Geoff Stoneback Heads to Formula Drift Rd. 5

Posted on August 20, 2014 by Paul P.

Here are a few words from our good friend, Geoff Stoneback, and his adventures at Evergreen Speedway for Formula Drift’s Rd. 5 race!

“On Thursday July 18th, my crew and I arrived at Evergreen Speedway for Round 5 of the 2014 Formula Drift season. We had double duties with Pro 1 & Pro 2 and were very eager to attack this aggressive course. Coming off of Round 4 and not qualifying, we had to mentally focus and prepare to go out for qualifying.

Thursday practice went well for us! The first time that we drove the course we realized how long and hard the bank was. Our alignment wanted us to push down further from the wall, but with the amazing crew that I have they stiffened the driver side to allow us to stay up in the outer zone and filling the touch and go area. We had a solid four hours of practice, until we needed to be at our Pro 2 meeting.

We had an hour of Pro 2 practice until it was time for qualifying. Our first run was the better of the two landing us in 4th place with a 74. Friday we had a long day of driving and meeting the fans. It started with a Pro 1 practice and into Pro 1 qualifying, but before qualifying we smashed up our third and fourth gear slider on our transmission taking us out of practice on Friday. Luckily, we borrowed some parts from Chris Forsberg and the guys at R/T Tuning got the transmission out and fixed in no time. We did a couple more practice laps and headed into qualifying.

On our first run we landed a 69 putting us in 27th place. Our second run we put down a 74 putting us in 17th place, our best qualifying spot yet. I was really excited to qualify so well until we heard that we were up against Daijiro Yoshihara. Although he was in a new vehicle, he is a former champion and in no way considered an easy win. Taking our momentum from Pro 1 into Pro 2 is always a great experience. Having that extra seat time on the track was our biggest advantage. After the top 16 ceremonies, we first faced Will Parsons in his Corolla AE86. I thought this could be an easy win as long as I do not take myself out. In our lead run I made the mistake of tapping the wall off the bank, sending me off course and giving him the advantage. On my follow run, Will tapped the second out zone wall in the power alley sending him off line. Knowing that I was at a huge deficit, I passed Will going into the inner clips giving us a OMT (One More Time). On our OMT run, I applied the pressure on him where it mattered and kept it consistent. We got the win and our next battle was against Jeff Jones.

Jeff was looking pretty solid, but his runs were inconsistent. On my lead run going into the power alley, I hit a bump and it caused me to correct my steering giving us a OMT. On my lead run in the OMT, I got too caught up in Jeff’s weird line off of the bank, almost hitting him so I backed off and ended up in his line of smoke and transferred into the outer clip 20 ft too early giving him an easy win. We ended up finishing Pro 2 in 4th place and tied in first with Dan Savage.

Heading into top 32 on Saturday, the team and I went over how we could make the car even better for Pro 1. We dialed in some more grip, knowing the competition was going to be fierce. We put down solid runs in practice, however at the end of practice we noticed our clutch slipping. We were literally the last run in top 32 practice and we were also the second battle so we had no time to get it swapped out. We adjusted the pedal so it would hold and hopefully last until we had time to fix it during the top 16 break. The first battle was against Dmac and Tony Angelo. On the first run, Tony followed and put his car into the bank giving them a 5 minute call. We were called to the line and hoped the clutch held throughout this battle. On my lead run, Dai did a little flick up to the bank to surprise me out, however I applied the pressure and put up a great follow. On our lead run, my clutch was slipping when I floored it down the straight away. I backed off the throttle and it hooked, but when I went to initiate, our car had so much grip it would slip in 4th gear. I bobbled twice and downshifted into 3rd where it held a bit but we didn’t have 100% in it. We finished the lap but since we drove straight for half of the bank we gave an easy win to Dai. Although we got knocked out in top 32, Dai came up shook my hand and said “you are really good and I’m glad your clutch slipped because you had me.” We laughed a bit and honestly it felt amazing hearing that from a former champion. We hung out and watched the rest of the field battle it out.

At the end of the weekend we are tied for 1st for Pro 2 and we are in 23rd place in Pro 1. We are still leading in the Rookie of the year race. After the abuse the car took in Seattle, we brought the rig home to make sure the car is 100% for Round 6. We had a great time meeting new fans and signing autographs and look forward to making better progress in Texas!”

Sounded like a pretty fun weekend overall! Car problems will always happen. At least we know Geoff and the GS Drifting crew will do whatever it takes to get the car back on the track and put on a good show for the crowd, as always! Best of luck in Texas, Geoff!

Formula Drift New Jersey (The Wall) Video

Posted on July 17, 2014 by Paul P.

A great video review of Geoff’s race at Formula Drift New Jersey (The Wall)!

