DVANZ

Ok, well maybe not “real movies” but videos of our last couple of events. As we all know these days, YouTube, Vimeo, StreetFire and the like have made the ability to see your favorite team/car/driver in action so much easier. We’re trying to follow along and produce short clips of our outings whenever we can and in this note we present to you our latest additions.

The first one is from our friends at Dead Pirate Productions. This video is from the Formula Drift event at Wall Stadium on June 5th. As you may or may not know, Wall is a really tough, yet at the same time, a simple track. It’s tough because the banking on the oval is really steep and the corners are very tight. After the banking, the cars have to “transition/crash” down to the flat portions of the track which is ridiculously hard on the cars chassis and suspension. As a car owner I wish they could do something about this because we replace a lot of parts after this event due to fatigue.

Anyway, after you get your car down to “the flats”, you have to do a figure-8 and traverse across “the woop section”… Yep, you’re reading this right, for those of you familiar with Motocross, you’ll know the term as the part of the track where the dirt-bike riders skip their bikes over some large bumps. Sometimes they make it through and sometimes these “woops” throw them off their line and even off their bikes! Well, unfortunately for us, the middle section of Wall’s figure-8 is extremely bumpy. So much so that like our SuperCross friends, our car literally skips across the tops of these bumps while at the same time we are full throttle and trying to transition from right to left corners. As you can imagine, this area of the track is a shock-tuning nightmare and one that has caught more than a few drivers off guard over the years.

Having said that, it’s a pretty simply lay-out; you do half a lap on the oval, come down onto “the flats” and do a simple figure-8 and you’re done. The fans have a great view of the track from any seat in the house, there are plenty of hotels and restaurants for the teams nearby and the track staff is always very accommodating… It’s kind-of one of those “love-hate” things. So with no further adieu, CLICK HERE to watch me do my best to make sure Stephan Verdier earns his money and put my BellTech Suspension through the Wall Stadium torture chamber…

Our second video we’d like to show you is from Tritin Multimedia. This was shot at the XDC-HyperFest event at Summit Point on June 19th. What’s cool about this video is that it goes in chronological order, from practice through the competition showing how our runs improved all the way through the weekend culminating with us rolling into Victory Lane. During my interview at the end with my friend Jarod DeAnda, you’ll have to pardon the sound quality as they were having some mic trouble down on the track. CLICK HERE TO WATCH VIDEO

So there you have it, “moving pictures” from some really fun events. I hope you enjoy them and please keep checking back with us as we bring you more sights and sounds from the remainder of our 2010 season…

Take care, DV

This short update comes to us thanks to our friend Joe Goss at Tritin Multimedia. As it turns out, Joe has been shooting video at the HyperFest event up in West Virginia for many years. He shot this years event (which we will be releasing very soon) and he also had in his archives this video from way back in 2005.

Now before you watch it, let me preface it by reminding everyone that in 05’, drifting was very new to me and at the time of this video I had been doing it for a very short time… Ok, so can you tell already how bad this is going to be..? LOL

Anyway, sit back and have a good laugh (as I do every time I watch this) and see what we called drifting back in 2005. By todays standards, I don’t think any of us would even have qualified for this years HyperFest/XDC event. But it is fun to look at how far our car has come and how far I have developed as a driver over these past few years in the sport that we all enjoy so much.

Enjoy the show and please don’t be too mean with your comments…
click here to watch video

Victories don’t come all that often in motorsports and when they do (at any level) they sure are sweet. This past weekend at Summit Point, West Virginia,  Doug and his D’Vanz Motorsports crew did everything right and not only did they qualify in the #1 position but they went on to win Round-3 of the Extreme Drift Championships.

For those who may not be familiar, the XDC series is a new 6-round national drifting championship set up to be a kind of “feeder series” to the Formula Drift Championship that DVM has competed in most recently. The teams and drivers compete at tracks similar to FD circuits with similar rules and judged scoring system. Many of the elements are the same; 3-judges scoring a drivers Line, Angle & Speed, both high and low speed corners (at Summit Point the entry speeds exceeded 80mph into the 90-degree turn-1), even the charismatic and entertaining announcer Jarod DeAnda was in attendance making the calls just as he does at all the Formula D events.

HyperFest 2004                                                                       This event also known as HyperFest was a bit of a homecoming for Doug and his Mustang for it was at this event some 6 years ago that these two got together for the first time to try out the then new sport or drifting. “I always like coming to this event,” Doug said. “Chris Cobetto of NASA and all the “LookOut” guys put on such a fun and smoothly run event, I have a great time every time I get up here. Not to mention, the Summit Point track is really fun to drive on and the crowd is always very responsive. This is the track I first attempted to “drift” at and it will always hold sentimental value with me.” DV went on to say.

On Friday, practice and qualifying were all in one day. Doug had laid down some really nice laps in final practice but wasn’t feeling too confident after he made his two laps for the record-books. “I really was happy with the car after practice, but I underestimated how much the track would tighten-up in the evening qualifying session,” Doug said later. Even though in his mind his laps weren’t as good as they could have been, the judges obviously disagreed with him as they awarded him an 86 out of 100 score which put the North Carolina driver at the top of the scoring sheet. Sometimes it’s good to not agree with the judges…

Saturday’s one and only practice session was the final chance for DV to work out the different lines and speeds he would need to use against the other drivers in the tandem-elimination rounds. During this day the D’Vanz crew also got a big help from their friends and fellow competitors at Gardella Racing who were kind enough to supply them with enough tires to finish the event. A big thanks goes out to them and congratulations for their 4th place finish.

