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