Wish we were there to give you some pit side support, Geoff!
Best of luck at the next event!

Keep On Truckin’

Posted on June 30, 2014 by Paul P.

You all know motorsports ain’t easy. I mean, if you’re doing it for fun, no big deal. Enjoy yourself. But, when there’s big money on the line, it can be pretty stressful. Our guy Geoff Stoneback knows what it’s like to face tons of pressure, but at least he knows how to handle it in stride.
Here’s his recap of Round 4 for Formula Drift in New Jersey:

“Formula Drift Round 4, “The Gauntlet” was a real tough one! We had great vibes and momentum coming off of Miami, where we were in 17th place, a great standings for a rookie! Before the 2014 Formula Drift season started, I sat down with Wrecked magazine owner, Joey Redmond and two other rookies Eric Hill and Dan Savage. We talked about what our expectations and fears were and Round 4 was one of my fears. I’ve never driven wall before, even though it is an hour from my house, but it is also one of the craziest courses in FD. All my family and friends came out to their first ever live Formula Drift event to see me drive in the big show. The pressure was there, but it didn’t bother me!”

“On Thursday paid practice, I walked the course with my spotter Dan Popowich and saw where we had to put the car on each clipping zone. As we finished walking the course, it unfortunately started to rain. We suited up and heading to one of the most mentally and physically challenging courses that I’ve ever had to face. We went in practice and stayed high in the bank but giving us space between the rail just incase anything weird would happen.. Our main focus was coming off of the bank into the infield. We got some great advice from past champions such as Chris Forsberg and Vaughn Gittin Jr., so our biggest fears were an easy accomplishment. Our troubles came in the infield. The pouring rain running off the bank and sitting in the rear clipping zones made it tough for anyone to complete the course. In the last hour of practice, it dried off and we linked the course and felt confident about our runs.”

“Friday was our big day. It was make it or break it for us. We had our practice session and got a couple laps in. We felt good about our runs, but still needed to nail the transition into inner clip 1 and outer zone 2, however our practice was over and it was time for qualifying.

Our first qualifying lap we stayed high up on the bank, hit every clip, but coming off the last outer clipping zone, we came out of it too early giving us a score of 65, sitting in 44th place, not where we want to be. About 20 drivers had a score between 65-70. All we needed was a 70 to guarantee us in the top 32! I sat at the line and mentally focused. I realized that this is the first time I have never been in the top 32 on my first qualifying run and it needed to change. I launched hard off the line and through the car hard into the bank came into the infield, hit the clips and finished my run. From the cheering and clapping from the fans, drivers and other teams it seemed like I was in!”

“Unfortunately I missed top 32 by 1 point! I was really bummed, but my family and friends came to cheer me up. This was officially the first time I failed to qualify in my Formula Drift career. No other rookies qualified for this event, a first in 2014! I went to the drivers meeting and after stayed to talk with the judges. We went over their notes and talked about why I missed qualifying for top 32. It was the transition between inner clip 1 and outer clip 2 that hurt my score and didn’t let me advance. They were very happy to see me come and ask questions, no other rookie or driver did.

Although we didn’t progress on track like we wanted to, my team and I progressed off track very well! We interacted with the fans, signed autographs and took pictures at our pit area. As long as we progress on and/off track I can be proud of that. We also watched some of the best drivers in the world attack one of the hardest courses in the series.”

“On Sunday, My spotter Dan and crew Mechanic Matt Waln, Headed up to a local event to have some fun and blow some steam off! We had a great time and ended our weekend on an amazing note!
We aren’t letting this event get us down! We are gearing up for Seattle, where we will be competing in Pro 2, which we are currently in first and Pro 1, which we are in 25th. ”

We feel bad that Geoff wasn’t able to put in a great result in front of what was essentially a home crowd. Great to know that he had some family and friend support there for him!

And, some of the most important fans he’ll ever need- Geoff’s parents!

We look forward to a better outcome for the next event! Keep on truckin’, Geoff!

Event Updates from Geoff Stoneback!

Posted on June 13, 2014 by Paul P.

Geoff has been very good at following up with all of his sponsors after every event. Goes to show he’s not just in drifting for himself, or simply for personal gain. That’s something for us to admire, as we know Geoff already works hard at what he does, and he also has a wife and baby added to his personal life. I’m glad that he can find some time in between all of that to let us know how he’s doing!

Here’s what Geoff has had to say about the year in Formula Drift so far:

“Coming off of the two rounds of Formula Drift, we were sitting 29th in the standings. We felt positive going into Round 3 Homestead-Miami since every round we were improving on and off track. The car set up was getting dialed in more as I felt more comfortable in the car. Since this was a new venue, I felt we had a great opportunity to put on an amazing show. On top of the regular Formula Drift series, Pro 2 had its first round of the new series. With many pros and cons of running two events in one weekend, we decided the extra seat time will pay off.”

