Best time of my life………..so far
Saturday, 5/3/08
We started out with practice runs at 10am on Saturday on a dreary,
overcast day.  It’s not even 11am and Damien Bagley gravitates towards the
wall and crashes the backend of his car on his 3rd practice run of the
event.  He blows out the rear windshield, the trunk is smashed up and
the rear right wheel is bent.  He grabs his pit crew and immediately
exclaims they need to fix the car and pull out the trunk so he can run
it in the afternoon.  

The course is awesome.  The first clipping point is a mirage of depth
and walls…..you’re never quite sure where the wall is and how close
you are until you’re drifting the course and you realize there is a
little more room.  Each run, I was discovering how much more room there
was before the wall.  The crowd loved the course as much as the drivers.
But they loved the crashes more.  More cars have crashed this course
than any other events so far including last year (including Miami’s
event with the famous cone incident).

As the day progresses, the weather does too.  It’s windy, cold and it
starts to mist as we practice tandem runs.  A few cars crash due to the
slick track.  We call it a night.

Sunday, 5/4/08
We started out with a little overcast weather but it turned out to be a
nice, sunny day!  Minus the traffic accident with the pole in
Englishtown via the girlfriend.  I say DWA….she says “DAMN
PEDESTRIANS!”

All cars drift for their qualify runs.  I made it to Top 16, ranked
14….and who do I have to run up against but the talented Mr. Forest
Wang.  No need to go into what an incredible and talented driver he is
as many know, he’s only won top 3 in the past 2 events this year. Matt Waldin of Import Intelligence also qualified, ranked 16, to run against Sammy Tiger, ranked 1st….who is fixing his car and only had about an hour to do so.  He crashed his car into the wall during qualifying.  For the remainder of the day, it’s incredible run after incredible run for everyone.I don’t have to go into details of who won….because at this point, you probably already know.  But I will have to say I was very happy with my runs, nothing broke, nothing crashed and best of all…..the judges needed a ONE MORE TIME because they could not make a decision between me or Forest.  During OMT, Foresthad a 6-4 advantage…and he won, all-in-all not a bad weekend!

The final top 4 were AWESOME to watch!  Aaron Losey sprayed fans with
tire, dirt and rocks as he swept the final the clipping point against
Forest Wang, but he got too aggressive and straightened to avoid
contact.Nate Brasz and Ryan Tuerck ran for the 1 and 2 spots and had to run a
ONE MORE TIME because it was a tough call.  But Ryan pulled out the win.

Top 4
Ryan Tuerck
Nate Brasz
Forest Wang
Stewart Leask

On a bittersweet note, we found out Glenn Woods will not be director of NOPI Drift moving forward.  He will attend events but he will not be the man who fights for drivers and listens to our belly aching.  He was given a career opportunity for bigger, more exciting things….what’s more exciting than Drifting!  We’ll miss you Glenn.  Thanks for putting your tire marks on NOPI….it won’t be the same without you!

Dennis Mertzanis