He’s Only Hooman! Rollercoaster season so far for Rahimi.
Hooman Rahimi’s 2022 competition campaign is well and truly under way. As with any driver, he’s used the opening rounds of the season to tweak his setup and get his car dialled in.
In particular, the #TeamLinkECU driver and his team have had to educate themselves quickly with managing the car to deal with the intense trackside temperatures.
After excitedly arriving in Florida for the opening round of Formula Drift Prospec, one issue that reared its head as a result of the humid Orlando heat was the failure of the cars alternator. Quickly identifying the cause, a new system was installed ahead of round 2.
Back to round 1, and conditions were changeable, but the main theme of the competition was wet. Thankfully, the rain hadn’t quite made it to the circuit as Hooman lined up to qualify and with a safe, solid run, he was placed mid-pack at 16th place.
The rain had made its mark and the track had become extremely slippery as Hooman faced off against Steve Misko in his Top 32 battle.
During his lead battle, Hooman found the line and hit the clips, but seemed to lose a little momentum in the mid-section. Otherwise, given the state of the track, put in a good performance.
With his car setup being a little too loose for the wet conditions, Hooman found it hard to keep up with Misko, who seemed to power away. Hooman did manage to catch up in the final section, but it was too little, too late.
The team learned from this experience and immediately dialled in the front stiffness, as well as playing with the geometry by adding some positive Ackermann, which makes the car angle through corrections more smoothly, and should make it react to Hooman’s input better.
More heat problems were to plague the team at round 2 in New Jersey. A solid 5-hour practice session was to take its toll, with several, but minor, heat soaking issues. Quickly resolved by his dedicated team, Hooman and the car was able to qualify in 22ns place.
He found himself up against fellow #TeamLinkECU driver Kelsey Rowlings and had one of the best chases of the day. Keeping a safe distance from Rowlings during the first section, he launched towards her and was stuck door to door for the remainder of the run.
Pumped up by the clear advantage, Hooman launched of the line for the second run. Leading, and with Rowlings a few car lengths behind, it looked like this was going to be another win for Hooman, but it was all over suddenly as went hard towards the wall and the two rear wheels of his Nissan drifted off track, lifting up a ton of dirt in the process.
With round 3 fast approaching, along with two other events, including the Riverside Drift 50k Summer Showdown, Hooman and the team have some ideas for further changes to the car. The feel that the gremlins they’ve been experiencing are well and truly sorted and the car is now fully dialled in.
