At just the half-way point of the season, 2018 is shaping up to be on of the most competitive in Formula Drift’s 14 year history. As the championship headed to New Jersey for Round 4 this past weekend, the banked oval of of Wall Stadium Speedway set the stage for another epic round of Pro class battles.

A wet practise day on Thursday halted progress of many teams, but gave others the chance to work on cars after a short turn around from Formula Drift Road Atlanta Round 3 to NJ Round 4.

Friday Qualifying has held in hot, humid conditions and saw a lot of high scores in the 90’s awarded by the judges. Most of the usual suspects including James Deane, Federic Asabo, Justin Pawlak and Forest Wang all looked in good form. In the end, it was Link ECU supported ‘JTP’ Justin Pawlak and his Ford Coyote who managed to claim pole position!

This gave Justin a bye into the Top 16, and then a win into the Top 8 where he faced Chris Forsberg. After a OMT, the Falken Coyote came out on top and went on to the Final Four.

JTP’s car was running on song all weekend and he eventually climbed onto the podium in 3rd position! James Deane and his 2JZ (powered by a Link ECU Thunder) took out the top spot.

 

Another Link Engine Management sponsored driver, Jeff Jones, has been improving from strength to strength this season in his Nissan 370Z. After installing a G4+ Thunder at the beginning of this year, Jeff has been making use of the additional control and reliability he now has from his car. Adjusting idle RPM, changing fuel / ignition timing and using data logging are all features he has been making use of with Link ECU software PC Link. Jeff put in many great runs throughout the weekend but lost his Top 32 battle to Matt Feild. Nevertheless, it was great experience for Jones as Feild went on to take 2nd overall.

 

Deane Kearney didn’t have such luck in NJ. Car troubles mean’t his Viper was out of action after Thursday and was left competing in the borrowed car of Forest Wang for the remainder of the weekend. Despite a couple a wall knocks, the Irishman ended up putting down some solid runs and still had a smile on his face.

We are now looking forward to Round 5 in Washington, and then Round 6 in Saint Louis which will also host the Link ECU PRO2 Category!

See ya’ll there in the vendor area!