Formula Drift invaded Palm Beach International Raceway this weekend as thousands of fans filled every inch of space surrounding the drift circuit. We’ve been closely following drifting for years and enjoy checking out the competition all while visiting with some of our old drag racing competitors. There was plenty of action and controversy throughout the event with the fans questioning many of the judges calls and quite a bit of contact within the runs. In the end Michael Essa took the top spot in his E46 BMW (you may remember his Z4 car from his visit to the shop prior to last years event) flanked by the Achilles Tires entrants of Daigo Saito and Robbie Nishida. The podium was swept by turbocharged 6cylinder entrants,could we possibly be seeing a changing of the guard in FD with turbocharge entrants becoming the norm over the previous V8s? Who knows, but we like what we saw and always have our door open to the possibility of building a wild Formula Drift competitor here at Titan Motorsports, sponsors and manufactures our number is listed on the site. A big thanks to Cheralyn and the Bridges Racing (Achilles Tires) Team for the great hospitality all weekend.

This weekend Palm Beach International Raceway was a busy place with FormulaD, Slammed Society, and Global Time Attack all hosting events at the track. We were on hand supporting our good friend Jon Miller with his brand new Scion FRS, the first to enter Time Attack competition here in the states. Just prior to the event taking place we installed a set of Hawk Blue Pads and performed a brake flush on the car, beyond that the car remained primarily stock and was entered into the Street RWD Class. The car handled great and logged as many laps as any other car out there, however it was outgunned on the long straights by cars with 2-3 times the horsepower output of the bone stock boxer power plant and just missed the podium finishing 4th.

The car show was a testament to the dedicated fans of FormulaD who braved the scatted thunderstorms that peppered the track throughout the day. Our good friends at HRE brought out an amazing Ferrari F458, Audi R8 V10 and their latest wheel releases and finishes.

FormulaD put on an amazing event, the course change from last year made for plenty of action and great tandem battles. We where rooting for our local friend Chelsea Denofa in his M3, who eventually lost to event winner Daigo Saito after colliding on an insane entry. I was quite impressed with the SC430 of Saito (and the smoke screens he was leaving his chasers in),powered by a 3.4L 2JZ which uses nitrous to help keep the turbo spooling quickly during transition.

The event was a great success and the changes PBIR made to the track allowed for an increased number of grandstands that were packed most of the weekend. I’m a huge fan of drifting and with each successful event I attend I begin to wonder when one day those internet rumors of us fielding a team will become a reality, only time will tell.

This weekend FormulaD headed to Palm Beach International Raceway for Round 3 of the Formula Drift event. This was the first time that FormulaD has held an event in Florida, and the crowds came out in droves to see professional drifting at it’s finest. The event also allowed us to see some old faces from drag racing as the teams made their way south from the prior Atlanta event. Bergenholtz Racing, Gary Gardella, and Mike Essa all stopped by our shop prior to the event for last minute preparations on Thursday, and it was great to get an up close look at the cars in person.

Alongside the drift event was a car show hosted by Slammed Society. The current flush fad was as apparent as ever with plenty of cars featuring wild wheel fitments to compliment their ultra low stance. My attention naturally moved towards the duo of S4 wagons sporting great stances, but wild military inspired paint schemes. Overall the quality of the cars in the show were top notch, a true testament to the great relationships FormulaD has with their promotional partners.

I want to thank the Bergenholtz Racing for the great hospitality this weekend. Joon suffered a mechanical problem in the 32 round which prevented him from moving forward, however after reviewing the car and addressing a solution, I’m sure we’ll see the team moving forward in the rounds at the next event in New Jersey.