June Club Loose Event - June 25, 2008
This was my third drifting event at Englishtown. Unlike the other two events, this one was held in the back parking lot of Raceway Park where NNJR SCCA autocrosses are usually held. The back lot is actually larger than the usual drifting lot. The design of the course was the reverse of the usual course. There was a long straight followed by a left sweeper and a right turn as opposed to the usual right sweeper followed by left turn.
The course was set up to utilize the larger parking lot so speeds were slightly higher than usual. Still, I was only getting to redline in second gear at the end of the first straight while a lot of others were getting into third gear.
For most of the runs, I just stayed in second gear. Some of the better drivers told me that I should enter in third gear even if I was just getting to redline in second. Entering in third allows you to clutch kick to initiate the drift, which you can't do when you're at redline. Also, it lets you practice downshifting into second mid-corner while drifting, which is a useful skill. In addition, entering in third gear puts less stress on the engine by avoiding extended high RPM operation.
Towards the end of the event, I started shifting into third. I was relatively consistent throughout the night. I spun out only on the first two runs. (I got 12 runs in total.) The main trouble I had with the course was getting through the long right hand turn after the first left turn. The right turn was very long, and I did not have enough speed to drift all the way through with a decent angle. Therefore, on some of the runs, I would make a small turn to the left or even straighten out midway through the right turn. Then, I would snap the car back to the right and get it back in the drift. I think with an LSD and possibly some more power, I would have enough forward thrust to drift all the way through such a long corner.
Since there are some advanced Club Loose events coming up in the next couple of weeks where only group A and B drivers are allowed to participate, this event was only for group C drivers. The guys from Club Loose paid attention to everyone's runs all night long to bump as many people up as possible into group B. I ran consistently throughout the night and was bumped into B group along with about five other drivers. So now I'll be able to attend the advanced Club Loose events starting with this Friday's advanced day.
I didn't get any pictures from the event, but a friend of mine filmed two of my runs.
Also, there was a break during the event where the Club Loose guys organized a "Flip a Bitch" type of event. The objective was to drive towards a wall of boxes and slide sideways to parallel park as close to the boxes as possible. I was one of the people chosen to try it but had too much speed coming at the boxes. I ended up over-rotating and going through the wall of boxes. My friend managed to get a video of this incident.