Formula D Diaries - Ken Gushi - Import Tuner Magazine

Ken Gushi
At last, Ken Gushi has a reason to get excited, making it to the finals at one of the series' fastest tracks, before a crowd swollen with IndyCar fans. All that pressure, though, means that it's easy to blow a gasket.

Formula Drift Sonoma Ca Green Scion Slide

Finally, we did it! It may not be a win, but Team RS-R has proven that we can take it all the way to the top. Every time I've written an entry, it was always about something going wrong with the car. The last event at Seattle, our driveshaft broke. Before that, it was a motor swap in Vegas. New Jersey was transmission issues, and in Atlanta, we had no power steering. All these problems, one after another. And at last, here at Sonoma, we make it to the finals. But the story continues.

Let's start with Qualifying. It was the first time this year that it was held on Thursday. Which meant Top 32 tandem was on Friday and Top 16 on Saturday. If I failed to qualify on Thursday, my weekend would have already been over, so I was determined to make it into the Top 32. During practice, Ben from RS-R had me work on a few different lines. I wanted to enter with a lot of angle, but with the current setup of the car, it would become shallower by the end of the straight. I had to change my approach. Instead of clutch kicking, I had to use a hand-brake entry and try to get it quickly to full counter. I ended up qualifying in Eighth Place with a score of 69.9. Either the judges were really strict or they didn't like any of my runs because the First-Place qualifier was Ueo with 80.

Placing eighth meant going up against the 25th-Place qualifier: Robbie Nishida. If it was anyone else, I would have been happy, but why did I have to be matched against my friend? One of us would not make it to Saturday.

I beat Robbie, which put me up against Daijiro Yoshihara for the Top 16 on Saturday. From there on, I was on fire. I was determined to take it all the way to the top. I didn't want anything to stop this rhythm. After Dai, I went against Ueo-probably the toughest battle of the day. He had a lot of angle and his entries were hard to match. Because of this, he would slow down so much, forcing me to brake more than usual.

Up next was Tanner Foust. Scion tC versus Scion tC; V-8 versus four-cylinder turbo; Hankook versus Toyo. I wished this was the final battle, but it had to come in the semis. The runs with Tanner were easier to fight compared to the runs with Ueo, because Tanner drives extremely clean. So clean, in fact, that maybe it's not good for tandem. He doesn't play dirty, so I had the confidence to stick with him through the straightaway. This was when things started to turn.

Through the last corner of the second run, I lost power and my motor began to sputter. And there it was: a toasted Beams 3SGE. It was a good thing we made it to the finals, but with a blown motor? "Oh well," I thought, as I was determined to show the audience a great final battle against Stephan Verdier.

The best part about my misfortune was that guys from Bergenholtz Racing, Maxxis Tire/LS Auto, Falken Tire and many others in the hot-pit area all came by the RS-R pit to help get the tC back on track. That made me want to win even more. Unfortunately, the motor was too tired for another round. It gave up as soon as I initiated into Turn One. I had to straighten out and go off-course to avoid a collision with Stephan.

I'm very happy for the RS-R Scion Toyo Team. Hard work does pay off in the end and without them, it would have been impossible. Nate from Motec has also been with us from the start of the season and has been working his ass off to get the car right. I appreciate every single one of you guys and will continue pushing forward. One day, we shall rise to the top!

RS-R
www.RS-R.com

Scion Racing
www.scionracing.com

Toyo Tire
www.toyo.com

Formula Drift Sonoma Ca Winner Front View

Stephan Verdier
Never let it be said that longshots can't beat the safe bets; that stacks can't be toppled; that privateer Davids can't take out big-buck, corporate-sponsored Goliaths. Please welcome this month's guest, Stephan Verdier, the man who puts the "ordinaire" in "drifter extraordinaire", has no crew to speak of, and as of Round 6 of Formula D, is the only man we know to win a pro drift event on a single set of tires.

Formula Drift Sonoma Ca Subaru Drifting Shot

I landed at Los Angeles International airport on Monday at 2 p.m., after a flight from Toronto where I was judging a Canadian drifting series. I got home, hooked up my trailer and STI to my truck, and drove straight to Sonoma.

