Feb/100
At the Track : ThunderDrift ProAm Round 1
Willows, CA - From its humble beginnings in 2006, ThunderDrift has grown and adapted, holding a wide range of events to suit the needs of as many drivers as possible. From traditional trackdays to 2009's skidpad competition series, TD organizer Geoff Pitts has established Thunderhill as the place to come for drifting in Northern California.
Now it's 2010, and the ThunderDrift 4-round competition series on the big track is a Formula DRIFT ProAm affiliate series, with 2011 pro licenses and invites to the 2010 ProAm finals at stake.
Colin Frost drove up from Anaheim to team up with former Formula DRIFT driver Todd Ho, who came back from China, and local drifter and sometime ProAm competetor Richard Kong to judge Round 1 of the series, which was held on turns 13-10 on the back section of the track. Most of the drivers had a ton of experience running the track the right direction, but running it backwards proved to be a bit challenging. During practice, #18 Joshua Sher found out the hard way why you shouldn't run wide on Turn 10, when he tried to drive up the side of the hill, grenading his new body kit in the process. Luckily he hadn't painted it yet. #16 Ryan Kado must not have been paying attention to that though, because in the Top 4, after #31 Virgil Brosseau spun out in Turn 12, Kado went crazy and tried the same hillclimbing trick as Sher, with much worse results: he rolled his car onto its roof while it was about 8 feet up the grassy slope. Kado emerged unharmed but the car did not fare as well.
The rollover gave #77 Julian Jacobs the win, with Kado taking home second place and #66 Andy Gillespie taking third. Brosseau and #17 Luke Lonberger grabbed points for 4th and 5th place respectively.
