Formula Drift Round 5 “Throwdown” Moen Recap

Formula Drift Round 5 “Throwdown” Moen Recap

Posted on by Konig Wheels

**This is the official recap written by and courtesy of Lutz Performance from Formula Drift Round 5: “Throwdown” at Evergreen Speedway, Monroe, Washington July 20-21**

Round 5 was pure madness the entire time. From two weeks before the event, to the final judging call against Ken Gushi in Top 32. With a new motor in the car and with the help of a Brian Crower stroker kit and cams, we were looking to make some big power. This big power came at a cost because we broke a camshaft. Luckily the old cams were roughly the same size. We were able to get the car running in time for Hal from Dynosty to get it on a local dyno. We ran into some ridiculous wiring issues that prevented us from tuning the car and ended up spending the next 4 days sorting it out. We finally solved the issues which were related to a brand new alternator and power wire that we had put in a few days before. Then on the dyno we had and issue with the AEM base map unlocking the cams, and some fuel delivery issues which maxed us out on fuel way too soon. We then had to tune around that and only ended up making 600 HP. With the car strapped in we left Dynosty happy that we finally had the car working right and headed straight for Monroe.

Thursday morning we got in, set up, and got ready for practice. This was a true test of all of our efforts thus far. Starting out good we felt that the car may be a little underpowered after half the session, so we keep our focus on setting the suspension for the bank. By the end of practice the wiring bugs came back. This was causing the fans to cut off randomly resulting in some very extreme over-heating situations that we were lucky to stay on the good side with.

Friday morning we fixed the fan issue and swapped out the diffs to help move through the power a little easier. We also made some small alignment changes that helped settle the car and made Kenny very happy. So from here everything seemed golden….. But evil would show its face yet again. Kenny started complaining of downshifting issues coming into the infield. As practice went on the issues got worse, and mimicked the same issues that lead to our early defeat in New Jersey. Kenny powered through the issues for the remainder of practice and qualifying, even top32 practice that night. However you could still see his discomfort. So with HUGE THANKS to Bridges Racing, we got to work on getting the clutch out before the end of the night, again huge thanks to them for letting us do this.

Saturday Morning was early, chilly, but much drier than Friday. So we got in early and started immediately on clutch swap as we only had 2.5 hours before the Top 32 practice. We were able to complete this task just in time, dropped the car down and swapped on some fresh tires just as the first few cars started to make a pass. Practice went very smooth, and Kenny was very happy. We were paired up with Ken Gushi for the 2nd time this season, and we knew it was going to be a tough one. The battle ended up going to Gushi after Kenny dropped a tire over the line coming off the bank and ended our long journey early in the fight. Sucks to take a blow to the gut like that after so much work, but hey that’s racing. The only thing we can do is come back better and harder for Vegas. And we will be out for blood!

Images courtesy of Wrecked Magazine

Kenny Moen / Lutz Performance to the Top 8

Posted on by Konig Wheels

For the second time this season Kenny Moen / Lutz Performance has made it to the top 8.  

This passed weekend at Formula Drift Round 3: West Palm Beach, Florida, Moen and the entire Lutz performance team came out firing. 

Showing up to an FD event is hard enough but Moen continuously proves he is able to attack and conquer.   On Friday, during Round 3 at West Palm Beach,  an abundance of bad weather including heavy rain came down on the event.  The on and off rain really fluctuated and adjusted the temperature. But cooling down the track did not prevent Moen from doing well in the first qualifying round.  Moen and the Lutz Peformance / KÖNIG Wheels sponsored 350Z had a very aggressive practice and smooth transition going into the Top 32.

The weather did not seem to let up in the second run either.  This caused the car to have major traction issues. With such a high rate of speed, Kenny ended up receiving a 0 due the fact that the track was wet.  Over coming his scored 0, Moen ended up defeating his first competitor in the top 32 , Matt Powers, which progressed him into the Top 16.

The top 16 put Moen against Ken Gushi.  Gushi provided an entertaining match up but Moen was able to defeat him and move into the Top 8.  Drawing a former FD Champion, Chris Forsberg, in the top 8 is always going to present an extremely tough battle.  Moen was mentally focused and had an amazing first run against Chris Forsberg giving him the lead.  While the matchup between Moen and Forsberg was heating up, the Lutz performance car seemed to have its own major opponent which it would not be able to overcome.  Clutch difficulties and the attributed loss of power in the 350z, allowed Forsberg to catch up.  Ultimately this would be the day ender for the Moen / Lutz / Konig team.  All  in all it was a fantastic event.  While the Lutz 350z sustained body and mechanical damage during RD 3, but this won’t hold the team back as they are now in the repair process to prepare for RD 4 in Wall, New Jersey on June, 22nd and 23rd.

KÖNIG would like to congratulate Kenny Moen and Lutz Performance on their fantastic effort and top 8 finish. We look forward to the next event. Stay tuned for more pictures and videos from Round 3 as well as upcoming coverage from RD 4!

Moen at Formula Drift Round One: Long Beach

Posted on by Konig Wheels

KÖNIG is proud to be partnered with Lutz Performance and Kenny Moen for the 2012 Formula Drift Season. Check out the FD Round 1 recap from Lutz Performance below.

Last year, Lutz Performance had the opportunity of partnering with Kenny Moen and helping him with the 2011 Formula D season as a sponsor. Fast forward to today and we are pleased to announce that we are this year’s title sponsor for car #22. This is the FIRST time in Formula D’s history that a local performance shop is the main sponsor on a car.
We obviously couldn’t do all of this without the help of our other sponsors:

KÖNIG Wheels, Carbonetics, Stance Coilovers, GT Spec, Powered by MAX, VIS Racing, SPL Parts, Prosport Gauges, Falken Tires

Round One

Went a lot better than we had expected for our first round as a Main / Major sponsor. Our first run was against Darren McNamara in Falken Tire’s Saturn Sky who unfortunately crashed on his first run and knocking himself out of the event.

Next we took on Conrad Grunewald in the Hankook Camaro and defeated him and advanced to the top 8. Up next we had to beat Matt Powers in the Need 4 Speed 240sx to make it into the top 4.

Unfortunately, that didn’t happen and our Round 1 experience came to an end. Although we did not have a podium finish we feel that the team did a great job for our first event,
we hope this is the beginning of a great season with much more to come. We are also pleased to announce that Kenny Moen has signed with team Lutz Performance for the 2013 FD season, look out for his 2013 season car design being release after Round 6 in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Images courtesy of Wrecked Magazine and Lutz Performance