July 7th, 2010 by SED
Round 1 of the SEDC Pro AM is now history. We have 4 more exciting rounds ahead. But before we get to focused on “Fire Your Guns” at Nashville lets take a look at Rd. 1. What the grid may have lacked in numbers it more then made up for in the quality of the drivers that came to compete. Gresham Motorsports Park is a very aggressive half mile track and only the prepared came to battle on the bank. After morning practice the grid gathered for qualifying. The drivers all got two non-consecutive passes to post their best score, but only the best run was counted. For Rd.1 a all new layout was used.
The course started drivers on the back straight away. Blasting into turns 3 & 4 drivers initiated drift in high 4th gear.
Exiting turn 4 into the legends quarter mile oval drivers had to scrub massive amounts of speed as the positioned themselves for the second clip with the backs to the outside wall.
Once past the second clip drivers had to again go full throttle down to the far end of the legends course, often having to extend their slide to get in a position to climb the banking of the start/finish line.
Coming off the banking a quick transition was needed to catch the last clip.
Drivers then piloted their cars across the infield towards the pit road.
One last full throttle slide down the pit road to impress the judges.
After qualifying ended and the scores were being tabulated to determine the top 16 Darrick Stafford and Chad Cohran of Atlanta Freestyle put on a fantastic stunt demo for the fans.
The 16 drivers made a parade lap and parked in front of the crowd for introductions. Singer Mateo then sang the national anthem and the competition was ready to begin.
The action in the top 16 bracket started right away with drivers fighting hard in these early match ups. Sean Morgan (3) advanced to top 8 but not until after he completed 2 OMT’s against Mustang driver David Jones (13). Sammy Tiger (1) was on the wall all day in practice even leaving his blue paint on the yellow walls, but it was Mike LaPenna (9) his match in top 16 that got bit. An unfortunate correction put Mike in the top wall. We hope that he can get the car fixed before Nashville because he was on fire all day in practice.
Moving into the great 8 the action intensified. Every driver now knew that they were one battle away from a real chance at some of the $3,000 purse and the overall win. Jodin LeJuene (30) moved into the great 8 after a win over Florida driver Miles Flick (2) but the orange G35 fell to it’s next Florida match up Ryan Kaufman (25).
Atlanta Freestyle entertained the crowd once more but this time they were joined by SEDC Pro AM competitor Howard Smith (23).
With the final four; Doug Van Den Brink (19), Zoltan Hadju Jr. (32), Ryan Kaufman (25), and Dan Willie (4) the finals began. Dan Willie battled hard against Ryan Kaufman and was able to move on for a chance at the win against Doug Van Den Brink who had defeated Zoltan Hadju Jr.
In the consolation round Zoltan Hadju Jr. (32) entered the bank behind Ryan Kaufman (25) creating a massive smoke screen. But Ryan Kaufman drove his LS powered FC just as hard and took his place on the podium. Both drivers were on point all day.
The final battle of the day was between the SR powered S14 of Dan Willie (4) and the turbo charged Mustang of Doug Van Den Brink (19). The battle was tense but while leading the red Mustang Dan Willie made an error approaching the start/finish line and spun ending with Doug paralleled to his door.
L-R: Ryan Kaufman 3rd, Doug Van Den Brink 1st, and Dan Willie 2nd.
Southeast Drift would like to thank all the our partners and supporters especially NOS Energy Drink and Z1 Motorsports. We would also like to thank the drivers, the superb staff of Gresham Motorsports Park, all the vendors, our media partners, the SED staff and volunteers, and of course all the fans! We sincerely hope that all of you will join us for Rd.2 in Nashville, July 31st and then back at Gresham for Rd.3, Sept.11th.
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