Tag Archives: Midwest Drift Union

GS Drifting Racking Up Another Championship!

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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.

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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.

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

 

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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 Home the 2013 US Drift Championship!

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Geoff had a pretty busy August, to say the least. He had to prepare for two events this month, both on one weekend, giving him very little room for any error. Fortunately, Geoff was prepared.

On the 15th, Geoff and his crew loaded up their S14 at their tuner, R/T Tuning in Lansdale, PA, which they had recently installed a new G-Force GSR 4-speed transmission to replace their T56 gearbox which had been experiencing a few issues in past events.

Leaving later than expected, they stopped over in Columbus, OH to the Kenda Tire warehouse to get stocked up for the events, then made their way to Detroit, MI for Midwest Drift Union on the streets of Detroit.

Upon their arrival, Geoff’s good friend, and fellow drift competitor, Mike Skudlarek, offered his house as accommodation for the crew, taking the team around the greater Detroit area along many of the scenic routes of the Motor City, giving Geoff and the team time to relax before a hectic race weekend.

With Geoff’s recently repainted S14, they had no vinyl for this event. So at midnight, at a parking lot of a grocery store (which provided them with enough lighting), they went right to work putting their sponsor decals on. Afterwards, it was a short night’s rest before the event.

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As mentioned earlier, the event took place on public roads around Detroit, and some portions were recently repaved and transitioned into older surfaces, giving the drivers a mix of grip and slip to deal with. The next morning, Geoff took the car out and gave it a 50% run around the course. After getting a feel for the layout during practice, Geoff was informed that his driving line would make it difficult for slower cars to follow him. So Geoff had to discuss and redo his driving line.

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During qualifying, Geoff had a spin on the older section of pavement, where there wasn’t much available grip. After another qualifying run, Geoff was placed at a disappointing 15th grid spot.  So it was on to battle.

The first run was against the  LS2 powered Pontiac GTO Shane Whalley. During Shane’s lead run, the judges deducted points for braking through the sweeper, giving Geoff the win.

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Through the Top 8, Geoff faced Dan Summers, which eventually went into OMT (One More Time), but on Dan’s lead run he crashed, destroying a wheel and some suspension components. Repairs were made in the allotted time for Dan to make another run with Geoff. However, Geoff was quick to strike, making a deep, smooth line giving him the nod once again.

Top 4 was about to get a bit tougher. Geoff faced the lighter, more powerful S13 of Andrew Lewis. Not deterred from the this fact, Geoff kept right up to Andrew’s door. Fortunately for Geoff, Andrew’s car suffered from a broken axle. Unable to repair the car in time, Geoff once again got the win.

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For the final battle, Geoff was up against Mike Skudlarek. Both runs weren’t exactly working in either driver’s favor. However, a few mistakes by Mike ( hard braking in the sweeper; not initiating drift on the follow run) went unnoticed by the judges, giving Mike the win.

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So, a tough and somewhat disappointing 2nd place finish for Geoff.

 

Next was a trip to West Virginia for the US Drift Rd. 4 event.

Already late in the day in Detroit, Geoff and crew hit the road just after 11pm, making as few stops as possible to make it to the driver’s meeting at 8:30am the next day.

Knowing that their 2nd place standing in the US Drift championship was a really close one (14 points behind James Evans), Geoff had to really step it up for this event. Making it to the drivers meeting with just a few minutes to spare, Geoff soon made his way out to practice.

The course was super fast, with entry speeds anywhere between 75-90 mph. Also, it was raining. To make practice difficult, Geoff had to bring the car in, make some suspension setup and tire pressure changes, giving him little time during practice to get a feel for the revised setup.

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Qualifying went relatively smooth for Geoff, and he placed a 3rd grid spot for himself. US Drift points leader James Evans qualified 7th, so Geoff’s earned points in qualifying were starting to get him towards the top.

With only 12 qualified drivers for this event, things were starting to look up towards Geoff’s championship. The first battle against the 2jz powered S14 of Charlie Tyson was actually easy enough for Geoff to get the nod, even with Charlie running extremely consistent and fast the whole day.

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Good news came Geoff’s way when James Evan was knocked out during Top 16, while 3rd place points holder Troy Manners, was put away in the Top 8. This mean an automatic 2013 US Drift championship for Geoff!

