The process for getting ready to travel to an event is quite an interesting word. “Interesting”, ironically is subjective much like drifting in the sense that it can mean almost anything depending on the view point. The meaning in my head is that it is a very unique and weird experience.

After packing up the rig over the weekend and loading a few cars, we finished up some office work, got our traditional last day Pho at the infamous Lotus Cafe and, compiled all the Will Call forms, completed all of the car pool arrangements for the morning, packed stickers, banners, speed guns, computers, drills, and all of our partial brains into our Sparco gear and then headed home to get the personal stuff out of the way.

I am sitting in my room posting a few last minute videos to hype up the event and talking to some folks over AIM about this weekend’s event. We are doing a charity deal for the United Way and have invited 150 kids to come out and check out this great motor sport. As I finished up that call and realized we SEEM to have everything on lock, now it is time to pack my bag which consists of lots of red and black shirts and pants (FD colors) along with about 10 million zip ties (yes, I still hang banners and love it), my special wire cutters, lots of gum, ipod, glasses, enough allergy medicine for the weekend, 2 hats, black socks (gotta have my good luck socks), portable hard drive for video’s, my lil mini DV cam for Vlogging, my laptop and an assortment of snacks and crap I probably shouldn’t be eating.

I think our flight is 7:30 from LAX so I’ll probably have to wake up Bryan around 5:00 (sales manager/roommate) since he only gets up before 6 if the waves are good. Punk! J/K.

I love being on the road for events. It has such a cool feeling to it. The drivers, sponsors and teams are all generally the same age as our staff so it feels kind of like a big road trip with all your bro’s except the fact in reality we are all there to do a job and try to keep this ship going in the right direction. Messing something up at the event is the equivalent to making a left turn at and driving 500 miles in the wrong direction and then only realizing it when it’s too late. Like in Dumb and Dumber when Llyod says, “Man that John Denver is full of sh*t man” as they see nothing but flat plain lands. Then Harry is all p*ssed and you have to deal with it from there. We’ve been decent enough (and I imagine lucky enough) to put on shows people really enjoy and like. In Atlanta last year I saw some dude that had Rhys Millen’s Solstice tattoed on his arm. Oops! Must have been a bet or a really drunk night in Decatur.

Anyway, I’m jazzed on ATL. It looks like it is going to be a crazy event as long as we don’t get any bad weather, which in ATL can happen in a heart beat. If we do, no one really cares anyway. FD drivers throw caution to the wind and throw it down regardless of the conditions. Plus the ATL fans are some of the most awesome people I have ever had the honor to meet. Road Atlanta is one of the sickest tracks we have and if you win there, you are a total stud because it is one of the most complex and trickiest tracks on our circuit.

Alright, see you out there. We’ll be tweeting, blogging and all the other forms of madness we have access to these days. :=)

Ryan

Snippet of final round

Sneak Peak at Formula DRIFT Round 1 TV Angles from Formula DRIFT on Vimeo.

Round 2 of Formula Drift will be held this weekend in Braselton, GA and in the continued effort to give back to loyal fans, Falken Tire will be awarding the second of seven custom designed Fender guitars to one lucky winner. If the luck of the Irish is on your side, you may win the Darren “D-Mac” McNamara designed Falken/Sears Auto Center guitar sporting the flag of Ireland and four leaf clover.

To win, stop by the Falken Tire pit area on Saturday May 9th and fill out an entry form. The winner will be chosen and announced before the conclusion of the drift weekend.

Don’t live in Georgia? Below are other cities we’ll be giving away other custom guitars!

ROUND 3: New Jersey – June 5-6 – Guitar Designed by Vaughn Gittin, Jr.
ROUND 4: Las Vegas, NV – July 10-11 – Guitar Designed by Falken Models
ROUND 5: Monroe, WA – August 7-8 – Guitar Designed by Tyler McQuarrie
ROUND 6: Sonoma, CA – September 12 – Guitar Designed by Calvin Wan
ROUND 7: Irwindale, CA – October 16-17 – Guitar Designed by Team Falken Tire
• Event dates subject to change. Visit www.formulad.com for updated schedule.

To win other Falken Swag, please visit www.falkentire.com