I am very proud to announce that Brock White Racing will be partnering with Fortune Auto Performance Coilovers. The gang over at Fortune Auto will be supplying our team with a custom double-digressive version of their Dreadnought dampers, as well as supporting our effort all year. They have been great to deal with and in helping to choose some custom specifics about our suspension setup on the new car. We look forward to putting their products through a good flogging.

For more information about Fortune Auto, and to check out what all they offer for your car, go to Fortune-Auto.com.

After diagnosing and replacing the alternator, re-welding the differential that had been broken twice and was missing parts, tracing down some wiring issues, relocating the seat, and cutting the fenders to accept our 18″ Enkei PF01 wheels and 275/35/18 Falken Azenis tires, we filled the car with fuel, put it on the trailer, and headed to Houston.

Let me be the first to tell you, this car is far different from your typical 240SX drift car. After taking three laps to figure out the car, we put down a decent run on the fourth pass, but not before the differential broke at the course exit. With no other cars available to borrow, I opted to hang out in the pits, help out some of the other drivers, and eventually ended up announcing the competition, which was a lot of fun. A lot of our Texas drivers have really stepped their game up from last year, and we can’t wait to get out there and drive with them! Round two is coming up on July 1st, and it looks like our new drift machine should be done, so look out!

Once again, HUGE thanks go out to everyone who helped out: Allen Sturgeon @ Honda Toyota Heaven, Donna Timmons, Travis Harbour, Lori Roberts, Max Fuerst, and more!

While we won’t release the exact chassis that is being prepared just yet, we will tell you that it’s very, very lightweight. When I say lightweight, I’m talking about things like Lexan windows and fiberglass doors. This car is going to be a rocket on Falken rubber. The body will feature a custom BWR three color paint scheme by Duke Paint and Body, and it shall look amazing. Seating and strapping in will still be handled by our partners over at UltraShield. The car will feature Enkei PF01 wheels for another year, and will ride on Falken Azenis tires. Suspension will be Stance coilovers and adjustable links, along with Progress ARBs.

Are you excited yet? We hope so, and can’t wait to debut the new car, so stay tuned!

The next day at the actual event, everything was great with the car. After a handful of laps and a few adjustments, the car was feeling awesome and was super fast around the course. I got into a lot of practice tandem and some fun group runs as well. When qualifying time rolled around, we came up in 10th place. The whole team felt as if we should have qualified higher, but we just went with it, being that drifting is a judged sport. The first round had us paired against Robert Lee in an SR20DET AE86 Corolla, with full s13 suspension. On the first run, I was chasing Robert, and closed in on him really quickly immediately after entry. I temporarily straightened the car to avoid a collision, and then got right back into drift. Our green machine was on his door the rest of the run, but straightening early in the run gave Robert the advantage. On the lead run, I put my right foot down and showed how fast the car is through this course. Fortunately, we are granted the one-more-time.

This time I was a little more cautious on the entry, and was all over the lead car until the final transition, where I transitioned wide and hard. Unfortunately, it was a little too aggressive of a transition, which caused a spin. On the subsequent lead run, I drove even harder, showing everyone in Houston what Falken tire smoke looks like. But the lead run wasn’t enough to make up for the previous spin, and Robert was granted the win. Regardless, it was a blast to be part of some of the most exciting runs of the entire competition! We went into round three in 2nd place overall, and left in 5th. The championship is still within reach, so come out and show your support at the final round – December 4th, 2011 at Texas Motor Speedway!

]]> http://brockwhiteracing.com/?feed=rss2&p=265 0 http://brockwhiteracing.com/?p=241 http://brockwhiteracing.com/?p=241#comments Tue, 04 Oct 2011 00:03:48 +0000 Brock http://brockwhiteracing.com/?p=241 On September 23rd-24th, the final round of XDC came to Texas Motor Speedway.  As a high profile local event, we couldn’t pass up the chance to go.  Round four of the Lone Star Drift Pro-Am would be held there, so this was a great chance to familiarize ourselves with the surface and course layout.  Unfortunately, a few weeks prior, the car suffered a broken transmission at Lone Star Bash.  We could have simply replaced it with a factory transmission, but we felt that it was a better option to upgrade to the stronger 6-speed transmission from the Nissan 350Z.  That’s when the trials began.  Unfortunately, parts delivieries just never showed up on time.  Scheduling kept the car from getting worked on.  Murphy’s law was in effect, and court was in session!  Thankfully, with the assistance of Duke Paint and Body, Texas Track Works, George Marstanovic, Fort Woth Gear and Axle, and a handful of others, the car came back together the night before practice at TMS!

