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October
8, 2005 Video
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Music by "Absence of Void"
Group
A Competition Video
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Group
A Competition Scores & Season Points
GROUP A DRIVERS
Kolu Lau Nissan 240sx (S14
Zenki style)
Just one week ago while performing a drift exhibition for his
sponsors, Kolu shot through the Sweeper and crashed directly into
the straightaway guard rail severely damaging his vehicle. After
only one sleepless night, Kolu managed to straighten his vehicle out
and repair the mechanical damage to get his car running in time for
competition. Often seen running closely on the track with his
friends Barry Wong and Shige Hirabayashi, Kolu's addition to Group A
puts yet another high powered vehicle into competition.
Paul Umholtz Nissan 240sx
Coupe (S13 Silvia style)
For the past several months, Paul has been running at private track
events to get in quality practice time. It appears to have paid off
as Paul returned this month to the Drift Session in full force,
sporting a new body kit, fresh paint job, flashy graphics, and a new
sponsor. Paul's vehicle seemed primed for competition, but an engine
blow later in the day prevented him from making it into battle in
September. Without his 240sx this month, Paul returned to the track
in the Sportscraft Racing FC3S2K Honda powered RX7 for testing at
Long Course Turn 1.
Mitchell Precht
Nissan 240sx (S14 Kouki style)
A transmission blow after August's event, put Mitch's car out of
action. After 2 long days working on the car, it was finally put
back together, but not in time to make it out for competition in
August. Mitch finally returns after a 2 month hiatus to the October
Group A Competition.
Keoni Rodrigues
Nissan 240sx Hatchback (180sx style)
As he gets used to the feel of higher horsepower in his vehicle,
Keoni Rodrigues is increasing his knowledge and technique on the
Short Course. Although he has no wins to his record yet, Keoni
remains a persistent competitor that remains within striking
distance of the lead position in season points.
Earl Huang
Nissan 240sx Hatchback (180sx style)
After a rough month of trial and error vehicle tuning, veteran
driver Earl Huang returned in his new vehicle after swapping out
most of his performance parts from his previous Nissan 240sx (Silvia
style) vehicle. Earl is no stranger to competition and has been
drifting since the early days of the Drift Session back in early
2001.
Justin Kikkawa
Toyota Corolla SR5 Hatchback (Trueno-style AE86)
Returning to the Drift Session after months at practice in private
track days, Justin Kikkawa finally unveiled his new vehicle to the
public. After years of dominance in his individual-throttle-bodied,
maroon AE86, Justin's has finally adjusted to his new vehicle and
returned with a vengeance. It was expected that this former 5-time
Drift Session champion would definitely be a threat to the rest of
his competition in Group A; however, a transmission blow kept Justin
and his vehicle sidelined when competition time came in August and a
previous engagement kept him from entering in September.
Denny
Cabal (no picture), Nissan
240sx Coupe (One-via style)
Another veteran driver, Denny Cabal broke into Group A with the only
non-turbo powered 240sx in the field. A major disadvantage in
horsepower and torque was compensated by Denny's consistent
performances on the Short Course.
Jensen Kona
Nissan 240sx Coupe (S13 Silvia style)
After returning to the Drift Session sporting a brand new
paint job, Jensen Kona is definitely a competitor on the rise. After
being noticed in July for consistent, flat-out drifting through the
Sweeper, Jensen was bumped up to Group A. Jensen finally took
home a win in August, beating out all other competitors in the Group
A category.
Shige
Hirabayashi Nissan 240sx
Hatchback (180sx style)
Although often seen running alongside Barry Wong, Shige Hirabayashi
is sure to attract attention in his own right. Once a Formula
racecar driver, Shige has turned his roadracing skills towards
drifting and hasn't looked back since. Shige's outstanding driving
through the 2005 season has put him into the top spot of the points
championship several times.
Royce Fujimoto
Toyota Corolla GTS Hatchback (Trueno style)
A competitor since 2001, Royce Fujimoto has remained an ever-present
force at the Drift Session. After taking home 1st place in the
Toyota Class at the 2004 Streetcar Showoff, Royce goes on to prove
that he and his car can both "show" and "go."
After years of competition, Royce finally walked away with a
championship win in the July 2005 Drift Session.
Barry Wong
Nissan 240sx Hatchback (180sx style)
Arguably the most dominant competitor in the Drift Session points
championship to date, Barry Wong remains the driver with the most
total wins to his record. His signature Kaaz 240sx hatchback is an
almost exact replica of the vehicle he drivers regularly on the US
Mainland in the USA D1 Grand Prix and Formula D competitions.