Geoff certainly knows how to lay down some smoke!

“We would have a full three days of non stop drifting, which would really put the team and I to the test. Going into paid practice on Thursday, we had four hours of Pro 1 practice, straight to the Pro 2 drivers meeting and finally into Pro 2 practice and qualifying. With the added seat time we were able to dial the car in as well as our line on the track. We felt confident going into qualifying and our first run landed us in first place with a score of 74. It wouldn’t hold for too long, we were knocked into the second qualifying place by Carl Rydquist with a score of 76. Our second qualifying run, we wow’d the judges but being a couple feet off clip 3 landed us a score of 75, still stuck in the 2nd qualifying spot. Thursday was complete!”

Easily gapping his competitor!

“Heading into Friday, we had another busy day of qualifying for Pro 1 and then top 16 in Pro 2. After the drivers meeting, it was officially announced we ended up qualifying 21st in Pro 1 and were really excited that we were in both of the shows! We went right into Pro 2 practice for an hour and directly into top 16. In our first battle we were supposed to face Ron Ewerth, but due to mechanical issues we got the Bi-run into the top 8. In the top 8 I faced Dave Briggs, an Achilles Radial teammate, also a Pro 1 driver. We laid down a solid lead run giving us the advantage. On our chase run, Dave spun around the 2nd inner clip giving us the win. In the top 4, we faced a local Florida native, Jeremy Lowe. This was going to be a tough battle because I have personally driven with him before and know he is a tough competitor. We had another amazing lead run, which Jeremy straightened hard into clip 2 giving us the advantage. On our chase run, we stuck our front bumper to his rear wheels and got the win. Moving on to the top two, we would face our good friend, Nate Hamilton. Nate and I have battled once before, in 2012 at Buffalo XDC where I got the win. I knew he wanted to get the friendly revenge, but I wouldn’t let that happen. I led first and laid down the solid runs i’ve been doing all day, gaping Nate off the line and throughout the whole course. On our chase run I laid hard into the throttle into inner clip 2, putting the car door to door and amazing the judges, drivers and fans! We stuck to his door and got the win in the first ever Pro 2 series event, Friday complete!

Saturday was the big day! We showed that we were able to adapt in tandem and on the track. The guys at R/T tuning dialed in the car from yesterdays abuse and we were 100% ready to get into the top 16. Every event we want to better ourselves from last time. We qualified, which was great, but it was time to get our first win as a Pro 1 Formula Drift driver. Coming off of our momentum and Fridays win in Pro 2, we raised tons of eyebrows and had everyone asking how are we so fast. We knew we were extremely fast off the line and we needed to keep that momentum going in our first battle against Odi Bakchis. We had a great follow run, with one correction with our lead run on point, but we had a OMT call. On our second follow run, we put the car closer to Odi giving him no room for error. On our lead run we had an amazing line with aggression, not allowing Odi to keep up. We finally broke out of the top 32 and into the top 16! For my first ever top 16, I decided to take my wife, Linda out as my umbrella girl. She has been there since day one and I knew it would mean a lot to us in our first top 16!
One of the coolest feelings to date was riding out with my Achilles Radial teammates Kenny Moen and Robbie Nishida. It will be a memory that I will never forget. With the ceremonies complete it was back to the focus of our next battle with Forrest Wang. I was excited to go against one of the best privateers, as I really look up to Forrest, but it was time to take him out. We had our follow run first and kept on his door throughout the whole course. On our lead run I launched hard and left Forrest at the line, unable to catch up. We were awarded the win and made it to The Great 8!

Our next battle was with Matt Fields. We had a great follow run, but the car bogged down on power a bit. We added fuel to the cell, thinking we had a fuel slosh problem and went out for our lead run. We left the line hard and had a decent gap, but going into inner clip 2 the car lost all power, we straightened, dropped a tire and reinitiated. We were called for a OMT and brought the car back to Hot grid. We checked the data logs and found that our car was throwing fuel into the tune to make up for the O2 sensors that were not functioning correctly. We went back to the line, hungry for the win. We were one more battle closer to the top 4! Unfortunately on our second follow run, we stayed to close to Matt on inner clip 2 and 3. I switched back to quickly running door to door, but Matt threw tons of angle and scrubbed a bit of speed and I tapped him just hard enough to make him spin. We were at a huge disadvantage, but we still remained positive! I did my lead run but dropped a tire. Although we still had a couple car lengths on Matt, at the end, Matt got the win and we finished 8th place in Pro 1.”

