Tropicana Field Conquered
60 Cars, Hundreds of Cones and 1,000,000sqft of Asphault. Awesome.
The Performance Workshop at Tropicana Field was a huge success! Nearly 60 drivers and their machines showed up early, ready to burn through some fuel. After everyone was checked in and a quick safety/driver's meeting out of the way, the advanced groups for both Grip and Drift were cut loose to begin the first session of the day. Grip drivers had a .7mi long course with long straights, varying corners and even some elevation change. Drift guys and gals were working with a .5mi long course with plenty of room for 3rd gear action and corners of all shapes and sizes.
As groups rotated through the Grip course, the wide variety of cars began to stand out. Among them were a GTI, Evo, E36 Race car, 3-Rotor FD RX7, 600whp STI, a few Mustangs, Corvettes and even a healthy Lotus Elise vs Exige battle...just to name a few. It was great to see a 1000hp Dodge Viper parked between Mini Coopers and a brigade of driftmobiles. There were three groups of Grip drivers who cycled through the course throughout the day with drivers averaging nearly 60 total runs. We battled timing system issues all day due to heavy winds but will be sending out the timing data to all drivers.
All the usual suspects showed up for the Drift course. Aside from the staple S13/S14 crew, there was a good mix of S2000, E46 M3, 350Z and the baddest V8 powered Cressida this side of the Mississippi. This course began with an adjustable start line to help the under-powered and under-experienced, but had plenty of space for the veterans to grab that ever-so-desired third gear before the first sweeper. Because of the size and layout of the course, waiting time between runs was minimal and some drivers got upwards of 80 runs throughout the day. Those who didn't either ran out of tires, fuel or energy.
As the day progressed the course picked up a little more grip and the drivers picked up a little more confidence. Fueled by a solid lunch and plenty of cold Red Bull on hand, participants worked with our Pro instructors to get the most out of themselves and their cars. Drivers were able to ask questions and get one-on-one time from instructors with backgrounds in Grand-AM/Rolex, American Le Mans Series, SPEED World Challenge, Formula Drift and professional stunt driving.
The event wrapped up in epic fashion with the drift posse breaking out into spontaneous tandem drift (only those with the proper safety gear and who were signed off by the drift instructors). (Participant tandem video). The drift course was a huge crowd pleaser as it drew in people from all over downtown St. Petersburg with it's barrage of noise and tire smoke.
With this event in the books, the Full Auto staff is hard at work planning the next event. Stay tuned for more updates as well as the OFFICIAL Video being produced by Fusion Event Productions. We would like to send out a heartfelt thank you to all of those who attended this event and helped make it a huge success. We look forward to seeing everyone at the next one!
Photos by Jerrimie Estelle and Scottie Scheetz
