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View Full Version : Jake DriftSquid Jones 5 minute Wrap-Up of 2014 WTAC



matespace
05-11-2014, 02:04 PM
What a weekend of racing it was at YOKOHAMA World Time Attack Challenge 2014, especially for ADVAN sponsored Drifter, Jake 'DriftSquid' Jones.

From arriving at the event with an untested car to making Top 16, DriftSquid gives us his 5 minute wrap-up of how he and the team went over the weekend at the 2014 World Time Attack Challenge.

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"WTAC / FDASIA has been run and won. Unfortunately for the Team this weekend it didn't go as smoothly as we were hoping it would. Having run out of time completely before the event we had to embark on the long 16 hour mission to Sydney with the Sonvia not running the best.

Most people would think I'm crazy to even take a car that’s not 100% perfect, but I knew I was in great hands at Haltech in Sydney. Mitch Smith from the Haltech Team worked his magic on the rollers with the Sonvia. After having the manifold fixed up by PowerTune all we had to do was make sure the new GCG turbo was giving us the power we needed. Sure enough after the car had been looked over and a few little issues fixed up, Mitch had the car singing with a whopping 420rwkw. It was slightly less responsive compared to the old setup but we knew we could work with this easy enough.

Having the new partnerships on board meant the car had undergone a whole new suspension package as well as a turbocharger/wastegate setup.

In all honesty I thought the car wouldn't have changed a great deal, how wrong was I.

The car now packs a huge punch but is less responsive. The grip levels are a lot more controllable but with the turbo lag, the car has now become an animal to try and gain drive at the start line and through corners. By the end of the weekend the Team had the car at a brat point to proceed. But unfortunately this was not good enough.

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We qualified in 6th place on the Saturday Night with a great run, but due to the poor visibility under lights it made it very hard to find the clipping points the judges wanted us all to hit. Everyone was struggling though so it was an even playing field.

Sunday was the big day and after many issues throughout the weekend, the Team had got the car running its absolute best.

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I am extremely proud of my Team and what they put themselves through to make sure I have a perfect car.

It was now all down to me and I had good mate Gaz Whiter up in my Top 16 battle. Knowing Gaz is a 4 x d1NZ champion I knew I had my work cut out. I didn't let it get to me though and put down one of the best lead runs I’ve ever done gaining the advantage.

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It was now my turn to chase and knowing Gaz well enough that he was going to fly into Turn 1 with a lot of pace. I tried to stick as close as I could but failed to gain traction off the line. The new GCG turbo and Turbosmart waste gate setup is so savage that it’s either off boost or on boost and spinning up a huge cloud of ADVAN Neova AD08R (http://www.yokohama.com.au/en/Tyres/ADVAN-Neova-AD08.aspx) smoke. Gaz got the jump and I spent the rest of the battle playing catch up.

The judges awarded Gaz the win and my weekend was over.

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The best part of the event for me was the Lunch time Drift demos as always. I love putting on a show and it’s a time when I have no pressure to perform and I can just let my driving do the talking. I really do hope I can start doing more Drifting Demos around Australia. The crowd love it and it really is a great spectacle.

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DriftSquid with good friend and CEO of Superlap Australia Ian Baker before Saturday's Lunchtime Drift Demo.

For now, though its full steam ahead to get the car ready for Red Bull Drift Shifters where I'll be shipping my car over to NZ to run in the famous event created by MadMike Whiddett. I'll be the only Australian to head over and I'm going to make the most of it." - Jake 'DriftSquid' Jones

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LINKS:
www.yokohama.com.au (www.yokohama.com.au)