Podium finish for Travis Reeder at FDATL 2018!

Posted on May 24, 2018 by Konig Gfx

FORMULA DRIFT PRO 2 ATLANTA, GA – ROUND 1 | May 11th and 12th

New year, new team and a whole new energy. Coming into the 2018 formula drift pro 2 Season, I was uncontrollably excited, anxious and hungrier than ever. After an extremely successful 2017 pro 2 season and a relatively uneventful off season I was more than ready to jump in the car and throw down at my favorite track in the formula drift series, Road Atlanta.

Coming into our first practice of the season the team and I had our data from last year collected and set up the car quickly. We immediately found out that having previous experience at a racetrack, especially one this challenging was more valuable than anything in this sport and it showed after executing a very strong first few laps in practice. The car was fast, settled and extremely drivable right out of the box, which allowed us to really dial in and fine tune the setup efficiently as well as develop a good strategy for the weekend.

With qualifying coming up quickly Thursday night, I knew I needed to improve on how I performed last year drastically considering only a few qualifying points had cost the team and I a championship in 2017. My first qualifying run was a conservative one, only to try and guarantee a spot in the big show Friday night. I had been a little shallow in outer zone 2 in the keyhole but hit all my clips, touch-and-go’s and zone the rest of the run. We were given a 91 and a second position seeding at that time which guaranteed the team a top 16 showing the next day. On qualifying run 2 we pushed harder as we had nothing to lose. I was deeper into the 2nd outer zone and was extremely committed and on throttle 99% of the lap as well as hitting all my clips with angle. The judges awarded the team and I a 95, which earned us the top qualifying position for the event!

After practice and opening ceremonies, the team and I were excited for top 16 and to put on a good show for all the awesome fans Road Atlanta attracts. My first battle was uneventful as I was set to battle Crick Fillipi but he had unfortunately broke minutes before, giving me a free ride into the top 8. So, I had taken advantage of the opportunity to practice putting down my closest rendition of a perfect qualifying run. On to the top 8!

Kelsey Rowlings was our opponent for the top 8. I lead first and put down a solid lead with minimal corrections and had pulled a bit of a gap on her after the first front clip. Going into the second run I was in the chase position and new I had to apply consistent pressure and maintain proximity to get the team into the final 4. Rowling’s was on fire for her lead run, which allowed me to really attack in the chase. I followed close with great proximity and it was enough to give me the win, the final 4 was set!

Our final 4 Battle was against Ola Jaeger, who was on an absolute war path all weekend. I led first and had a killer lead run hitting all my clips with angle and smoke and only sacrificed a few points in outer zone 2, as well as pulling a couple car lengths away from Ola in the chase. Going into the second run I knew he had a unique and difficult entry style to adjust to, so I had to try my best to match and apply pressure in the chase position and not lose ground. I was close on entry and on his door after our first transition up the hill, but he was fast and pulling away. I sacrificed angle and line slightly to gain proximity in the keyhole and throughout the rest of the run. Blazing across the finish line a foot off his door we came to a stop at the top of the hill. After review from the judges they had concluded that my correction in the chase position had outweighed Ola’s falling back during my lead run and he was awarded the win and moved on to the finals.

Thankfully, by qualifying p1 in the event, I was guaranteed a 3rd place podium finish if I had made it to the final 4. So not only were we the top qualifier but we were still able to go home with a carbon fiber trophy! I can’t complain about one thing over the whole entire weekend. The car ran flawlessly as did my crew! With round one being in the books, and the team and I in the chase for the championship, I can’t wait for St. Louis as well as more great times at the track.
I want to give a massive thank you to all my family, friends, fans and amazing sponsors for the support to chase a crazy dream that is professional drifting. Without you all I wouldn’t be able to do it. Period!

Travis is running Konig Ultraforms in 17×9 et 25mm front and 18×9 et 25mm rear. The Konig Ultraforms is Flow Formed.

Vankirk recounts FDATL ’18!!!

Posted on May 23, 2018 by Konig Gfx

FORMULA DRIFT Atlanta, GA – ROUND 3 | May 11th and 12th

Formula Drift Round three this year was held at Road Atlanta, one of our favorite tracks of the series! Road Atlanta is a very iconic track and I am more than stoked to compete against the best drifters in the world on it! Last year we had great success on this track finishing in 2nd place for Pro 2. With a tiny bit of more power than we had last year and the same suspension set up, the team felt confident going into this round.