Chris Taylor Nissan
240sx Hatchback (180sx style)
A newcomer to the Group A class from the July 2005 competition, not
much is known about driver Chris Taylor. After competing
infrequently at the monthly competitions in the 2004 season, Chris
transplanted a new motor into his Nissan 240sx and set his sights on
Group A competition. In August a crash severely smashed the rear of
Chris' vehicle and and going off road at the exit of the Sweeper
smashed his oil pan and kept him out of competition.
Steve Oliberos
Nissan 240sx Coupe (Silvia style)
One of the most flamboyant drivers in the sport of drifting today,
Steve Oliberos is no stranger to competition. While competing
regularly in the USA D1 Grand Prix and Formula D drift competitions,
Steve returns home to Hawaii to protect his season points standing
in the Drift Session points championship. Owner of Niztech, Steve is
a master tuner of the Nissan SR20 DET motor and is responsible for
many of the SR motors in operation today at the Drift Session.
Gene Cho
Nissan 240sx Coupe (One-via style)
While previously unknown to the Drift Session judges, Gene Cho
seemed to come out of nowhere to dominate the June 2005 Drift
Competition. Although packing some serious punch, Gene's Nissan
240sx is very understated in its appearance, perhaps contributing to
him being overlooked in the past.
DriftSession Oct 8th,
2005
Another great turnout
of drivers for the ever more exciting DriftSession events was the
case with this latest event. Organizers continued to provide the
right blend of practice and competition and, with relatively few
incidents, things moved along throughout the day without a hitch.
There were no new group “A” drivers added, even though potential
candidates were observed closely during morning practice. Now that
the top group of drivers has grown to 15 the DriftSession folks are
being carefully selective of the next few additions to the Group
“A”. Dave, Tom and Chris (who run the event and do most of the
judging) deliberated closely and shared notes, but various issues
prevented advancement of anyone at this event. A number of Group
“A” competitors were unable to compete due to mechanical issues
such as: Earl Huang; head gasket, Paul Umholtz, rod-knock but, does
anyone know why Royce Fujimoto didn’t show? Eventually a final
field of eight lined up for the competition.
The desert, otherwise
know as “Hawaii Motor Sports Center”, was unusually comfortable
and cool due to the gusty trade winds, but the winds in turn, caused
grief for both organizers and participants who found themselves
dismantling the tents they had erected earlier in the day so that
they wouldn’t be destroyed. There were a few unlucky victims of
track circumstance, such as Kyle Arai, (who caught the leading edge
of the concrete barrier at the end of the guardrail to the right of
the entrance to the Off Camber and tore the right front corner off
of his Honda Civic) but most other incidences were repairable at the
track. The “gully” that developed at the outer edge of the entry
to Turn 1 claimed a number of vehicles. Many cars were high-sided
when drivers miss-judged their ability to time the corner and
ventured into trap. Workers must have towed at least half a dozen
cars back onto the track after driver’s took their off-track
adventures.
The Long Course Turn
1 competition was held and comprised equally of four Long and four
Short Course drivers entering with a $5.00 buy in. Even more equal
was the finishing positions with long course drivers taking 1st
and 3rd, while Short Course drivers took 2nd
and 4th, proving that on this course all are fairly
equal. Jason Lee took the top honors with a score of 60 followed
closely by, Forrest Wang with 58. Jason had a really good entry that
impressed judges and although going a bit wide at the apex was able
to manage a good drift throughout the run. Forrest’s approach left
him in the wrong position for the entry and caused him to miss the
apex. Taking 3rd in the competition was Ryan McClung who
managed to get up to the highest speed at the turn-in point, but the
back of the car would not swing around for him quite enough and
caused him a severe under-steer in the middle of the corner. Jason
was announced as the Long Course Turn 1 winner after the Group
“A” final standing announcement and modestly took photos with
the umbrella girls at the end of the day.
The course for the
group “A’ competition included the Sweeper for the first time.
Organizers have been hesitant to include this dangerous section of
track in previous competitions due to the history of accidents and
the number of roll-overs that have occurred here. During the
drivers meeting it was emphasized, again, that the drivers should
continue to concentrate on improving the safety features/devices in
their cars so that we can utilize the whole track to it’s fullest
potential. The competition was judged from the Chicane entry to
the Sweeper exit and represented one of the longest courses ever
used in Group “A” competition and judging had to be performed
from two separate positions.