“After we were knocked out, I was bummed about being too aggressive and beating myself, but the fans definitely made the team and I feel better. Many drivers came up to congratulate us on a great round in Miami! With a 1st place podium at the first Pro 2 event and finishing 8th in Pro 1 was a very successful weekend for the team and I!

We currently have the car back at R/T tuning and are making sure it is 100% ready for our “hometown” round at Wall, NJ The Gauntlet!”

Two TEIN equipped drift cars battling it out!

With Geoff facing some stiff competition, not to mention well-funded teams, we’re glad to see his racing talent really shine. He’s making the best with what he’s got. It’s great to see him in the points, and with the first win in the inaugural Pro 2 series, we’re sure that the only place Geoff has to go from there is UP!!!

Sitting atop the Pro 2 podium! Congrats, Geoff!

Here’s a link to Geoff Stoneback’s Vimeo page. He gave a full report on the event here!

Formula Drift Brings The Heat to Miami!

Posted on June 2, 2014 by Paul P.

A huge congrats to two of the hardest working guys in the Formula Drift series- Vaughn Gittin Jr. and Geoff Stoneback! Both took first place wins in their respective class!

Vaughn Gittin Jr. just came back from a win at Road Atlanta a little over two weeks ago. It’s great to see his Monster Energy/Nitto Tire Ford Mustang in top form and getting podiums once again! He certainly knows how to please the crowd!

Our good friend Geoff Stoneback took part in the Pro 2 battle, which is a new addition to the Pro Championship series. Since this is Geoff’s rookie year running with some of these seasoned FD vets, this new Pro 2 series is a great way in showcasing his talents while working towards racing against the Pro Championship guys. And he didn’t disappoint!

Pics sourced from the following links:

Formula Drift Homepage

Vaughn Gittin Jr. Facebook

Geoff Stoneback Drifting Facebook

Geoff Stoneback. A True Competitor

Posted on April 24, 2014 by Paul P.

Once again, we’re glad to have Geoff Stoneback on-board with TEIN as his suspension supplier! Never one to let his sponsors down, Geoff made sure to put in a great effort at the Long Beach event this past April 4-5th.

He’s not with easy company, mind you. This year, Geoff takes his talents against seasoned veterans in the Pro Championship drivers many of us are already familiar with. So, in some ways, the odds are against him since many of these pros are backed heavily with sponsors, and that money goes into their race cars (some builds well into the 6 figures!!). Geoff is doing all his campaigning on a relatively paltry budget. But, he’s doing it well!

We had a chance to run into him in the pits and he gave us a rundown of the event. Unfortunately, he was plagued with clutch slave cylinder issues from the beginning. Even after repairing the damaged seal with a spare seal, the problem persisted, making qualifying difficult for Geoff. Unfortunate to say, but Geoff was knocked out of competition early due to this constant problem with the slave cylinder seal.

He stopped by our booth during his downtime. Since we’ve yet to meet him in person (can you believe that?!?!), it was a great pleasure to hear from him. Seems like car problems during qualifying weren’t the only issues. Geoff told us transportation of his race car was delayed due to the truck breaking down en route, stopping in Sweetwater, TX. Fortunately, Geoff’s TX connection from Dirty Diesels gave the trailer a tow to the nearest Ford dealership, while the truck was being worked on over there. It definitely pays to have connections like that!

However, the headache grew, as the Ford dealer could not repair the truck in time. Geoff had no choice but to hire a contractor to deliver the trailer the rest of the way to sunny California. Talk about being stressed out.

When the car finally arrived to California, there was still plenty of prep work to do to get the car to pass tech inspection. The crew went right to work. This cut well into any practice time for Geoff in a completely new car. So many unknowns were to be revealed to him. Nevertheless, Geoff went right to work. And the rest of the story you read about above.

So, while sad as it all sounded, it was great to see Geoff continue with his pursuit to become a champion. The season is far from over, and the same goes for Geoff’s career as a race car driver! We look forward to Geoff’s updates on the next event!

Get the race recap from the Formula Drift Site

Here are some pics of Geoff’s qualifying and practice runs:

More info found at Geoff Stoneback

and on Facebook

Nissan R35 GT-R Suspension

Posted on March 21, 2014 by Paul P.

We’ve already had our popular Super Racing coilover kit available for the R35 GT-R. The TEIN group was quick to jump into the development on that car’s suspension from the day it was released internationally. However, we knew that the sales of the GT-R wouldn’t necessarily take the world over right away. After all, it is a relatively expensive car.

Now in 2014 we’re looking to go back to redeveloping our already race proven setup.

With pre-owned GT-R’s now available at somewhat more reasonable prices, new owners are now able to put some money into enhancing an already well-balanced factory super car. Leave it to us to find a way to improve its suspension, which is what we do anyway!

