DRIFTSQUID Its a lifestyle not a hobby

DriftSquid's JAPAN Trip!

2011-12-06T23:07:00.000-08:00

Hey all,

As some of you would know I flew over to Japan and had a look around, here is the full run down of what we got up too ha ha

CEO of Superlap Australia (Ian Baker) rang me up one day and said "Jake, do you want to come to Japan with us". My quick answer was "ummmmmm YES" ha ha. Ian and the Yokohama crew were heading over to organise the next lot of Japanese vehicles coming to WTAC in 2012. If you don't know what WTAC is then you better CLICK HERE.

So before I knew it I booked my flights and told work I was off to Japan for a week haha. I honestly thought I wasn't going to be going to Japan this early in my life, I think I was more nervous then anything as I didn't speak any Japanese at all. But who could possibly not jump at this opportunity right??

Plane flight to Tokyo on my own and was one of the worst flights I've ever been on. I was surrounded by a heap of sick people and was bound to catch something. Sure enough I woke up just before landing with a shocking head cold 'Great'. haha

First thing I did once I got of the plane was head straight for the toilet O_o ahhhhhh hahahaha lucky it was only a number 1... LOL

Anyway haha, I was now waiting for Ian to head down to the airport to meet me. Ian flew in the night before me. As I was walking around in the Airport I ran into Ian haha, no time for messing around and straight to the train map

ahhhhhh thankfully Ian was around as this wasn't even for trains.

Ian got the train tickets and we now waited, I couldn't get over how clean everything was.

Here is the Boss (Ian Baker) and also David Lysien who came along for the crazy trip.

The train arrived and we had a fair journey ahead of us. Ian told me a few of the rules with Trains in Japan, Its rude to talk on your mobile in a Train and its also rude for a young male to sit on a seat if the train is full.

Its always great to see a train with no one steering it O_o

So we finally finished out long Train ride into Tokyo. We now had the whole morning to look around and check out the sites.

The place really is amazing, My pics don't really show you much but it reminds me of how crazy the place is.

The Space train, best thing about this train was I could always remember where we were once I seen it.

Just like the movies haha. advertise on anything!!

and more

It was now time to check out a few shops, at first I didn't think they were all that impressive until you went inside the buildings and realised they had like 6 to 10 floors.

Stumbled across this new PlayStation thingy. Not sure if its released in Oz yet but looks like a new PSP.

Then the hidden stores that just keep going on and on and on... Japan is so cool

So I now understand how Japan are more advanced then us.... they have 2 extra hours each day then us hahahaha

Then we hit the guitar shops...... I had no idea what was what but Baker and Dave looked like little kids in a candy shop. I just took pics of the weird looking ones.

hmmmm what to choose....

Bakers drink for sure!!

To finish off Day one we caught up with Tats from Yokohama Australia and a crew of Yokohama Staff from Japan. I learnt quiet a few new words that night.

Baker insisted that I tried Japans ice cream and I'm so glad I did. It was unreal!!

DAY 2

It was now Day 2 and we had the morning free to do some more looking around before we caught up with the Yokohama crew.

I knew i was in the latest Option magazine so we went on a mission to find it. Every single shop we tried didn't have in but i did find these Option DVDs. I bought them without even thinking if they would work back in Oz and sure enough they don't baaaaah.

We then walked past a fuel station. Talk about using space efficiently wow!! The fuel lines come from the roof??!!

Walking around Tokyo was just unreal.

Cars which you hardly see in Oz are everywhere

Not sure what this was

This was a car park of some sort?? I guess it's easier to install a rotating floor then to do a 3 point turn.

Walked past Yakult to see they had a huge water feature like this either side of the entrance just for looks.

The buses

Before we knew it, it was time to catch up with some cool people.

We heading down town to the Yokohama Design Centre, was so surreal to actually be in this building. Here is from left to right (Wataru Furutani, Me, Kazu Sekiguchi).

I had a little look around and seen so many cool things

Advan Shoes anyone

haha I so badly wanted this

Oh and yeah this was very special

My weapon of choice is on the right!! AD-08 love

Model cars

Front desk ;)

Oh did I forget I also got to meet long time idol and Famous D1GP champion Nobushige Kumakubo

We were still here at 6:30 and everyone was still working. They even had a the siren go off at 5PM which means knock-of time but no one left haha. But it was time for us to leave and get some grub into us.

Carlos and Furutani took us out for an awesome Japanese dinner. Still cant get over how good the food is in Japan.

Baker was the chef

From left to right (Carlos, Furutani and Tats) Coolest blokes since sliced bread

We ended up having a look around the night life.

This was the place the Japanese gamble, the place was so noisy I didn't know how they could put up with it. Was insane!!

DAY 3

This was the most craziest day of my life. To put it simply, I was offered one of my life long dreams and of course I jumped at the opportunity haha. Kumakubo, the famous D1GP driver and owner of Ebisu-Circuit asked me to come out to Ebisu to check the place out.

It was a fair hike from Tokyo up to Ebisu and I even got to go on the Bullet train. This thing was insane, didn't even fell like we were moving.

One we got off the bullet train we had to get a Taxi to Ebisu, lucky for me I had notes which I just showed the driver and he took me. We managed to make it to Ebisu with no problems but the Taxi driver decided to hit up the touge course with us in the back seat hahahaha..

Yes he was lost!! LOL.

We caught up with Kumakubo and Suenaga who also is a famous D1GP driver who drives for Team orange.

What happened next I leave up to your imagination... Or maybe a video might be released !!!

