Braselton, GA – Round 2 of Formula Drift was set at beautiful Road Atlanta. I love this track. It’s fast and technical. It brings out the vulnerabilities in your car and you. My favorite part of this track is the fans. Of course I love them because a huge group of them are cheering for me. Remember, Atlanta is my home town and I started drifting there for the first time in the Atlanta Braves Turner Field parking lot at DGTrials events back in 2005. Last year the crowd was huge and very Rowdy, this year was no exception. Armed with posters, megaphones and beer, my people were out of control and I loved it. I always get tons of support in Atlanta and that makes the event my favorite of the tour.

Also, I am working with Petfinder.com to have local shelters out at the events and this was the first event where a shelter came out. It was cool to meet Bill from Humane League of Lake Lanier. He was really excited to be at the event. I think it went well because Petfinder.com was pretty happy.

First of all, getting to Atlanta was difficult due to the transmission of my truck pretty much grenading. It’s a manual, so all the guys had was 5th gear. I didn’t experience it, but imagine starting out in 5th towing a 2car enclosed…I heard the clutch was smoking. I am glad I wasn’t there to see it  .

We get there, set up and get to driving. As usual, RoadA is causing some trouble. Grip is always hard to get for me. I can tell how the car is hooking up during the launch. I was getting a lot of wheel spin off the line. I made some adjustments and it was better.

HOW TO (my way):I take off down the hill, shift up to 4th and initiate…straight to ebrake and lightly feather the brake to slow down for the clipping point 1. Its down to 3rd and back on throttle through clipping point 1 and up the hill to the outer clip 2. Brake hard for clipping point 2 going up the hill and either shift down or stay in 3rd. Either one is fine, but the car lags a bit in 3rd, so I chose to shift to 2nd. Now you shoot into the horseshoe and aim for the edge of the track, trying your best to barely hang that RR tire off the track but not touching the dirt. This next step is critical, stay at the edge of the track until you have a clear shot of the next clipping point at the top of the hill out of the horsehoe. Throttle it hard to get your speed up, or feather it to get the speed up of your grip is not enough. Speed is key because if you shift to early (low speed) your car will bog in the next gear and you will straighten. Just because you hit the rev-limiter doesn’t mean it’s time to shift here. You shift and get into gear and start flying down the hill towards the left hander. You want to start with shallow angle to stay off the outer rumble-strips, they bit and bit hard. At the left-hander, if you go too fast, throw a little more angle in to slow down and setup for the last right turn. If you over shoot this last turn and go off course, you will destroy your suspension on the reverse-rake-rumble strips. I had the course down pretty well, I was just in-between gears somewhat and didn’t have the speed I wanted. I really need different gearing to get the wheel speed up a lot more than it is.

RoadA is fast, technical and pretty hard to master. This makes its pretty sweet when you get some good qualifying runs and make the show on Saturday. I struggled with grip during practice and a few minor mechanical problems. I shifted in 3rd going down the hill and broke my 5th, 6th gear lock-out….and of course miss-shifted into 5th. It was an easy fix with the help of the Megan Racing guys grinder and a little bit of time. I got a chance to get some in-car video of some practice runs. I look like crap, but I am usually my worse critic. I scored a 61 my first run and I wasn’t happy. I found out my entry sucked. My next run I threw it in pretty hard and ran a good run, scored a 73. This put me in 18th place overall and paired my up with the 14th place guy, JTP. OK, so JTP got a zero his first run and laid down a conservative 2nd run to ensure he was in the show. This put him in 14th place and paired him up with me……awesome. Qualifying mid pack should ensure running guys that are equal with you, nope, not this time, I get the winner of Long Beach and the leader of the series, JTP. I knew I had a small chance to beat him, no one is perfect.

I line up for top 32 against JTP. I knew he was much faster than me down the hill, so as soon as the last light lit, I took off, jumping him off the start really hard. I’m start slamming gears to get down the hill. Just as I get to the entry, JTP flies by me and we both initiate. I got him sort of close. I run a line behind him and he leaves me going down the hill after the horseshoe. No biggie, I did a clean run the best I could do.

He follows me and of course he is on me pretty tight. The win goes to JTP. He told me this was revenge for me beating him about 4 years ago during NOPI Drift….honestly, I would have rather had this win. I owe him one now. Now it’s off to West Palm Beach where no one has the advantage of experience. See you in Florida.

