Welcome to the Meguiar's Drift Garage

Round 4- SONOMA 2006
The J-Wrap from J-Rod

Well Brother, I gotta tell ya that it was an amazing eve.eerrrgghh, sorry I was hanging out with "Hulkamania" too much at Sonoma as he and I were rapping out the whole time during the Tandem Battles.

The Battle on the Bay at Infineon proved to be an interesting event in the first few battles with weird spin outs, interesting calls yet at the end the podium finishers deserved what they were awarded! Rhys Millen in1st, Casper Canul in 2nd and the "Import" Kenji Yamanaka rounding at the podium in 3rd, these guys drive amazingly well and they all had a great weekend!

I must tell you that the best run I saw all day and also probably one of the best tandem battles I've seen in 3 years of Formula Drift competition has to go to Daijiro Yoshihara in the Rockstar Energy Drink/Nitto Tires Silvia versus Ryan "Hampshaa" Tuerck in the Cooper Tires/Drift Alliance S13, these guys displayed exactly what the judges are looking for from crazy high speed entry, early initiation, gangster angle all the way through the "tear drop", tight on the clipping points, great car control with sucking up on each others bumpers, killer transition crossing it over as they came out of the "tear drop", bellowing smoke coming from the tires and then last but not least coming really tight on the walls and of course getting the crowd on their feet!

Straight up, that run was just so solid I can still picture it in my mind!

Sonoma's crowd was so committed to seeing high impact drifting they were enduring one of the hottest days in Sonoma even passing out due to heat exhaustion, that's a fan for sure! Well, we'll see you in the great northwest next and I can't wait, new track, new cars (hopefully Rhys and Sam) and new FANS!!! Bring it and SEND IT!!!!

J-Rod
www.myspace.com/sendit

10 Questions with J-Rod

Ten Questions with J-rod - Tyler McQuarrie First time podium finisher and with a new tire sponsor on top of that, Federal Tires, Mr. Tyler McQuarrie in the RS-R Honda S2000. Yes, we've all seen the car before previously driven by the "Sliding Hawaiian" Alex Pfeiffer but now it's Tyler's time to shine and he did sitting on the podium!

Ten Questions with J-rod - Tanner Foust Tanner Foust: I've got to thank the guys at AEM; Steph, Danny and Carlos. One of my jobs on the AEM team is to make this car comfortable to drift in a SHORT amount of time so I've pushed these guys fairly hard to get this done. They are incredibly professional and capable technicians, managers and drivers (except Carlos, we all know he doesn't drive very well).

10 Questions with J-rod: Samuel Hubinette Samuel Hubinette is the O.G. drift god, at least in the U.S. of A. No matter what the drifting purists might say or add asterisks too, Hubinette is in the drifting history books as the first North American champion. For most people, the problem they have with the "Crazy Swede" is that it's been too easy. After all, this guy didn't even start drifting until a few weeks before the first D1 Driver's Search at Irwindale in 2003.

Meguiar's Drift Garage: 10 Questions with J-Rod - Vaughn J.R. Gittin Jr. Big ol' J.R., congrats man, finally strapped the blower on and it ran good enough for you to be placed on the podium and even qualifying 1st going into tandem battles. Congrats, who do you want to thank first and foremost? First and foremost, I would like to of course thank Falken Tire Corporation for building me an amazing car and supplying me with the best tires on the market and just overall being an amazing supporter of drifting in general.

News and Articles

Hotlanta Showdown You could tell that the crowd at Road Atlanta had been waiting a long time for Round 2 of the 2006 Need for Speed Formula Drift series; a thick crowd of drift fanatics had already lined up their lawn chairs for Friday's practice sessions just to get an early look. Ditching school and playing hooky at work, both young and old made it out to the practice event to watch the best of the best get sideways.

DriftTime! After 13 years of devoting every working hour to the search for maximum grip, the nine-time SCCA SPEED World Challenge team is throwing their hat into the slip sport of drifting. Behind the wheel of the RealTime Racing Honda S2000 that will debut at Round 2 of the 2006 Need For Speed Formula Drift championship will be none other than three-time World Challenge Touring Car champion Pierre Kleinubing.

Formula Drift: Round 1 - Streets of Long Beach Recap Well, here it is - what we've all been waiting for, Round 1, the event that sets off the Formula Drift Summer Camp. Formula Drift "summer camp" because all of the drivers, teams and sponsors love the comradely that just happens between everybody. Yes, the knives come out on track - but off the track it's a great vibe and fun loving environment that keeps everybody looking forward to the next event.

Formula D Round 1 Opens on the Streets of Long Beach A year ago, Formula D was just an appetizer at the world famous Long Beach Grand Prix. This year it was its own main course. The creative minds at Formula D decided that the streets of Long Beach would serve as the perfect background to their sideways smoke show. They couldn't have picked a better place. The sun came out and the rain clouds drifted away almost as if they were on a schedule to make way for the first round of Formula D 2006.