Welcome
Hey, welcome to my official blog!

This is the place where you will find pics and updates directly from my race weekends, plus a lot of other fun stuff such as stunt driving or things not always about racing.

Cheers! /Carl
Pic of the week

Grid before the race, Nordschleife 2008.
Songs to check out
1. Foo Fighters - The Pretender
2. Span - Baby's Come Back
3. Adam Tensta - My Cool
4. Outkast - Take Off Your Cool
5. Alexandra Stan - Mr Saxobeat
Food and Drinks
1. Redondo Beach Brewing Co, CA
3. The Standard, Hollywood, CA
3. Nic's, Bevery Hills, CA
4. Vino Pasta, Gothenburg, SWE
5. Paradise Cove, Malibu, CA
Other things
Spot to be filled with useful content.
Success in the Formula Drift Pro Am Qualifier!
Monday, August 4, 2008
After keeping City Tire-John company while he was hauling 4 front tires, 8 rear tires and my stock Nissan 350Z for 7,5 hours through the Arizona desert to go drifting in Tucson, AZ, the pressure was on to nail the fast and technical course to score an invitation to the Formula Drift Pro Am Nationals.

At the drivers meeting judges Hiro Sumida and Taka Aono showed a map of the track layout and told us what they would be looking for. We were informed that everyone would get five practice runs and three judged runs out of which the best score would be the final qualifying score.

The intel we had before the event was that the surface was very rugged, this mostly means sticky and hard on the tires. Therefore we decided to start out on a very durable tire compound and a bit wider dimension. This turned out to be a bad idea since we hadn't adjusted camber for those... The first two runs were basically thrown away as I had no lateral grip and had to drive the car like on ice = really slow transitions and no real aggressive angle.

After changing tires it got better. Turn 1 was the challenge, a fast lefthander in high range 3rd gear with some really hard bumps that made the harder sprung car almost lift completely. The rest of the track was pretty easy 2nd gear stuff. Some pressure adjustments and trying different approaches got me close to nailing it.

By the time of qualifying it got dark outside and the drifts looked really cool in the arena lights. The AZ backdrop with major thunderstorms in a distance added dramatic visual effects to the sounds of the heavily tuned drift cars.

Up to this point drivers had been struggling hard, basically nobody made turn 1, there were a lot of spin outs and understeer after the big bump. On qualifying though, everyone got more composed and there were several really raw looking runs, really cool. In my first qualifying run, I had my Xenon headlights on high beam which made everything outside the beam look black and I initiated too early. Not much to do.

For the second run I decided to run without headlights at all and just make use of the background lighting. Got a clear view of the whole track and made a long smooth arch slowing from approximately 85mph down to 30mph, then did my best to do really nice lines and lay down lots of smoke. This was the run I was looking for!

In my 3rd run I was so stoked about run 2 and I just went all in to try to max my score, but out on the wider line the track was significantly more dusty so at the very end of turn 1 I ended up running out of steering angle. Almost went to a halt sideways but could finish the run to put on a good show for the specators.

As announcements came, they called up nine drivers that got invitations to the Formula Drift Pro Am Nationals. I got 6th place. Considering I was using my 350Z that's all I could hope for and I'm very pleased with that. Now I really look forward to the Nationals, by that time the City Tire 350Z should be ready, and dialed in. See ya later! Carl

All pics not marked Alex V or EDrift.com by J. Weidinger

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posted by Carl Rydquist @ 5:47 PM  
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Fast Facts

Name: Carl Rydquist
Age: 34
Home: Redondo Beach
Web: CarlRydquist.com
Reel: Click to watch
Highlights: Winner of Zandvoort 500 (2005), Winner of Swedish Endurance 3h GT Racing Championship (2004), Winner of Swedish Endurance 8/12h GT Racing Championship (2001), Winner of Eurosport Super Racing Weekend Challenge (2001), Winner of Redline Time Attack Mod RWD (2010). 24 Hours of Nurburgring (2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2011). 24 Hours of Barcelona (2011). 25 Hours of Thunderhill (2010).
Memberships: FIA (intl racing license), DRAW Portfolio, Formula D, Performance Two Stunt & Precision Driving Team (Hollywood, CA), SAG Stunt Driver (Screen Actors Guild).
Teams: City Tire (Drift), AE Performance, STORM GT Racing.
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