In the XDC series, they only run eliminations for the Top-16 meaning since Doug qualified 1st, he would go up against the 16th driver, Ben Sarli in his BMW M3. Though Ben gave it everything his BMW had, DV was able to move past him into the Top-8. Next on line was Brian Peter in his LS-V8 powered RX7. Brian, like Doug, has competed in a few Formula D events over the years and has shown good skill with his new car. Doug made a good first pass while leading and was right with Brian on his “lead” lap so DV again advanced.

DV’s next challenger would be Chelsea DeNofa in his green Turbo’d BMW M3. Chelsea had proven to be a tough competitor with aggressive driving style and very good angle. With a quick conversation from his Spotter, Jason Heyden, DV knew he had to really run hard to put Chelsea away. On his first lead lap, Doug threw down a super clean line, hitting all of the “clipping points” with enough speed to pull away from the BMW just a bit. On the second lap Doug accomplished (as he put it) his best “follow” to date. The pair went into Turn-1 only a couple of feet apart and came out with less than a couple of inches in between. Throughout the run, there where times the two cars were so close that the crew gave the Mustang a good “looking-over” after the event searching for Chelsea’s green paint because everyone swore the two cars had touched at a couple of points. No marks were found but DV’s use of Chelsea as a “moving clipping point” was done with precision enough to advance him into the Finals.

By the time the Finals came around, DV was really in his rhythm and his Mustang was hit’n on all cylinders. Meeting DV in the final was New Jersey based driver Miro Ovcharik driving a multi-colored Nissan 240 with abundant power coming from another Chevy LS V8 motor. Miro was obviously also having a good day having made his way to the finals as well. DV and his crew agreed that the best plan was to attack at full speed on Doug’s lead lap and then evaluate and adjust for his follow based on Ovcharik’s speed.

On lap one, DV made his smoothest run of the day floating his Mustang right across every “clip” with pin-point accuracy and if that wasn’t enough coming into the last corner he threw his car into the corner so hard that the Mustang tail lights nearly passed the headlights. This “lead” was going to be a hard act for Ovcharik to follow but he was not going to give-up without a fight. As the two combatants pulled up to the starting line for the second pass Miro’s car suddenly shut-off. It re-fired briefly but then stalled once more. After a few more attempts it was over, Ovcharik’s car had suffered a mechanical failure that was too big to overcome and he was out… just like that… With DV then obliged to make one more pass to make it official he again laid-down a high-speed, Falken tire melting lap that turned out to be his own version of a “victory lap”…

“These are the days you dream about and that only come around once in a while”, Doug said afterwards. “The car ran flawlessly all weekend. Our Falken Tires delivered the exact performance that we were looking for and the crew made the right calls every time. By all accounts, it was a near perfect weekend. I really couldn’t have asked for anything more”, DV concluded.

In the “no rest for the weary” department this very next weekend Doug and his boys will be back in action, this time down in Jefferson Georgia at the newly remodeled Peach State Speedway now renamed Gresham Motorsports Park. The event will be a South East Drift Pro-Am (click here for event info) that will reunite Doug with many of his old friends from the Atlanta area. The track lay-out is very similar to that of Irwindale Speedway out in California so it should be a lot of fun for teams and spectators alike. Check back with us next week for another post event report… Stay tuned…

For more information, please visit:
http://www.xtremedriftcircuit.com

Video clips & photo’s from the event:

CLICK HERE FOR VIDEO

CLICK HERE FOR PHOTO’S

Falling under the “something new” category, we have a couple new videos for everyone to see. This first one was shot and produced by Ross Fairfield at Dead Pirate Productions. The total length is about  only about 4-minutes and it shows Doug and his Mustang slide’n around Road Atlanta at round-2 of this year’s Formula D championship.

CLICK HERE TO WATCH VIDEO
This is the first time we have worked with Ross so we’re really excited about it and eager to hear what Ya’ll think about it so please let us know…

This second video is a compilation of footage shot featuring all the competitors at round-3 up in Wall, NJ two weeks ago. This video was put together by Jordan Hamelin and has two separate clips of our Mustang

CLICK HERE TO WATCH VIDEO The first clip (and the most entertaining) appears 1-minute into the video and shows our man, DV up on the banking at the high-banked oval. What’s so funny is not necessarily Doug and his car, but how he chases off a couple of cameramen looking for “the shot”… The second short clip comes at 2:47 into the video and shows Doug in his battle with Stephan Verdier. Again, not a long clip but it’s nice to be included in this really cool video featuring many of the top stars of the sport.

As we reported in our last email update, D’Vanz Motorsports will be heading north again this week to compete at Summit Point International Raceway for the annual HyperFest / XDC event. We will be sure to keep everyone as updated as possible but don’t forget to check-in with http://www.xtremedriftcircuit.com for up-to-the-minute updates and video as the weekend progresses.

Lastly, make sure you check out driftfotos. Larry Chen is responsible for many of the pic we use and this latest one taken from the vantage point of Stephan’s car is really cool…

Have a great week everyone….