Furutani, Ian and Tats picked us up as we were now headed for Tsukuba for the Rev-Speed time attack event. Furutani was driving and Wow, I thought we were in a race hahaha. Just to surprise me again though the crew dropped into the famous workshop K-Style. That's Kumakubo's workshop and were all the Team Orange cars were chilling. The Evo 9, Evo 10 and monster powered C33Laurel. Unfortunately my iPhone went flat as soon as I got to Ebisu so no pics sorry

DAY 4

Oh yeah...... Rev-Speed time attack event at Tsukuba Circuit. Another dream ticked off my list...

It was a huge surprise to rock up and see it snowing haha. Although you cant see it the snow wasn't around for long. Was sooooo cold!!

We tried warming up by doing a few laps of the place ourselves haha.. Spotted this bad arse EVO wags!

Fell in Love with this S15 time attack car

Was so surreal seeing this live. After watching the D1GP rounds they held here on DVD when I was a kid.

Was a happy chappy

This S14 time attack car was damn quick and I'm fairly sure the Scorch Racing dudes were involved with it.

Loved this 35 GTR, was easily the most simple and cleanest car on the day.

Forsberg, please take note on styling here.

This BMW was the only one putting put power down in the wet and it sounded so porn!!

It was fairly cool to meet the Revolution Rx7 again after I was the one who unloaded it from the container in Sydney last year for WTAC 2011 haha.. The thing is just unreal

I took so many pics from this event but cant put them all in this blog. After this event we went back to the hotel and down stairs got Dinner with a few beers involved.......

58 of them hahahahaha

We now needed a nice snooze!

DAY 5

First things first, Breakfast!!!

My breakfast, every time we ate I tried something different or at least thought I was. After going to New Zealand and Mike and Toni introduced me to Indian for the first time I'm all for change now lol

Murray Coote was showing me just how old school he really is hahaha. Nice phone Muzza

This was out boss of a rental car, the thing would shut off we you come to a stop then as soon as you touch the pedal it starts running again.

We then set on our journey back to Tokyo for the motor show. We got to see some bloody amazing sites which my phone camera doesn't really do justice.

It was crazy too see how jam packed Japan is and you understand why why they have no room.

I seen many exotic cars but thought I should at least snap one up.

We made it to our hotel after a fairly long drive from Tsukuba. Ive stayed at a few hotels and this place was damn good for the price. We unloaded all out stuff and headed straight for the Tokyo Motor Show.

More gambling thing's which made too much bloody noise

I kept seeing this Van every time we come back to Tokyo so thought it should get a spot in my blog

Was going to try the KFC in Japan but its looks the same so I didn't bother

We then crammed into the Train which was going to take us right out the front of the Tokyo Motor Show. Lucky for us we had Tats who knows Japanese and how to get around the place.

Now I got a little snap happy when we got on the Train..

Looking at huge buildings like this and wondering how the heck they stay up during earthquakes amazes me. As most of you would know I was in the Christchurch Earthquake so I know exactly what the buildings have to put up with.

Mad bridge

This building was crazy, had this big arse ball in the middle

Just after I took this pic the car park was full of crazy imports but no I didn't take a pic damn it

Damn cool

So weird hey??

We had arrived at the Tokyo Motor Show. It was the second to last day of the show but we had no idea it was going to be this packed!!!

The building was so insane, only in Japan hey

OK sure this looks like only a few people but wait...

This was the line up!!!

Getting closer... I think we waited a good 20 to 30 Min's in the line up. Honestly cant remember but I do remember being one of the tallest people around hahaha

The line up was insane and even when we left it was still this full on

So close now!!

Wooooooyeah, we made it in the place!! But were we going to see any cars??? It was insanely busy and any car with a little bit of interest we would not be able to get a close look at.

Using my height to take a picture and then looking at the picture to see what I was trying to look at

Getting a picture of a whole car was going to be difficult but I was up for the challenge

It was amazing how some plain small boring looking cars were getting a stupid amount of interest. But it was just the girl posing in front of it that was creating the hype

yeah....... no thanks!!

The Models at the Tokyo Motor Show were everywhere, even telling you where the exits were.

If you car is boring, put a girl in front of it and it will gain a huge crowd

Trying to get good pics!!! damn it

This was one of his actual race bike and the line up to sit on it was insane.

hmmm......

Not sure what these girls were doing but everyone wanted to find out

The more and more I seen of the new Suby and Toyota's latest creation I like it

Now we are talking, I spent a lot of time trying to get some pics of this bad boy.

Looks so damn good!

I just wanted to take it home

ahhhh my favourite stand!!

Tats and I had a good old yarn to the Yokohama reps.

Couldn't leave without getting some pics with the Yokohama girls haha. It was now time to leave as we had to meet up with some awesome people for a night out in Roppongi.

This was around 4.30PM and the sun was just about gone.

The train back to the hotel was obviously the same trip to the Motor show but felt like a whole different journey. Japan is just unreal

A massive skate ramp which turns out to be a tunnel under the river.

We were in a hurry so Macca's it was. Despite all the people smoking in here it tasted the same as back home lol

Tats loved it!!

Oh damn right it was!!!

Loving it!!!

After this we had a huge night out and experience the best night club I've ever been too. We had people from all round the world with us and everyone said it was the best night club they had experienced. The name was "Ageha" and if you ever go to Tokyo, its a must.

DAY 6 (Last day in Japan)

It was our last day in Japan and it came rather quickly. I meet Tats in the lobby in the morning as we were checking out and he said he was heading out to catch up with some friends in Japan. We were the only ones in the lobby so Tats asked if I wanted to come with. So damn glad he offered for me to tag along as I ended up seeing some freaking awesome stuff... oh and the fooooood!! Wow

Tats and his Friend who kindly took us around for the whole day

First stop was Tats friends local restaurant, this place was hidden in the back streets but I tell you what, it was the best food I had in Japan and I still think about it.

