The Konig team is ready for Formula Drift Round 6!

The Konig team is ready for Formula Drift Round 6!

Posted on by Konig Gfx

FORMULA DRIFT SEATTLE, WASHINGTON – Round 6 | August 4th & 5th
As Formula Drift descends on Seattle, WA this weekend for round 6 (round 3 of pro2), Konig sponsored drivers from all over the country are making their way to the city of coffee and rain. Hopefully it wont rain this weekend because we’re excited to see what will be served up at Evergreen Speedway. With this season only a few events from the end, we thought we would give you a quick rundown of some of our FD drivers.

THE KONIG FORMULA DRIFT TEAM


Nate Hamilton has returned back to FD Pro and has really shown his skills and maturity in the sport. This season as proven to be almost a graduate course for Nate. He has had more top 16 finishes this season then in his entire career. It just seems that Nate gets better and better at each event. That has shown through his confident and aggressive driving. Currently in 16th place the last two events this season are going to be defining for Hamilton. Of course it will be his best professional season in Formula Drift but it will also be an incredible benchmark in his professional drifting career. We’re super proud of Nate and are excited to be part of his program. Go get’em Nate!

Nate is running Konig Hypergrams in 17×9 et 25mm front and 18×9.5 et 25 rear. The Konig Hypergram is Flow Formed.


Kevin Lawrence is for sure a rising star in the Formula Drift series. With his most recent win at FD Orlando, Kevin and the Enjuku Racing team are pushing for another “W” in Seattle and are chasing that championship. Kevin is an extremely knowledgable and all around great person. He is the definition of a true enthusiast not to mention has one of the coolest cars in FD pro2 with his right hand drive RB25 powered S14. Kevin is making that journey across the country and looks nothing less than ready and prepared to come out on top! Kevin is currently in 5th place.

Kevin is running Konig Hypergrams in 17×9 et 25mm front and 18×9.5 et 25 rear. The Konig Hypergram is Flow Formed.


Travis Reeder is a 100% the one to beat on the PRO 2 track! The battle for the series at this point could be a face off between two Konig sponsored drivers, Reeder and Lawrence. Travis placed 2nd in Orlando to Kevin Lawrence but took the win in Atlanta. He is currently in 1st place in the pro 2 rankings. Travis and his 240SX are on Konig Ultraforms and are coming into Seattle armed and ready to take out the competition!

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


Kelsey Rowlings is an exciting driver to watch and definitely ready to show the field what she’s made of. Kelsey’s driving style is super agressive which makes her the one you can’t keep your eyes off. She’s struggled a bit the first half of the season but not due to lack of effort or skill. Seattle could really be an exciting breakout event for her. Its refreshing seeing a women driver in professional drifting but be very clear, Kelsey is as solid of a professional drift driver as anyone in pro 2. Make sure to keep your eyes on her, because she really is an incredible driver!

Kelsey is running Konig Hypergrams in 17×9 et 25mm front and 18×9.5 et 25 rear. The Konig Hypergram is Flow Formed.


Donovan Brockway and the Red Baron team are like no other! His turbo E30 BMW, nicknamed “theBeast”, throws more smoke than you can imagine and the platform is one of the sickest in FD. Brockway is another one of those extremely aggressive drivers. They have been working out the kinks the first half but its looking better and better every event. When they put it all together Donovan is going to pop in to action in a major way! Follow Donovan and the Red Baron team as they prepare to move up on the rankings in this round of Formula Drift Pro 2!

Donovan is running Konig Rennforms in 18×8 et 35mm front and 18×9 et 35 rear. The Konig Rennforms is Flow Formed.


Alec Robbins and the Koruworks team are getting the 350Z on Konig Hypergrams ready for the FD Seattle! If you follow pro-am drifting last year and a bunch of grassroots drifting events you will know this dude can drive. Pairing him with one of the coolest shops on the East Coast (Koruworks) is a killer combo. Alec is currently in 15th place and is looking to show the field whats up! Unfortunately he wont be driving in Seattle due to mechanical issues, however look for him at Gridlife and back at FD Texas.

Alec is running Konig Hypergrams in 17×9 et 25mm front and 18×9.5 et 25 rear in BRONZE. The Konig Hypergram is Flow Formed.


Adam Knapik had a rough start to the Formula Drift season. It seemed like anything that could go wrong…well…went wrong for Adam. Blown engine, crazy electrical problems, etc, etc. So this round is definitely one of redemption for Adam and his team! Gearing up the V8 powered 240SX on Konig Rennforms, stay tuned and be ready to see Knapik lace up the track this time around!

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


Matt Vankirk is now part of the Konig family and we are super excited to have him. With a ranking of #4 on the PRO 2 board with 105pts, which is only 2 points away from 2nd place, it’s obvious Matt and his team are aiming for the top spot! MVK took second place at FD Atlanta right behind Travis Reeder. Who knows how that battle would have ended up as a mechanical issue forced MVK to shut the car down just as he entered into the first battle between him and Reeder. This event will be a test to see if MVK, Lawrence or Reeder will be the top Konig sponsored Pro 2 driver. Super exciting! Be sure to check out Matt’s 240sx on Konig Hypergrams!

Matt is running Konig Hypergrams in 17×9 et 25mm front and 18×9.5 et 25 rear. The Konig Hypergram is Flow Formed.

Mertzanis lands one of the best performances of his career

Posted on by Konig Wheels

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

With some rain hovering around Evergreen Speedway, qualifying in Seattle was going to be a tough challenge. Dennis managed to line up for run 1 before the rain came down, and he rode the bank wall, scoring a huge 80 for his run. He came in through the speed traps at 79.5mph (Speed 1 trap point – 65mph minimum for score) and 38mph (Speed 2 trap point – 35mph minimum for score) and landed one of his best performances in his career.

His second qualifying run with the surface being wet was not an improvement due to the harsh driving conditions laid out by the unpredictable Washington weather. His second run fell short at 65, but still put him in a great position for the main event.

The main event Saturday served up a whole new round of conditions and temperature meaning the team had to make some serious and quick changes. The KW Clubsport suspension had to be moved into different settings along with some alignment changes on our SPL Suspension parts. At last, a quick tire pressure change on the Kenda Tires and the car was ready for a Top 32 round against Daijiro Yoshihara.

The morning practice after these adjustments saw Dennis riding the bank wall so deep he was ripping sponsor banners off the bank walls and leaving them scattered around Evergreen Speedway. He even had some great tandem runs with drivers such as former champion Rhys Millen in his 2013 Hyundai Genesis.

The Top 32 tandem battle put Dennis up against the reigning champion in his Discount Tire S13 for one insane battle. In the following run, Dennis managed to go deeper than the champion coming around the bank, but held onto his car at full lock, no problem. He put together a great run leaving a huge opportunity for victory with his lead run.

Dennis once again went in deep into the bank and came flying into the power alley at full lock and throttle, getting ready for the tight turns to finish the course. All was looking fantastic as his earlier adjustments made the car look like it was going to be a victorious battle.

Tons of smoke was pouring out of the Fuelculture S13.4 as the Kenda Tires screamed through the power alley. Right at this point, Dennis Mertzanis was unable to rotate back with the car and wound up putting it into the k-rail, ending his tandem run early and resulting in damage to his front suspension. This ended the weekend a little early, but the Mertzanis Racing team is ready for Las Vegas now that everything has been replaced from the Seattle battle damage.

Images courtesy of Wrecked Magazine

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