Sponsor Plugs:

Brad @ groundwerks Garage
Driftworks
Sams Auto Land
Byron Hill
Alexander Grant vinyl help
Marty for help on the track and trailer storage
Sean Smithson
Mark Lenardon
Eugene Chou, HE’S MY BEST FRIEND
and my girlfriend Susan

And of course all the Atlanta people and the DMs Drift Mechaniks

Dennis Mertzanis of Mertzanis Racing has partnered with Petfinder.com to promote awareness of homeless animals and the need for adoption. Dennis and longtime girlfriend are no strangers to dog adoption as they have 2 rescue dogs, Buddy and Lola, and have fostered dogs numerous of times. While it is challenging, there is nothing more rewarding than being able to help save dogs and finding good homes. As a big supporter of dog adoption, Dennis will volunteer his time, efforts and his car to help save dogs, one race at a time. Please show your support for Petfinder.com by stopping by the display at your local Formula Drift event. You can also show your support by donating your time or money to a local rescue shelter of your choice. Petfinder.com

“Saving just one pet won’t change the world. . . but, surely, the world will change for that one pet”

Los Angeles, Ca – Mertzanis Racing is proud to name Konig Wheels as its title sponsor for the 2011 Formula Drift season. Konig Wheels participated in the program for 2010 and this year has decided to step it up for 2011. If you were at Long Beach for the first Formula Drift event of the year, you would have seen the red Konig Wheels sponsored car already.

“I am really happy that Konig Wheels saw the value in our program in 2010 and now are investing more for 2011. Konig is a great company to work with because, not only are they a bunch of cool guys, but they understand the industry and what it takes to be successful. I cannot wait to see how my new Konig Milligrams look and drift on the car” – Dennis Mertzanis.

Check online for the latest, hottest wheels out there for your ride. Konig Wheels

Long Beach, Ca – Sunny LA was the location for Formula Drift Round 1. Coming out with new livery, the car also came out in a totally different color. Shaking off the yellow from last year, the red was an abrupt change and welcomed by many people as a good move. As far as the car goes, there were many changes from last year. One of the largest was the move from the supercharger to a single turbo setup. To be honest, its been so long since I have drifted the car (pretty much Irwindale last year) I didn’t noticed a huge difference. I think this is a good thing because the supercharger was instant power on throttle and I didn’t notice a change with the turbo. I did however notice I had a bit more power down low. See the supercharger boost was linear, meaning the boost increases with increasing RPM, so at redline, I was at 14psi and 6psi at 3000 or 4000rpm. Now it is at 12 psi at 3000 or 4000 rpm and it’s a constant boost level all the way to redline. Big thanks to Brad at Groundwerks Garage for making the turbo setup possible.

Suspension, suspension, suspension. WOW!!!!! What a change. All I can say here is that last year I got a lot smarter about setup. I still have a ton of work to do and more to learn, but I really enjoy learning about suspension stuff. It intrigues me to the point where it’s a borderline obsession. What did I change?

Well, for starters I am running the Driftworks Geomaster knuckles front and rear. These things are nice. They keep the stock geometry all while lowering the car 2 inches. What this means is all the suspension arms are in their stock-ride-height locations, not pitched up or down. This allows the suspension work more freely and not all bound up with aggressively pitched geometry. Also, you can run your car hella low and it’ll still work….except for your tires hitting stuff inside your wheel wells. The next things changed were the anti-sway bars. With the VQ setup, I wasn’t able to run a front bar without it hitting the TC rod and binding the suspension. I also got a rear bar that wasn’t too stiff as well. I set the alignment to the same specs as last year and BOOM, the car was amazing. Like I said, I haven’t drifted since Irwindale and now Im hitting all the marks like a pro. I was happy.

The final change was going to a lighter wheel from the Konig Wheel line. I got a set of the Konig Milligrams in gold and they are really nice. You can feel a difference while drifting, the wheels spin up faster when you romp on it.

Practice was pretty good. I got familiar with the course and just started working on my line. The funny thing here is that I lost a ton a weight and now my seat seemed too far back now as compared to last year. I adjusted the seat and everything really started working even better. Crazy I know. Where you sit in the car is important.

Qualifying was intense as always. Seems as though we don’t get too much time to think about it, we just line up and go. I did my runs, they felt good and I qualified 19th, yeah, my best in my FD career so far.

I was paired up against Jeff Abbot for the top 32 competition. I was very happy. He out qualified me, but I knew I had a chance. Not like last year, were I qualified low and got paired up against a top guy. I was getting excited for the top 32 battle. We start the tandem and I have some pretty decent runs. At the finish line, they hold you until the official word from the judges come down. I am watching the official in anticipation for the win. He gives me the thumbs up and I starting yelling in excitement. Just for the record, its not smart to yell while you are wearing a helmet, its pretty loud. I am so happy for my first top 16 battle. I can line up in front of the crowd now for opening ceremonies.

My crew member Sean and I had a bet, if I got to top 16, he was going to wear a tight shirt and be my umbrella girl. Yeah, he did it and it was funny.

Top 16 was with Kyle Mohan. I knew I had a chance but blew it during the tandem battle. Oh well, better luck next time. See you in Atlanta, my hometown and my favorite track. I’m gunning for a top 8 finish at this event.

