MARK MANANSALA @ XDC This Saturday, Irwindale, CA

[INFO]

MARK MANANSALA @ XDC This Saturday, Irwindale, CA



"The journey to house of drift

Today we are preparing ourselves for the long haul to sunny so-cal. For the opening of XDC round 1. Got all 4 trailer tires changed, prepped and changed the fluids on the drift car, and packed up all the spare parts for the journey. To drive at irwindale has been a dream of mine ever since the first japan vs usa event back in the day. Something about Irwindale just jumps out and makes me pumped to drive. So this will definitely be a great experience to finally lay down some rubber on this infamous track. Along with traveling cross the country to complete our mission. Hopefully we have no problems and this jumps off to be a good 2010 season."

[e-manansala.com]

just got off the phone with mark .. they just made it to texas .. (i think) lol they will be in cali tomorrow ..

[e-manansala.com]

heres a video of my trip so far ..

http://www.youtube.com/watch#!v=yN1gxYDRL1k

[Mark M]

yea we are moving through new mexico right now. This haul is exhausting, but not so bad as before. Since this is the first time were towing with a diesel, which is wayyy easier to cruise. I miss my bed haha i got so many kinks in my back its stupid lol. Well we got another 1k miles to drive till we get there. Should arrive sometime tonight in the am. Ill post pics when they finish uploading. Can't wait to drive irwindale!!!!!

[Patrick Mordaunt]

Good Luck with the rest of the drive! It's always a crazy adventure going cross country. We had to do it twice this year! See you out at XDC!

[Mark M]

Soooo we just got back from our long journey to the west coast. Irwindale speedway to be exact for XDC round 1. It was a 42-46 hour drive straight. Took us about 2 days to get there. Wasn't too bad, but just sucked to be stuck in a car that long haha.

The team and i left jersey around 8am on tuesday and arrived in cali around 4am thursday. We stayed at one of mike's long time buddies chris's house for the weekend. Went around cali for the day before practice to get parts and pick up tires from cooper's warehouse. After that we journeyed around town and ate some pho! Luckily i was introduced to the guys of youdrift.net / importlifestyle. Franko and Marco are two funny dudes who kept us entertained all weekend.

Friday morning came around, felt good and was happy to wake up and see a MOUNTAIN leaving chris's house. It really isn't fair, they have everything in cali haha. Anyway we get to the track set up, got teched and get ready to give a stab at irwindale. I took it easy at first, for i had some rust to shake off and had to get the feel for the car again.

Bout to leave jersey




Saw this thing in texas


inner bank


car felt nice with the new setup, didn't take long to tame the beast again. I had to adjust to the cooper tires were running. After a while we decided to take the wing off and bump the boost a bit

the track seemed smaller when driving it compared to spectating. After a couple runs i started to hit the bank.










once all the drivers were warmed up, they started to shoot us into tandem.
Since we had a 3 hour practice, it was nothing but to work on the lines and follow better drivers.

paired up with lance, this was his home track so his line was ideal to be fast.



car got hott quick and the tires didn't last too long lol


long story short. i was cut short of qualifying. i ended up breaking the shafts in the diff from rev dropping the load onto the chassis. the combination of slow speed, too much angle, and big tire was a recipe for disaster.

Although we broke, we fixed it that night and came back to practice on saturday for a short time.

kenji of greddy usa










despite all the mishaps and misfortune, all in all it was a good time. Being out west really makes me wanna stay there haha. But in all seriousness i would like to thank the team at e-shiftpro.com Without these guys none of this would of been possible. Thanks to the crew Fraz, Nas, Colin, Gio, Mike, and Wayne for putting their time into a great car and pushing their limitations to allow me to run this series.

Also big thanks to Franco, Marco, and Chris at youdrift.net/importlifestyle.com for letting us use the shop for repairs. Thanks a bunch guys, sorry for keeping you up so late! haha hope to see you soon.

XDC round 2 VEGAS BABY!!!!

[Bebop]

better luck next time

greddy has a pretty good driver it looks like, nice to see them on the grassroot level.

[BigGameHit]

good stuff man good luck with the rest of the season.