Formula D Exhibition in Monterey, Mexico August 22nd and 23rd 2008
Taking a short flight from L.A.X. the Federal Tires Team arrived late Thursday night in Monterey, Mexico. No one was expecting how welcoming the folks in Monterey would be. The environment was lively and festive and the track was well organized; each driver even had their own paddock.
The local magazine Maxi tuning had some information about us Formula D drivers…
On Friday the team arrived early at the track to unload the rig, set up their work area and got the car ready for practice. The track layout began at the end of a drag strip that led into a Nascar style banked right handed oval, that quickly led its way into an elevation changing chicane. The hot and humid climate had minor effects on engine performance, after reviewing a few data logs thanks to the internal logger of the AEM engine management we found that the engine was running under optimal conditions. Practice was looking good and only a few adjustments were needed to cope with the high speed bank. Practice ended on a high note and the car was ready for the main event.
Saturday a lot of the locals came out to watch drifting. Many posters were signed and pictures were taken with Henry Schelley. Excited to drive Henry would be paired up against Ross Petty a Falken driver in the first round. Ross would lead first as Henry mimicked every motion that Ross made, giving him the advantage. As the drivers switched positions, Henry came out with blistering speeds with a 4th gear entry on the bank. Eliminating Ross and putting Henry in the top 8 against a former Formula D champion Samuel Hubinette in the powerful Dodge Charger. Henry pulled out all the stops even dragging the rear bumper along the wall while full throttle on the banked oval, but Sam barely edged out Henry to take the win.
This top 8 finish marked Henry’s best finishing spot. More importantly, this event gave Henry a taste of tandem competition. The car is now back in the states where some more testing and development will be done before Sonoma, California. We are expecting to extract more power from the engine and work more on suspension tuning to make up for the power deficit. We are eager to see if the hard work has paid off as we get ready for round 6 in Sonoma.
We can’t express our gratitude enough to all our sponsors who have made competing in Formula D attainable. The high quality products has allowed our car to remain durable through out the season.
Federal Tires, AEM, Arias pistons, Brian Crower, Griffin Radiators, Burns Stainless, TCSportline, ACT clutch, DG-5, HPS Racing, Baker Precision, Neo Synthetic oil, AIT Racing, DriftSpeed, XXR Wheels, AMSperformance.com, Just Drift, Victor Reyes, Sami Sharaf, and Greg Nakano
Thank you,
Schelley Racing/Federal Tyres