A big shout out to my sponsors:
KONIG Wheels
KENDA Tires
Strack, Inc
Import Image Racing
Fortune Auto
Petfinder.com
Brad @ groundwerks Garage
Driftworks
Sams Auto Land
Byron Hill for the graphic design help, BIG THANKS
Michelle Forsberg for the information on getting things done in a pinch
Sean Smithson
Mark Lenardon
Eugene Chou, HE’S MY BEST FRIEND
and my girlfriend Susan

OK OK, so I havn’t posted in a while, big deal. I have been busy. Busy with what you say, well as most of you don’t know, I just recently moved to LA. Yup, bye bye midwest, hello fun sun and unfortunately earthquakes. So far its been good, traffic isnt that bad really, everyone drives fast as hell on the interstates. Even little old ladies pass me doing 90 sometimes, they are crazy here and I love it.

So we are living in an area of LA called Koreatown. Its cool I guess…the rent is pretty cheap and its close to some cool stuff.

If you are in the LA area and you want to meet up, shot me an email…I want to know where all the drifting is going on.

Located in Sin City, the SEMA show is the place to be after the seasons ends. My car was at the show pimping in the Kenda Tire booth #40013. The show truly is the greatest show on earth. There is so much to see, its pretty ridiculous. I found an exhaust tip that was like 2 feet in diameter.
see

KENDA booth

posing

And the models….well, one of them at least. The other one was hiding in the trunk maybe.
I was wondering why I had ass and hand prints all over my windshield at the Englishtown Clinic….here is the reason.

My car was WAAAAY too nice for the SEMA crowd…

I walked around, looked at stuff, talked to people and it was fun. Way too much to see. Its cause for freaking out, cause there is just too much. Dudes changing huge dump truck tires to show you the equipment, crazy stuff around every corner. I recommend it to anyone.

Big thanks to Kenda Tire, Strack Inc and Konig wheels for the help this year. I finally got to meet some of the people that have been helping me this year.

Irwindale, CA -  Round 7 is in the books and well, we didn’t do as well as we wanted.  The important thing is that we ahd fun and learned a ton.  Seriously, we learned, and we are going to take what we learned and kick some butt next year.

If you read my blog, you remember I blew my engine at Sonoma.

Working on the car to get the blown engine out. Thanks Sams Autoland for all the support this year. Couldn’t have done it without you.

engines out

Engine we got from Garage Boso…Thanks Ross and Frank

Brad under the hood of the car putting the finishing touches on the engine change after blowing it in Sonoma.

the man, uh the……..man….wow, not flattering…I’m just saying

Lining up for practice.

Thanks to Brad@Groundwerksgarage the car was running great.

We were having some setup issues, so here are the guys working hard to make some changes. Thanks Dave Epifano, Brad Hettinger and Sean Smithson for the support.

Getting a little bit closer to the wall.

not sure why I like this picture, but I do.

nothing beats this race support vehicle. It was an automatic manual…it shifted the manual automatically, weird car.

my office, were I do my work

another cool picture, this one I’m warming up the Kenda tires

All the competitors getting ready for qualifying.

screen shot of the driftstream live and there I am on my 1st qualifying run.

my 1st run score….a 1 for speed, really????

second run is looking good

uhh, what????? reverse entry OMG

oops, good setup, but too close to the wall….next time

Now I have an excuse for my brake light being out.

getting some love from Nikolay-scissor-hands

ok, I put alot of pictures in this one, so I hope you like it.

I’d like to thank:
Kenda Tires
Strack Inc
Konig Wheels
Extreme Dimensions

and in no particular order:
Eugene Chou
Brad Hettinger
Sean Smithson
Dave Epifano “The Fonz”
Jelani Winston
JC Robinson
Mark Lenardon “Makeshift Films”
Sam, Jim and Dwight from Sams Autoland
Tony B
The Gardella Racing guys, Gary, Scott, Moose and Bruce,
maybe Angerman but he didnt do anything
Matt Powers for some suspension parts.
Drift Emporium for the spacers
David at WORKS Motorsports
Rob at Z-Car Garage
Frank at Garage Boso
Erik Jacobs with Atlelite.com
Toyo Tire changer guys, all of them, BIG THANKS
and of course my girlfriend Susan, needless to say, my biggest fan and greatest supporter.
and whoever else I have forgotten

and of course the fans, without you there would be no one in the stands.

http://www.facebook.com/kendaracing

Wanna race on Kenda Tires? Here’s your chance – Kenda has set up a racer support program for all the passionate racers who want to race on the Kenda Kaiser’s (used in DMCC and FormulaD).

If you’re interested, email John at Blvdtire@comcast.net for the official race support program. If you are a racer, send in your race resume and quality for discounted Kenda tires! Drift on!

