Nick Hogan and Ryan Smith practiced at Altamont raceway this past Friday August 25th. Be sure to show up to Altamont this Saturday for great drifting action and a car show.

It had been a long time since I had gone drifting.  I used to have a 944 that was setup for drifting and that car was so perfect, but after I got the NSX I sold the 944.  It took me a long time to get used to my NSX because it's just a totally different car.  With my 944 I could push that car to it's limits and hang or drift anywhere.  It was perfectly balanced and since it was a non turbo it wasn't dangerously fast.

My NSX has twice the power as before and with a mid engine setup I was scared to push it.  They say it's easy to spin it out.  After doing the suspension and wheels and tires the car felt a lot better.  So I've been practicing on the local backroads, just grip driving not getting too crazy but getting used to the car. 

A few fridays ago I went to Altamont raceway one day before the Formula Drift event.  They had an open track day going on.  It was pretty cool because we had the track for ourselves between 3 other drifters and two of those guys barely were driving.  The third driver was Nick Hogan in the Mopar Viper.  He was doing very well and I was impressed.  He was drifting the large banks all the way.  That car looks like a fun car too cut it up in.

After a few hours I talked to Nick for a little while.  That guy has a winning attitude that I haven't seen in a person in a long time. 

The next day at the Formula D event everyone was complaining about the track setup, but Nick was all for it.  I was even complaining about the setup to my friends, but after talking to Nick I thought to myself, damn, this is guy has such a positive attitude.  I learned something from him that day.  You jsut gotta be positive and go for it.

Well back to the day before.  So I was at the track with the NSX.  I disabled my ABS braking system and turned off the Traction control system.  In my 944 I used to come into the turns very fast around 80 miles per hour and then just trail brake (brake late in the turn), turn in downshift and start my drift.  With my NSX I was trying the same thing and the car was just skidding straight, not turning.

Hmm...this isnt' working I thought.  What can I do?  So I told myself take the course like I would grip it, but take it a lot faster than what my car would permit.

This worked perfect.  The first turn I came into too fast, but I just stayed on the gas turned her where I wanted to go and the rear pitched out, started counter steering throughout the first turn, next turn came up and same thing.  I had a few clean runs where I drifted the majority of the track, minus the big bank, which is a 3rd gear sweeper.

Surpisingly the NSX drifts very well.  Everyone says you can't do it but if you take the time to learn your car it can be done.  Since Nicks camera crew was there I found myself messing up quite frequently to show off to the camera's but after I got them out of my system I did better.  Just had to relax and ignore them.

That was a great day for me.  It helped me get a little bit of my racing mojo back, which is something I've lost these past 2 years.  I need to get that back and get my confidence level back up.

For full pictures of this track session visit this url:

http://www.sromagazine.com/events/thumbnails.php?album=364