Welcome
Welcome to my official blog!

Here's where you will find pics and updates directly from my race weekends, plus other things such as stunt driving and sometimes posts not always about racing.

Cheers! /Carl
Pic of the week

Grid before the race, Nordschleife 2008.
Songs to check out
1. Little Black Submarines
2. The Pretender
3. Outkast - Take Off Your Cool
Food and Drinks
1. Redondo Beach Brew. Co, CA
2. Huntley, Santa Monica, CA
3. Pistenklause, Nuerburg
For Sale
Pair of STATUS Ring Kevlar Racing seats, lightly used, very good condition.
Top 8 again! + Total 7th in the TopDrift Federal Cup
Thursday, November 6, 2008
Photo: JD

Round 4 was a really fun comp. Again a bunch of really talented drifters out, many of these out to secure their top 8 spot, to be able to go to Pro Am Nationals in November.

I started out with a great feeling in the car, good crazy driving style with a lot of angle, but it got difficult when my e-brake stopped working... I've recently been to a couple of events where I did a lot of highspeed 4th gear drifting, these obviously took their toll on my e-brake. I wasn't too worried, instead tried to find a new technique to make the transition down the hill.

After a session of that, I DID get a little bit worried, and soon I decided to try and fix the e-brake. With great help from Nissan-guys like Jason (Forrest's buddy) and RMJ Miguel, we scrubbed of the pads and cleaned up the drums. Got 1 practice round in at the end of session 2, and it felt alright.
Photo: Paul Lopez

For qualifying, we flopped a set of tires that I had broken in before. This was a bad idea. The camber in combination with the flopped tires gave me such a little contact patch, that I had barely any grip in the rear. First run completely spun out. Burned as much rubber as I could around the lap before staging for my 2nd attempt, to flatten the tires and increas the contact path. This went better, but the e-brake was seriously fading again. The 3rd run I just got a decent run in, really pulling the e-brake like a madman, I wish I had had an extra arm. I just BARELY made it and qualified as 12th.

For top 8, we put on fresh tires and did further adjustment to the e-brake. Now the balance in the car was good again and I got a good switchback and the remaining little force of the e-brake was enough to adjust during a good angle downhill. It was a conservative run that would give some room to go all-in crazy for 2nd attempt. I dropped a wheel in the dirt on that run to get a better line, since the e-brake was more or less useless, and this was my best run so far at HTM and I secured a spot in the top 8.
Photo: Paul Lopez

For tandem, my first ever competition tandem, I got staged against Forrest Wang's Fullrace Silvia. Hm. I wasn't going to give it away so I stayed right by Wang's door all the way through transition. Unfortunately, for me and everyone watching who wanted to see a stock 350Z challenge a real drift car for victory, I had no reserves in the e-brake to adjust my line while following, so I straightened out... Oh well, I know what could have been. For the next lap with me leading, I created a good gap, was looking to keep it through the hairpin but was going for a bit much speed and the rear had also gotten a bit slippery, so I dirt-dropped and lost traction and Forrest could come by me on the inside. I was stoked though, better go out driving 110% to win, than playing it safe against a much better car.
Photo: JD

The results from this year's drifting competitions I've done in my stock Z put me in a total 7th position in the points. I am really happy about that, can't really expect more at this time. Learned A LOT and met a bunch of new really chill friends in the Just Drift community. Also congrats to the top 3 drivers (full results on JustDrift.com).
Photo: JD

My greatest THANK YOU goes out to CityTireOnline, Awesometown, CA! Without your support... You know all of it. 2009 we are a go.

Also thanks to RMJ Miguel for setting me up with the rollcage and Riick for helping out to mount it, plus thanks Markus @ German Auto Art (get well soon!) for helping out with the diff.

I just came back from SEMA Las Vegas today, visited the Formula Drift press conference and the series is growing in a healthy way. I also had some really good meetings and with not saying too much right now, I am STOKED about how things are set for 2009. More details soon! All the best! /Carl

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posted by Carl Rydquist @ 8:34 PM  
1 Comments:

  • At February 2, 2009 at 12:01 PM, Blogger MackanL said…

    Damn Carrrrl! Grymt kört! Jag är ju lite efter här nu märker jag men lycka till 2009 dammit! sjävl ska ja köra Camaro cup. Skall bli skit kul!

    Mackan
    www.xtremedesign.se

     

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Fast Facts

Name: Carl Rydquist
Age: 35
Home: Redondo Beach, CA
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 Super Lap Battle Lim RWD (2011), Winner 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), SAG Stunt Driver (Screen Actors Guild), Formula D, Performance Two Stunt & Precision Driving Team (Hollywood, CA).
Teams: Berk Technology, City Tire, AE Performance, Steam Racing, STORM GT Racing.
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