Thursdays practice came with a few hurdles. After doing a few laps I realized the same issue we had in Long Beach is also affecting us here in Atlanta. Coming up the hill I was throwing a lot of angle in the car to set me up for going into the horseshoe. However, doing this was making our car’s steering lock up and understeer causing the vehicle to go off course. With it being Thursday, grip levels were not at its peak yet and after talking to some teams it sounded like they were understeering in the same spot as well. We decided to make a few adjustments to the car and the fact it didn’t do this every lap we decided to see how things go the following day. Other than that, we got our entry location down as well as our line throughout the course and the team felt good after Thursday’s practice session.

Friday’s practice before qualifying went extremely well compared to Thursday’s practice. The car had a lot more grip without changing any tire pressure or suspension settings. The weather was a bit hotter and there was a lot more rubber down on the track. We did roughly 6 laps before qualifying and the car’s steering only locked up once and it was on our first run. The team and I figured the car was good to go as our front tires were not warmed up yet on our first run and the remaining laps we did the car felt great. Going into qualifying I felt really strongly about our vehicle setup and this track and was ready to put down a very solid run. On my First qualifying lap I initiated a lot deeper than I have all weekend, the tires rode the rumble strip and we had a good amount of angle going into the first inner clip. After passing the first inner clip we transitioned up the hill, full throttle and was coming up to the horseshoe fast. I chucked the steering wheel to throw a lot of angle at the car. The car angled out and when I downshifted into 2nd to power through into the horseshoe the steering once again locked up and unfortunately we understeered off course. This was very unfortunate as this was my first qualifying run and knowing we had only one more lap to make it into the main event our nerves were high as there was an obvious problem with the car. I drove back to the pits and talked with the team about what was going on with our s13. Matt Coffman came by our pits to see how things were going and I showed him a video of what happened on our qualifying run. We jacked up the front end and he quickly pointed out that we were missing the bump stop for our Wisefab angle kit. Every time I drove the car aggressively and threw a lot of angle at the car our steering was over centering which was causing my steering wheel to lock up and the front end to wash out. Since we didn’t have any time to properly fix this our crew chief Greg Leone made a temporary bump stop with duct tape. Knowing this was my only chance to qualify and knowing the vehicle still had the issue my nerves were very high. During our 2nd qualifying pass I hit all the clips just like our first run but coming into the horseshoe I took it very conservative and did not angle out like our previous run. The car did not understeer this time around and we finished off the course strongly. Due to use being conservative through the horseshoe the team scored an 80 on our second qualifying pass and we were in the show for top 32. After qualifying we ended up buying a Wisefab bump stop from Faruk Kugay and fixed our over centering issue. Knowing the car was fixed we were excited for competition on Saturday.

Our qualifying result paired us to go against 2017 3rd place champion Odi Bakchis for our top 32 battle. Odi is a great driver and is one of the fastest cars on grid and we were looking forward to do battle with him. Our goal for Saturday’s practice was to get as many follow laps as possible. This quickly came to an end, on our 2nd practice run of the day we snapped a stub shaft exiting the last turn. Knowing we didn’t have a spare and that top32 was close to starting, I frantically ran through the pits looking for a team with a spare stub shaft for our s13 differential. Luckily Enjuku Racing was kind enough to lend us their spare. Funny thing is we actually broke an axle last year in Atlanta and Enjuku Racing also helped us out, big shout out to the guys over at Enjuku! Since the stub shaft broke inside the differential we were unable to get it out and ended up swapping the differential with a spare that we brought. This took quite some time as top 32 started and we were about 75% of the way done. Our battle was the fourth battle in the bracket so we ended up having to call our competition 5 minute timeout. With 30 seconds left on the clock we finished installing the new differential and stub shaft and headed to line up against Odi. I knew we would have to give it our all for this battle. We initiated with Odi and kept great proximity through the first inside clip. Coming up the hill we surged forward on him into the horseshoe, I had to check up pretty good and when we hit the throttle the car was out of its power band and I sustained drift but started to shallow out. After the 3rd clutch kick we got the rear tires spinning again and transitioned to go back down the hill. Unfortunately this put me and an awkward line and I just fell into Odi’s tire smoke. We were in Odi’s smoke for about 3 seconds which felt like eternity when going those speeds not being able to see a thing. I was contemplating on when to transition and did not want to transition late due to that outside wall taking out a few vehicles this weekend. When I ended up transitioning we were just a tad too soon and I ended up going tires off and hitting the inside clip. On our lead I knew we had to give it everything we had. I laid down what I thought would have been a 100 point qualifying run. We hit all our clips and even through tons of angle going into the horseshoe. Coming down the hill we actually pulled a few car lengths away from Odi but unfortunately that wasn’t enough to upset our mistake.