We then went down his favourite street, this picture doesn't do it justice at all.

love this place

I cant remember the exact name of the place we went to but it was packed

Who knows the name of this tower??

The statues in this building were damn cool

Everything here was made with so much details. I just wish I knew what I was looking at...

Underneath that big ball was this, so much detail put into this carving. Hate to know how long it took them to make

This was like a market, anything and everything you could imagine was for sale down here.

Place was so packed!!

New race suits 2012

And it just keeps on going, from food to light bulbs

Eels anyone?? this was the before picture

Ready to munch?? aaaaaah no thanks

Remember these haha

Wigs anyone??

how cool are these

This place was so packed it wasn't funny

The buildings are insane

Damn big flip flop or jandal for you NZ people

Now this is the place were you can make a wish. Tats took me through the whole scenario but I cant remember it all completely so if i got this wrong please correct me.

You start by waving the smoke over yourself before you enter the building.

I have no idea how they weren't coughing their lungs up

Once you go inside the building you toss a coin into this fountain. You then put your hands together, close your eyes and make a wish. (Anyone guess what mine was???)

As you can see from the building there was a lot of people looking for good fortune or wishes.

Once you have done that you then proceed to the next fountain to wash your hands with the water. We then went to see my fortune but it wasn't a good one so I am not going to explain that haha. Its ok though Because if you get a bad fortune you hang it up on the line and then it gets burnt at the end of the day.

We then moved through the big crowd to head back to the airport, Tats and I were on the same flight back to Sydney so it worked out really well.

Just another building being made in Tokyo

Spotted this on our travels back

Tats good friend dropped us at the hotel which transferred us to the airport. We sat in the lobby until our Bus arrived and looked at the HUGE X-mas tree. Reminded me that I didn't get some weird wacky presents while I was over here

We were now on out Bus to the Airport and got to see some awesome sites on the way there.

We checked in our luggage and caught up with Ian and David for our last meal in Japan. Must admit the food in Japan was what I was most worried about, turns out I bloody love it

. The Airport is that big we had to catch another shuttle train to get to our terminal

Tats and I had 10 Min's to spare so we checked into the Qantas lounge for some free food, drinks and checked out Face book after a massive 6 days without it haha. Was really not looking forward to cramming my 6 foot self into the tiny seat on this plane.

This picture was on my phone so thought I should share it haha Kicks!!!

Now this is the gold part!!!

Just after Tats and I cram into our economy seats the bloke tells us "Just after we take off feel free to head down the front to any seat you want, we are travelling back to Oz with 200 free seats!"

WIN!!! haha straight down to premium economy. I was fairly chuffed about this as you can see haha, it was an overnight flight back home but I stayed up watching free movies and eating as much as I could haha. Was the perfect way to end one of the best trips I've ever experience.

Huge thanks to Ian Baker and Tats Kano for letting me tag along on the awesome adventure. David for filming and taking heaps of pics which I also cant wait to see. Furutani, Carlos and the whole crew from Yokohama Japan for showing us around and showing us some damn cool things. Murray and Josh Coote for heading over for the 2 days at Tsukuba.

And everyone I've missed as I got to meet so many awesome people. This is only the beginning so stay tuned ;)

Peace

-Squid

MY DRIFT ATTACK VIDEO NOW UP!!!

2011-11-29T01:38:00.000-08:00

Hey yalllll,

Ive got my Drift attack video done but never put it up so here it is ;)

Enjoy

-Squid

Oh and Happy New year people :)

WRECK'EM Is back with this Awesome video from Drift ATTACK!!!

2011-11-17T02:58:00.000-08:00

Hey all,

Check out what MeZ and the crew have put together for the DRIFT ATTACK Crew. This event was held at Calder Raceway and was one of the best events ive been too.. And not because I won :P but that did help haha

Results from the event

Street Class
1st Chris Johnson
2nd Adam Mobarek
3rd Richrad Ryan
Pro Class
1st Jake DRIFTSQUID Jones
2nd Andreas Paraskevas
3rd Nigel Petrie

Awesome work WRECK'EM crew ;)
To see more of the WRECK'EM work click HERE!!!

Peace
-Squid

DRIFT ATTACK 2011 (1ST PLACE WIN) Back in the game!!!!!!

2011-10-29T06:07:00.000-07:00

Hey all,

Drift Attack! Run by VICDRIFT and would have to be one of the best events on the Australian Calendar. It has been around 2 years since I’ve been to a Drift Attack round so when I put in my entry I was so excited haha

This event was going to be held @ Calder Park Raceway which is around 8 hours drive from my home. Heaps easier to get to then Queensland so that was a good bonus. My Drift car was towed over earlier thanks to my Dad. I could only get 1 day off work so I could only leave on the Friday before the event. The car didn’t even get touched since the Queensland round which would have to be a first. Its all due to me not seeing it since Queensland so it kind of made things hard haha.

I finished work around 11PM Thursday night, went straight home and thought I should probably get my camera gear ready so I can leave bright and early Friday morning. Sure enough as I was trying to organise myself I look at the clock and its 1:30AM..... Already???

FRIDAY 28th OCT 2011 (Day before the Comp)
I went to bed around 1:30AM and it seems I’ve been watching the clock to 3AM. "Stuff this I’m leaving now" I thought haha, so up I got and in my car with all my gear for tomorrows comp. The good thing was I wasn't towing so the Drive over to Melbourne was going to be easy. After a crazy amount of stops and sight seeing on my own hahaha I finally made it to Melbourne.

