Pat Cyr – FD ATL
May 16th, 2011Well my very first round of FormulaD is in the books! I always wanted to make FD ATL my first round. Theres just something about that track, be it the fans, the weather, the layout, just the overall vibe that comes from that place is amazing!
We arrived at the track early on Thursday morning to get our spot in the pits setup and to get ready for that days practice. It was funny pulling into the pit area seeing as the first person we saw was DMCC vet, now FD judge Ryan Lawntang. It was nice to be greeted by a fellow Canuk and he helped us find our spot in the pits. Practice started at noon, and I was keen to get out there! I was a bit nervous at first, as this was really my first time drifting the car this year, and FD isn’t exactly the place you want to be learning your car, but we really had no other options. My first runs were horrible…People watching that didn’t know who I was must have thought that I had never drifted before in my life! I was struggling with the entry, getting deep in the horseshoe, and linking the down hill..I didn’t run a clean lap all session. The 2nd Practice session went a lot better. I realized I needed to make some changes to something fast or we were going to be dead in the water. So the first thing was my entry. I was trying clutchkick entries, followed by the ebrake right away. It just was not working out for me, so for the first time in my drifting career, I initiated only on the ebrake…and shit, it worked! After i got that down, everything else started to fall into place!
Day 2 was qualifying day! But before we went out for that, there was an autograph session with all the drivers. I got there a couple minutes late, so most the seats were full, except for a spot next to round 1 winner, JTP! I sat down with a fresh stack of posters from HSD Suspension, featuring my car and a blonde bombshell , and started signing away! It was fun shoot the shit with JTP and most of the fans agreed that I had the best poster out of the bunch! After that was our 1 hour practice before qualifying. I tried to get as many laps in as i could and just nail down the line. I must say, Road ALT was the most difficult track I have ever been on, the high speed entry, hitting the clips, running the horseshoe properly, and then setting yourself up for the downhill run, where if you went to deep or to shallow, you’d be pretty much screwed and have to straighten out or use a ton of ebrake which would kill all your speed, so it wasn’t easy! My first quailing run was OK, the entry wasn’t great and I missed the outer zone in the horse shoe, I think the score was a fifty something, which was probably good enough to get us in the show, but not by much, so I knew I needed to do better. Next run out, I went flat out! I initiated early, and almost over rotated going into the first clip, but some how I pulled it off! The rest of the run was pretty standard, and got me a score of 70. That put us in 20th, which meant we got Aasbo in the top 32…
Day 3, Comp day! The temperature was up and the crowds were huge! Lots of people say the ATL fans are pretty much the rowdiest on the FD tour, and I’d say they lived up to that reputation! The great thing about that track is you can bring your own beer!!! Never before have I seen that at any venue! Awesome!! Top 32 practice went well, I would do one lap following, then one lap leading, for a total of about 8 laps. I would have liked to have done some more follow laps, but pretty much everyone sits in the follow lane, and nobody wants to lead, it was kinda silly really. Going into the top 32, I was finally feeling comfortable with the car and my driving, and looking forward to my first battle, but it wasn’t going to be easy. Getting Aasbo off the bat was a tough one, I knew I was going to have to give it everything I had! I was to follow first, and I wanted to be as close as I could to him on entry, but I went in a little to hard. My car was on steering lock before the first clip and I just could’t get it back, he rocketed away from me and I just drifted the rest of the course to finish the run. On my lead lap, I let it all hang out! I initiated early, did a big dirt drop, but came up a hair short and nicked the first clip. I ran the rest of the course pretty well, but it was just not enough for the judges to call a OMT, our weekend was done.
Overall for my first time out at FD, i’d say it was a success! We learned a lot about the other teams, met tons of new people, made some new fans and figured out what we need to do in the future to be successful! I can’t wait to do it all over again in Florida in a few weeks!!
Pat Cyr
