KLUTCH KICKERS RD1

KLUTCH KICKERS RD1

, by Nate Hamilton, 5 min reading time

✌🏾April 30th: Welcome back, you are now reading the latest Blog.  

Nate here, unfolding some bts details on our first race at Klutch Kickers R1.  

First slice of breaking news going into Round 1.. I've got myself a teammate, Josiah Fallaise. Owner of FDF_Fab, also a kick ass driver. We made this video for our announcements. 👇🏾 

 Video: Thanks, @jl.films 👊🏾 

Day one: ending our 20hr drive from Texas. Step one, unload the trailer. This takes us about 2 hours or so. Awning / Car / Merch kit / Cooler 🍻 

First look at FDF and 144 under the same awning. 

jumping into drivers meetings, here is where everyone gets that first outline on what is all about to go down. Judges describe what they are expecting and how you earn points around the track. "Don't jump out of your car on track" and other safety things.. 

around this time drivers say whats up and get to hang. Shoutout to Josh! 👇🏾

Track Walk:  on the left is Josiah and to my right, Austin our spotter for this event. 

 start line.

Dirk Stratton sighting turn two! We caught up with him, talked about the track! Dirk ended up having an amazing event. 2nd place finish!

 

The whole team together, diving into expectations and forward thinking on the event.

mechanics / tuners / drivers all just trying to perfect a car sliding sideways. 

Rad! 

Friday's Practice: canceled due to Weather. Zero Laps for me in the 5 Hour practice session. Not the best start to the season for anyone on grid. 

Saturday Qualifying: It's a new day, let's do this! 

Vibes. another quick breakdown for practice, then straight into qualifying. 

Finally getting laps, gaining feedback for car setup and gearing. We made two gear changes. 104mph / 108mph / 112mph. Always a weird feeling to have 3ish laps before qualifying for the main show. Feeling way behind vs my normal track time at a Klutch Kickers event. 

Adding more context. Usually rain 🌧 at Klutch Kickers is expected, but we are at a new track THE FREEDOM FACTORY. The lower infield concrete is almost impossible to drift when wet. This was why so many sessions were cancelled. 

Qualifying: here we are, 7ish laps total so far. Making car setup changes for the bank and exit of the bank. Probably feeling about 70% confident with how hard I can push this car.

Qualification Results: 74  (Line: 26 / Angle: 19 / Style: 32)  

But wait....what happens next..? You guessed it, MORE RAIN. ☔️ This completely canceled Qualifying.. turned out the judges decided a random draw would be best.  

We got our final qualifying result as a 3rd place position. Randomly. 

I would be rewarded a "bye run" in our top 64 battle, sending me right into the top32. Honestly I feel this was a disadvantage due to another moment of "lack of seat time". I would have preferred taking the battle allowing more laps and data to make the car better. This would conclude Saturday.  

headed into Game Day, Sunday! 

Adjustments with Adrian, I was experiencing a clutch slip feeling on the run up / entry. It was weird so we bled the clutch to triple check it was engaged correctly.

Top32 = Eric Conkling. 

 

close battle, Eric was much faster than I was expecting. He did make a big mistake coming off the bank. This gave us the advantage moving forward now setting our sites on the Top16. 

update on my Teammate Josiah. He was also working his way up until he met Connor O' Sully in his rocket ship. More grip and commitment from Connor, Josiah was knocked out in his top16.  

 

TOP16:  Nate Hamilton vs Taylor Hull. 

Leading Taylor Hull around the Freedom Factory.  ARGH. Right after this rad photo, I spun on inner clip 2. My tires felt like grease on that center section all weekend. 

My chase caused quite the storm for Taylor. I was pushing hard sitting on a Zero, found myself in a braking zone... on throttle! coming with speed I hit Taylor and bumped him off the track. He then stayed in the throttle as he was trying to finish the run regardless of the push I gave, swinging into my rear wheel with his rear wheel, I went flying! 

Here is his summary of the wreck 👇🏾 

 

You guessed it, my weekend was over. We both pushed hard and that's what drifting is about at these competitions. All love to Taylor I do not for one second think he meant to send me flying. 

As for the team, we will need to get busy with repairs as we are headed to Hyperfest in just one short week! 👇🏾 

 


Blog posts

© 2024 144 Racing, Powered by Shopify

    Login

    Forgot your password?

    Don't have an account yet?
    Create account