First stop!!! YOKOHAMA Warehouse in Melbourne ;)

Here I was to check out the place and also pick up the new tyre I was going to be running for tomorrows comp.

Walking into the main office It was pretty cool to check out the display they had up. After meeting a few of the Yokohama Lads they sent me around the back to the Dispatch area to pick up the new weapons of choice for Drift Attack.

*Drooooooooools*

Here it is, the Yokohama A.driveR1's in 235/40R18. Due to the rules for the event we had to run a tyre over the tread wear rating of 220. The Yokohama A driveR1 are 300 and for around $275 for the 235/40R18 its the cheapest performance tyre from Yokohama. Its also one of the tyre dealers best sellers so I was sure it was going to be an awesome tyre. Like the Yokohama S.drive I normally run its Directional and still a sports tyre too. I was keen as to find out how they would handle the abuse of drifting :)

Once I had got the new A.driveR1's (AR01) I headed out to Calder park to meet up with the Team. Getting through Melbourne traffic around 5PM is not so easy though haha.. I finally made it to the track and we unloaded everything ready for tomorrows action.

We put the new tyres on the car to see how it would look and despite the look I was certain it was going to perform well ;)

It was now as simple as getting a good nights at a hotel somewhere and get back to the track bright and early.

On the way to the Hotel we picked up my Big Bro (Kolby). He literately just finished work and parked up his rig to joint us on our adventure for the weekend haha.

SATURDAY 29TH OCT 2011 (COMP DAY)

So I woke up around 5AM without the help of my alarm. Eager to get ready and out to the track I woke everyone up like it was X-mas hahaha.

We arrived at the track and everyone was waiting at the gate just as keen as we were. Wasn’t long and we were setting everything up.

Lucky for us we were pitting next to Nigel Petrie and Simon Michelmore. After an early morning catch up we then had drivers briefing which is always an enjoyable time :)

Look at my poor WORK Equips having to sit on the bench for this comp and watch while the gold rims did the hard work :P haha

It was a damn cool setup having the pits right next to the track. Made life a lot easier for the crew as we didn’t need to run radios to inform them what was going on. They could see everything!!

Have to admit the old mans Tow car suits the ADVAN/drift car setup very well!!!

It was now time to get ready for practice and after getting some pointers from Nigel and Simon I was keen as to get on track ASAP!!!

So its 3rd gear entry into a Right hand 90 degrees corner.

Then a quick switch to a Left hand corner.

Which needs a fully committed flat throttle to stretch out the straight to make the last final right hand corner...

This is the last corner which exits onto the main drag strip which we were NOT allowed to skid on *Cough Hai Boss Cough* haha

After a fair amount of laps our session was over and I came back into the pits feeling good about the new Yokohama A.driveR1's. They gripped up well running high tyre pressures, reason I ran higher pressure was due to them being a new tyre and I was keen to see how they went.

I quickly jacked the car up on the new HELPS Metalwork's Jacking point ;)

Quick pressure check and they didn’t seem to sky rocket like most tyres do and also guess what!!!

They held up awesome!!! The Yokohama A.driveR1's still had good enough tread to go back out again. So another practice session was up and I went to finish them this time.

Yep.... Totaled hahahaha. Not only were the Yokohama A.driveR1's grippy but according to everyone following me that couldn’t see anything haha... The crowd said the Squid mobile was easily the biggest smoke maker ;)

It was now time to put on a fresh set of rubber ready for the Qualifying session.

Nigel was copying me I swear :P

Simon too haha

The Froffin crew also caught up with me and I was lucky enough to have the approval to rep a sticker BOOOOM!!!!

While the Street class was qualifying Nigel and I decided to go over to the Judges to check out exactly what they were after. Was not such a good idea but once we got this far we didn’t care hahaha

Before we knew it, it was time to make the trek back down the hill to get in our cars and get ready for qualifying. The format for qualifying was the same as most comps. 1 Warm up lap followed by 2 Qualifying runs. Simple right??? yeah

Cameras ready!!!!

Squid Ready???

Already in the car haha!!!

Warm up lap was done and it was now my first run for qualifying up. I normally have been really good at Qualifying with the last 2 comps getting P1. So I went in with the same plan, push out a good but daring run. Sure enough thought this time it bit me on the butt and i spun coming out of the last transition.

This means I know only have 1 run to made a good qualifying lap. The pressure was on and I was not coming all this way to put down another spin.

I put down a very safe run which I thought pushed it just enough to make sure I made it in the top 16. With the Qualifying session over for me it was now the waiting game. They announced they would bring out the Results on paper and.....

WOOOOP!! Simon Michelmore No1 with Nigel Petrie behind him in No2. I managed to get 5th spot and was very pumped about it. But as they say Qualifying is only the start. Battles is where it counts so now it was time to check over the car and get ready for battles.

While we waiting for our call we took a few pose shots of the HI Octane/ADVAN beast!!!

The battles were announced and I was up against Dean Trajkouski in my TOP 32 battle. I’ve never heard of Dean but was looking forward to having a decent battle. I was to lead first in our battle and away we went.

Into the first corner I had a fair lead on Dean and I finished the run hitting all the clipping points nicely. I was now feeling great on the new Yokohama A.driveR1's. It was my turn to chase now!!

Dean was a fair amount slower compared to Nigel and Simon who I was following in the morning practice session so it made it harder to chase but so much fun.

Finished the run on his door and went through to the top 16 yeeeeeeewwww!!!

