RS*R Drift Festival Chicago |Video|Pics|

[kidynomite]

Its long, so here is the video for those who don't want to read, pics are at the bottom.

My Video (all links are of the same thing), if you can host it please do, because it will probably run out of bandwidth)
http://www.altarf.net/rsr.wmv
http://www.streetkaizo.com/video/SimbaRSR.wmv

The second annual RS*R Drift Festival made its way to the US, this time around to Chicago. It was at Route66 Raceway in Joliet. This year however they brought someone from Japan who won the festival over there. He was brought here to drive the RS*R S14, which now has a Tomei 2.2L engine. The car was amazing, but they had to piece the car together upon arrival in the US so it never really ran right.

Among the other RS*R S14 was the RS*R Supra driven by Orido, RS*R Z33 driven by Kazu Hayashida, and RS*R S2000 driven by Alex Pfeiffer

After a night of tuning the cars and listening to the hicks race at the drag strip the day had finally come. There were 2 courses, one competition course and one practice course. They were both the same but the practice course was a bit smaller. Aside from the 3rd/2nd sweeper being a little bumpy it was a great course. With a 30 driver cap we had lots of runtime (not to mention the practice course was open all day).


There were two different competitions mixed in with some demos. The competitions were judged by Orido, Kazu, and Alex. First round was 2 runs that dropped it down to 16 competitors. Next round was 1 run and with *Censored**Censored**Censored**Censored* luck a bunch of us spun out so they dropped it to 5 instead of picking 8, and the last 5 took one run each to determine who won.


First Place:
Rob Riter, Black Mazda Miata

Second Place:
Nathan Brasz, Black Nissan S13 Coupe

Third Place:
Keith Schoeler, White Nissan S13 Coupe

Fourth Place:
Robert Strohmeyer, White Nissan S13 Coupe

Fifth Place:
Chris Migallo, Red Toyota AE86

The prizes were insane, Rob (1st place) received Tomei SR20 Cam, Tomei SR20 valve cover, a set of enkei wheels, kaaz differential, RS*R GT2 exhaust, an air splat gun, 6 yokohama tires, and probably a few more things I can't remember. 2nd - 5th prizes were pretty damn good as well most all had tires and at least a universal RS*R muffler among a few other things. Too bad Rob doesn’t have an SR...

The pro competition was great too, it was your 8-4-2-1 battle. The top 4 are as follows:
1. Ken Gushi
2. Benson Hsu
3. Daijiro Yoshihara
4. Hiroo Sumida

The top 8 (Taka, Tony Schulz, Erik Jacobs, Ben Schwartz and the top 4), all walked away with $1000. Dai get $1500, Benson $3000, Ken $6000.

Not to bad mouth Benson, but Dai should have been 2nd according to the crowd and Alex, but oh well.

No crashes in the local competition, only in the pros. Ken hit a wall but got spares from Tiger Racing, who also hit a wall. Tony Schulz broke his clutch fork and borrowed one of the locals cars, Bubba Drift had some problems with his alternator.

The day was a big success and a surprise to most. The pro drivers were impressed with our skills (I think everyone thinks the Midwest has no idea how to drift ).

On behalf of ClubFR I would like to thank all those who came out, and all those who competed, according to Moto and Naoki bigger things will finally be coming to the Midwest next year.



www.ClubFR.net
www.driftday.com
www.rs-r.com

Big Thanks to
Moto, Naoki and the rest of Drift Association for bringing it here.
RS-R for coming, and bringing their cars.
Orido, Kazu, and winner of the competition in Japan for making the trip.
Alex Pfeiffer Daijiro, Moto, Naoki, Scott from Lyndex Nikken, Gary from RS-R for coming to the after party.
Route 66 for letting us use their facilities.
ClubFR for staffing the event, and promoting the event.
All the drivers for paying and coming out to put on a good show.
All the crowd for coming and watching.
And anyone else involved with the event.

Here are some pics:

Pics taken by Phil/TF
Pics by Keith aka Beef
Overboost
My pics
spock_rockers pics
Dizzy-D of Overboost

[Lord_EJR]

Great Coverage!! Thanks

[BensonHsu]

i'd gladly say that daijiro is better than me... but since ken took him out in the top 4 round, i don't think it was possible for him to get 2nd.

believe it or not... competitions don't always place people in order of their skill level.

[kidynomite]

Originally posted by BensonHsu
i'd gladly say that daijiro is better than me... but since ken took him out in the top 4 round, i don't think it was possible for him to get 2nd.

believe it or not... competitions don't always place people in order of their skill level.

Don't take it the wrong way though, if I put your 2 best runs together (from watching my video), you were both pretty damn good, but just during the competition Dai was better. You need to keep one car , stop changing and confusing us all...

[Spazum888]

cool vid. awesome event... need an event like that here in orlando... COUCH!@!!@$!@$

[Ris4drift]

really nice job on the video.


was benson in the yellow car?

[kidynomite]

yup

[slideways2004]

wow great video. i felt like i was there! i love ken gushi even more now. that little victory freestyle at the end was badass. he's definately my favorite u.s. pro.