Thursday morning was spent unloading and getting ready for two hours of practice, which went well. I've always been comfortable on this track; it's pretty simple compared to the rest of the season's circuits.

I placed 14th in qualifying, which put me against Kazu Hayashida-a very good driver-for Top 32 competition. We went into battle and I was leading with a really good, error-free run. When following, I was able to come close and stay there the whole time. I advanced to the Top 16 for the main show on Saturday. It was a victory for me already, and a big confidence booster.

On Saturday, Formula D ran the Forsberg/Wan battle again and Forsberg won, which wasn't good news for me-he would be my next opponent. His entry speed was close to mine, and he's a clean driver. I knew to enter as close as possible to him; he wouldn't brake-check me or anything stupid. I entered right next to him and was able to stay on his door. It was scary, but I did it-it was my best follow, ever.

Back at the start for my lead run, I knew I had to be perfect to make it difficult for Forsberg to follow. He was right on my door like he always is, but coming out of the teardrop I was able to put a little more space between us. I advanced.

I was on a cloud until I found out that Vaughn Gittin, Jr. was going to be my next battle-another big hitter. His car is so loud that when you run next to him, you can't hear yours. And it's so smoky that you can't see where you're going half the time. He qualified better, so I had to follow first.

I went in deep with him, to stay on his door. He gapped me a bit after the teardrop, but I was able to close in by the end of the course, which was funny because in the last turn, I was in his smoke and couldn't see where he or the outside wall was. My lead lap had to be mistake-free. JR was on me, but made a mistake in the last corner and I moved up to the Final Four. I was back on my cloud-first Final Four ever!

By this time, I was really starting to worry about my tires. Since I don't have a crew, the only way to change tires would be for me to go back to my truck. But when you win, you have to bring all the cameras back to the starting line, so I had to stay on the same set of tires that I started with for practice earlier in the day.

Next was Ryuji Miki, another big gun. His entry speed was seven mph faster than mine, and I had to follow him first. I knew I had to enter really deep to have a chance of sticking with him. We both entered hot, but he made a correction and I looked at him to see what he was going to do instead of seeing where I was on the track, which made me go wide in Turn One, dropping a wheel and losing some distance. I was able to close the gap a bit by the end, but my run wasn't as good as my two previous battles.

Again, I had to put in a perfect lead run to advance. I went in as fast as I could, but Ryuji was on me, so close that he tapped me at the teardrop. It didn't affect me, but I knew he was there. I was able to get a better line coming out of it and he made a couple of corrections that gave me the advantage to advance. On to the Finals!

I was so happy! My spotter, Doug Andrus, who also is my Cooper Tires sponsor, kept telling me to "breathe, breathe, breathe!" Not only was it my first Final, but it was Cooper's too. Now I was really nervous! That was 10 runs on the same set of tires, plus all the warming up before each run-a blow-out in the Finals wouldn't look good for anyone! Also, the track was getting colder, but I couldn't adjust tire pressure, since my gauge was in the truck . . . along with the extra gas I was running out of. Six runs, plus warm-ups, standing in line, etc. I kept thinking: don't run out of gas, please!

The finals. Ken Gushi versus Stephan Verdier. The factory driver versus the privateer. The superstar versus me. I was telling myself: "It's getting better by the round." I was in the follow position at the starting line, and could smell Ken's car losing water. We left the line pretty slow, and I could see white smoke coming from his right front wheel well. We initiated slow and his car was spraying water and oil all over my windshield. Ken started the drift but lost power, dumping water all over his wheels and keeping him from continuing. I passed him, and went back to the starting line, thinking we had to go again for my lead run. My windshield was covered with water and oil and I couldn't see. I could hear everyone cheering, but since I didn't have a crew, I was screaming for somebody to help me clean my windshield. Then Chris Forsberg came over and told me, "It's over! You won!"

Unbelievable. I won my first event overall. I don't like to win on account of a mechanical failure, and I wish I could have battled Ken the right way. But that's racing, unfortunately. I'm sure Ken and I will have a rematch one day. I can't wait!

Subaru
www.subaru.com

Cooper Tires
www.coopertires.com

Crawford Performance
www.crawfordperformance.com

Formula D
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Rd 6. Results