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Now this is something that we have been trying to get arranged for the last few months and after a couple of chats with sharp shooter, Camden Thrasher, we managed to get it all sorted rather randomly and in a rather hasty fashion. However, as you will see, Camden had is camera working to the level that we have become accustomed too and Dean “Karnage” Kearney was letting it all hang out…
So what better than to let Dean take up the story from here and give us an insight into life on the Formula Drift circuit.
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Life is treating me great Stateside and I’m settling in quite will the guys at Intec Racing, which as you can imagine is making everything much easier for me behind the wheel.
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It’s fair to say that it isn’t all plain sailing though. Hard work sums it up! I knew it was gonna be tough however I’m more than happy with how myself and the team seam to be progressing with every event that we run in.
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Now, Seattle was a little different than most tracks this year, as I felt pretty confident going into the weekend. Seattle is the track that I’ve done the most testing on out of all the circuits we run on during the year. In fact it’s the only track that I’ve tested on!! Every other track we have attacked this year has been new to me and all part of the learning curve, giving me the ability to really attack next season!
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I had a bit of a shocker what with missing my flight from Ireland on the way out to the event. What that meant was that everything was pushed back and because of the delay I was unfortunately two days late geting out to Seattle then I had originally planned. As a result I missed a testing session that we had already planned for. Shocker to say the least..
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Added to that, as I do a lot of the prep work on the the V-LEDS/IntecRacing 240sx, I was now under pressure to get it ready for the Thursday practice sessions.
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Over the weekend the car felt really great! Myself and my Chief Tech, Jun, had spent quit sometime researching the course layout and what would really work for us. I can say one thing for sure…we really got it right! We were one of the fastest cars on the course, however and rather bizarrely this worked to my disadvantage against Falken driver Tyler Mc Quarrie as i was just to fast and subsequently was penalised.
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Qualifying was tense to say the least! During my first pass of my two allocated runs, I miss shifted coming through the power ally, lining me up all wrong for the final S bend. I also managed to knock a clipping point and killing my bumper which left me outside the 32nd place cut off..
This put me under serious pressure for my final lap however as my spotter, Lawrence, coached me through the whole lap step by step, we put in a safe but solid run making the cut at a very average 25th
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As a whole, the weekend was great as we have a lot of support across the Northwest of America so this made for a great feeling in the pits with tons of support and super eager fans. The car was fantastic and i can now safely say it’s amongst the best three or four S bodies in Formula D – the world’s most competitive drifting series.
Sadly the result in our first battle left a little bit of a sour taste in my mouth and also the teams, as 99% of the crowd and other teams including falken driver Tyler, who knocked me out, thought it was an unfair call by the Judges.
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Looking back there isn’t much from this weekend i would change…it was a great event for me and the team and we got great exposure and feed back from all corners.
As you can imagine, this has me very excited for the second half of the season…
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In terms of short term activities, I’m back in Ireland working on building a new car that we are planning on campaigning in Europe for 2011. I will be returning Stateside for Vegas rd5 in under four weeks and am excited to drive the V-LEDS/IntecRacing 240sx again. I think we have the car right as rain and it’s about time i can started challenging for some long over due results
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I’d like to say a big thanks to all my loyal sponsors for making this dream happen – it wouldn’t be possible with out all the support.
Thanks to Crankandpiston for this guest blog also big thanks to Camden for the great photo’s. Al being well, we hope to have another guest blog soon….
Dean “Karnage” Kearney
