Gardella Racing - Redbull - Mobil1 Formula Drift Camaro Debuts in Atlanta

[Cammarrah]

Has anyone read/posted this yet? I used to be a drift fan back in the mid-late 90s. Good to see these guys who have had a lot of success take a 5th Gen Camaro to competition finally. Last year I think their driver placed third overall.

Looks like the new Formula Drift Camaro will debut at Atlanta this weekend. Heres some info I found.



From the Press Release:

April 8, 2011 (Howell, NJ) After many months in the rumor mill, the team has confirmed their new platform for 2011. During the off-season the team worked hard preparing a brand new Chevy Camaro for an early launch. However, due to some minor set backs, the team was not able to meet their goal; the first event of the Formula Drift season in Long Beach CA on April 8th and 9th. A new target debut has been set, Saturday April 23rd at the New York Auto Show, where the team has partnered with Red Bull & Nitto Tire to put on an amazing drift demo. Ryan Tuerck will be tearing up 11th Ave in NYC!

For the 2011 Formula D kickoff in Long Beach, the team has a brand new look on the Mobil 1 Pontiac Solstice. Once again, Gardella Racing has partnered with Red Bull, whose involvement with the team started in 2003 on Gardella’s drag racing program. In addition, the team has partnered with Nitto Tires to be the “Official Tire” for all the GR programs. The team has also introduced numerous product sponsors to their repertoire; including, Wilwood, Enkei, NGK, AEM, Pfadt, Eibach, Kooks, Stefs, Brian Crower, and Ignite Racing Fuels.

“It has been a very stressful off-season with many highs and lows,” started team owner Gary Gardella. “The entire team is ready to test the new car and show, once again, Chevy has a great product for the drifting market,” continued Gardella. “Mike Whitney and Scott Davidson worked very hard to build the best car possible. Together they have many years of racing experience and are hungry to win. Everyone knows I like to win and I am itching to get back on the podium in 2011,” finished Gardella.

Be sure to watch Ryan Tuerck and the Gardella Racing team take on some of the best drivers in the world this upcoming weekend at Round 1 Formula Drift Long Beach. You can watch it on Live Stream here. http://www.formulad.com/blog/category/fd-live/

And more recent update:

May 11, 2011 (Howell, NJ) Road Atlanta, host to the Formula Drift Road to the Championship event, is considered the birthplace of drifting in the US. Road Atlanta marks the home of the first FD event, 8 years ago. With that being said, fans come back every year and this year the turn out of spectators was amazing; people were jammed into the hills like never seen before.

Right from the gate Thursday’s practice was very exciting for the GR team. Even with limited testing time, the 2011 Mobil 1 Chevy Camaro handled and ran great. The LS7 engine worked wonders and sounded almost perfect. It is common to have a few minor glitches with a new build and this was no exception; however, the issues did not affect the team during competition. Once practice was over on Friday, the team went right into qualifying. After his first lap, Tuerck scored a 91.0 and a 94.4 for his second run. His final score put Tuerck and Gardella Racing in the 2nd position on the qualifying ladder behind the leader, Conrad Grunewald, heading into Saturday’s elimination rounds.

“It was great to see two Chevy Camaro’s qualify number one and two,” started team owner, Gary Gardella. “This was essentially our first outing with the Mobil 1 Camaro and I could not be any more proud of my team and the hard work they put into preparing for this event,” continued Gardella. “I could not ask for anymore out of these phenomenal group of guys. Each and every one of my team members worked around the clock over the past month to have this vehicle ready for competition. In my opinion the team does not often get enough credit when a car does well; Mike Whitney, Scott Davidson & Eric O’Sullivan deserve some recognition.”

During top 32, Tuerck faced Tako Aono, a driver who has not missed an event since Formula Drift’s conception in 2003. Due to Aono running into some mechanical issues, Tuerck was able to easily advance on to the Top 16 round. The next battle was very interesting, Justin Pawlak vs. Ryan Tuerck. These 2 guys are long time friends, but it never stops either driver from giving it their all. Minor contact early on, threw off the alignment on the Camaro, which made it very difficult for Tuerck to drive. Pawlak advanced and went on to the next round to get eliminated by his teammate, Darren McNamara.

Next stop for the GR team will be beautiful West Palm, Florida. This will be the first new venue for the Formula Drift series in a number of years. We are all very interested to see what Florida has to offer the series and anxious to get this event underway on June 3rd. For more information on the event please take a look at http://formulad.com/schedule/pro-cha...palm-beach.php

[TaylorRyanSS]

Cant wait to see it, I love FD.

[PfadtRacing]

Found some good video:



And some good shots from Formula Drift, and one from 6liter here on C5.com

[brn2fly]

That's awesome. Makes want to race mine (road course) when I get home. Love to see the Camaro out there racing.

[SummoneR]

dang gave me chills!!

[Pompa]

awesome!

[xXSilencerXx]

Pretty cool!

[alexcfwu]

It's amazing to see Camaro in this type of race. Since most of the competitors are lighter (or in Mustang's case a light axles)... doesn't that start Camaro in a disadvantage point if both drivers are equally good?

[Vanik]

Nothing like a Camaro going side ways

[edz10ss]

it awesome seeing the new camaro doing good in the drifting world. I cant wait to see it in person.

[Ovenmitt]

Originally Posted by alexcfwu

It's amazing to see Camaro in this type of race. Since most of the competitors are lighter (or in Mustang's case a light axles)... doesn't that start Camaro in a disadvantage point if both drivers are equally good?

It's not a race.

[d69chris]

My next MOD........turning brakes!

[11SynergyGr&Bl]

Very kewl!! ^.^ I was really big into this years ago in my rx7, its so much fun to do, and watch. I hit up a few cornors recently just to see how the camaro handled ^.^ it wasn't a surprise it went well . any car can "drift" is a matter of how good the driver is at such a task and knowning the limits of said car/setup or not.

[Imjaybird]

It's cool but I still can not see why this is a sport? I guess I just answered my own question, cool sells.