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 After several attempts we were finally able to air this sucker up. 285/30R20 Falken FK-452 on an HRE wheel that measures 20×13″ So YES technically we were able to do what we were asked to do, and that is air this crazy stretch up.

But NO you should not be driving on this. There is about a 3/4″ gap between the tire bead and where it should be sitting on the wheel. This mysterious request was from Formula Drift world champion Chris Forsberg.

For what kind of car? A 350Z naturally… It’s a show car that Chris is helping out with. He was pretty floored that we were able to air it up after several attempts by himself and other tire shops. Later the customer decided to go with a 305/30R20. But we are still stretching with the best of them here at CTO!

CTO was busy as usual for Pro-AM Nationals at Irwindale Speedway as the top amateur drifters test their skills to see who’s got what it takes to earn they Professional Formula Drift license for the 2010 season. Drivers and cars came from all across the country to try and earn their rights to make it to the big stage next year.

This is Logan from Work Wheels USA, giving us our traditional umbrella girl pose….

Here he is being an umbrella girl for Matt Powers, Formula Drift Pro Driver.

Thanks Jack for coming out to help CTO on a busy day, the help is always appreciated. Mike Essa sighting! He’s got some pretty big plans lined up for the 2010 season, in a new V12 powered BMW! Best of luck to Mike in 2010.. a big supporter for CTO in the past few years.

Plenty of Pro Formula Drift drivers made it out to show their support to the up and coming amateur drifters. Here is Joon Maeng, one of the nicest guys in the world.. little did he know Judge Andy Yen was critiqueing his CTO Photo from behind!

Mickie Frial on the left, and Luke Pakula were able to earn they Pro license through the Just Drift / Top Drift series 2009. For those that wish to test their skills in competiion, this series seems very promising for 2010. Contact us for details on how to compete and earn a FD license for 2011!

Drivers were drifting their hearts out. Look as David Blunt (Red BMW E30) got gangster on the wall on the inner bank. John Rusakoff (Light Blue AE86 Corolla) was killing it on the entire course all day.

Really close tandem action through the day! Congrats to the winners of this event.

1st- Ian Fournier
2nd- Mike Pollard
3rd- Chelesa DeNofa

And all of the Pro-AM competitors that earned their FD License through this event for 2010:
1 Mike Pollard
2 Ian Fournier
3 Nikolay Konstantinov
4 John Russakoff
5 Brad Hettinger
6 Chelsea DeNofa
7 Charles Ng
8 Jeff Abbott
9 David Blunt
10 Russell Walker
11 Keith Wong
12 Ameen Rizvi
13 Cyrus Martinez
14 Stewart Leask
15 Keith Arreola
16 Derek King
17 Victor Moore
18 Tommy Roberts
19 Roland Gallagher

And a big thank you to Formula Drift for having us out there to help all of our Grassroot friends!

 Carl’l perspective on Formula Drift Irwindale. 

“”FD Round 7 - Irwindale: DNS despite huge team effort  

Practice on Thursday started out well, better already in the first run than we ended practice last time out at Irwindale so quick fast learning curve as usual. The new exhaust is really good for the throttle response in the City Tire/Kallusive Clothing 350Z TT, which helps a lot especially up on the steep banking of Irwindale Speedway. I played around a little with lines, started to move higher up on the bank and in general felt very good about the precision of the car setup and the track layout. Traction as always hugely improved since we got the Carbonetic diff in the car and very smooth, saw a lot of jerkiness/shifty behaviour on the bank from other cars on the banking. Our City Tire/Kallusive Clothing Nissan 350Z TT was also looking good with Sam’s Autoland having taken care of painting some new AIT bodyparts for us.

To our great dismay our super strong engine started dropping oil pressure and making noise in the middle of my 5th or 6th run, I just had to abort and as I was rolling into the pits, there was some serious clonking going on, not good. We towed back to the team area and loaded up on the trailer to do some diagnostic work at the shop. At the end of Thu night, after discovering a pinched/seeping oil line and trying with the engine full of new oil we concluded this car won’t run without a new engine.

Fri morning the team gets started with the very able hands of Technosquare to swap the engine. Work progress went really well, by lunchtime the old engine was out and the new one about to be dropped in. By this time I had to head over to the drivers meeting and then just wait at the track for the team to show, worst case for 2nd round of qualifying but at least a shot to get into top 32.

It was a loong afternoon. As my fellow FD drifters were lining up to qualify, the team was reporting from the workshop - “wastegates on”, “exhaust on” etc and I was keeping them up to date with the progress of the qualifying which actually started a bit late. Ready with suit on and helmet in hand, I got to watch a lot of qualifying runs…

As 2nd cycle rolled around and the team was loading up over at Technosquare with the car now ready to rock again with a new engine, we all realized there’s no way they’ll make it through traffic on a Fri in LA in time to qualify. Anyway who knows, maybe someone releases a ton of oil on the track delaying the qualifying for clean-up - so the team kept moving anyway. However, 2nd cycle of qualifying went really fast and all of a sudden session is over - and our FD season is over. Not a great way to end it, sitting next to the track instead of in a car flying around the track, but absolutely nothing to do about it.

The team rolled in just as the autograph session started right after qualifying. After signing a huge amount of programs, helmets, t-shirts, bags etc - the line of fans was huge! - I head over with the team to setup our pit area, for the fans to see our car, and we stayed to watch and support our friend drivers at the track both Friday and Saturday.

Props for Matt Powers and Michael Essa for really doing well this event, I was sad to see fellow Z-drifter and Hankook driver Robbie get knocked out after some solid runs taking out already crowned 2009 FD Champion Chris Forsberg (congrats!).

Now, silly season is already at full speed. Even though most people take a week off from thinking too much about drifting after a busy season, it’s the big topic now who’s driving what car on what tires for what team next year. The FD Awards Banquet is tonight, it will not only be about trophies and awards but for sure also a huge gossip event…

From my side, there’s one or two more race events coming up this year before this motorsports season is fully ended, more news on that soon.

Thanks to FD for a well run professional show and thanks to all fans for showing up and just being great and enthustiastic at the races - it rubs off on everyone!

Thanks to everyone who supported our first year in FD and made our car really competitive already by mid-season, Hankook, Kallusive, Carbonetic, AIT Racing, APR, Technosquare, South Gate Collision, Sam’s Autoland, Endless, Zeal, Everitt Boles Motorsports Insurance, all the people involved - Chaz Kallusive - Justin (building on the car) - Carey (gearbox swap Atlanta) - Howard (engine swap).

Additionally from my side a huge huge thanks to City Tire Online!

See you on a track soon. Keep your eyes on this blog to know when and where.
Carl”"

This weekend will be the Finale for Formula Drift series 2009. Come check it out at the House of Drift - Irwindale Speedway!

 Come support Carl Rydquist driving the City Tire 350Z Twin Turbo.