Good morning all. I'm not sure how many people here following drifting but there is a driver Conrad Grunewald who drives a Chevy Camaro is a COPO motor in it. Its pretty bad ass. I know him so I thought I would share the post.
If you dont watch drifting I'd advise you to check it out. A lot of high revving and tire smoke.
Enjoy:
https://theblock.com/news/conrad-gru...tand-irwindale
Conrad Grunewald and his Hankook/Top 1 Oil Chevrolet Performance Camaro have undoubtedly had an up-and-down year. Starting at Road Atlanta, the team was faced with mechanical issues, resulting in a costly rebuild of the back-end of the racecar. Grunewald then went into some of the most controversial battles of his
Formula DRIFT career, in both
West Palm Beach and
New Jersey, where he faced-off against D1 Champion Daigo Saito.
The final stop of the year in Formula DRIFT took place at Irwindale Speedway, known as the House of Drift. Grunewald had much to be excited about coming into this final event, a new engine program with GM Racing and support from great partners like Holley, who were on site to help make sure everything was working smoothly.
"I was asked to help with the fine tuning of our Holley Dominator EFI system on Conrad’s Formula Drift Camaro so I jumped at the opportunity,” said Ricky Best, Technical Representative for Holley Performance Products. “After some minor tweaking of his supplied base tune up, he was on the track and doing what he does best. The Holley Dominator EFI was spot on all weekend. Conrad and his team gave me the royal treatment and I couldn't be happier to have had the opportunity to work with a better bunch of racers. "
The Top 32 match-up for Grunewald was against Hankook/NOS Energy 370Z driver Chris Forsberg. Both drivers looked very strong in the first run. Grunewald lead the tandem on the second run and Forsberg made a miscalculation coming into the infield section of the track. He made contact with the outside wall causing damage and was unable to drive his car off the track. And the Camaro took the win!
One of the major aspects of having a competitive drifting package is the choice of tire. Conrad Grunewald proudly waves the flag for Hankook in Formula DRIFT and will be the first to tell you that the Ventus RS-3 is hands down the best way to go for performance and grip. This premium selection in tires has proven to be reliable as the team has yet to face an issue at any of the seven events all season long.
“Formula DRIFT is one of our main focuses for sponsorship in North America,” said Paul Jho, Hankook Motorsport Marketing Manager. “This was our third year with Conrad Grunewald Racing and it has been a great experience working with him. We also appreciate the value of his partnership with Chevrolet Performance. We are OE with GM and very impressed with the Chevrolet Camaro that Conrad has been drifting in the series. We are looking forward to the 2013 season.”
In the Top 16 battle Grunewald was, once again, paired up with Daigo Saito. Saito made obvious mistakes, such as putting two wheels off course and displaying questionable angles, looking very shallow. Both drivers showed a lot of aggression, however, and unless Grunewald was going to get the win, one would have bet that they would have been given the one-more-time. However, this was not the case and it was another victory, albeit a pretty subjective one, for Daigo Saito, who went on to take the overall win of the night and the 2012 championship title.
"I am pleased with the team’s overall performance this weekend,” stated Conrad Grunewald. “Our new prototype COPO LS7 was on point all weekend, giving me the power needed to combat the high grip high speed bank at Irwindale. We have a new Camaro chassis being built at BRE motorsports for 2013 and I cannot wait for Long Beach. The spring can’t come fast enough!"
Conrad Grunewald would like to thank all of his partners for their support in the 2012 Formula DRIFT season. His commitment and hard work left him with a 9th place finish in the championship points, the highest ranking Chevrolet in the field. For more information on Conrad Grunewald Racing you can visit
www.conradgrunewald.com.
Words by
Ashley Van Dyke, photography provided by Andrew Bohan at LifeBlasters.
