Racer's Story

Summit Point, WV - Excitement is in the air as drifters pull into Summit Point Motorsports Park. They are getting ready for the first drift event organized by Summit Point for the drifting community. Everyone is on their best behavior, hoping that this one-time event will eventually become a regular monthly or bimonthly one.

The drivers gather for the morning meeting and are greeted by the instructor who is managing this event. A tall man with a thick mustache and aviator glasses, I can imagine him giving me a speeding ticket. As he greets us and explains the rules of the track, my heart begins to pound. I can feel the excitement of the drivers around me. Everyone is anxious to get on track and have fun.

And what fun it is! The track is beautiful and complex, full of elevation changes and challenging corners. It is wide with plenty of runoff. The organizers outdid themselves, with three separate track designs that allow drivers to work on different techniques in different situations. There is also a skidpad, which is kept wet all day. Between the three tracks and the skipdad, you can always pick a short line - or one with no cars at all!


Interesting cars at the event included a fox-body convertible Mustang, a newer Camaro, a supercharged GZE-powered AE86, no fewer than three Elises, and a very pretty G35 that was turbocharged and rebadged as a Skyline 3.5GT. James Evans of JEI Imports brought out his racecar, which he drove very well. Evans' consistently fast and smoky drifts show why he's a top competitor in the U.S. Drift Championships. Not every driver was as experienced as Evans, though; for some it was their first event. Everyone was out to practice and have fun, so the atmosphere was very positive.


However, not all drivers had fun. A Mustang hit a wall early in the day, trying to drift a long sweeper at 90mph. The Mustang wasn't the only one to crash, as a silver S2000 also hit later that day. Neither driver was hurt but both cars were heavily damaged and towed away. Every driver was reminded to stay within their limits and push them cautiously.

My car ran flawlessly, which is something it has never been done before. Only once, early in the day, did I take it off track to check a noise. Everything stayed on the car (including the exhaust!) and I only hit three things. One was a big pad that sat rather inconveniently near the outside of a narrow turn. I passed the pad ten times, inching closer and closer to it until I just had to see what it was made of. Finally, I got too close and hit the pad with my right rear quarter panel, launching it twenty or thirty feet across the track. It was as soft as I hoped it would be! I jumped out of my car and moved the pad back into position. The car took only a minor scrape to the fiberglass bumper.

One of the most valuable experiences at this event was riding along with Charlie Tyson, a very experienced driver. I even asked him to drive my car. Tyson is something of a local hero among AE86 drivers. He competes in USDrift competitions with his underpowered AE86 and often places in the Top 8. Needless to say, he's a hell of a lot better at drifting than I am. Especially in a Corolla. Watching him drive, I learned a lot about drifting.

When Charlie drifts, he really pushes the car to its limits, drifting it at high RPM and high speed the whole time. Never once did he let the car get of its powerband. In first gear, he was clutch kicking it around the first cone. He clutch kicked it several times in high-speed turns just to keep the RPMs up and keep it drifting. He tackled the back straight on the Shenandoah course full speed, then tossed the car into a left-right chokudori to prepare it for a blind, uphill left-hander. I was amazed at the amount of work he put into the wheel, the shifter and the pedals. He never once let the wheel go. Every time he turned the wheel, he moved his hands one over the other, never letting it slide between his fingers.

Charlie told me that I was using the power of the car to make it drift. He said I should be smoother and let it drift. He also said that grabby brake pads are bad; the front brakes should allow you to transfer the weight of the car without slowing you down too much or locking the front brakes.

What I learned from watching him drive was a little bit different. I saw that Charlie initiated his drifts very early, and accelerated through the corner. When I drove the car, I was waiting until the right point, starting my drift, and trying to power through the turn to smoke up the tires. When Charlie did it, he was already drifting and accelerating by the time I was starting my drift! The end result was that Charlie's drifting was fast and smooth. Mine was slow and choppy.
 
I found the day a very valuable experience. I got over 60 miles of on-track drifting and the event was very well-organized. The other drifters were the same group of helpful, enthusiastic people that I have come to know and love. One guy brought out a huge diesel Ford van outfitted with solar panels. The solar panels powered an air compressor that he offered to everyone at the event. I asked him about the solar setup, and he happily went over it with me.

We had beautiful weather, the track was great, the price was right, and I drifted until I was tired of it. You can't ask for more than that.

It seems that paying someone else to work on my car often causes more problems for me than actually doing the work myself. My adventure today at Reston Automotive illustrated this point. I asked that they replace the tires on the "REAR" of the car with the ones that I had sitting on the back seat. These were brand new tires that I had bought from the Tire Rack. Sure enough, when I went to pick up the car, I found that the front tires had been replaced instead of the rears. And yes, I had written the word rear in capital letters and underlined it on the instructions that I left with the shop.

Now here we have our first problem. I wrote specific instructions to the shop that they did not follow. Now I'm in a predicament where I am uncomfortable; either I can feel like a heel and ask them to correct the problem, or drive off and deal with it myself. Right now I'm faced with "Butch," a large, barrel-chested, unhappy-looking dude. He is not helping me make my decision.

The first thing I do when I walk back into the shop is inform them that they did not follow my instructions.
Butch's reply to me is characteristic: "We thought we were doing you a favor. The last time you were in we told you that the FRONT tires were getting worn, so we thought you had made a mistake!"
I can see now that these guys ran into a bit of a problem. They got my note, checked out the car, and doubted what I had written. Instead of calling me, however, they just went ahead and did what they thought they should do.

When I pointed this out, neither Butch nor his manager had anything to say. I said, "Those rear tires have a slow leak. I got them out of a junkpile and they are worth nothing to me. The tires that were on the front were reliable and had some tread left. What I need you to do is put my old tires back on the rear where they should be, and drive me home so that I can pick the car up later."

I can feel the heat coming off of Butch. By now I feel pretty uncomfortable. I sit down to read a magazine and wait an hour before my car is ready. They made the changes at no extra charge, of course, but I was still left with a bad taste in my mouth. Not only did I pay the $50 they charged me for mounting and balancing two tires, but I waited there for an hour while they fixed their mistake.

Now that I think about it, it seems foolish to pay someone else to work on the car. They are going to make decisions that will cost you as much as possible. I do all of the work on my own cars, and I try to do the best work possible while saving as much money. This is my daily driver, after all.

By the time you factor in the amount of time I spent there, the money I spent to get the work done, and the frustration I felt was definitely not worth it. If I possibly could, I would mount and balance my own tires. Sadly, however, it is one of the few things that I cannot do myself.

The bottom line here is, whenever you place your car in the hands of someone else, make sure you are prepared to deal with whatever might come up. Don't be afraid to tell them to do the job right, even if it takes longer. If you're going to pay someone to do something on your car, make sure you get your money's worth.