What's up guys, I'm Charles Denofa, we're here at FD Seattle, this is Say Howdy
Get Rowdy, season 3 episode 5. It's one of my least favorite tracks here, I haven't
done very well historically, I kind of looked and turned that around. I spent a
good 30 hours prepping the car for this event making improvements and we're
kind of at that point where the car's been working these last few rounds so we
can actually make things better. We got the wing on for this round, we're gonna
make a few adjustments and go out from practice and kill it.
We went into qualifying, the track was half wet, half dry, ended up being pretty
grippy on the bank so I totally made a huge mistake picking the wrong gear so we
went back and we were like, oh just don't do anything you did in the first round.
We went back out and put down a decent run, got a 79, looks just like I think 10th or 11th place and we're
here autograph signing, trying to give some fans and say hi to everybody and then
we're looking forward to tomorrow with top 32.
Alright, so Saturday here at FD Seattle, having a great time, went out for tandem
practice in the morning, throwing it on everyone's doors, being able to keep good
gaps on people in the lead run. The car's finally coming together to the point where
we can start dialing in grip, maybe mess with the power band a little bit. Going
into top 32 with Conrad Berger-Groonwald, we went out and threw it in the first
turn, stretched a real big gap about six cars. He tried to shallow up to stay close
so we were able to just muscle through and pull away and keep a pretty good gap.
And then on our follow run, I stayed back and drove like about 85% to keep about
one car of a distance so we can make it to the big show and we got the win and
now we're going to have a field day with Matt Field at the top 16.
It's one of those things where it's like, man, we're both the same style kind of
drivers, our cars are similar in speed and the way they get around the track so
it was going to be a super tight-knit battle. Going to the first turn, throw it
in, notice that Matt has about a three car lead on me so we close it right away
as quickly as possible, get right up on them and then coming off the bank, we get
on the gas, so much grip coming off that transition that we actually pull a tire
off the bead. Come around the turn, drifting on just one tire, kind of stay
on his door again, kind of mirror him, do what we got to do and I go into the last
turn on the right hander, the left tire just completely pushed off the wheel, we
weren't able to actually complete the lap without straightening.
Unfortunately, we had to use our five minutes, change the tire, check to see
if there's any other issues or if the tire damaged anything, put another wheel
on there, we go in the lead run just to throw an insane run, up on the wall, super
high, coming off the bank, just throw it backwards, tons of angle, transition, just
third gear, floored, we're actually a little bit off the front clip because
we're just going so fast throughout the track with so much angle, it's definitely
a good solid run. Matt actually did make a few mistakes behind us, but not enough
to give him a zero to run us one more time, so unfortunately he couldn't move on.
Alright, so it's Monday after Seattle, we're here at park, we're gonna have some
fun driving around this tight little technical cart track with a bunch of
people, there's some FD guys here, some Pro Am guys and also some pretty solid
local guys, even some crew guys at our crew for FD teams that are out here
driving to have some fun, so we're gonna go out and throw some backies and get
crazy and try to have a good time.
The way I see it, if you're gonna be able to tie machine into a car, why not do it some style?
So we had a great event, didn't end up as good as far as we'd like to, definitely
want to be on that podium spot, but just kind of grasping at it, not quite
getting there. We're leading into Texas, super stoked, we're gonna go get the car,
prep, tear it down, do a couple modifications here and there, hopefully
get a few test sessions in, so they try to keep the car together and improve on
it, the car's beginning faster, better, more reliable, you know, it's able to keep
up with almost just about anyone at this point, so we're stoked to have that in our
back pocket, go into Texas and get on the podium.