I was now up against a good mate of mine and who I’ve know for some years since being in the VICDRIFT events. Papa is his nickname as no one can pronounce his dang real name haha... Papa is one of the insane Drifters crew and I was keen as for a good battle with him

But this pic kind of explains what happened in our battle. I was leading the first run and Papa come in too hot behind me with a tap to my rear end I spun out which means I had the advantage. In my chase run I kept it simple and stuck to Papa which resulted in me taking the win.

I was now in TOP 8.... Woooooyeah!!! I was up against Chris Dejager and I was really looking forward to this one as Chris has been drifting in Japan for some time now. I was leading the first run again.

Chris was right on my tail coming into the first corner

But the Yokohama A.driveR1's had too much grip and pulled away from him by the end of the run

It was now my turn to chase

Staying close to Chris the whole lap awarded me with the win and I was now in the TOP 4 WOOOOOP!!!

We had a small break before the Top 4 had to battle it out and everyone was amped for the finals

Simon Michelmore and Nigel Petrie in this pic were also through to the Top 4 along with Agges. It was going to be two SA Drifters VS two VIC Drifters. I was up against Nigel for my Top 4 battle :)

Before we knew it we had to be on track ready to battle it out and everyone was so keen haha. I was the odd duck though as all other 3 finalists had Red cars and I was the odd one out haha...

TOP 4 Battle Vs Nigel Petrie.
I was to Lead again first up and Nigel was to follow.

Going into the first corner I had a couple car lengths on Nigel.

But the gap stayed the same over the course of the track. Now my turn to follow Nigel :) :)

Into the First corner I pushed hard to get close to Nigel and stay with him.

Pulled back for the transition and then powered back on to get back up close to him.

The Yokohama A.driveR1's really helped on this slight straight section giving enough grip to catch Nigel

And stick to his door on the final corner. The judges called a OMT on this run which I didn’t mind as it was so much fun haha. Nigel is a driver you can actually trust and know he will nail it which gives you the opportunity to get really close.

TOP 4 OMT Vs Nigel Petrie

My turn to lead again and I put down a very solid run with Nigel not far from me. But now ill show you my chase lap, after getting the confidence back up with Battling I was going to put everything into this run.

Going into the Entry I pushed hard to make sure I was on Nigel’s door through the first corner.

Yeeeeewww!!!

All the way through the final corner I was on Nigel, the Yokohama A.driveR1's were just so grippy it was awesome. The judges made the decision and I was now through to the FINAL!!!! WOOOOOO

With them wanting to run the Final straight up I went back in and put on a fresh set of Yokohama A.driveR1's. I was up against Agges as he knocked out Simon in TOP 4.

FINAL BATTLE Vs Agges.

It was me to lead first and with a Thumbs up to Agges waiting for him to say he’s all sweet and no response or even a look I knew he wasn't here to mess around hahaha... It was on now!!

Through the entry and into the final transition pushing harder then i had all day paid off as I grew a gap from Agges. Before I came out for the finals there was a few people checking the tread wear on my tyres just to make sure I was in the guidelines haha.

The Yokohama A.driveR1's were really putting the hammer down ;)

Now my turn to chase :)

It was a near on perfect chase run and it left the crowd unknown to who the winner was going to be. I myself had no idea as well and we rolled up to the start line to be told to go to the main straight for presentations. As we putted around to the start line I gave the crowd one last salute ;)

Yeah!!! haha, as I rolled into the presentation area Agges was in front of me and his whole Team was cheering. My Dad came up and said "better luck next time hey" I was like hey??? "They announced it already???" Agges crew was just cheering because it was a damn good battle haha...

We had the Great MOZZA come and have a little Yarn to us all while we waited for the judges to make there way down to give the results.

Think I was slapping myself to see if it was all a dream or not hahaha..

The TOP 4 crew!!!! yeeeeeewww

The trophies looked mighty awesome and we were all awaiting to hear the results. Win, lose or draw I didn’t mind as I was just happy to finally be back on the podium having fun with good mates.

First up was 4th place going to Simon Michelmore

Then 3rd was announced going to Nigel Petrie.

Finally after what seemed like, a huge stall Mozza announced 2nd place going to Agges. I didn’t quite hear it but I seen Agges move up to grab the trophy. It was like an instant cold shiver going down your back and was so surreal. Nigel looks around and says "Jake congrats dude" I was kind of in shock and couldn’t believe I had won. Then MOZZA called first place and it was my name hahaha..

woooooyeah!!!

Thanks Dad and Big Bro!!

Despite the wak look here I was still in shock about it all and managed to thank everyone at VICDRIFT for making the event happen. The judges and all the fans for coming out. Not to mention my unreal Sponsors and supporters for making it all happen. Thanks so much everyone!!!

Then Yoshi handed over this bad boy! O_O Completely forgot about the prize money hahaha. Thank you to all the event sponsors and the VicDrift crew :)

Mad props to Chris from SA also for taking the win in Street Class. SA NO1 woooooyeah!!!

While the expression session was going on I was still trying to get this to sink into my head haha

But after the end of the day we packed up as the Number 1 Team for the weekend. Special mention to my Dad and Brother for going way out of their way to help pit crew for me and tow the car half way around the country haha. Couldn't have done it without you guys :)

Also without my Sponsors and supporters you wouldn't have seen my car leave the shed so thank you all!!!

YOKOHAMA ADVAN AUSTRALIA

HI OCTANE RACING

HI OCTANE Direct

HI OCTANE performance coatings

KC Customs

Thanks for reading and stay tuned for my very own Video coming soon

Peace

-Squid

NEXT EVENT : MALLALA G1 EXTREME DRIFT COMP 12th NOV 2011

ADGP ROUND 2 (Queensland Raceway) SUNDAY

2011-10-16T18:00:00.000-07:00

Hey all,

ADGP ROUND 2 Queensland Raceway (SUNDAY) 16th

We arrived at the track and were literally the first ones there. We setup our whole ADVAN Display stand before another driver even stepped foot in the pits haha. Not long after though it was all about to heat up.. so the car was taken to the wash bay and got a clean up after the crazy storm yesterday Afternoon.