Also, look us up on Facebook at “KENDA Tires racing” to keep up with the latest news and information.

Dennis Mertzanis, the Pinot Noir of Drifting from Mark Lenardon on Vimeo.

If you want to see the run during the Live Feed from Justin.tv on DriftStream Live check out 00:01:40 for the run…

Sonoma, CA, was the scene for round 6 of FormulaD.  Speaking of scenes, the backdrop at Infineon Raceway was truly beautiful: mountains, lakes and sprawling desert land.  I’ve never been here before, but it felt like home.

Beautiful isn’t it

Before we could get started on a weekend of antics, fun, sun, beverages and drifting, we had to work on the car.  After Vegas, I went to an event in Phoenix to dial in the car.  Leaps and bounds, my friends…..I found that two suspension components were binding the car which caused it to act like a wild horse on the track.  After the fix, the car was driving well.  So well in fact, I blew out the clutch.  With clutch in hand and 2100 miles from home, we made some frantic phone calls to get some shelter for clutch installation.

I called Rob from Z-car Garage and he was more than willing to help.  His shop wasn’t convenient to Sonoma so he made some calls.  He pulled a favor or two in for us and landed a sweet spot at the track with none other than the WORKS Motorsports guys.  Their shop is located in one of Infineon Raceways many garages.  It was very difficult to concentrate on the clutch when all I was thinking about was taking the Evo out for a spin.  A big thanks to the team: Brad, Eugene, Dave, Sean and Mark for busting butt on getting the car back up and running, as well as Rob with Z-car Garage and David from WORKS Motorsports.

Brad working hard to install the clutch

There was not a Thursday practice for this event.  Basically, you have 6 runs to get the course down.  We don’t have any communications equipment so it makes it a challenge to communicate using text messaging…especially when the reception is spotty.  I did my 6 or 7 runs and didn’t receive any text messages until the session was over.  I got crazy ones from the day before and one about 30 min after practice was over.  Needless to say, I was not driving so well and it was now too late to change anything; off to qualifying we go.

Let me start by saying, this track was probably my favorite so far in the FD tour after Road Atlanta; highspeed ebrake entry to a decreasing radius.  Every course has its challenge and this was no exception.  But it flowed pretty well and the surface was silky smooth.  I was linking it no problem, but I wasn’t hitting the correct line on the entry.  Qualifying comes and goes.  The Kenda team barely makes it in at the 32nd spot, going up against Tyler McQuarrie who qualified 1st.

In drifting, you always have a chance….anything can happen.

We practice and I take Brad’s advice on the line.  I start getting the course down much better than before.  After one run, Ken Gushi is motioning to me that something is wrong with my car.  I get out and look around and see nothing.  We keep practicing and I notice the car smokes really bad after a run.  After I cool down and get back on throttle to head back to the waiting area, we check the car out and find the valve cover is leaking oil on the top.  Friday night, we get it all sealed up, ready for tomorrow.

Getting interviewed by Jarod about the up-coming tandem with Tyler.

Saturday starts off great; we practice and I’m driving well.  I practice my strategy that I will be using against Tyler.  Drive Hard and Drive Fast…drift my ass off and hope he makes a mistake.  During practice, the car feels really down on power and is now smoking after every run.  We take it easy and head back to stop the leak before top 32.

Top 32, we get the engine seal yet again and go out for top 32.  As soon as I get up to the top of the hill, it was game time.  Tyler and I were first to go.  We take off and I am following as close as possible.  We initiate into the first turn and I’m not as close as I’d like but I’m happy.  I shift 3rd and clutch dump it and the car bogs…the engine was done, no power.  I shift to 2nd and finished the run.  Leading, I knew I’d be even slower than I was before, BUT Tyler had to follow.  We finish up the run and the win goes to Tyler.  He is a cool guy as well as a great competitor.  I met him at the autograph session in RoadA and it was cool to talk with him.

All and all, the weekend was awesome.  The car still looks great with the Konig Lace wheels.  We are planning a new look for the car next year, so I know Konig will have another awesome wheel that we can run on the car.

I have been talking a lot about setup this year.  It’s because without it, you will get your face stomped at FD.  My car was amazing in the past, or so I thought.  Some adjustments we made have been good and some not so good. But overall, the car is getting better and faster.  I plan to kick ass in the future because I will not stop, I will not give up.  I love this sport.  It’s been my life for the last 4 years of my life.  Remember, no matter what people say about you or you’re driving, it’s your destiny.  With a positive attitude and a thick layer of tenacity, you can do whatever you want.

I’d like to send a special shout out to the guys at Sam’s Auto in Gardena, CA…especially Sam, Dwight and Jim.  They have been especially great with helping a privateer like myself!