Just as the seasons start to change, and the sunset starts cutting into our track time, the inaugural TD Competition Points-Series came to an exciting close. Ryan Kado had basically clinched the championship in round 5, so he would’ve had to finish near the back not to take it in the long run. 3rd place points holder Jared Thompson was only leading 4th place holder Gabe Stone by 44 points, so the race between 3rd and 4th was a heavy one. If Gabe had beaten Jared by 45 points, he’d have taken 3rd.

Gabe Stone in a close tandem battle with Julian Jacobs.

The race between 3rd and 4th became even heavier when BOTH drivers had major issues making it to competition! Jared Thompson’s drift car has been down for the past several rounds leaving him to borrow cars to compete in (which says a LOT for his driving abilities, as he won round 4 in a borrowed car). For this round, the only car available had some CRAZY suspension travel, and was definitely on the under-powered side.

Jared Thompson skillfully swinging a car with INSANE body-roll

Gabe Stone’s story was even crazier! Towards the end of saturday’s open-practice event, Gabe broke his axle in a way I’ve never personally witnessed. He was convinced that he was out of the competition, and was mainly concerned with how to get home! I had to drive back near my house in the Chico area that evening, so I called a friend who owns a dirt-track shop and asked if he could source an axle for Gabe. My friend and I tried with no avail for several hours before giving up the search. Sunday morning, Edwin Kado (Ryan’s dad) was kind enough to loan Gabe the family SUV and Gabe headed off to pick ‘n’ pull in Chico. He returned with JUST enough time to fix the car, take a few lunch-time practice runs to familiarize himself with the course, and run in the competition! And… like a true fairy-tale story, he drifted his little heart out and ended up taking 3rd in the competition and 4th in the series! EXCELLENT JOB GABE!

Julian Jacobs looking back at Ryan Kado as they show us what a tandem battle is all about

Podium for round 6 went like this: 1st-Ryan Kado 2nd-Julian Jacobs 3rd-Gabe Stone

and here’s the final results for the season!

ThunderDrift would like to sincerely thank all of the companies and individuals that made this event series possible. Without you, we couldn’t have done it.

Sponsors:
MCE Racing – Dyno/Fabrication service at Thunderhill Raceway
Limitless Motorsports – Specializing in high-tech automotive gadgetry
Laboratory17 – Custom Vinyl and Screenprinting
Techno Toy Tuning – Suspension parts for AE86’s and more
Driven Authority – Sacramento’s tuner-parts central
Stealth Custom Fab – Suspension/Chassis Bracing parts for AE86’s and S13’s

Judges:
Yee Xiong – Freemode Drift Club
Luke Lonberger – Blu808
Andrew Bohan – Lab17/ABfuckingMotorsports
Yusef Wallace – Oscars burger spa
Richard Kong – Performance Options
Tomasz Olech – Freemode Drift Club
Don Ahn – Bob’s Donuts
Joe Chang – Auto Logic
Madno Hernandez – Runit Inc.

Special thanks to all the drivers who competed in this series! without you, we’d have nobody to give the prizes to!!!!!!!!!! Really though, all joking aside, many of you showed great dedication, and encouraging skill improvements. I am very excited to see what next year’s competition will bring!

-G