For this year, we’re working with our good friends at Evasive Motorsports, who have recently acquired a GT-R. We’re pleased to see that they contacted us for suspension assistance. As aforementioned, we were looking to redo the damper valving and possibly spring rates. So it was good timing for us!

While it’s great to be working with Evasive Motorsports on the Super Racing development, we also look to put our newly released and available EDFC Active Pro to work on this car. TEIN Japan has already received praise on this new EDFC offering, with drivers reporting drastic improvement in driving and reduced lap times (one claim of -30 seconds lap time sounded too good to be true, but we’ll take it!). Now we’re looking to get feedback from our North American customers.

Please stay posted with us on the redevelopment on R35 Super Racing suspension and for our EDFC Active Pro testing!

Super Lap Battle/Global Time Attack 2013

Posted on November 21, 2013 by Paul P.

Another year has passed, and we were waiting in anticipation to see what every competitor for this year’s Super Lap Battle at Buttonwillow Raceway Park will bring.

Just like last year, TEIN staff attended to be able to assist any of the teams and drivers on TEIN suspension in any way possible. For us, it is great to get their feedback on our suspension and how it is performing for them. It also gives us plenty of insight on what vehicle modifications are being made and how we can help adapt their suspensions to their specific setups.

In total, there were seven vehicles using TEIN suspension. In no specific order,

Limited AWD Class- Evasive Motorsports’ Mitsubishi Evo VIII (Super Racing coilovers)

Limited FWD Class- Sportcar Motion’s Acura Integra Type R (Super Racing coilovers)

Limited FWD Class- Bobby Lane Racing’s Honda Accord (CL7 Mono Flex coilovers)

Street RWD Class- Will Wattanawongkiri’s Nissan 240SX (Flex coilovers)

Enthusiast FWD Class- Pradana Wilianto’s Acura CSX (FA5 Mono Flex coilovers)

Street FWD Class- Ken Suen’s FB6 Honda Civic Si (Mono Flex coilovers)

Street RWD Class- Ryan Houck’s Honda S2000 (Super Racing coilovers)

Fortunately, once again, each team and driver had their cars setup very well, with only little input from us. A majority of time was spent with Evasive on their Evo to see if we can get the most out of a minimally tested new setup they’re running (upgrades to power; different tire). So, there was a bit of a learning curve with this car.

The best part of the event was that many of these guys logged their fastest times in early sessions.

Sportcar Motion’s Integra, with driver Tim Kuo returning again for this event, was able to shatter their old record of 1:54.xx with a 1:52.886, and that time held throughout the day giving them the win in the respective class! Mechanical issues prevented any further sessions for them, but the damage was already done. A new benchmark for Limited FWD has been set!

Evasive’s Evo, plagued with some turbocharger issues (failure) and transmission problems, still locked in a respectable 1:49.102, taking the Limited AWD class win and getting very close to taking the overall win. Hopefully, with more testing and developing in 2014, this car will take top honors. It must be noted that this car skipped over a full year of development, as they focused on their Scion FR-S and Honda S2000 for last year’s event. So, with that said, this year’s finish is an impressive result. We were glad to speak with driver, and Evasive Motorsports co-owner, Mike Chang, to get his feedback. We’ll be working with them more on this car, as well as a few other project cars in their stable, for 2014!

Will Wattanawongkiri’s S13 240SX was able to clinch top time in the Street RWD class with a 1:54.969. He’s been able to dial in his out-of-the-box Flex coilovers to work well with his vehicle, enough so that he could take the championships in various other Time Attack series’ this year.

Bobby Lane Racing’s Honda Accord sported updated aero (larger front splitter and wide fender to fit wider tires; side skirts; rear diffuser). They also had revalved their CL7 Mono Flex dampers for much stiffer springs. Prior to this event, then were hoping to get some testing done with this new setup, but a catastrophic wheel failure prevented them from making final adjustments leading to Super Lap Battle. Didn’t seem to matter as they logged a 1:59.158 time, approximately 3 seconds better than 2012. Although unusual to see an Accord at a Time Attack event, Bobby Lane Racing showed that it can still be plenty fast for track duties.

Pradana “Ping” Wilianto’s Acura CSX dipped into a 2:01.314 ET. That’s about two seconds faster than his time last year. He also got the win in his class!

Ken Suen brought out his new FB6 Honda Civic Si. Still a street car with full interior, modifications were minimal. In fact, he used the Mono Flex from his infamous “Big Red” FA5 Civic Si on this new car (had some modifications done to make it work. Other than that, front aero, larger wheel and tires, and brake upgrades were all that this car had. Not looking to break a new record, he still recorded a 2:06.271 lap time!