Not one to call it a day, Geoff went into the Top 4 against Dave Bellemo in his 1JZ powered S14. Slightly preoccupied with the thought of the US Drift championship on his mind, Geoff had a a somewhat difficult time getting focused. Fortunately the run went into OMT, and Geoff was able to get the nod once again.

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For the final run, Geoff faced ex-teammate Dan Savage. Dan, a good friend of Geoff, taught him tandem drifting, so Geoff knew that this run would be good fun. On the first run, with Geoff in tow, Dan spun on the last inner clip, just inches away from Geoff potentially crashing. On the second run with Geoff leading, Dan kept it close up until the second inner clip where Geoff put out a lot of angle, losing Dan who eventually spun off! Geoff took home first place for the event!

So there you have it, a second place finish in Detroit, a first place finish in West Virginia and a 2013 US Drift championship all in one weekend!

We’re certainly proud of Geoff and team and their accomplishment for this season.  But it is far from over- the final round of Midwest Drift Union, Clubloose Freedom Moves, Holley LS Fest in KY, and Formula D Pro-Am in TX are a few of the upcoming events that Geoff has lined up for him.  We look forward to his updates!

Congratulations, Geoff, on your 2013 US Drift championship!

https://www.facebook.com/GeoffStoneback484drift

http://www.usdrift.com/

http://mdudrift.com/

Geoff Stoneback Updates from Midwest Drift Union Rd. 2

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Always staying busy, Geoff Stoneback and team set route for the Midwest Drift Union Round 2 at Gateway Motorsports Park in St. Louis, MO.

Prior to this, Geoff picked up his S14 drift machine from R/T Tuning  after they completed a new wheel alignment and check-up on the car, taking a midnight drive into Missouri. Knowing what to expect as the course layout, Geoff was already mentally prepared. He knew this would be a good event.

A full 25 hours later, he and the team unloaded car and equipment at the track, then back out for a short sleep stint before going through tech inspection and driver’s meeting the same morning. Happy with the S14’s settings, Geoff went out for practice.

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With 3 sets of tires already spent getting comfortable with the course, Geoff knew he had to conserve tires. At least he was able to dial in his settings for the best angle and tire smoke. Judging by the other drivers out on track (with crazy entry speeds and tons of smoke), he knew it wouldn’t be an easy set of battles to come.

On his qualifying run, Geoff went in really hot, getting the car into a backwards entry and scrubbing off way too much speed. Eventually, the front tire would knock the clipping point. Disappointed with that run, Geoff was glad to get points for it, which was most important to him.

For his second run, Geoff went in with even more speed and a backwards entry, netting him a 5th place qualifier. Qualifying was tight, with the top 6 drivers being within 1/2 points of each other sequentially.

Knocking out an LS3 powered Nissan 350z in his first round, Geoff advanced to the top 8.

The next heat would be tough- His friend, Andrew Lewis, with an LS powered S13 making 450whp makes more power than Geoff’s S14. So Geoff had to step it up if he wanted a tight tandem run. Nevertheless, Geoff’s consistency got him the nod, advancing him to the Top 4.

As you can guess, it was about to get even tougher for the team. Up next was a battle with another close friend, Mike Skudlarek in his 500whp s13. The first run with Geoff in chase kept him up to the door of Skudlarek, and a quick adjustment with a tug on the e-brake sacrificed a little of his angle. This gave Skudlarek the nod.

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Second run with Geoff up front, he was able to gain some distance as Skudlarek had a slight bobble. It looked like it was going into “One More Time.” However, judges ruled Skudlarek the victor.

Disappointed, but not deflated, Geoff had a chance to claim a 3rd place finish, but his competitor wasn’t able to complete repairs in time, giving Geoff a bye-run. Even with 3rd place secured, Geoff decided to give the crowd a smokey run.

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Although this event ended on a strange judging call, Geoff holds second in the points standing, leaving him a lot of time to rebuild and get focused. We’re still glad to see Geoff on the podium! Great job!

*BONUS*

Here’s a video link recap of the Midwest Drift Union Rd. 2 on Vimeo

http://vimeo.com/70345359