Just as the leaves are starting to change colors and a cool breeze begins to blow in the East, Doug Van Den Brink and the DVM crew were high-tailing it out West to have a little more fun before Old Man Winter got a hold of them. After a couple of weeks prepping his trusty Ford Mustang for battle, Doug was once again on the road for yet another solo trip across the United States in search of fame and fortune.

First stop on this tour would be “the town that never sleeps”, Las Vegas, Nevada for the Barrett-Jackson Collector Car Auction. Doug along with his venerable partner Vaughn Gittin, Jr. were slated to perform another installment of their Ford Racing Drift Demos. As is customary for these events, Doug’s new car for this event would be a 2010 Mustang GT with the additional “RTR” performance package inspired by Vaughn Gittin, Jr. himself.

Like their Barrett-Jackson demos of the past, the pair of Mustang pilots performed multiple shows throughout the three-day event and left the crowds screaming for more. Once again, their Autosport Dynamics prepped “pony-cars” performed flawlessly and not a single guest was turned away without an autograph, t-shirt or poster…

In addition to all of these daytime activities, Doug was busy each night putting final touches on his Formula D competition Mustang for the events that were to follow. This proved to be more trouble than expected for when Doug and his car set-out for the long drive to Las Vegas, two new Camshafts had been installed in the engine but afterwards, the shop he normally gets the car tuned at was too busy to fit them in. Good news for Pro-Dyno who’s got all that work back home, bad news for Doug and his car as they had to find someone else to try and tune the car for maximum performance. As one can imagine with a car as unique as the DVM Mustang, finding a tuner (out of the blue) worthy of such a task proved impossible in Las Vegas. After spending a full day and a half at a local shop, the mighty Mustang’s engine couldn’t rise above 2500rpm’s before it started popping and coughing. Luckily Doug was able to get his trusty stead out of there before any damage was done.

From Vegas, Doug rolled on to “the city of Angels”…. Well, almost… save for a short period of “alone-time” that he spent in the middle of the California desert with his broken-down tow truck. It seems that one of the pulleys on the front of his Dually no longer wanted to take part in the trip and promptly unscrewed itself from the front of the engine. From there it jumped out the bottom of the engine bay and ran off screaming into the dusty, dry hills taking on it’s own solo adventure. Fortunately for Doug, a call to AAA and a few Vegas auto parts stores netted a new pulley being brought out and 5 hours later, the DVM motorcade was back in action and heading west.

On arrival in California, our weary travelers were reunited with their ol’ pal Doug Nagy who has been helping Van Den Brink at the Formula D events for the past year and a half. With a few phone calls made back East to the fine folks at SCT Tuning, the two-Doug’s made their way to Focus Sport in Anaheim, yet another tuning shop, in hopes of fixing the Mustang’s woes. After a full day of work, the collective group was able to get the Mustang running well enough to make it to the Formula D event but far from 100%. The motor turned out to be a full 150-pound feet of torque off it’s best mark. At this point, all fingers seem to be pointing to the new “custom made” camshafts, but proper analysis will have to be made once the car gets back home to the Carolina’s and into the hands of KT Engine Development and Pro-Dyno.

By all accounts this year’s Formula Drift season finale at Irwindale Speedway was the biggest and most widely attended event in history at the famed “House of Drift”. The sold-out crowd in attendance witnessed 45 teams vying for only 32 spots and of those 45 cars, only 4 drivers (Doug included) had no appreciable experience at the fast and tricky “roval”. With the fore mentioned engine troubles, Doug was forced to miss the Falken Tire test day on Monday which left him only Thursday to get both his car and the track figured out. A daunting task any way you slice it, Van Den Brink and his crew set out to get the car comfortable enough that Doug could feel confident in pushing the Mustang to its limits. “This is a real fast and hairy place”. Van Den Brink said. “The guys with years of experience here make it look so easy it just makes you mad. Then when you go out there and make a pass with one of them, you realize just how slow and off the pace you are”.

According to Doug, by some sheer form of luck, he was able to qualify the DVM Ford Mustang 26^th in the field after one last short practice session Friday afternoon. “We’re quick enough laying down the 3rd fastest trap speed coming into the infield section of the course but my lines are all over the place and I’m anything but smooth. We’ve got a lot of work left to do”. Van Den Brink said right after Qualifying. As is tradition in Formula D, a nighttime practice session for only the top-32 drivers is held Friday night after the post-qualifying drivers meeting. For many drivers, this “happy hour” is the most fun they’ll have all weekend. “I absolutely love this Friday night session”. Doug said. “All the pressure is off, you know you’re in the show for Saturday, the air is cool, the lights are bright and it’s just like race’n the “bullrings” back home. If I had my way, we’d only run at night”. Doug concluded.

Between the Friday night and Saturday morning practices, our DVM crew found a lot more speed and Doug started to find his lines. So much so, that folks around the paddock were starting to take notice and offer words of encouragement. Those encouraging words would definitely come in handy for as a result of Doug’s 26^th qualifying spot, he would once again be paired-up with series points leader Chris Forsberg. DVM followers will remember that Forsberg made pretty quick work of Doug earlier this year when the two met on similar circumstances at Wall, NJ. This time however, their battle could have mammoth consequences in the race to the overall series championship. If Chris could defeat Doug in this elimination round, besides simply moving on to the Sweet-16, he would clinch the 2009 Formula Drift Championship. If Doug defeated Forsberg, all bets were off as the #2 man in points Ryan Tuerck could then steal the crown should HE go on to win the Irwindale event. “My goals are two fold,” Doug said just before he climbed into the car to face Forsberg. “I plan on running Chris as hard as I possibly can. I’m not going to leave anything on the table. BUT, I am not going to be “that guy” who crashes the point’s leader out of his championship run. My approach will be aggressive but in control…”

As is customary, Forsberg being the higher qualifier lead the first of the two laps. Van Den Brink had too much wheel spin off the line, which gave Chris a two-car gap through the banking. This gap remained the same as Forsberg did his best to shake VDB as he hustled his Mustang though the course with as much speed as he dared. Though there was a bigger gap than he would have liked, Doug carried more angle and a more aggressive line through the corners than the Nissan driver. This gave Forsberg only the slightest of advantage over VDB.