The car was now washed and put back in the pits ready for another pair of Yokohama S Drives 255/35/18's to be fitted up.

I must admit it was really annoying pitting next to Dan with his Hogs breath Advertising all around the place.... Made me so damn hungry for a tough Steak hahaha

With the qualifying results being made I managed to get 9^th position. I was really happy with the result as I didn’t think I was getting the track right at all. This means we are now in the Top32 elimination round. Drivers briefing was done and we all know what we had to do for our battles. The girls had also arrived ;)

Team Shot!!!

OK focus, time to line up guys!! haha

Got to admit the girls really do set the look. what do you think??? I think the other photographers agree haha

Time for Top 32 battle and I was up against the (Driftkid). My first run was the lead run and was good enough to give me the advantage. It was now up to me to following Driftkid to take the win. As we entered the first corner he was running really wide and dropped the rear wheel in the dirt, It made his car pretty well stop and go offline. I had no where to go but passed him and the battle was over. I was announced the winner!!

I parked the car up and with the schedule saying we now had a 1 hour lunch break the team went to grab some lunch. I pulled my suit off and tried to cool down a little as the 29 degree humidity was getting to me. I was pumped to have made top 16 and now get to the top end of the field. With the car not missing a beat we were all pumped for a good afternoon.

but as wearing the number 13 goes, I was just about to receive my lunch and the organisers called me out for a re-run???? huh!! (Apparently The other team had protested and weren't happy with the judges decision on the first battle). I was told to get straight out on track without checking over the car or even changing the tyres on the car. The Team were just as confused as I was.

The battle was re-run and I only just lost due to my lead lap having a near spin . It was a shocking way to end the competition for the Team and I was still left wondering what actually happened but it was too late. What’s done is done and I will push harder to make the next event even better.

The car was parked up and put on display, got to love the work Hi Octane Performance Coatings have done in the engine bay.

The girls loved it too :P

Huge thanks to my Team for putting up with the hot humid weather and the crazy pace of the event. ADVAN Australia and Hi Octane racing for making sure the car was perfect as always. And to all my sponsors and supporters. Thanks heaps

Video coming soon

The next event will be Drift Attack at Calder next weekend (OCT 29th) so stay tuned for more updates

Peace
-Squid

ADGP ROUND 2 (Queensland Raceway) SATURDAY

2011-10-15T18:00:00.000-07:00

Hey all,

Australia Drift Grand Prix (the newest national series held in Australia) Round 2 QLD raceway. OCT 15th and 16th

With a 23 hour drive straight through one way just to get the track it was going to be one big adventure. While I couldn’t get time off work to tow my Drift car up to QLD my Dad offered to do it for me while the Team and I flew in on the Friday night. Thanks dad haha… This would be the first time I had ventured up to Queensland for a Drift comp. The venue was Queensland raceway and I was excited to try it out.

The main thing I had to do was make sure the Trailer was up to spec with the long haul. You should really treat your trailer like your drift car as its the heart of the operation ;)

Morpowa Re-checked the tune on the Drift car and it came up fine, actually making more then before but we know that's because the ADVAN NEOVAS were gripping into the rollers like crazy.

Saturday, OCT 15th
We arrived at the track around 6am with fresh morning rain the day was looking to be a wet one. Didn't stop us from setting up our whole display though :P

But by the time drivers briefing came around the track was near on dry. The new layout they wanted us to drift was rather unusual and looked as though it would test most of us. With the car washed and now rolling on some Yokohama S DRIVE 255/35/18's I was more then confident.

After a few practice sessions and changes to the track I was starting to find my feet. But as soon as you do, you always go for that little more and it almost bit me hard this time round haha

With a 160km/h entry, then having to slow down extremely fast to get around the 90 degrees left hander was the hard bit to get perfect. Before I knew it, it was time for Qualifying and it was all or nothing. I was starting to worry a little as I hadn’t been worried about qualifying like this before in a long time. Coming all this way and not even qualifying would not go down well with the team haha so I had to make sure we put in a damn good effort

Another set of Yokohama S Drives 255/35/18's went on for Qualifying and back out to make sure I put in a good run

The first run was a little too committed and I spun on the second transition. I now had 1 qualifying lap left and really couldn't do the old 'safe lap'. It was all out or nothing

Well it was damn smokey haha, and good enough to grab 9th place in the Qualifying table. It was now time for the Queensland weather to show its best and a huge storm came through and just about wiped every ones display out. Lucky for me the Team were onto it and pulled everything down as soon as they could.

This put the rest of the day on hold and we all got to head off early for a good nights sleep, it was well needed as the next morning was going to start around 4am for the Team :S

Sundays progress coming next so stay tuned

Peace
-Squid

DRIFTSQUID Hits Tectaloy International DRIFT COMP!!!!

2011-09-23T03:50:00.000-07:00

Hey Guys and Girls,

If you came from the previous blog you will know Crew member 'Bones' and I have been fairly busy getting things ready. We are now into the main event and we are pumped!!!!

FRIDAY 4th August 2011,

Lee Boehm rolled in to Sydney last night who is also part of the crew and now we only had Marc and Luke to arrive today so all was going to be fine. As the event was based on Time attack our drifting was in the late afternoon/night time. We had all day to check over the car and go over the whole event, not that I can say I did as I was too busy running around on a forklift haha.

