GGDrift Round 3: Let’s See That One More Time…

As we move closer to the final leg of the GGDrift series for the 2013 year we see the battles become more tightly scored. Round 3 brought out a slew of points-hungry competitors and with the omission of last round’s winner, Dave Foreman, you could feel the desire to upset the standings grow over the weekend. Aside from the tough competition, one other thing was very evident here at this round of the pro-am competition at the Stockton99 Speedway: Drivers have certainly developed their skilled – and incredibly dedicated – teams to get them through whatever challenges they face on the track.

Arriving the morning of comp, the most notable thing was over at the Coffman Racing Team trailer, where they were diligently working to get Matt’s S13 back out on track before qualifying. And all things considered they were making outstanding progress.

The course lay out was something a little more FD-styled, with a nice long entry into the north bank by the stage entrance. A simple transition and then a slight stuffing into the beginnings of a figure 8 pattern in the in-field. As the practice wore on, there were a number of hiccups and wall contacts for a few drivers who rushed back and forth between paddocks and the track to make the green light for competition qualifying. Unfortunately for some, the problems presented too great a task and they exhibited mechanical issues during their runs.

The day’s field was a total of 16, so qualifying was all dependent upon the ability to drop a score on just one of the two available runs.

Carlos making his qualifying run – showing a bit of a power struggle but securing himself a spot in competition.

Kyle Armstrong for the 12th spot.

Josh McGuire in his stylish LS7 S14 dropping the highest score and sitting pretty in first position.

Will Griffith sporting his new bodykit and Limitless livery on his 5.0 powered S13
Drift cave resident Ty Milner landing a 7th place position.

MKIII Supra pilot Josef Farasati.

Joe Amies still keeping it real in his rotary powered FC.

Wolfson in the Halloway S13 nabbing the 3rd spot.

Joshua Sher unveiling the new Drift Spots(.com) livery of his S13 hatch and securing himself a spot in 9th position.

Matt Coffman proving the Coffman Racing Team can make it happen and landing himself a good qualifying score.

Nick Bayati not about to let the points and potential podium spot slip out of his grasp this round – in for the top 16 with a 4th place position.

Wais Samad back for round 3 and getting himself qualified to battle.

Matt Madrigali out of the woodwork in search of some good competition and potential points this round.

Also among those unveiling new livery – It should be no surprise Chris Mills was back and able to score himself a top spot for qualifying.

Before we knew it qualifying was finished and the drivers were ushered in for the final meeting of the day. All drivers (with the exception of Alveen Gideon who unfortunately could not recover from mechanical issues) had at least one scored run in qualifying. Which means that for THIS round there would only be one buy-run, taken by the number one qualifier Josh McGuire. As introductions were made and the donut display smoked out the stands, the media scrambled up to their chosen vantage points.

Josh McGuire with his buy-run in the top 16 as the number 1 qualifier.

Joshua Sher and Josef Farasati were set for the first battle of the day. Sher’s lead run opened a gap that Farasati was not able to recover from as they switched roles.

Wais Samad and Nick Bayati went head to head in a great battle that was well matched in terms of driving styles, considering Bayati’s slight power advantage, but Samad ended up making a mistake that caused Bayati to take the win.

Joe Amies and Matt Madrigali looked to be a good matching, however Amies spun himself out in the 8 transition on his lead run handing Matt the easy win.

Matt Coffman and Kyle Armstrong duked it out in a great battle.

Armstrong kept the pressure on Coffman but the judges felt that his chase just wasn’t enough to call for it and Coffman Racing was in the top 8.

Mills and Amezcua were set to battle, and talk about having your work cut out for you. Carlos started the battle in the chase position but could not seem to catch or hold it with Chris Mills powering out front. His lead run turned around with a surprising amount of hard driving and style – even throwing Chris off his game for a second, I thought, but unfortunately without Chris spinning or hanging wheels off course it wouldn’t change the out-come and Chris moved on.

Ty Milner and Will Griffith were head to head in a well matched battle. Ty looked a little bit more comfortable with the course. Throwing out just a bit more angle and speed got him the win.

Faruk and the Wild Man – Battle(s) of the day definitely go to these guys in my book. Battling it out no less than three times! To bring a bit of back story on this awesome clash of the titans you should know that Jeff had been swinging it hard all weekend which had resulted in multiple hot and heavy wall kisses during practice the day before and day of .  Faruk, on the other hand, ran light and shallow during practice if anything. But these two together brought out the beast in Faruk and we locked in for some exciting battles to get that top 8 spot.

Faruk and Jeff essentially traded-off each battle by one or the other spinning or straightening in either a follow or chase run. In the second battle Jeff actually made contact with Faruk while chasing him on the first transition out of the bank. When the roles swapped, Faruk straightened in the in-field trying to give chase.  One more time!

The end result was a win for Faruk in the third battle due to Wolfson spinning himself out on his lead run during the first transition. While Wolfson had the opportunity to chase down Faruk in what was a fantastic showing by Wolfson, Faruk maintained his composure and finished with no major mistakes and that named him the victor.

