After the whole engine fiasco the guys at LG were kind enough to build me a new engine at cost. Granted it still cost another $6k due to the rush on the machine work, and having to purchase a new block, crank, and everything it was the best case and only way to make it to the next round.
Josh and I flew into Texas where Lou Gigliotti picked us up from the airport in his Chevy truck. It was really cool to see Lou and chat with him about business, racing, shooting stuff, his shop. I look up to this guy a bunch since he has made a living from his awesome driving by building a business around it. Any advice he gives out I remember. I have always wanted to visit their shop and now was a great time to do it. When we pulled up there were Corvettes, Camaros, race trailers, ALMS parts, and a 1300 whp Supra. Interesting combo, but rad either way.

Anthony and Mikey had already assembled the new engine and had it on a stand waiting for us. I talk with these guys on the phone all the time so it is cool to hang out any chance we can get.

We got the car all racked up and started the install process.

They had a cool dog there named Marconi. Lou would get mad if you called him Macaroni.

After 2 days we had the engine all installed and running.

After Anthony worked his magic on the Dyno we did a test run in the LG parking lot which Anthony seemed to enjoy.

We then loaded up the car and headed for Florida. We heard there was a drift event going on the next day in Orlando so we set sail for that. 26 hours later of continuous driving we arrived in Florida. We passed some cool stuff along the way.

And some other cool stuff.

The event was being held at CFRC and we arrived right as they were closing. We were beyond tired and I guess that the owner of the track felt sorry for us. He let us take a few runs anyways and that really helped us out with the setup for the weekend ahead.

The next day we made our way down to Palm Beach and checked out the track. It was a really scenic track and the surface looked brand new. The next day we had some stuff to do on the car so we ran  around and did all that fun stuff. Met some of Josh’s friends along the way and even had some fun. The night before practice my GF Melissa flew in. It was really nice to see her since I had been gone for a week.

Practice.

The FD guys were cool enough to use me to setup the new track. I had some really good runs and it really helped me get used to the new engine and setup on the car.

It was about at that point when my Carbon driveshaft broke. Usually this wouldn’t be a big deal but on a Corvette it is hidden inside a torque tube that is in the middle of the car.
Luckily we had a stock one in the trailer. Josh, Ryan Kado, Thomasz Olech, Ry, Melissa, and Ryan Kado’s parents stayed till almost 4am to help us get the driveshaft swapped over. Again I owe the whole weekend to them. I would have been screwed without these awesome people.

The next morning we were all back together and ready to rock thanks to all these awesome people.

We kicked ass in practice having great entry speeds, angle, smoke, and fun!

When qualifying started I wanted to lay down a consistent run and get in the show. I did well on the first one and was a bit on the inside. I scored middle of the pack but knew it wouldn’t last. I would have to step it up on my last run. I did well on my last run and qualified 30th. I was hoping for a top 16 but I guess it would have to do.

I was happy to have gotten into the show and to get the much needed points. It was a dream come true to do the evening practice with all the other drivers that I have been looking up to for so many years. Getting the chance to tandem with Dai, Matt, Rhys, EOS, and others was really cool. The evening weather was perfect, and I will always remember the fun time I had out there.
The next day I was matched up with JTP. He got a jump on me off the line and his car was impossible to keep up with. It was cool however to drive with him and on my lead run I laid down a bad ass run.

You can watch the badassness here.

With that said my day was done and I went back to the pits.

I was really proud of Ryan Kado for moving onto the top 16 and for Conrad kicking ass.

It was a crazy adventure and ended up alot better than it could have been. We will keep fighting all season and now that the car is finally getting dialed in we should be more competitive.

Thanks for reading this.
Luke

`After a disappointing event at Long Beach we were excited to get out to Atlanta and get some much needed points. I have always wanted to drive on Road Atlanta and it was a dream come true to do it with Formula Drift.

Josh and Wally were rad enough to drive the Blu808 rig from Cali out to the event. I don’t know why I have so many awesome people in my life but I will have to find a way to make it up to them someday.

Now onto the driving part.
I hadn’t driven the car since Long Beach a month earlier where we suffered a mechanical failure. The car seemed to run fine but when we finally got it out on the track it was down on power. It was an instant heart sinking feeling on my first run. We went back checked everything out, and everything looked great. But still it was down on power about 30%. I knew that the judges expected this thing to be making big power and to smoke like crazy coming down the hill. I tried and tried again during practice but it for the life of me just wouldn’t carry a slide down the hill in 3rd. So onto 2nd gear we went. I was able to carry good speed down the starting hill in 3rd and then run the entire course in 2nd. Granted I was not making huge smoke or running the ideal line, it was able to make it around the course.