The next day we went to the local event at Lanier Speedway across the street and had a blast driving with some of the local guys. It was also Mother’s day and I was able to give my Mom some ride alongs which was awesome! The team and I learned a lot this weekend and we all worked together to get the car fixed just in time for our top 32 battle. I could not have been prouder of everyone and we look forward to driving at Wall Speedway for the first time next round!

Matt is running Konig Hypergrams in 18×9.5 et 25mm front and 18×10.5 et 25 rear in Race Bronze. The Konig Hypergram is Flow Formed.

Scott & Joey breakdown FDATL on Behind The Wheel Podcast: FD Edition!!!

Posted on May 22, 2018 by Konig Gfx

On this special edition episode of BEHIND THE WHEEL PODCAST, Scott and Joey Redmond of Wrecked Magazine discuss what went down at Formula Drifts Round 3 in Atlanta and much more! Tune in and give us some feedback!

You can also, subscribe or download the podcast on our website, iTunes, Google Play, Youtube & Sound Cloud:

Thanks for listening!

FOLLOW:
Scott Weiss (Konig): Scott_Konig
Joey Redmond (Wrecked Magazine): joeyredmond
Konig Wheels USA Instagram: @konigwheelsusa

Knapik makes top 16 at FDATL 2018!

Posted on May 22, 2018May 22, 2018 by Konig Gfx

FORMULA DRIFT PRO 2 ATLANTA, GA – ROUND 1 | May 11th and 12th

Round One of the Formula Drift Pro2 Series is finished and in the books and it was definitely not with out some challenges. About a week before needing to leave for Atlanta our built LS2 suffered a catastrophic failure during testing. A flaw in the block gave in, and the block cracked (let that be a lesson, always have the block x-rayed for flaws). So with no time to spare, and our engine builder not being able to crank out a bottom end in that short of a time frame my crew chief, Adrian Quiroz, and I went for a hail Mary. Scouring craigslist we found a used LQ9 with about 150k miles on it for a good deal and swapped it into the S14, chucked the Edelbrock supercharger on it, gave it mild tune of 500 HP so that it wouldn’t (hopefully) explode and set off on our cross country road trip from California to Atlanta!

The drive went great and we made really good time. So good in fact that we where able to get the car teched a day early so that we wouldn’t have to be rushed the morning of practice. During practice though is when some gremlins would start rearing there heads. The oil pressure started to drop below safety perimeters and would cut power to the car to save the motor. We lowered the perimeters a bit to get in some runs with out the car cutting, but then the oil pressure only kept dropping. After practice we went through the car to check for leaks but came up empty, so we decided to change the oil to something thicker thinking maybe the oil was oiling over and thinning out. The thicker oil helped but the pressure would keep dropping, and we came to the conclusion that the oil pump was possibly on its way out. With not time to be able to swap oil pumps, I decided to turn off all the perimeters and send it, as qualifying was coming up. As luck would have it the moment I line up for the first qualifying run, it begins to rain. I put down a safe run to at least get some points on the board, scoring a 76. On my second qualifying run, coming up the hill the clutch pedal gets stuck on the floor and because of no drive, the car straightens. So the first run or 76 would have to do. We sat anxiously waiting to see if the 76 would hold up while all the other drivers finish off their 2nd passes. After the smoke had settled the score was good enough to get us into the show with a 15th qualifying spot and pairing us up with the 2nd place qualifier Dylan Hughes. After watching some replays of his qualifying and practice runs (and he did get 2nd) I knew he was a solid driver that wouldn’t play any games.

The day of competition always has a practice session before and our oil pressure was still a major concern, and now our motor is running a bit hot as well. But we had made it this far so we decided that we would go for it. I decided to only do one practice run to save the motor as much as I could, not even letting it idle, the team would push the car up to the starting line. Dylan and I had a hard fought battle for our first run, each making some minor mistakes. The judges deemed it was too close to call and we would go on to a One More Time decision. On our second battle it was another close call with the judges needing to review the replays a few times but after some time they would call Dylan the winner.

After all the ups and downs the team and I are happy with the outcome. We put some points up on the board and are pumped for Round 2 coming up in St. Louis, Missouri. This is a new track for Formula Drift so we’ll see what challenges it throws at us! Now its time to pull out the motor (again) and get to work on something with a bit more confidence. See you guys at Round 2!

