper Tire for their support this weekend.”
This past weekend marked the first ever Redline Time Attack at Autobahn Country Club in Joliet, IL. It was also to be the debut for the AMS Performance / NOS Energy Drink Time Attack Mitsubishi EVO X (TA-X). Just days prior TA-X was in pieces and in its final stage of assembly. The team was able to come together and get the car up and running for the weekend’s events.
AMS EVO X (TA-X)
Saturday’s testing went very well with the AMS /NOS EVO X getting quicker and quicker. Some new car bugs prevented the AMS team from running the car at peak power. The team was only able to compete at the 450 wheel horsepower level, down from the 600whp level they had hoped to compete at.
Each session brought about a new series of changes and tweaks to help improve the car. AMS driver Mark Daddio worked his magic with the underpowered car as each practice session the AMS/NOS Energy drink car got quicker and quicker.
This event brought out some stiff competition but early on Saturday it became clear that the Crawford Performance STI driven by Tarzan Yamada was the car to beat. With 580 wheel horsepower and in its second year of competition was running very quick laps all day. TA-X and the Crawford STI exchanged fastest lap times Saturday leaving Sunday open to either team.
Sunday started out with the TA-X setting the fastest lap of the event thus far in their first practice session. Rain was imminent as the radar showed a storm cell moving towards the track. As the first competition session kicked off once again it was AMS and Crawford within a couple of tenths of a second with the Crawford car edging them out. It would come down to the last session…so long as the weather would hold out AMS had a chance to take TA-X out for one last chance.
Round 2 at Road Atlanta Braselton, GA
Kenji would have a new car for Formula D 2009 that is a Silvia S15 with Titan V8 Engine. However the car wasn’t in time at the first Round in Long Beach so he drove the previous S14 but he didn’t get a good result because of the S14’s damages from the crush at Final Round 2008 in Irwindale.
Team Signal's Skyline GT-R34
Now we participate in the Second Round in Atlanta. We’d been making the S15 V8 at Drift Emporium in Atlanta since just before the First Round.
Finally we managed to bring the S15 to the Second Round in Atlanta but the car had an unexpected computer trouble so the car didn’t start the engine at all.
After all there was the Skyline GT-R 34 that was driven by Kaz in 2008 at Drift Emporium and Kenji would drive the GT-R34 at the second Round.
However the GT-R34 and the track of the Road Atlanta just aren’t compatible because the car’s engine response is pretty heavy for the track…
Friday
Our pit of Road Atlanta had three cars, which were Kenji’s Mazeran S15 V8 titan engine and two Infiniti G35s that are painted EkiShow color from SHOW UP. So a lot of customers came by the pit to see our cars and colors because the atmosphere of the pit was pretty outstanding.
Kenji passed the Top 32 but the GT-R34 doesn’t have enough power at a corner from an initiation because of the car’s weight. Anyway the first day was over.
Saturday
We finished practice sessions, autograph sessions and more and the top 32 tournament started in the afternoon.
Kenji competed with Ross Petty from Falken S15. But unfortunately Kenji couldn’t beat Ross…
We are very sorry about the Mazeran S15 titan V8 engine. However the computer trouble was solved completely and the car shows up at the Third Round at Wall.
Also Kaz with the Andromeda S15 is going to compete from the Fourth Round in Las Vegas so we are going to make better atmosphere of the Team and take part in several Formula D competitions with a stronger cooperation from now on.
(June 8, 2009) Subaru Rally Team USA driver Ken Block earned his second Rally America victory of 2009 with a dominating win at the 2009 Waste Management Susquehannock Trail Performance Rally (STPR). Block and his co-driver Alex Gelsomino were untouchable in their 2009 Subaru Impreza WRX STI, leading from the very first stage and going on to win eight of thirteen competition stages at STPR, round five of the 2009 Rally America National Championship. Block’s Subaru teammate and defending three-time Rally America National Champion Travis Pastrana with co-driver Christian Edstrom made it a 1-2 finish for Subaru Rally Team USA by placing 2nd Overall. Dave Mirra and co-driver Derek Ringer, in Subaru Rally Team USA’s Super Production Class Subaru STI hit a large rock while battling for the class lead and were forced to retire from the event.
June 3, 2009 (Signal Hill, Calif.) – Kyle Mohan left the second round of the Formula Drift Pro Championship at Road Atlanta disappointed after a freak ignition problem sidelined his 2009 Mazda RX-8 in qualifying.
As he was continuing to develop the car throughout the first two rounds of the season, Mohan had made large gains in the car that he had built in his shop throughout the winter. Unable to realize the RX-8’s full potential in Atlanta, he now takes aim at the small and difficult course at Wall Speedway in New Jersey – The Gauntlet.
“I’ve never been to Wall Speedway, but from what the other drivers tell me it is a technical little course that is very challenging,” said Mohan. “Our 2009 Mazda RX-8 will be up to the task. We had developed it quite a lot between Long Beach and Atlanta, and it almost surprised me at how well it was working before we had our ignition problem.”
So well was the car working that Mohan didn’t change much about his suspension setup or powerplant in the car, but made large gains in the reliability and tuning of the car with the help of Mazdatrix. Providing a couple of extra mental horsepower is the fact that his RX-8 was used in the event flyer for the event in Wall Speedway.
“That has gotten us a lot of attention and been great exposure for all of our partners,” added Mohan. “Without them we couldn’t have built this great car, and I am really looking forward to bringing home a good result for all of them. This is a car that can go deep into the competition, and its just up to me to drive it there.”
Mohan will be updating his blog at kylemohanracing.com/blog after Thursday practice, Friday qualifying, and Saturday tandem competition.
Evan Cline - Suburu WRX at Sno*Drift
After winning the 2008 Rally America Central Region Production GT class the Cline Rally Sport team decided it was time to step it up. The team did exactly that by not only entering the Rally America National Championship, but by also stepping up into the new highly contested SP (Super Production) class. With only two and a half months to build a entirely new car the team really knew they had their work cut out for them.
Some how through it all the car was finished the night before Sno*Drift Rally. The problem here was that there was absolutely no set up and no testing in the car. To top it all off the drive Evan Cline had bronchitis and the flu. The team got off to a rough start and had set up issues with the brake bias controller. With too much braking to the rear the car spun easy on the ice and snow of northern Michigan. This then resulted in nearly eleven minutes stuck in the deep snowbanks that lined the road. Late on day one the team had dialed in the brake bias and was happy to finish the day.
Day 2 was much better for the team. With the car dialed in and plenty of Dayquil the team was able to pick up the pace and move up the ranks throughout the rally. As the rally concluded the team was not only extatic about finishing the rally, but finishing in fourth place. Had the car been set up from the start the team would have probably been able to finish on the podium.
SOUTH BEND, WA – Rally driver Andrew “ACP” Comrie-Picard put in an aggressive drive this weekend at the Olympus Rally to finish second overall and extend his lead in the Rally America championship series.
“This was an incredibly tough rally,” said Comrie-Picard. “The competition between the top teams was intense; we fought hard for this result.”
It is the third podium finish for the NOS Energy Mitsubishi in three starts in the series. Entering the event, Comrie-Picard was tied with Rockstar Energy’s Tanner Foust for the championship lead. After a two-day battle over more than 100 miles of rugged stages, Comrie-Picard came out ahead in the points. After three rounds of the Rally America championship, Comrie-Picard tops the standings with 48 points, while Foust and Subaru Rally Team USA driver Travis Pastrana are tied for second with 45 points apiece.
“We’re thrilled to be leading the championship,” said Comrie-Picard. “We’re gunning for top points this year and we’ll be battling hard at every round.”