Throughout the day the car was making less and less power on each run. It was at this point where I figured we had a transmission going out, or a bad bearing in the diff since the engine was seeming to be running fine. Practice continued and right on cue on my last practice run the clutch hydraulics went out. Sweet!

We ran the car back to the pits and with 30 mins left before qualifying we pulled the intake, wiring, intake manifold, and were luckily able to re bleed the clutch and it held pressure. We got the car to the line with 2 mins to spare.

On my first run I guess we didn’t bleed all the air out of the system since when I pulled the ebrake it stalled the engine sending me off course. On the 2nd run we put it together. I honestly felt like I was driving a Corolla again. Clutch kicking about 8 times during the run. On the way back down the hill all the oil pressure lights came on. At this point I was surprised to have even kept the car sliding through the course and felt a little victory inside. Needless to say the engine was done, and so was I for the weekend.
Qualified 33rd just outside the points position. Not bad considering we had a blown engine. Funny enough if I had qualified I would have been paired up with my teammate Conrad. That would have sucked since I wouldn’t have had a running car anyway.

Even though up to this point we have had a rough season, we continue to give it everything we have.

Luke

The months leading up to round 1 I couldn’t help but to obsess with thoughts of how my performance would be at Long Beach. It was kind of flustering to think that I would be driving on such a famous track with the best drifters in the world. Initially going into it I would try to play out all the scenarios in my mind of what could happen, what could break on the car, would it even be able to hold the proper line and so on.

Well fortunately when we arrived everything went well. The car passed tech. Everyone seemed to like how it turned out, and even our pit space looked good.

In practice the car was simply amazing. I had only driven the car about 2 times before heading to Long Beach and it had never felt so confident. I could put it exactly where I wanted, and I heard from multiple people including drivers that some of my runs would have been in the top 8 no problem. Needless to say I was really excited inside and it felt somewhat surreal at the time.

Here is a link to a video of one of the runs.

CLICK HERE FOR LONG BEACH VIDEO

About 20 mins before practice was over I finished a run and heard some knocking. I thought to myself that’s great. There is the hick-up that was missing. That I had been wondering what was going to go wrong. We pushed the car back to the pits and it turned out that one of the rocker arm bolts had pulled itself out of the head. This usually wouldn’t be a big deal but in our case it had pulled all the threads out of the head with it. I am not going to name any names here but let’s just say we are no longer working with that engine builder.

With about 30 mins until qualifying I scattered around the pits and finally found someone with a helicoil I could use. It just happened to be fellow driver Jim Guthrie. Thanks Jim! I then did the whole helicoil thing and started it up. Everything seemed cool but then the knocking came back. The helicoil had failed. Great…. So then I pulled the cover off and this time it had broken the rocker arm girdle in half. Well at this point there was not much time left. I drilled out the old helicoil and put a new one in. Then I headed over to Rhys Millens trailer. Rhys has always been super cool to me for some reason so I figured he wouldn’t mind if I borrowed a bolt. With the new coil and bolt in place I started it up and it ran fine. Just in time for qualifying.

On my first run I did everything the same as practice. Launched hard, full throttle through 1st, 2nd, and half of 3rd (car does 134mph in 3rd) then initiate with the ebrake. Long Beach is really a ebrake entry only kinda track. Unfortunately my ebrake only locked for a split second then let go. Luckily I had enough rotation to shut the car down, and keep off the wall. I thought to myself WTF that didn’t just happen. Oh well I will do better on the next one. At this point something happened that was quite hard to get my head around. I lost confidence in the car. I don’t care who you are, or how good you are at driving. When you are going about 110 mph directly towards a cement wall and your only way to make the corner correctly is with an ebrake that isn’t working, you think about it. I went over the car, checked all the lines, fluid, line pressures, and everything was working normally. But still even if it was subconscious it was effecting me. So then on the 2nd qualifying run I made sure to test the ebrake in the hot pits. It seemed to be working great now and was ready to go. I did the whole burnout thing, warmed up the brake pads, and scrubbed the marbles off the front tires. I was confident at this point and was intent on laying down a gangster run that would impress the judges. I took off, got upto speed, initiated hard, and just as I got a little rotation the hand brake lever went all the way to my chest. All the pressure in the line was gone. It was right about at this moment that I thought to myself this is going to actually hurt. Not financially or emotionally but I might actually get to test out my roll cage, or break a leg or something. And then within a blink I was buried into the tire barrier. From my perspective it looked like I was going to hit the K rail but fortunately I ended up in the tires. The only thing damaged was some fiberglass and my pride. I got pulled out and finished my run with my hand out the window. I could even spot my parents in the stands. Needless to say I was a bit upset. I had let down my team, family, sponsors, and myself. I went back to the pits and told everyone I would do better on the next round. I was actually kind of surprised of how well I took it. I guess it might have been that I proved to myself during practice that the car is not only competitive, but I am competitive and that is what really mattered to me. Obviously not the ideal outcome but could have been much worse. I was really happy later that day when my teammate Conrad Grunewald qualified 1st. He deserved it. Conrad puts all his free time into his program and it was nice to be there to see it paying off in the 1st round. It was later that day I noticed that the rear brake line had moved and melted against my header. The brake fluid going into the ebrake had been boiling and was the cause of the problem.