Adam is running Konig Rennforms in 18×9 et 23 all the way around. The Konig Rennforms is Flow Formed.

Behind The Wheel Podcast: FD Edition – RD3 Atlanta

Posted on May 22, 2018May 22, 2018 by Konig Gfx

On this special episode of the Konig Behind The Wheel Podcast, Joey Redmond of Wrecked Magazine sits down with us to discuss his “10 things learned from FD Atlanta”. You can find Joey’s “10 things learned after each and every event on Formuladrift.com.
We also touch a few of the more notable highlights from Formula Drift Atlanta, interesting things from FD season so far and revisit the PRO 1 probable/potential podium finishers that we talked about from the last special FD episode …. (details/cheat sheet below!)

FOLLOW:

Scott Weiss (Konig): Scott_Konig
Joey Redmond : joeyredmond
Konig Wheels USA Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/konigwheelsusa/

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

FDATL 18 Friday Need To Know!

Posted on May 11, 2018 by KONIG

Tonight at 6pm EST Formula Drift will be heading into Pro1 Qualifying and then directly following that, around 10 pm EST, Top 16 for FD Pro2 will kick off. We wanted to bring you up to speed in case you want to follow some of the Konig Team as they take to the grid! So here is your Friday Need To Know for Formula Drift Atlanta.

In Pro1 make sure to look out for Kevin Lawrence and Matt VanKirk as they attempt to qualify.

In Pro 2, FIVE out of SEVEN Konig Drivers qualified into the top 16. Travis Reeder, Kelsey Rowlings, Adam Knapik, Ryan Litteral and Geoff Donati.

Travis Reeder is your #1 seed as he qualified with a 95! You should also note that Travis won this event last year so he’s looking for a repeat victory!

Make sure to watch it all godown LIVE starting at 6 pm. http://www.formulad.com/live

And make sure to SUBSCRIBE to our PODCAST! We will be running through highlights from this event early next week and we will do so after every Formula Drift event! If you like the PODCAST, please subscribe (available on iTunes and Google Play)

Behind The Wheel Podcast: FD Edition – RD2 Orlando

Posted on May 9, 2018 by Konig Gfx

On this special edition episode of BEHIND THE WHEEL PODCAST, Scott sits down w/ Wrecked Magazine’s own Joey Redmond and they review what went down in Orlando Speed Way for Formula Drifts Round 2 Pro series and much more!

You can also, subscribe or download the podcast on our website, iTunes, Google Play, Youtube & Sound Cloud:

Thanks for listening!

FOLLOW:
Scott Weiss (Konig): Scott_Konig
Joey Redmond (Wrecked Magazine): joeyredmond

Matt Vankirk makes TOP 16 at FDORL!!!

Posted on May 8, 2018May 9, 2018 by Konig Gfx

FORMULA DRIFT Orlando, FL – ROUND 2 | April 27th and 28th

With going out in top 32 at Long Beach Rd.1 by point’s leader Fredric Aasbo on our rookie debut, we came into Round 2 at Orlando Speed world with determination for a better outcome. The Team and I felt strong about Orlando, it was a track that we drove at last year for Pro 2 so we were familiar with the venue and what was needed to be successful. We arrived Wednesday the 25th to set up our pits and make some last minute adjustments to the vehicle before we hit practice hard the following day!

Thursday practice was a successful day! Last year we had some issues at Orlando, on initiation we had some struggle getting the car into drift on time due to running a stock engine and not being able to change our gear ratio. Thankfully with our Brian Crower built head this season we had no issues getting the car settled quickly into drift. We took it very conservative on our first run and after 4 laps the team and I felt great about the car and our runs. We felt like we could lay down a good qualifying run the next day so we made a group decision to conserve the car and use our remaining practice laps before qualifying the next day.

Going into Friday we knew we had to throw down. Right before my first qualifying pass I was quite nervous and was watching Kazuya Taguchi’s run and the way he initiated set it him up perfectly on the wall for the rest of his run. After he finished we lined up to lay down our first qualifying pass. I had Taguchi’s run in my head and decided to initiate like he did as it set him up for a great run. When I initiated along the wall as he did, the front of my car washed out on initiation and was understeering right for the wall. Luckily I reacted quickly and reinitiated the car and finished off the run. Unfortunately due to the mistake on initiation we received a 66. As the team and I knew we had points on the board and most of the nerves have settled I was ready to clear my head and drive how we normally do. As we approached the bank on my 2nd qualifying run we did an aggressive manji into the bank which set the car perfectly up against the wall. After riding the wall the entire way around the bank we dove into the first inside clip and transitioned through power alley at full speed. After coming off the 2nd inside clip and setting the angle of the car to finish the last turn I knew in my head we just put down a great qualifying run and I couldn’t have been more ecstatic. Pulling into the pits after our run the team was very stoked and they were proud to say we laid down a 89 point run. At the end of the day this put us at 16th place which is the upper half of the field of drivers.