Josh McGuire’s first battle of the day was in top 8 against Joshua Sher, and Sher did not make it an easy go for McGuire to move up. Sher proved that he ain’t too old to go against one of the local new-talent favorites and a One More Time was called. I’m hoping next year we’ll see more of Sher and the driving exhibited in these battles, but for now Josh McGuire took the win and advanced to the Final Four.

Up next was Nick Bayati and Matt Coffman in what I thought was a super close battle and possibly one of the more underrated ones of the competition. (One More Time for me!) There was just an incredible amount of well-matched talent. What are some of your guys’ thoughts on the battles? As for these two – this was some of the best entry and proximity competition seen so far this event.

Both of these guys wanted to ride high on the bank – and close! Bayati did a spectacular job hanging with the intimidating LS7 of Coffman Racing – pulling off just a hair more proximity, but I thought Matt threw down a more stylistic and impressive lead. The judges felt Bayati deserved the win and so Matt Coffman was out. Bayati was set for another Final Four!

The next battle of the top 8 was Chris Mills and Ty Milner. These two were up against eachother practically as teammates – or at least comrades (Team Drift Cave represent!). Unfortunately Ty spun coming into the figure 8 on his chase run. After a great lead run, Mills just needed to play safe on his follow in order to secure his win – which he did. But that didn’t stop Ty from laying down one of the most impressive lead runs of the day – hats off to that!

Now we were down to Matt Madrigali vs Faruk Kugay.

Faruk stayed pretty well with Matt as Matt lead the first run, but coming into the 8 he had a bit of a correction that hung him up and Matt finished the course without him.

As they swapped positions Matt stayed calm and consistent – definitely playing it safe – through Faruk’s lead and took his advance to the Final Four.

It was time for the Final Four.
First up was Mills and Madrigali. Matt ran well against current points leader Chris Mills, however, Chris pushed a little closer in proximity on Matt’s lead run.

I think it was Matt’s most impressive lead of the day, but the judges called Mills winner and the Round 1 champ looked like he was about to do it again, bulldozing through the competition one after the other.

Josh McGuire and Nick Bayati had their match-up to decide the 1st and 2nd place bracket. Josh took the lead position in the first run and as soon as they were sent out he took the jump and didn’t lift through the bank. Bayati stayed on the throttle in his chase but the gap was too great to cross until the transition in-field where McGuire decelerated. At the finish Bayati had a slight stall and all of these factors would hand Josh the advantage going into the second run where he would give chase to Bayati.  Over the past season with his perhaps slow but very dedicated approach to improving his platform, we’ve really begun to see Nick keeping – and sometimes pushing – the pace. I would venture to say that it’s become more increasingly the case watching him do battle each round.

But unfortunately this round he was unable to shake the monster that Josh “Sparky” McGuire has also been ardently building. McGuire locked in for the battle to 1st place.

This lined up Bayati and Madrigali to duke it out for 3rd and 4th place – another battle that I thought could use a O.M.T. based on entry differences and finishing proximity alone. With Bayati’s lead run he entered high, as he had been consistently doing throughout the day. Matt hung with him but ran a shallower line in order to do so.

This stayed fairly consistent through the rest of the run with maybe a little room lost in the final transition.
When they swapped, Madrigali entered fairly high albiet shallower than Nick’s previous line and pulled about a 5 car lead for the entire bank.

As he came into the first transition you see Bayati start closing the distance and as they enter the 8 Bayati is right up to him through the finish. From my vantage point certain angles were slightly obscure, however, and the judges named Bayati the victor. This makes podium finish (of third place) #2 for him!

Our final battle for the top two spots was between Chris Mills and Josh McGuire – it was anybody’s guess. From my perspective this was maybe the most controversial battle of the day. I felt that the initial battle leaned towards McGuire for the win/advtange.

McGuire’s lead was smooth and straightforward. Chris Mills wasn’t going to let the championship slip further from his currently dominating grasp, so he kept himself in good proximity.

As the roles reversed, it looked to me like Chris drove slightly less hard, and as he rounded the corner into the 8 he stalled it noticably but pulled through to keep a nice lead run, all things considered.

However, Josh was snug up to Chris and the stall hung him up a second also – but he powered through and finished out in good proximity.

The judges debated and called for a O.M.T. where McGuire went in with a bit more speed and aggression, ultimately spinning himself out. An easy win for Chris who appeared unshakable in terms of line commitment. With a clean run Chris Mills was called the round 3 winner.

All in all what I see with the in-surge of close calls and One More Times’ is that the driving curve is leveling, and we’ve got some real competitors in the pool of GGD Pro-Am drivers. It’s going to make for one heck of a Round 4, no doubt about it, and I’m really looking forward to watching how it all goes down. Will the two-rounds-winning rookie land himself  a near flawless  victory into  Formula Drift?  Or will another out-of-towner appear and challenge the standings? It’s worth making the trip to find out if this will be one for the books.

We hope to see you there.

-C. Gri

(You’ll find more pictures below :D)

Round 3 – 1st place: Chris Mills; 2nd place: Josh McGuire; 3rd place: Nick Bayati.