“We thought we caught a lucky break when Flavor Express announced an open drift night at the same venue as Round 1. We left a day early to get some much-needed shakedown laps on the new Icon Pistons motor. Good thing we did…

“After the first lap, we started chasing a crank sensor issue, and the entire night only produced three good laps before we snapped an axle on the gnarly transition off the bank.

“Friday was setup day. We replaced the axle, passed tech, and finished our series photos. Before calling it good, we decided to pull the valve covers and inspect the new aluminum rocker arms. Again, glad we did: four of them had stripped out, sending the rollers somewhere into the motor.

“Thankfully, Brad from German Elite Tuning hadn’t left Arizona for the weekend yet. Even better, we still had our old stainless steel rockers in the engine room. The problem now was finding the missing parts.

“So, we went fishing with a magnet. Starting in the heads and eventually working our way down to the oil pan, we managed to find three solid rollers and the shrapnel from the fourth. We slapped every magnet we could find onto the oil pan and crossed our fingers.

“Brad left at 2AM Saturday morning to make it to Orange Speedway by 7AM. I was in my suit for the driver’s meeting at 8AM while Rich, Andy, Jettlee, and Brad immediately got to work. They replaced the rocker arms, adjusted everything, and filled the motor with fresh Liqui Moly oil.

“We lost about 30 minutes of the first practice hour and only managed one run in Session 1.”

“What an event; a huge crowd and tonnes of laps. The car worked amazingly well! I have no complaints. I am so confident going into comp season. Set up out of the box is so close to perfect. I am blown away.

“2025 hasn’t been the season we planned. Going through four motors starting this year, I made the decision to go back to the proven American LS V8 powerplant. This time I went the direction with the most bang for your buck: a turbocharged, aluminium 5.3-litre Gen 4 LS. I went with the aluminium motor to save 100lbs of weight on the front of the car over the iron block. Keeping weight in mind, I mounted the turbo in the trunk area of the car. With no intercooler and currently on 6psi of boost during testing, I was wildly impressed on the response and temperatures of the new powerplant.”

“I would like to first thank everyone for an amazing 2024 season. Without all of your support, this year simply wouldn’t have happened.

“This year started off with very unknown expectations, as the 3.0T was in the car but not working correctly. Suspension changes and shocks untested. When I felt I was coming off a letdown in late 2023, I wasn’t expecting to keep some of my support. When EBC stepped up very early this year, everything changed. 

“Bringing FCP on board allowed me to build a dream demo car: a car featuring only bolt-on parts, highlighting it doesn’t take much to drift an Audi.”

“So we had a comp last weekend. The car did a-freakin-mazing! I drove way too hard for the style/level of competition. Had the car hooked up and qualified 1st. I didn’t know what car I was battling until before warming up the tires. So, I overall loosened up the car to chase anyone. Facing an SR20 S13 and Miata, I just overdrive (I don’t like leaving a gap on anyone) and chased too close to them for the speed of their cars vs mine. S13 parked the car in the last corner, transmission at the wall and forced me to make contact in the right front. Broke a tie rod, ending my night.”

“Thank you to 91´ŤĂ˝ for the support in 2022!

“I tested out an Audi A4 differential at the FuelFest weekend with a different gear ratio. That ended up cutting our night short as the snub failed midday. 

“Replacement axles are on the way for the S4 differential. I plan on testing one more time this month before tearing the car down for an off-season refresh. The four-seat cage is scheduled to be installed and I am going to start making some custom parts to help take the car to the next level for competitions next year.

“I will be building an engine and transmission for my tow vehicle this off-season also, in preparation for travelling next year. My plan is to also build a seat time/rental car next year as a side project.

“Thank you again for your support this season, I’m looking forward to 2023!”

“I had written off this event as the build of my car wasn’t progressing quick enough. When my amazingly supportive team pushed me to make the event last minute, though, we got to work.

“In 1.5 weeks, the car was completely stripped apart. We tore the engine down to the block and heads. Everything was replaced: injectors, pullies, water pump, thermostat, supercharger. We knew if we were going to go, we had to represent well!

“While the supercharger was off, we sent it out to a local shop – Vast Perfromance AZ – to have it ported, upgrading the fuel pump to keep up with E85 fuel, too. We stripped the AC out of the car and completely re-did the cooling system, building a custom three-pump water-to-air intercooler system. The interior was also completely removed and a Sparco race seat was installed.

“JXB supplied us with an upgraded shifter while we were in there. Working with Yellow Speed Racing, we installed three-way coilovers on the car. It came down to the wire wrapping up the car. We even changed the oil on the trailer just before leaving – not the way I like to prepare for an event! The support behind me and knowing I could bring it all together was the energy we were running on. 

“We made the 14-hour drive to Colorado. First in line, we were first to set up our pit. We unloaded the car and passed tech with no issues. We cracked open a cold one and relaxed for the first time in almost two weeks. All the late nights and rushing around was about to pay off. Of course, relaxing didn’t last long when I knew there was always something to do. So we got to work again installing underglow on the car knowing four sessions out of the weekend were at night.”

“On Friday morning we warmed up the car and went out for the first session. This was the first time driving a completely new car. We took over 400lbs out of the car, Added 80hp, went from a 245-profile tyre to a 265-profile, and added completely new coilovers. Yeah it wasn’t a great session… the car wasn’t reacting correctly and lacked side bite. 

“Throughout the day we made changes. Every change was noticeable. This new chassis is completely different from my B5 S4 drift car; way more forward drive, and the steering is light and crisp. Power delivery is crazy linear. Late Friday during the last session, the clutch pedal started getting sticky. We were so stoked to have the car out ripping laps with no issues we ended the day. Waking up Saturday, we had a team meeting. My team decided it was worth missing some morning laps knowing rain was coming, throwing another curveball at us for setup of the car to swap the clutch. My plan was to install an upgraded clutch before the event, but we just ran out of time. So we threw the car up on jack stands and dropped the transmission. After replacing the clutch and a quick trip around the paddock. We were back on track. We dropped tyre pressure and made a shock change to really hook up the car. It really came around – hitting over 80mph on entry, the car was working well! 

“We drove Friday to Sunday with no major issues. I was exhausted, but this was just the beginning! We loaded up the car and headed for Formula Drift Utah for round seven of the season. While building and driving my Audi S4 drift car. I am also the crew chief for Michael Essa’s Pro BMW M3. Rolling into FD on Wednesday, I unloaded the car off the trailer for display in the Throdle booth. After unloading the car, I heard we were going to Ken Block’s shop in Utah. So, I put the plate on the car and we drove over 100 miles through the hills of Utah with the car. Saturday afternoon, I was able to rip some laps in the demo area. What an amazing two weekends of racing! From track drifting to street driving, the brakes offered instant bite. Confidence in the braking allows me to drive the car to the limit every run!”