On the second lap, Doug was able to get good traction off the line and barreled his red Ford into the banking with good speed. Unfortunately for Forsberg, at this same time, his car uncharacteristically stumbled leaving him with a 6-car length gap up to VDB’s rear bumper but taking a lower line through the banking allowed him to close in slightly. In an effort to catch up further while entering the inner bank, Chris who ran a shallow line which allowed him catch up to Doug completely. The crowd went crazy, as they had just witnessed what could possibly be the upset of the year. No one had expected this. After a long deliberation the judges delivered what many felt to be a very controversial call. “One More Time”, Formula D announced Jarod DeAnda yelled. The two combatants were somehow tied in the eyes of the judges and would have to run their two laps all over again. “I was worried there for a minute”. Forsberg’s Crew Chief, Kevin Wells would later say.

As is customary, Forsberg being the higher qualifier lead the first of the two laps. Van Den Brink had too much wheel spin off the line, which gave Chris a two-car gap through the banking. This gap remained the same as Forsberg did his best to shake VDB as he hustled his Mustang though the course with as much speed as he dared. Though there was a bigger gap than he would have liked, Doug carried more angle and a more aggressive line through the corners than the Nissan driver. This gave Forsberg only the slightest of advantage over VDB.

On the second lap, Doug was able to get good traction off the line and barreled his red Ford into the banking with good speed. Unfortunately for Forsberg, at this same time, his car uncharacteristically stumbled leaving him with a 6-car length gap up to VDB’s rear bumper but taking a lower line through the banking allowed him to close in slightly. In an effort to catch up further while entering the inner bank, Chris who ran a shallow line which allowed him catch up to Doug completely. The crowd went crazy, as they had just witnessed what could possibly be the upset of the year. No one had expected this. After a long deliberation the judges delivered what many felt to be a very controversial call. “One More Time”, Formula D announced Jarod DeAnda yelled. The two combatants were somehow tied in the eyes of the judges and would have to run their two laps all over again. “I was worried there for a minute”. Forsberg’s Crew Chief, Kevin Wells would later say.

On lap 3, Doug again followed keeping his distance fairly close to Forsberg’s rear bumper. Unfortunately the pair entered the banking at a lower speed than the previous laps and with this reduction in speed, Doug’s line throughout the bank was a bit unsteady which gave Chris a slight advantage over the North Carolina driver. When it was Forsberg’s turn to follow, he was on the gas early and followed the Mustang a little bit tighter than he had done before. Like the first runs, Doug again laid the Fords rear bumper within inches of the wall and with enough opposite-lock to reach the rack-stops going through the first transition. Again, Forsberg ran a shallower line with less angle insuring he’d stay close to Doug.

This lack of angle and shallow line unfortunately for Doug didn’t count as much as following distance in the eyes of the judges for after a short consult, they awarded Forsberg the win and with that the 2009 series Championship. “These were by far, the best 4 runs of the week for us and probably my best tandem follows I’ve ever done.” Doug said after he climbed out of his car. “I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, Chris is a great driver and it was a blast sliding with him here at the track he knows so well. He’s truly one of the “good guys” in the sport, so much so that he even loaned me a pair of seats at this year’s season opener so I could get through tech. I will always be grateful for that act of sportsmanship and kindness and sincerely hope one day that I will be in the position to repay him in some way. He will represent our series well as the 2009 Champion.” Van Den Brink continued, ”To push him as hard as we did, and to dang-near beat him says a lot for what we as a team accomplished this week. My crew chief Doug Nagy did a great job of helping me get the car where I needed it to be and the car was once again as reliable as a Swiss watch. This was a great accomplishment for all of us at DVM.” Doug went on to say.

So with that victory, Chris Forsberg won the 2009 Formula Drift Championship and Ryan Tuerck, who later that night would go on to win the event, would finish second in the points with Team Falken Tire driver Tyler McQuarrie finishing the season in 3^rd place. All in all, it was a great night of drifting action with countless numbers of folks coming by the DVM trailer congratulating both driver and team on how well they performed. By anyone’s account, the night was truly a success for Doug and everyone at D’Vanz Motorsports.

With the 2009 season now in the books, we look forward to 2010 with a new found excitement and anticipation. DVM will stay out on the West Coast for the next two weeks as they do a little freshening-up on their red Mustang preparing it for two huge events, the SEMA and PRI shows. The SEMA show will take place in Las Vegas, NV November 3-6. This is the largest gathering of automotive aftermarket companies in the world where the “who’s who” from every form of car culture will be present. Like in 08’ the DVM Mustang will be all shined-up and put on display to represent the sport of professional drifting.

After SEMA, Doug and his Ford will head back to North Carolina for a short break before the run down to Orlando, FLA on December 10-12 for the Performance Racing Industries Show. This will be Doug’s 12^th trip to PRI and the 1^st time the Mustang will be put on display. The PRI show is a trade show for nothing but racing. From engines to tires, from production machinery to chassis components, if you’re into racing, then you’ll be at PRI.

Please continue to check back with us for more updates as they develop….