To the Pros

[prodigy]

That is exactly what I said X. Geeze. Chas is cool but it isn't like he has skills of a pro.

[Ex-Cat]

Originally posted by Ernie
I had to be at PT(Physical Training) every morning at 5am and I got off work at 5pm. That is a Marine aviation mechanic's typical day. I would usuall go out from 11pm to 3am. You tend to get a hollow feeling in your stomach after a while.

Did you do any work on pointy noses or was it all on helos?

[drift matic]

hey ernie were could i get info on team murder

[DriftinCressida]

Originally posted by prodigy
Sorry dude, but this wasn't a post a story of your drifting career thread. This was so people could get background of the pro drivers that they watch and seen in the magazines. Chad isn't any where close to being a pro driver, sorry but you know it is true. He just has the low down on everything and DX has already told his story. I created this thread for and only the pros.

my bad

[SilviaLove]

wow..its seems like the pro that have posted on this thread have been into drifting as long as i have. I thought they would have been into drifting earlier in the 90's, but that is not the case. Although i have no wishes to become pro, i see that Andys and Ernies stories about drifting, in general, are very similar to mine, either learning about drifting through friends or practicing into the wee ours of the night. One question, how did you all get involved in the pro scene, and what did you guys do before the pro class was created?

[Ernie]

I wouldn't say I've been around drifting too long. I just kind of got introduced and had the fire fueled just right to want to stick with it. I kind of picked up real fast and asked a lot of questions. I focused a lot on learning from my mistakes. I would say the main thing that helped me get good fast is the fact that I would HAVE to be back at base the next day for work. If I were to get in trouble it would be a big problem and I probably couldn't handle what would happen to me if I were caught. So if I was going to do this I had to be conservative to a point and make the car last. I had to be good because the car was my transportation and I wanted to make something of this. I ended up being pretty good at it so I was told I should not stop doing it for any reason.

I only worked on Houey and Cobra engines for the three years I was in Oki. All the other time I worked on 4AGs, CA18s, SR20s, RB20s, 25s, and 26s. I would have to say that in order to more appreciate the SR20 and its mechanic friendly design you may want to start with a CA18. It is an easy engine to work on, but it has some design flaws. After working with the CA you will see where the changes were made and why on the SR.

Current news on Team Murder I will have to work on.....I am trying to talk to some guys from Murder in Okinawa into making a new website. ttylaterz, Ernie

[prodigy]

Now if we can get the other pros to post in here. Do you think you could help with that Andy or Ernie?

[RyanHampton]

I guess since this thread has been quiet for a while I will tell of the days of high adventure. I have been racing for 17 years. I started by racing go karts. I then went on to race a 1986 200SX notch back and won the SCCa ITB championship in 94'. In 1996 I moved into into the Pro USF2000 championship. I drove for a factory team out of Italy, called Tatuus. This is when I really started drifting. The Tatuus was a very twitchy hard car to drive. Around the pits my nickname was asses and elbows, simply for the fact the car was never straight. I would come into the corner under the brakes with the car sideways. This was very effective because, if somone was racing you into the corner they would think you were going to spin into them so they would back off. So drifting does have a racing application. The cars never really had enough horsepower to keep the rear tires lit up, so I would drift into the corners. I ended up 2nd in the 1998 championship. It was a very competitve series. I was racing aginst Buddy Rice, Sam Hornish, Robby Mcghee, Jeff Simmons, and Dan Wheldon. If you don't recognize those names look at the Indy 500 results. In 99' I was a test driver for AJ Foyt in the indycar. I never drifted that or had the desire to it would hurt. In 2000, I was hired by Archangel Motorsports to drive their Protoype in the Grand-Am series. I won the championship with 6 wins, 3 poles, and 4 track records. That was another fun twitchy car to drive you drove it like the Tatuus. In 2002, I found the sponsorship to drive five races in the IRL infiniti Pro Series. I won the Gateway race in St. Louis and finished third in Texas. I was very fortunate in my career to drive the Daytona 24 Hours from 1998 to 2003. I finished 2nd, 3rd, 5th, 6th, and 18th. In 2003 I was hired to drive for the Ferarri factory in a 360GT. That was the last race I did. Now for the drifting. I started drifting at the racing school I was working at. Once you work there for a month or so you get really bored of grip driving so I started to drive the 1.2 mile 15 turn road course sideways why, cause it was a hell of a lot more fun!! Then one day in 2001, I had the opportunity to teach a student from Japan. I was bored and finnished with the exercise we were doing and so I started to do the track sideways. Three turns into it he yells, Are you a pro dirfter?!! I said, What is that? He said it was a sport in Japan. He then sent me some option videos, and the rest is history. I then met a local guy named Ryan Yap AKA (T.Y.) in Arizona who knew something about drifting. He taught me everything I needed to know about drifting in competition. Without his help and knowledge I would not be here. I tried entering the first drift showoff, but that was full ,so the first competition I did was DD5 and finnished 2nd. I then did the D1 drivers search and with Ryan's (T.Y.) help I finished in the finals, but the car I was driving broke (the black Crown Vic..). So I didn't make the first D1 bummer.... I then did the CA Hyperfest and won that event. Mazda then wanted me to drive for them. So here we are today. I would also have to thank Alex Pfeiffer and Andy Yen they have also spent a lot of time helping me with the techniques and theories of drifting, and Tony Angelo for helping with my car. That is what I love about this small community everyone will help everybody out. Sorry for typing so long, I probably bored everyone on the planet who read this.


Later,

[Todd@Tires.com]

Calvin, Ben, JR....where are you guys. I know you're lurkin

[yarzan]

umm, Ryan, it certainly didnt bore me! and by saying that i think i speak for most of us.

[marshun]

dammit. i need to move out of here. lol. i need to get my cars up there!

nice stories. ernies sounds kinda like what i did. or used to do. except i wasnt in the military.