I spent the rest of the weekend trying to spend time with my GF and friends. I was also back to helping out Conrad since it’s not like I was driving anyway. It was kind of a weird feeling again sitting there in the hot pits helping out like I had in past years. Knowing that I could be out there driving. I guess everything happens because it happens. Not much reason wondering why. There is one thing that is for certain though. The backwards entry setup is installed on the Vette and my homework is done for Atlanta. The car is ready to rock and so am I. See you guys at round 2. Hope I didn’t bore anyone to death with my blog.

Luke

Jeff Jordan has been the official wiring magician of Blu808 for some time. His attention to detail, passion, and knowledge are what truly sets him apart from anyone else in the business. We are excited to have Jordan Innovations as our official electrical suppier for the Blu808 C6 Formula Drift Corvette. We will also be relying on Jeff as our chief electrical engineer and data systems manager for the 2011 season.

Check out Jordan Innovations for all your wiring needs.

www.jordaninnovations.com

We have teamed up with Aimsports as our number 1 choice in data logging and display needs for the 2011 Formula Drift professional season. The only way to make a race car better is with proper data acquisition and analyzation of that data. We are excited to be partnered with the best in the business for our data and display needs. The Aimsports digital readout will provide us with everything we need for our racing needs. All in a sleek easy to use system.

Aeromotive is the industry leader in fuel systems. We are fortunate to have teamed up with them for the 2011 Formula Drift season to provide our fueling system for the Blu808 C6 Corvette. The introduction of their Stealth drop in fuel system will be a perfect addition to our race car. Featuring drop in ease and the performance that any professional racer would ever need is truly a rare thing. Please check out all the exciting new Aeromotive products online.

Extreme Dimensions has been producing some of the best body kits and exterior styling pieces in the industry for years now. They offer tons of different applications and their customer support is always great. We have teamed up with them for the 2011 Formula Drift season to provide body work for the Blu808 C6 Corvette. Their products provide a cost effective solution to the oem pieces and will give us the aggressive styling we demand on our race car.

Turn Key Engine Supply has been building the best engines in the off road, hot rod, and race car scene for years. They have now expanded to the drifting market and will be providing a us with a specially build 410ci, 13.8-1cr 750 hp beast that will be naturally aspirated. Their expertise in the off road market really makes them an ideal engine builder for a drift car. The abuse seen by their race cars transfers over to our motorsport perfectly. The data they have collected over the years will ensure a robust and reliable engine package for the Blu808 C6. We are also working closely with Turn Key to produce a Formula Drift oriented engine that would be a cost effective, competitive, and easy to use package that any team could purchase and run all season long with minimal effort. We are excited to be working with Kolby, Kory, and the rest of the team for the 2011 Formula Drift season.

We will be using K-Sport Racing air jacks on the Blu808 C6 Corvette. The air jacks add a definite cool aspect to the car and will make the tire changes quick and easy. The finish on them is top notch and we are happy to be working with them for the 2011 Formula Drift season. The Corvette will also be equipped with the K-Sport hydro ebrake system and will give us the control we need to be competitive this season!

Forgeline wheels have always been the standard for which all other motorsports worthy wheels were based off of. They have been in the game for the longest and have a proven track record in just about every form of racing. The forging process, design, and styling of the wheels is at the top of the game. We are all excited to be running the new Forgeline GA3R on the Blu808 C6 Corvette. The weight savings, strength, and great looks will be a great addition to the team.