Once we got out onto the course, it was obvious that a lot of setup adjustments would need to be made, and that the car was extremely underpowered compared to the majority of the field.  With hard work and concentration, we had the course down and were making some great runs by the end of practice.  We arrived for one more round of practice before qualifying the next day, and we began encountering drivability issues with the car.  We failed to make any successful runs during the first practice.  Finally, the throttle sticks open and throws the car off course, allowing us to discover that the culprit is a broken throttle body.  With no replacements available on such short notice, we just kept an eye on it and drove around the problem.

Qualifying time comes, and we finally lay down decent enough runs to qualify in the tandem competition field.  We end up paired against two time XDC champion Chelsea DeNofa in the first round, and he is granted the win.  While we obviously didn’t podium in this event, and it was a rough weekend, it wasn’t all bad.  We still succeeded in the primary goal of collecting data and making preparations  for the final round of the Lone Star Drift Pro-Am, which is the primary focus for 2011.

Huge thanks go out to all of our partners, fans, and friends for making this weekend happen!

Lone Star Bash 2011 from Cinema Toast on Vimeo.

A quicky from the Lone Star Bash 2011. Good Times.

Life on the grid - Photo by Jake Guenthardt

Our day began in less-than-spectacular fashion, with the car rolling off the trailer.  Thankfully, nothing was damaged, but it was very embarrassing.  After a careful inspection, we confirm that nothing is broken and let the car warm up.  During warm up, the car exhibits a misfire.  After some basic diagnostics and a spark plug change fail to remedy the issue, we plug in the laptop to find out that the map in our Haltech Platinum ECU has been corrupted again!  Less than a minute later, the map is re-uploaded into the ECU and we’re ready to rock.

Now we’re out on the course, which is easily the most difficult that Texas has ever seen.  The main feature was the 85+ mph entry into a multiple radius left hand corner that eventually slows down into a very tight 180 degree turn.  After this tight corner, the track opened up to a series of three more corners, creating a situation that demands very good driving lines that allow the driver to build speed back up.  For reference, the faster driviers were entering this course at high speed, slowing down to around 8 mph for the tight section, and then digging out of the hole and back up to a speed around 40mph.  Many drivers were unable to find the right line through the tight section of the course, causing their cars to stall out and come to a stop.  In tandem competition drifting, it’s never a good situation if the lead car comes to a stop, so tensions were a bit high.

Using those spindles - Photo by Sy Pham

Qualifying time comes and everyone is struggling with the 150+ degree surface temperature and the difficult course. We qualify in 10th place, and break the rear bumper on a cone left on course in the process. With the competition rounds immediately following, we decide to devote time to final preparations rather than reinstalling the rear bumper that doesn’t have any partner logos on it. The car is getting hot after just a couple laps, so we take the water sprayer and an ice chest down to grid for the competition.

In top 16, we’re up against Josh Steele in his LSX V8 powered Nevrslo / NonStopTuning 240sx.  Due to chasing gremlins with our own car early in the day, this is going to be our first tandem run of the day.  That’s right, as of competition time, we have no tandem experience on this course.  Let’s get started!  As the higher qualifier, Josh leads the first run. Half way through turn one, we close in to only fifteen feet behind him; by the time we get to the tight section, our front wheels are about to touch. Brock backs off enough to allow Josh room to transition, and then stays as close as possible to him throughout the rest of the course. On our lead run, Brock launched aggressively trying to put some distance on the much faster V8 car. There are no pace cones today, so we’ll take whatever advantage we can get!  Brock never looked back, and simply drove as quickly and smoothly as possible.  This grants us the win, and puts us into the top 8!

Chasing Josh Steele - Photo by Sy Pham

The great 8 round grants us a rematch with our nemesis from round one of the series, Will Parsons, in his NonStopTuning AE86 powered by an F20C and gt30r turbocharger. He’s one of Brock’s favorite people to drive with because they used to drift corollas together back in the day. Will leads first and we stay pretty close all the way up to the tight section where Brock starts aggressively tucking him. Brock was a little too aggressive and straightened out a couple of times so that Will had room to safely transition.  This aggression may have cost us the win, but Brock was really wanting to drive hard against Will. On our lead run, we drove as smoothly and consistently as possible, and we are rewarded with a one-more-time against Will. Knowing that we can’t afford to blow it this time, they end up pretty much replicating their first run, with Brock backing off just a little bit and using healthy tugs of the ASD hydraulic hand brake and aggressive clutch work to transition behind him, while relying on the superior traction of the Falken Azenis PT-722 tires to tuck him again in each corner. On our next lead run Brock just drove as quickly and smoothly as possible, and we advance.  We’re headed to the top 4 round!