DriftSession
organizers have now asked drivers to start pairing up in tandem
groups during Group “A” practices so that they can prepare for
the upcoming tandem competitions. It’s was an awesome sight to see
groups of three or four cars performing their coordinated ballet of
slides while tearing up the track. You can see that the drivers are
getting more comfortable running with each other and reducing the
distance between cars while maintaining their speed. This is the
moment where the crowd goes speechless and there’s not a pair of
eyes that aren’t watching the incredible performance of this elite
group of drivers.
I had an interesting
experience and anyone who knows Keoni Rodrigues will be able to
relate to this: When the Group “A” drivers were running in their
backwards practice laps I was standing on the outer exit of the
sweeper and saw Keoni do something unprecedented: I saw this trail
of smoke coming down the drag-strip and entering the sweeper (you
can’t see over the tire wall from my position, but I just knew it
was Keoni because he likes to show off and experiment without fear)
anyway he was trying to drift the entire sweeper backwards and
totally lost it just after the apex. Keoni spun a 360 for about 150
feet right up to where I was shooting. He stopped about 10 feet in
front of me. This was interesting because at the previous event he
did nearly the same thing, but missed me (and the telephone poles
that protect me) by 20 feet to the left and ended up in the bushes.
Of course he had that big mischievous grin on his face and drove off
smiling, but I think I saw his passenger looking rather pale.
To the Group “A”
competition: The battle for 1st place was titanic. Only
separated by a single point the two top scores were the highest ever
posted at a DriftSession event. Shige Hirabayashi was extremely fast
and precise throughout the Chicane, absolutely annihilating the
course. He overshot the off camber slightly due to the sheer speed
he was carrying thus loosing him five points, however he put
together a heart stopping connection all the way from the exit of
the chicane, turning in super early with a ton of speed for the
sweeper and just barely missing the barriers while putting out a
huge plume of smoke. On the other hand, Barry Wong, while dissecting
the first part of the course like a trained surgeon, had missed the
first apex of the chicane dropping him a few points. In addition,
judges noticed a few hesitations through the sweeper lost him more
points. Quite simply nobody had the presence of Shige this day, so
he took the victory by a single point with white over black this day
for the Endless Garage guys.
With a solid
performance, many people watching were surprise to see Jenson Kona
only finish as high as 3rd place with 82 points, but
judges had felt that his entry to the first corner did not match the
speed as those finishing ahead of him. Jenson didn’t manage the
off camber or the sweeper with quite the speed either, but made up
for all of this with heavy angle and tons of smoke. Rumors have it
(and we are very proud indeed if it is true) that Jenson will get a
chance at competing in the D1 drivers search this year. We’re very
excited that yet another talented product of DriftSession
competitions may be getting his chance at the professional level.
One point back from
Jenson was 4th place finisher, Keoni Rodrigues. Keoni
overshot the Off Camber which had left him little chance of
recovering the points lost because of this. Through the sweeper he
had to get off the throttle a few times loosing a few additional
points. Keoni is showing a lot of power now with the additional
upgrades he just installed and DriftSession staff think that it is
only a matter of time until Keoni comes to grip with the new package
and puts in a flawless performance resulting in a win. Rounding out
the top five was the ever improving, Chris Taylor, but he suffered
from a slow entry to the chicane combined with overshooting the off
camber and missing the line through the sweeper only scoring him 75
points. Steve Oliberos was three points further back trailed by
Denny Cabal and Mitchel Precht (who unfortunately spun and collected
the tire wall at the sweeper entry).
Post event thoughts
and conversations focused on future events. One idea was for a
run-off competition when the results are so close. Shige and Barry
indicated that they would have liked to have had a tandem to prove,
definitively, who the victor is when results are so close, but
organizers still feel that unless there is a true tie that were not
really ready for that. (We’re getting close guys). We all like
having the umbrella girls and we need to buy some new tents. Don’t
let Mike hook up the power converter next time. Water buckets are
prettier than tires. Patronize the food vendor or they won’t come
back. Don’t hit concrete barriers head on or they may cause a lot
of damage. If you see people watching from outside the fence, please
spray them with dirt for us. There will be a concrete barricade from
the shack to the off camber the next time you’re out there so
don’t crash there. Get a roll cage if you like drifting the
sweeper.
See you all next
time, Aloha!
Chris Messer
Events General Manager, DriftSession
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