Driven 2 Drift: Midwest Drift Union Round 3 Streets of Detroit

The streets of Detroit were not only awesome for me but attracted nearly 1500 people and has allowed the Midwest Drift Union to receive national coverage. For the first time since the beginning of the Midwest Drift Union there were more media members then drivers for the event, being at an event like this really made me feel like I had made it big.

On the drive up to Detroit I had been studying the track layout and I was not looking forward to its technical aspects. I was afraid that I would not be able to drive the track very well. This was also the first event I had decided to run all new tires and I was not sure how my car would handle them.

With the course being on regular streets the danger was the 6 inch concrete curbs. The curbs claimed several cars throughout the day, but with a few close calls I was lucky enough to not be claimed by them.

By the middle of the day I had started to enjoy driving the course and was really starting to put down some solid runs.

During my second practice session I was able to get some great Tandem runs with several different people including my pro buddy Mike Feiock in his new Rx8.

Another great guy - Jake Maturen who is currently 5th overall

My buddy Oliver Vaughn in his purple Lexus

After my second practice session it was in to qualifying, my camera ran out of space so I don't have an in-car video of the run.

With some coaching of my line from my spotter Karim Rahmaan I ended up qualifying 11th, and I was super happy I made it into the top 16.

It has always been a dream of mine to be introduced at an event after qualifying, usually this only happens at the last Pro Am event called Street Life Tour. Having the opportunity of being introduced was very cool. In the chaos of the event spectators never really get to know whose driving what car.

I was told I would go against Team Breaking driver Michael Tung and I was super stoked, I knew our cars were similar in speed and it would be an awesome tandem battle.

On my first run with him (which was a follow run) my mindset was to be as close to him as I could be.

Because I was so set on being close to him I sacrificed some points from the line judge.

The ideal line that the judges want to see was a very outside line almost hitting the construction cones.

On my lead run I was trying to run away from him, still on the mindset of proximity and sacrificed my line once again.

After my run I pulled up to the staging grid waiting for the results, I really hoped they would give us a "one more time" but they ended up favoring him which knocked me out of the top 16.

Although I was knocked out I was still super excited. I had driven my best all day and enjoyed driving that course.

Next event in the series is Street Life Tour at Xenia OH Sept