The Stratotech Park Season Opener kicked off last weekend, welcoming motorsports enthusiasts of all genres with open arms and hot as hell weather. Contrary to my past two visits here, this day was greeted with lots of sun, no clouds, tacos, ice cream, and free popcorn from the Spec-D booth. Not bad, and much better than having my shoes and socks soaked like the Titanic. There was plenty of action going on all day for everyone to see with Stratotech inviting out pretty much everything with wheels to come out and play. From lapping, time attack, drifting, karts, motorcycles, and even formula cars, there was something for everyone, but I was actually there for a specific reason.

For this season my good friends at RA Motorsports have teamed up with local drifter Rick Selinske to help support him as he competes in the Spec-D Pro Drift Series. This is our local pro-am drifting competition which is also a feeder/licencing series to Formula D, so of course we want to take things seriously and do the best job that we possibly can in backing Rick up for the year. This means providing parts, services, moral support, snacks, backrubs, crisp high-fives, advice, and generally putting together an effort in hopes of taking home some shiny new hardware. I will also be joining the crew for the full season to document our progress, travels, and also to make Rick and his car look extra pretty. While all this certainly demands a different mentality from our usual track day approach, I am confident that the team can come together with our years of combined motorsports experience and at least bring home a win or two.

But before all that, we needed to shake the car down after some minor changes during the off-season and make sure that we’re all on the same page. The Stratotech Season Opener offered the perfect opportunity to do just that, and for the most part the day went fairly well with only some minor hiccups (and a handful of tires being sacrificed). Still, there were a few aspects of the car that were brought to our attention that will need addressing, but overall it was a successful day of testing. I should mention that this is also why majority of the photos I took are of Rick and the drifting run groups, as that was the primary reason for my attendance that day.

The first round of the Spec-D Pro Drift Series is in just a few weeks and we are (mostly) ready to go. I hope you all love Ricks new livery on his 1JZ powered S13 because we will be seeing a lot more of it here on the site. See you all on June 10th for round one!

-brandon.