Ryan Houck’s S2000, which was backed by our friends at Counterspace Garage, sported custom valved Super Racing dampers, along with some simple aero upgrades. His times during the first few sessions were looking very favorable for the Street RWD class. However, a major driver’s side front brake rotor failure prevented any further outings. Quite unfortunate. Without a doubt, he’s on pace to reset the current record. We’ll see him next year!

So, that makes it 4 class wins on TEIN (Limited AWD, Limited FWD, Street RWD, and Enthusiast FWD)!

That’s really good news for us. Once again, we went back to the office happy with the results for these drivers and teams. A huge congratulations to each and every one of these people, especially for their continued support for TEIN! In turn, we will be there to assist them as best we can, in the same way we strive to assist all of our customers, including YOU!

Until next year!

Oh, and apologies to our engineer, Shuichiro…

As you can see, we prevented him from watching any racing. Instead, we put him to work! SOWWY!!!

GS Drifting Racking Up Another Championship!

Posted on October 1, 2013 by Paul P.

On top of being involved in US Drift, Geoff has his hands in the Midwest Drift Union (MDU). This past weekend (9/20-21), Geoff and the GS Drifting crew took off to Xenia, OH to participate at the final Midwest Drift Union event of the season at the Kilkare Speedway.

Prior to this event, the last event held on the Streets of Detroit was a fun, albeit disappointing result for Geoff. Not that they didn’t place well, but just that some judging calls weren’t as scrutinized as they should have been. Anyway, not one to let the second place finish from that event put Geoff and the team down, they’ve since won the US Drift championship for 2013, took the win for the Formula Drift Pro-Am series at Texas, and were looking forward to finishing the Midwest Drift Union series.

Here’s Geoff’s feedback of the final round of MDU:

“Streetlife Tour is always a big turnout. Some of the best names on the East coast and Midwest come out to battle for first place, cash and bragging rights. It also happens to be the final round of the Midwest Drift Union series.

In 2012 we went to the finals and faced the 2012 MDU champ “Magic” Mike Pollard. In the final battle during his lead run, mike debeaded a tire which sent him into the wall, spinning out back into the bank and hitting me into a wall. We were both okay, which was great, but we never got to finish the battle because his car couldn’t make it back out. I Did a Bi run and got the win!

So fast forward a year, we’ve just won the US DRIFT 2013 series, 2nd at Holley LS fest and a first place finish at Formula Drift Pro am series at Texas Motor Speedway. We had an amazing finish and we knew that coming into the final round of the Midwest drift union there was going to be a lot of pressure. Not only were we second in points (at 107 points), 13 behind the leader Brian Peters (at 120 points), but we also had to try and repeat another first place finish. Mike Skudlerack wasn’t far behind in points with 105 and Andrew Lewis with 102.

The competition was fierce. “Rapper” Dan Savage, Dave Bellemo and James Evans came from the the VA/MD area. I faced them a bunch of times during US drift series. So, with the knowledge of how each driver was this season, I knew this weekend was no joke. All of the Midwest Drift Union dudes were there, as well. Mike Skudlerack, Andrew Lewis, Jake Mautren, and Shane Whalley, just to name a few.

We came to the track Friday afternoon only to see a huge overcast right above the oval track. We went through tech, had a small drivers meeting and got into our groups. Group A hit the track. Within 15 minutes someone in a red FC hit the wall HARD and the track went cold for a while. Then it started to rain. “No big deal” I thought as the rain would stop. A couple minutes later a monsoon came through and you couldn’t even see 3 feet in front of you. The staff called it in for the day and we went back to our hotel to catch up on some much needed sleep.

On Saturday the rain continued to come down until lunch time. The staff decided to break practice sessions up to 20 minutes each. The course was still wet so every run group first runs were on ice. I think we had a total of 4 practice laps until we had another drivers meeting. We were supposed to go into qualifying, but since it rained they gave us an extra practice session.

We were pumped! we only linked the course maybe twice and knew we needed to do more before we felt really comfortable and gave it our all. So we went out for our first practice run before qualifying, entered hard into the bank and halfway through the bank, BOOM, we blow up another differential. That put a quick end to getting another practice run before qualifying!

We tried our best and swapped the diff in about 10 minutes trying to get back out to feel the new differential out, but our time was up. We stressed hard going into qualifying. While going onto grid to qualify Brian Peters came up to me and told me about his car. His trans blew up and he couldn’t compete today. He is a great driver so I was bummed that he couldn’t come out and battle, but it was a little stress reliever and we didn’t have enough already!

On our first run, we gave little angle into the bank and hit it pretty hard, but I was about 5 feet coming off of the inner clip before the infield. I knew what I had to do for the second run! I launched hard and entered higher, but had a bobble on the bank and was still 3 feet off of the same inner clip. Happy we put points on the board, but upset because we knew that was not a top qualifying run. At the meeting we found out we qualified 7th and our first battle was up against Shane Whaley.