We had the car on display all day for the people to check out. I must say the new Hi Octane Performance Coating is unreal!! What do you think of the new engine bay????

We were then told that a couple of us drivers could do some demo runs during the afternoon. Without hesitation the crew put some second hand rubber on ready for some skidzzzz

I hadn't been on eastern creek raceway since 2008 where WheelWorx helping me out for a Super Drift round. That was in my old sil80 (200rwkw) and I didn't get many runs at all. Was a bummer but I'm here now and I couldn't wait to mix it up with the new setup and power my car has.

The track layout is fairly simple. Flat out all the way up to 4th and then a right hand corner into two lefts which you should be able to link up into one big left hander. Here goes!!!

So the first corner is 4th gear flat out and in the first sessions I was just finding my feet.

Then coming out of the first corner into the second you have to pop it back to 3rd and lose a lot of pace. The sounds of going over ripple strips should make you aware your killing it ;-)

Then linking the first left corner with the second requires a heavy right foot haha... Hug the inside for a little.........

Then exit the 2nd left corner wide onto the ripple strip for the perfect run. Runs over haha!!

Quick wave on exit :P

Madmike, Beau and myself thought we would try fitting in a quick tandem run. I slowed down for them to all catch up so we could all rip it up for the final run!!!

THICK NEOVA SMOKE!!!

Chalking all the way up the rise on the final corner!!!

Yeeeeeeewww!!!

After that fun we went back in the pits and we had people flocking around the cars. Mainly due to Mikes 4 rota crazy town FD but still we had a huge amount of people checking the cars out. It was awesome!!!

So Luke quickly got the posters which I signed away like crazy haha

After the demos we had a fair amount of time to relax and do a few interviews. Alexi here from japan who also runs the website NORIYARO came and asked a few questions. After a couple takes we got it hahahaha

We now had time to check the car over again and get ready for the nights practice and qualifying runs. We also got slightly distracted by a few things :O

O_O

We were chilling back having a good old time hahaha

Back to the car haha, it wasn't long before we had to hit the track but just before we did Ian Baker came over with a full headset kit. One thing I have never run is a radio so I could keep in contact with the crew. Now I can say its the BEST thing ever. Makes life so much easier and honestly think its the reason I got used to the track so quickly.

It was now time to qualify and this has been my strong point recently. I was keen on doing a few practice runs and then hitting a qualifying lap later but I never ever do that. I usually just jump straight into the Qualifying line and get 1 over and done with haha... This time was a little different but I quickly jumped into the Qualifying lane while it was empty and got ready.

"Never lift and treat it like nothing can possibly break"

Entry was crazy quick with the ADVAN Neovas gripping up like nothing I've ever been on before. Slight tap of hand-brake and Straight to Opposite lock. Foot flat and don't lift!!!!!!!

Back off and make the switch happen hard and fast!! Cog the PPG gearbox back to 3rd and once you hear the rear end hit the ripple strips Hold that right foot through the floor!!!

Hold it just about flat the whole way round till you exit the second right hander with the ripple strips shaking the heck out of the car you know you've done well!!! Wooooooooooop I was pumped with that first one! (Marc on Radio - "Squid you just bumped up to top spot on the qualifying list but don't get too happy, you're the 3 person to go hahaha")

It was now time to go all out all just give it everything I had as I had nothing to lose. So I didn't even go up for a practice lap, I went straight into the line up for a qualifying run again. But this time the line up was huge, I would have waited for around 10 to 15 Min's for I got up to do the second run.

I had the same intention to just go completely all out this time and try beat the first one. Entry was even quicker and the transition was super quick. Smashing the ripple strips and then on the switch to the first left hander with full power well before the apex made it so much quicker through to the final corner.

Having the huge speed into the last corner allowed me to just keep it on the gas. With the Neovas on their last legs I started pushing wide but didn't mind as the run off was only dirt. But I was wrong!!! haha after all the dirt drops the run off just before the last ripple strip was a big drop. I hit it hard and only dropped the 1 wheel off to finish the run. Marc went nuts on the radio and I was stoaked haha

Coming back to the pits with nothing but a stupidly big smile on my face. I was fairly happy with the run and knew I would be in the top 16.

It was then announced and I recieved the paper with my name up the top on the list. Jake Jones #1 yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeew!!!!

After the guys got back to the pits we got the car all ready for the morning and couldn't wait for Saturday to hurry up haha. Beers were on now!!!

SATURDAY 5th August 2011,

After a nights thought we decided to change a couple things on the car so after we did that

we cleaned the car and got it ready to rumble and seeing we didn't have anything happening till demos during the afternoon it was back on display.

Damn I love the new look!!

While we had time Luke and I went over to see old mate Nigel Petrie. Everyone knows Nigel and his Awesome hilux build (CLICK HERE TOO SEE MORE - ITS INSANE!!) . Nigel has been a good mate of mine since back in the day and I actually have the first ever set of Knuckles Nigel made. As soon as I got them I made a name for Nigel "NP Wonder Knuckles" and its stuck since that day. If you are ever in need of motivation check out the kids site... it helps me ;-) Love ya work Nigel!!

We came back after a quick scout to get ready for the demo's

Good mate and also Team mate for the weekend MADMIKE WHIDDETT yo!!!!!! We suited up and posed for a while hahaha

Mikes an awesome bloke but when his car is just idling next to mine it drives me mad hahaha... I cant even hear mine and always think its not running!!! Love that damn 4 rota!!!

Just about to head out for the last demos and I was pumped!!!