Chasing Will Parsons - Photo by Sy Pham

Leading Will Parsons - Photo by Sy Pham

In the final 4, we’re up against Nacho from Team Silhouette in his sr20det powered Nissan 240SX. This will be our first fair match of the day based on power to weight ratios. We lead first, but Brock gets a little overzealous for the climbing surface temperatures and sails off of the course.  Fortunately, Nacho seemed to have made a similar error.  On our follow run, Brock gets as close as possible while trying to stay close to the lead car. Good thing Brock calmed down during the run and didn’t continue to try and out-drive himself, because we get the one-more-time.  On our second lead run, we drive more conservatively due to reports of surface temps at an area dragstrip topping 170 degrees, which we had confirmed by flying off course on our previous run.  On the follow run the plan is the same – go easy through the first corner and then put it to the floor once the course tightens up. After the run the car is experiencing extremely hot engine temperatures, and the crew is out of sprayer water, so Brock heads to the back stretch to cool down the car a little, with no clue of the results. He comes back to grid to find Nacho and Brad Burnett beginning their battle for 3rd place, meaning we’re on the podium for sure!

Chasing Nacho - Photo by Sy Pham

The car is still hot, we’re out of sprayer water, bottled water, melted ice, and even Gatorade on grid. We call 5 minutes to let the car cool down some more, but only get down to 220 degrees before lining up next to XDC champion Chelsea DeNofa, who has flown in from Florida to compete in Aaron Losey’s LSX V8 powered NonStopTuning 240SX, for green car championship tandem drifting.  Chelsea leads, and that car is fast. Brock manages to stay about 20 feet behind him during the first corner, but bobbles a little behind him just before the tight section. Once through there, we stick to him as closely as possible, but Brock is just driving the course from memory since he can’t see through Chelsea’s tire smoke. Now it’s our turn to lead.  The goal is just try to be as fast and smooth as possible and get through the course cleanly. Unfortunately, Chelsea spins the car, granting us our spot at the top of the podium in first place!

Leading Chelsea DeNofa - Photo by Sy Pham

Brock would like to send out a HUGE thanks to our partners: Autosport Dynamics, Duke Paint & Body, Falken Tire, Enkei Wheels, Ultrashield Race Products, Mechanix Wear, and more!  Also, thanks go out to Bill Duke, Kyle Gille, Jonathan Sweeney, Teo Tompkins, Donna Timmons, and everyone else who is a part of the Brock White Racing / Slide Factory family!  We also appreciate the great support from our fans – without your support this would be impossible!

Smoking Falkens - Photo by Sy Pham

Brock White - Photo by Sy Pham

Are you outgoing, attractive, female, and interested in drifting? If so, you should enter the Brock White Racing Umbrella Girl contest! The winner will receive a complimentary photo shoot with Cagle Johnson Photography, and will get to be the BWR umbrella girl at competition rounds of the Lone Star Drift series.

If you, or someone you know, are interested, tell us why you would be an awesome BWR umbrella girl, while sending at least one head shot and two body shots, along with your contact info. We will narrow down the entries to a limited number of finalists, and open up the voting to you, your friends, and our fans. We look forward to hearing from you! All entrants must be 18 years of age or older. Please submit entries to marketing@BrockWhiteRacing.com.

After wrestling with and eliminating a few gremlins, it was time for tandem practice.  Smokey practice runs were made with fellow Slide Factory driver Aaren Smith, as well as with Fielding Shredder and Robert Turnbow, much to the enjoyment of the 600+ spectators – not including those watching from outside the fence!

Once the car was dialed in, it was time for qualifying.  Brock laid down a pair of solid runs, managing to qualify for 3rd place in the field.  Round one of tandem eliminations saw Brock paired up with Will Parsons and his turbocharged, S2000 powered AE86.  Brock put down a solid, smoky lead run, and felt great going into the chase run.  On the chase run, Will’s turbocharged monster put quite a lead on Brock’s 240SX, but Brock quickly caught up and put some pressure on the lead car.  Unfortunately, the car ran out of steering angle at the end of the second corner, causing the car to go into a stall.  Will eventually went on to place 4th overall, and we would like to congratulate him.  Rest assured that some changes are being made to the car that should eliminate any issues with lack of steering angle in the future.

We look forward to seeing you at round two!

Alex, of Enkei International, dropped by Duke Paint and Body to snap a few shots of the car prior to its less-than-a-week makeover. We’re very thankful that the photos made it onto the Enkei blog, as well as the What Monsters Do blog. Click the links and check it out!