[BensonHsu]

Originally posted by kidynomite
Don't take it the wrong way though, if I put your 2 best runs together (from watching my video), you were both pretty damn good, but just during the competition Dai was better. You need to keep one car , stop changing and confusing us all...

of course not

dai is a really great driver... and i have a lot to learn before i get to his level. i think i posted just so that i could explain my feelings about competitions.

you did a great job on the video!

*sigh*... yeah... i need to stick with single car so that i can stop confusing MYSELF!! it was my first day driving the car!

[zdss14]

great pics!

[my 1 88 u]

why didn't alex compete?

[kidynomite]

Originally posted by my 1 88 u
why didn't alex compete?

Its an RS*R event and he is driving an RS*R car. He said he still had tons of fun though.

[FD3S_pilot]

wow goodo pics......yeah for the Miata

[my 1 88 u]

were are those amateur drivers from, they kicked a$$

[kidynomite]

Originally posted by my 1 88 u
were are those amateur drivers from, they kicked a$$

thanks, umm 75% are from chicago (including me), there were a couple from MN, , PA, IN, one from Canada, forget where the rest were from.

[tonesdef]

Originally posted by BensonHsu
of course not

dai is a really great driver... and i have a lot to learn before i get to his level. i think i posted just so that i could explain my feelings about competitions.

you did a great job on the video!

*sigh*... yeah... i need to stick with single car so that i can stop confusing MYSELF!! it was my first day driving the car!

benson can you please tell us how the scoring works. I heard that off the line if you pull hard you gain points which would be why hiro didn't advance even though he seemed to be pushing everyone on the corners.

[Lord_EJR]

Originally posted by BensonHsu
*sigh*... yeah... i need to stick with single car so that i can stop confusing MYSELF!! it was my first day driving the car!

which car were u driving?

[BensonHsu]

Originally posted by tonesdef
benson can you please tell us how the scoring works. I heard that off the line if you pull hard you gain points which would be why hiro didn't advance even though he seemed to be pushing everyone on the corners.

well, scoring is always subjective.... and each judge will score differently. Maybe Alex Pfieffer can jump in on this one, since he was a judge.

BUT... basically they look at a few key categories. LINE, SPEED, ANGLE, and IMPACT.

if hiroo lost points on the main straight, it could be because of his setup for the first corner, which affects line. or if he wasnt full throttle (which i doubt), it affects speed and impact. also, the judges are all experienced drivers... they can see/hear a lot of little things that you might not notice... like throttle/clutch control or left foot braking, half clutching... etc.

i wish i could say why hiroo didn't advance. i didn't watch much of anybody else's runs... but i know that he kept up close to me on one run because i could hear his engine screaming behind me! haha!

[BensonHsu]

Originally posted by Lord_EJR
which car were u driving?

i was driving the yellow s13 with the silvia face and black work meister wheels.

[DriftingNewbie]

That yellow S13 looked great out there. I am so happy i made it out to 66 from western Illi. And i am also suprised because 3 of the amatures live right around me. That silver 240 w/ the black ssr wheels (not sure if it was on the vid) and sleepy eyes works at the vid store by my house. I had no idea any of them were that good.

[Reckless Hero]

haha yeah there are a few of us in the area
too bad im not in the video
Damn u simba for snubbin me agian on the video!!!!!! its cause i didnt crash huh

[Doriftogasm]

when benson clutch kicked that thing!!! the loudest BANG came out of the exhaust everytime, it got the crowd so hype!!!

BENSON
later in the day you switched over the the gold S1's....did that set have more tire on it??? i thought it did when i was chilling in the pits on saturday

[kidynomite]

Originally posted by DriftingNewbie
That yellow S13 looked great out there. I am so happy i made it out to 66 from western Illi. And i am also suprised because 3 of the amatures live right around me. That silver 240 w/ the black ssr wheels (not sure if it was on the vid) and sleepy eyes works at the vid store by my house. I had no idea any of them were that good.

that'd be me

[my 1 88 u]

Originally posted by kidynomite
thanks, umm 75% are from chicago (including me), there were a couple from MN, , PA, IN, one from Canada, forget where the rest were from.

After watching JDM Option #6 D1 driver search Fontana, I think you midwest boys would kick those Cali boys A$$es

[tululu]

when i went up against benson, it was at difficult
time of day when the sun was right in front and
blasting into your eyes. i felt i did a good run when
i was in front of benson, but when i was chasing him
i kicked the clutch too soon because i was watching
benson's car, the wall, and trying to not look at the
sun, and i mis-judged the distance to the entrance.
then i understeered for little bit (right in front of the
judges) before i began drifting again.
i was surprised to go "one more time" after such a
big mistake, but i made the exact same understeer
error at the entrance of the first turn. i was able to
catch up after that, but understeering is as bad
mistake as spinning, if not worse. so, i messed up!
all day, i was trying to hit the wall at the right side of
the course as i entered the first turn, but i coudn't.
my friends told be i was getting very close on some runs,
but no scratches were made. oh well.

benson, now our battle record is 1-1. i'll get you back
next time!!! ha ha ha

hiro