What was your first drift event?
It was a Laguna Seca Yokohama invitational back in 2004 or so. Sam Hubinette-who I'd been doing drift exhibitions with for several years-recommended me to the Jasper guys to run their Supra. That was my lucky break in the early days of U.S. drifting. I remember pitting next to Daijiro, who didn't speak a word of English back then. In the event, I drove the Jasper Supra to a Third place finish. Rhys beat me out and took Second and Ken Gushi took First. I remember Ken's dad almost having a heart attack when he won. It was a very cool event.
Were you always into motorsports?
To be honest, I was never a fan of racing. I loved cars, and I could name any car by its headlights, but I never followed motorsports. Back in college, I was actually studying Pre-Med at the University of Colorado at Boulder and was working for an inventor named Bill Kitchen designing new amusement rides.
Word? Roller coasters?
No. You know the big swing thing in amusement parks? The one where you're hanging in a harness and you're pulled back and you release yourself? That was one of his designs. After college, I was still working for Bill and he ended up moving operations to Orlando, FL. I went over there to see how it was, but knowing that I would have to live that close to Disneyworld freaked me out and I came back to the mountains.
As we were landing on the flight back, I was looking out the window and noticed a race going on not too far from the airport. Leaving the airport, I went directly to the track, Second Creek Raceway, to check out the action and I guess I was standing too close and some guy came over to kick me out. I starting talking to the guy about how I could get involved in motorsports and he ended up making an offer: I worked as a mechanic in the shop in exchange for seat time in his car.
How old were you and what kind of cars were they?
I was 23 and looking for any excuse not to go to Med School. The cars were Spec Ford Racers, which is a tube frame, generic looking race car with a Ford engine.
Wow. You're like the Rudy of drifting, only not short.
[laughs] That's the story about the Notre Dame guy, right?
Yep. [laughs] Back to Sonoma: After losing the points lead to Sam, you said "If I were a betting man, I would not have bet that we'd win Sonoma." How were you able to win?
In bracket-type racing, shit happens. After qualifying, you go round to round and if four pairings go right, you end up holding the big trophy. It all happens very quickly and things just fell into place that day. That being said, Sonoma is not my favorite track because it's hard to attack other cars without hitting them. The drivers did a great job on that track though and put on one of the better shows of the season.
Was that the pivotal point in the season for you?
Every round seems so pivotal in this series, but in hindsight, the Sonoma win put some big pressure on the other teams to hang it out on the most dangerous track of the series: Irwindale.
A lot of our Formula D Diaries drifters wrote that Sonoma was their most challenging track. Is it for you?
It's not Sonoma, rather Irwindale. Just because we've all done hundreds of laps at Irwindale, it doesn't seem like a difficult track. We've gotten used to it. But I'm here to say that Irwindale is very scary. This is a place where if a guy crashes, and it only costs him a bumper or a taillight, he is stoked! It's very easy to total a car there and in tandem, some cars make so much smoke that you can't even see the walls.
From your Sonoma diary entry, we know that Megan Fox has the ability to distract the impeccable Mr. Foust, what about an import model? Any one you fancy?
What are you a lawyer? My girlfriend put you up to this, didn't she! [laughs]
By Carter Jung
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