Dennis Mertzanis and his brand new Hyundai Genesis Coupe have made their debut at the 2013 Formula Drift tech day this last weekend. He has been testing rigoriously at Buttonwillow raceway to dial in the car in time for the season opener. The streets of long beach is about to turn in record ticket sales for the 2013 season starting in Long Beach April 12-13. The new setup has gobs of power with an already potent 3.8L v6 under the hood; that was just not enough to break the tires at 80mph. A Brian Crower 4.0L stroker kit was exactly what the car needed, oh and the addition of a large turbocharger the car will easily blow the tires off at well over 100mph. The car is now putting out a wopping 600hp and 540ft/tq
**This is the official recap written by and courtesy of the Mertzanis Racing team from Formula Drift Round 6: “After Dark” at Las Vegas Motor Speedway – August 24th – 25th**
Right after pulling off the trailer on Thursday night, we went into the private paid practice and started bumper banging on the k-rails, and scraping paint and decals off the rear bumper. With some sway bar tweaks, and a Kenda Tire pressure adjustment, the car felt unstoppable. A full day before qualifying, the car felt fantastic to Dennis Mertzanis and the whole Mertzanis Racing crew.
Friday practice, before qualifying Dennis went out chasing Kyle Mohan, who is one of the fastest drivers on the circuit. Dennis wanted to see how quick the car setup for the weekend was overall. These screen grabs were pulled from our GoPro camera that has a video you can see here.
Dennis explains, “Well, we went flying into the first outer clip together. What is normally a full throttle affair, Mohan went too close to the wall, and hard-braked, slowing down a lot. I was coming in hot and couldn’t slow down fast enough. We made contact and I hit the wall knocking the suspension out of alignment.”
The team worked quickly to get the car back in race trim. Only one KÖNIG Milligram wheel was damaged beyond repair, since it made high-speed contact with the rear bash bar on Kyle Mohan’s Mazda Rx-8. After his two runs, Dennis finished 19th for Kenda Tires, which lined him up against Ryan Tuerck in the Retaks S13. This was a rematch from Round 1 at Streets of Long Beach.
On Saturday, just before competition brought on rain and crazy wind as the drivers hit the track. Luckily, we had a rain setup for the car on standby, but it all dried up before Dennis got on the track for his Top 32 battle. Ryan Tuerck led the first battle in his S13.5 against our Chevrolet Performance Parts powered LS3 S13.4. Dennis held a somewhat conservative, but all around solid follow run behind Tuerck.
After the smoke settled, the judges gave the win over to Ryan Tuerck eliminating Dennis Mertzanis from this weekend’s competition. The team came together and really made huge developments with the S13. Dennis is planning on a huge month of testing in September to get ready for the final round at Irwindale Speedway coming up in October.
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**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.
Our good friends over at Wrecked Magazine (www.WreckedMagazine.com) is always putting work in on their Gallery. It contains awesome photography from all the Formula Drift events and even International Drift! Click Here to check out the Wrecked Gallery and don’t forget to look at Wrecked Issue #23 “The Exterior Issue”, which you can get to Right From Here!
Konig sponsored driver, Brad Hetttinger returns with his S14 to finish half of the 2012 Formula Drift season. Read the more on this at Wrecked Magazine.
We would like to thank our great friends over at Fuel Culture and Wrecked Magazine for the feature in Wrecked Magazine Issue 22, which shows off the Hyundai Veloster featuring some great aftermarket options including KÖNIG Deception wheels. “The wheels are lightweight, attractive and affordable! They were the obvious choice.” If you would like to check out Wrecked Magazine’s current issue, head over to Wrecked Magazine and scroll down to Issues.
Image courtesy of Fuel Culture and Wrecked Magazine
