Maybe it's all those spectacular roads around Mount Fuji, or all the RWD sports cars, but despite all the many talented drivers from other countries, the Japanese seem to have a special affinity for drifting. Fresh from Formula Drift's 2010 second round at Road Atlanta come the thoughts of two sons of Nippon: one from the top step of the podium, the other somewhat further down.

Robbie Nishida

As the only person to competitively drift a Nissan R35 GT-R, it's hard to feel too sorry for Robbie Nishida. But let's give it a try. Nishida had to miss the first round of the 2010 Formula Drift season and he's still trying to get to grips with his new ride. Awwww . . .

As you probably know, it's been a rough start to the season for the team and me. Sitting out the first round was not only bad for our points standings, but everyone else is now a race ahead in experience. So Atlanta was my first round of 2010, and in a brand-new car: my Hankook/Gruppe-S GT-R.

I had a quick test session before the event. Short and simple. We just wanted to make sure everything was working properly and nothing was going to fall off. We arrived in Atlanta the night before practice day and went to the track the next morning. There were many minor complications that impacted our important practice time and I ended up doing only three passes.

The next day I made about four or five runs in open practice before qualifying, trying to dial the car in and get used to it. This car is difficult to drive and so different from the 350Z I had last year. The wheelbase is long, the car is heavy . . . I have a list of reasons why it's hard to tame. It's going to take time to sort out.

I don't know how I pulled off my first qualifying run, putting me in 11th place. I was struggling, trying to run my best line and not make any mistakes. We had a nighttime practice session after Qualifying, but I couldn't even make one clean pass. It might have been getting to me. I was stressed by the combination of too little seat time and too much pressure.

On the big day, I was up against Matt Powers in the Top 32 tandem. Matt hadn't made any major mistakes throughout the weekend, so I knew I had to make clean, calm runs against him. Since I had done only one tandem practice run, I was pretty nervous. We had a One More Time (OMT) call, but I was able to move on. It wasn't easy at all.

I was glad to make it into the Top 16 and introduce the new car to all the fans. For this round, I was paired with Mike Essa in his BMW, which he debuted at Long Beach. He was consistent and throwing big angle into the first initiation. When following, my car didn't have much front-end traction, making me look choppy. When I was leading, temperatures were cooler, so I e-braked a little earlier than usual, thinking it would slide a little more. The car straightened out and missed the clipping point. That was my weekend, finished.

Some people have said it was good enough, since it was our first competition and the first time I actually got to drive the GT-R hard. But I don't want to make any excuses and just wish I would have controlled the car better. I know the car has potential if we could dial it in more. We will work closely with KW Suspension before the next event. Because of the weight and long wheelbase, we will try a much softer setup on the springs, along with a look at compression and rebound settings to gain more traction.

We are running Hankook 305/30R19 Ventus Z222 tires at the rear, which work great, but we need to try different sizes at the front and get more data from testing with different tire pressures. Gruppe-S will re-tune the car for extra horsepower to accommodate this setup.

Thanks to all my fans, and be sure not to miss the continuing adventures of the world's first drift R35 GT-R!

Hankook Tires
www.hankooktireusa.com

Gruppe-S
www.gruppe-s.com

Dynamic Autosports
www.dynamicautosports.com