It was time for the big event! Saturday was here and we hit practice in the morning focusing on tandeming only as we felt like our lead runs were solid. After a few tandem practices we quickly realized how quick our car really was. We were able to keep up with some of the fastest cars out on the grid such as Dean Kearney’s viper and the notorious NGK E92 Eurofighter. A problem we quickly noticed however was when we had to slow down following a car on the bank we lost all our momentum and the car was very difficult to get back on throttle with the tires still spinning. We are currently at 580hp with not much low end torque, which is the lowest in Pro 1 this season. My spotter, Justin Woodard and I strategized a game plan to allow a tiny bit of distance on the initiation then to real the cars in so we wouldn’t get choked up on the bank. Unfortunately this is not how we like to drive but it was the only thing that seemed reasonable to do at the time. Our first battle was with Michael Essa in the top 32. Shortly before top 32 had begun Essa ended up crashing his vehicle into the bank wall and his team was scrambling to get his car put back together. After a 5 minute competition timeout they showed up to the grid and we lined up for our first battle. As we qualified higher we lead first. On initiation Essa straightened out resulting in a zero for his follow run. Essa’s team decided to call it quits and returned his car to the pits. Essa stated he had no power steering and deemed he felt it was not safe to run and was not worth the risk. We didn’t want to win this way as Essa is a great driver and we were looking forward to a good fight but we were more than stoked to advance into our first ever top 16. After opening ceremonies our battle was the first of top 16 against number one qualifier Fredric Aasbo. Aasbo is no stranger to us, I have been watching him drift for many years as I have always looked up to him as a person and as a driver. We knew this was going to be a hard fought battle but we were thrilled to go against the Norwegian Hammer again this season. Aasbo led first and as mentioned before we decided to give him some distance on initiation and real him in. Unfortunately he pulled a little further than I was hoping on initiation but we reeled him in by the end of the bank. Coming down from the steep bank to the flat infield is a pretty drastic bump especially for our lowered cars. We never had an issue all weekend but following Aasbo into it he had a lot less angle than we have been going into that spot with and unfortunately even though I had the throttle fully down when we hit that bump our car completely straightened out. I instantly reinitiated and followed Aasbo for the rest of the run but I knew that would cost us in the end. As we lined up for our lead run I knew I was going to have to do my best run that entire weekend and we did just that! On our lead run we had a very aggressive manji which set us up to scrape the bank wall all the way around to power alley! Coming off the bank into power alley we actually left Aasbo a decent ways and he had to pull a lot of angle out of his car to keep up with us for the rest of the course. It definitely was not enough to secure the victory but we laid down a very solid run in top 16 and showed everyone that we are capable of becoming a very successful Formula Drift team! I could not have been more proud of my team and family this weekend. We have been progressing more and more each round, this round we made top 16 and I am looking forward to what Atlanta has in store for us! None of this would have been possible without the help from each and every one of you so I appreciate all of you in believing in us and we are thrilled to see what is in store for the future, thank you!

Matt is running Konig Hypergrams in 18×9.5 et 25mm front and 18×10.5 et 25 rear in Race Bronze. The Konig Hypergram is Flow Formed.

Behind The Wheel Podcast – Formula Drift RD2 Orlando Recap

Posted on May 7, 2018May 22, 2018 by Konig Gfx

On this special episode of the Konig Behind The Wheel Podcast, Joey Redmond of Wrecked Magazine sits down with us to discuss interesting things from FD Orlando and so much more…. (details/cheat sheet below!)

FOLLOW:

Scott Weiss (Konig): Scott_Konig
Joey Redmond : joeyredmond

Dont forget to check out our FD Orlando image gallery —> FORMULA DRIFT ORLANDO IMAGE GALLERY

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Formula Drift Orlando ’18 Gallery!!!

Posted on May 7, 2018 by Konig Gfx

FORMULA DRIFT ORLANDO, FL – ROUND 2 | April 27th and 28th

FDORL was one to remember w/ some amazing highlights! Needless to say we are excited for this season for sure! Below are images of what went down in Formula Drift Orlando brought to you by Konig Wheels in collaboration with Wrecked Magazine!