I’ve faced Shane before at round 3 The streets of Detroit. We got the win there and Shane is a competitive driver, so we knew he was out for blood. During our follow run, Shane drove off track in the infield giving us the win.

Our next battle was against our good friend “Rapper” Dan Savage. We have faced “Rapper” a bunch of times this season, with the last battle at Holley LS fest. We both made it to the finals where Rapper took the win and I placed second. This knew it would be a tough battle. However, during our lead run, “Rapper” broke an axle near the end of the course and couldn’t get his car fixed in the 5 minute time period.

here it was, the Most anticipated battle of the night and possibly year in the Pro Am series. “Magic” Mike Pollard vs. Geoff Stoneback. We followed first laying down a solid follow run, but a slight bobble in the bank gave mike the advantage. During our lead run mike sucked into us during the bank and was very aggressive . Maybe too aggressive because in the infield he followed real close and dropped 2 front tires in the dirt. I had no idea so when they called for a OMT I thought to myself, “here goes nothing leave it all on the table!”

We followed Pollard again and laid down a pretty sick follow run. On our lead run mike came in to hard and spun on the bank. I had no idea until the end of the course when I already saw him at starting grid! after our battle we hugged as good friends that we are and went to change tires. During that period we hard Mike Skudlerack smacked the wall hard. His car wasn’t as bad as James Evans but he couldn’t fix it in time and we were up against Jake Maturen.

Jake has always been solid driver and we haven’t faced him all season. We just had to do what we kept doing. Our front tires were loosing grip so on our lead run we e-braked hard into the bank to set the car up properly so we wouldn’t have a bobble like the previous runs. We laid down good lead and we were anxious to follow. We Followed Jake fast aggressive throughout the track.

When we pulled up to the ceremony, I was pumped. Previously Mike Skudlerack Crashed, having him finish in 4th wasn’t enough points to beat us. Brian Peter’s car broke so we were sitting on top of another 2013 Pro Am championship!”

Looks like Geoff did more than finish the MDU 2013 season. He finished the season at the top of the charts!

There has never been a dull moment at any of the events this past year. This final round of MDU wasn’t going to be any different. Qualifying at a low 7th place, Geoff had quite a task ahead of himself, and he achieved a great feat to get the overall win!

Once again, our most sincere congratulations to Geoff and the GS Drifting team on what has been a stellar year. We look forward to seeing Geoff continue to grow in 2014 as we’re sure his schedule will be jam-packed with events! Keep on the lookout for this guy!

Also, here’s a great write-up on Geoff from Wrecked Magazine

http://www.wreckedmagazine.com/blog/2013/10/01/geoff-stoneback-new-fd-driver-and-pro-am-champion/

Geoff Stoneback Takes On The Lone Star State!

Posted on September 20, 2013 by Paul P.

He obviously stands out as one of the youngest and most talented drifters out there right now, and we’re extremely proud to see how he progresses. Geoff has continued to put on a great performance during each event. This time, Geoff and team took their talent to Texas Motor Speedway, which was also hosting the Formula Drift Championship series.

This was truly a great chance for Geoff to shine and show the Midwest what he was capable of.

As mentioned, Texas Motor Speedway was also hosting the Formula Drift Championship, where many teams that have better funding also have some of the better built cars out there. It really reflects on how well this sport has grown in popularity within the last decade. It is great to see drifting recognized as a sport!

Geoff, although not backed up with the same type of sponsorship, and mostly making his way through the drift circuit on his own, still has plenty of support from the manufacturers he represents. It was time to impress.

Geoff has always represented TEIN well ever since his sponsorship, even including the TEIN mascot, Dampachi, as part of his graphics scheme! Then again, who doesn’t love to sport this mascot?!

Here’s Geoff’s experience in his own words-

“We are always trying to better our driving. It doesn’t matter if it’s grassroots events, pro-am series or other miscellaneous competitions. We are there to have fun and improve our skills. When we heard that Formula Drift was going to have a pro am competition at round 6 in Texas, we knew that this was going to be one of our biggest events this year!

We kindly messaged our friend Aaron Losey, runner and founder of Lone Star Drift series and asked if we were able to come down and compete in this event. We did not want to upset anyone coming down and only doing one round of the series and possibly messing up their points brackets, but for us this was a stepping stone to get the experience of being at a Formula Drift event. We got the green light from Aaron and headed down to Texas after getting second place at Holley LS fest.

We arrived at Texas Motor Speedway on Thursday morning, unloaded and headed out to practice. We have driven this course before last year for XDC but we did it reverse, hitting the big sweeper first then going into the long straight power alley. We had a little idea of what to expect going into practice.

The track layout was awesome! There was tons of runway to enter at speeds around 90 MPH. You could really throw the car with tons of angle hitting the first clip, then lift off the throttle the tiniest bit to swing the car around into the second inner clip. After that it was hammer time as you go WOT and clutch kick in 4th gear if you needed to get closer to the rear clipping zone in the power alley. Once you pass the rear clipping zone you stay 100% WOT and stay committed until you transfer to the next rear clipping zone and e brake check and foot brake to scrub the fast speeds and finish off taking the deepest line in the sweeper.

We had a great practice session Thursday, so we decided to sit back and watch the FD drivers tear the track up.

On Friday we took 45 minutes to practice where we just kept doing what he did on Thursday and took really deep, wide lines filling all of the clipping zones. We headed into qualifying and we focused hard on our task and laid down a 92.5 on our second qualifying run, securing the 1st qualifier spot.

We then took some more time to watch FD and watched how their cars were so much faster, the suspension set up that those guys run and the way the car squats and sets itself as they power through the line was insane!

On Saturday we had another 45 minutes of practice where we took things easy and kept doing our runs like we did the previous two days. We had a Bi run in the top 16 so we moved to the top 8 to face a Texas local- Garret. He had a built V8 s14 and my spotter Dan Popowich said this was going to be the hardest battle of the day. We left the line hard and fast as the car squatted down the line. We entered into the first turn with Garret right on our door. It wasn’t until the power alley where we hammered down the throttle and created a big gap. Upon finishing the sweeper, we dropped a tire the slightest bit in the dirt. I knew it was a small mistake that could end our top 8 battle fast. During our follow run, we kept on his door down the runway and entered with Garrett. We scrub some speed on the first clipping point, since we knew the power alley was our strong point. We caught up through the power alley and entered into the sweeper with decent proximity. Garrett didn’t take a real deep line in the sweeper, so we applied pressure on his door and finished the run. I was nervous because of the dirt drop, but we got the win!

Our next battle was against another local Texan John (A.K.A. “J-FLO”). He drove a Nissan 350 Z with some power adders. On our lead run we gapped John hard on the runway and put down a solid run. On our follow run, it got tricky. We gave John some space and going into the first clip he ran it over, shooting the clip 10 ft in the air and into my bumper/hood/ windshield. I tried the best that I could to drive through it and tried to correct and dodge the clip and still drive through the course. However, I ended up going off track at the worst stop and broke my power steering rack and cracked my header. I thought this was it. We didn’t make it to the final around, but little did I know, when John hit that clip he spun out. We both double zeroed but with my lead run, we had the advantage and got the win.

Going over the car, our header was cracked and sounded like crap, our power steering was sketchy and barely there, but we still had to finish this final battle. We went up against the top guy in the Lone Star drift series, Tim “Big Stick” Koenning. The guy is literally two feet taller than me!! Since we had a weird power steering issue we were a little worried going into this battle but we did the best that we could with no power steering. We left the line hard and entered in 4th gear. With the high speeds, the steering wasn’t as bad as i thought. We rode inner clip 1, but hit inner clip two, riding the rear clipping zone and transferring into the sweeper with tons of speed and tire smoke. We finished the run and Tim wasn’t far behind. On our follow run we left no mercy for Tim. We entered with him and scrubbed a little too much speed and he gaped us a bit, but then got right on his door during the power alley. In the rear sweeper I applied pressure as I was trying to put my front wheel in his rear quarter panel.

We finished our runs and congratulated each other on our respective runs. We were happy that we had a clean run and that the car held up to the abuse. We felt pretty good and wanted to hear the call if we won or not. However, being with Formula Drift, they wanted to keep it suspenseful for the fans and said that they would announce it later on at 7:30 at the FD podium.

We went back to the pits and talked with other drivers and with fans. Some FD drivers came up to us and said how good we were doing and some judges also came up and said some of our runs were top 16 qualifying runs. We were pumped! For us to have people in FD see how well we did and come give us high 5’s and kind words was a win right there. We watched top 32 til it was time to get the results.

At the podium it was announced that we finished first! We hopped up on the number 1 spot, smiled for the camera, enjoyed the rush, and hung out with fans!

All in all it was a great experience for the whole GS drifting crew. We have an idea of what it will be like us for next season and though we had a successful season, it is time to step it up and head into Formula Drift for the 2014 season!!”

We’re absolutely thrilled for Geoff and the GS Drifting team for achieving some great accomplishments this season. Furthermore, putting his talents on the same track as the big boys in the Formula Drift Championship series proved to be a success. We have no doubt that “Geoff Stoneback” will be a name to hear for years to come in the drifting world.

From all of us at TEIN, congratulations Geoff!

TEIN USA Blog

The latest news and info from TEIN USA

Tag Archives: Nissan