Just love the exit of Eastern creeks layout. Full tap'd throttle and bake what ever gear you want :P haha

The demos were over and ADVAN put on a signing session for the Team ADVAN which was Mike and Myself. I was thinking it was going to be full on but not this full on!!! O_o

Mike has done this many times before and had his scribble down pat and damn quick haha... I was lacking behind!!

MadMike Whiddett and Jake Driftsquid Jones!

Yeeeew!!!"back to work squid"

Picture please!!!!

I was having a ball haha. As full on as it was it was so surreal to experience a full on signing session. Mike was saying what its like in the US and I thought this was crazy :S

The people started to slow down and lucky as we almost ran out of posters haha. Now that would suck!!!

Lucky me even got a pic with the Famous SAMMY STEVENS!!!!!

Photographer "Squid, Pictures with Promo girls"
Jake "yes please"
Photographer "No I mean they are waiting"
Jake "Sweeeeeet haha, yo cromey jump in!!!"

haha

ADVAN Australia really don't do things by halfs!!!

The people who make it possible for me to Drift!!! From left to right.... Luke Bing, Jason BONES Baker, Lee Boehm, Marc Guyatt and Squid!

The coolest TEAM ever!!! Like this photo alot and seriously have so much time for all the dudes in this pic!!

Team ADVAN yoooo!!!

It was now time to get back to the pits and get ready for the big comp tonight!!!

As I was suiting up Mozza the maniac came over for a qucik chat with MeZ the camera master. Miss these guys alot and was good to have a yarn!!

Right time to put on game face. It now the night time and everyone was ready to get crack'n. New batteries on the radios and all haha

Suited up , clown shoes on and wild hair!! ready to rumble haha

First up we had the top qualifier presentation. As I was #1 I was out first.

Had a quick chat to Racing Jason and as I get back in he says "As you leave....". We all know what that means right haha....

Select 3rd gear, Limiter, Release clutch and hang on!!!!

It was now time to form up and get ready to battle. As I came bakc in they sent me to the top of the line as my battle was up first. The official said it will be a small wait mate so shut it down, I told the guys on the radio ill have a quick nap as a joke. Sure enough I was that exhausted after the huge lead up to this point and I was woken up by the official yelling "your up mate". Time to rumble!!

I was up against Luke Broadbent who had just battled his way through the bottom 16 to make the top 16. Congrats to the fellow SA'ian and I was pumped to battle him. As I qualified 1st I would lead first and the hands went down!!!

I went in as quick as I normally was, well at least I thought I did but before I could make the switch into the left hand corner I over cooked it and spun out. I had a huge gap on Broadbent as by the time I spun out I could see him coming towards me at a quick rate and not slowing down haha... We came CM's to each other and just missed a prang. So it was 10-0 his way.

Mine turn to follow and knowing I had nothing to lose I went flat out. After taking off the line and realising this was the first person I got to follow in the whole weekend I had no idea where I should be behind him. So I went with my normal line and his was heaps different. He ran wide and I ran down the middle. It was a messy chase lap and sure wasn't even close to making up for it so I was now Officially out of the comp.

I felt bad for the sponsors and crew as we put so much into this event and to come out on the first battle really was a bummer. But congrats to Luke and we will be back next year bigger and better!!!

Huge thanks to all my supporters and sponsors.

ADVAN AUSTRALIA
HI OCTANE RACING
HI OCTANE DIRECT
HELPS METALWORKS
PPG GEARBOXES
EMPIRE AERO
MCA SUSPENSION
DRIFTSQUID INDUSTRIES
LUKE BING SIGNS
ICON HELMETS

My awesome Family and Friends... expecially Bones, Luke, Marc, Lee and Dad for coming to Sydney.

You guys make it all happen and without you I would be here behind my computer dreaming like I was last year hahaha.

Whats next for me???? The sky is the limit ;-) Bring on the future!!!

Peace out
-Squid!!!

The Week before WTAC (Working like a boss)

2011-09-22T06:36:00.000-07:00

Hey yallllll,

So its the day after G1 Round 2 and still unsure if my motor is ok from the when oil pressure gauge let go yesterday. Andy from ASR took the car that morning and put a mechanical gauge on the car. Cranked it over and deemed it fit for thrashing!!!! Its fair to say I was relieved at this point in time haha, No way could I put together a new motor in time for WTAC let alone pay for one.

It came down to me being extremely lucky that I always look at my gauges and make sure things are ok. This time it saved my motor and if I didn't see the oil pressure drop when it did I wouldn't have even been able to think about WTAC.

Now this was sorted thanks to Andy I was now on a mission to get to Sydney a week earlier then needed. Reason being was Advan Australia had a display setup which my car was going to be on. Not only that but I would be there with the car for all 4 days selling discounted tickets for WTAC ;)

Good mate Jason 'BONES' Baker took on the mission to passenger along for the 16 hour trek to Sydney and put up with me for the next 2 weeks hahaa... Not only did he help pit crew but he also worked like a trooper with an insane amount of hours put in. Thanks heaps bro!!

So we hit the road at around 1AM on the Wednesday morning hoping for a nice arrival later in the afternoon. 16 hours is a bloody long way and when you passenger doesn't have a licence it makes things harder too :P haha

After 5 hours driving we hit the rise of the sun!!! this was going to be the hardest part for me as I love sleeping hahaha. Iced roads and next to zero vision was proving hard to cope with.

Massive thanks to Bluey for the lend of the tow vehicle. The car was awesome and did the job perfectly, tank was small so we had a few stops on the way for fuel, I'm fair hopeless when I'm tired

Here is a pic of the whole setup thanks to Bluey!!

Hopeless

haha anyway, We kept on trekking across Australia to get to Sydney by that Afternoon. Most of the drive was boring but when we seen the wind farm we got a little excited lol.

They are bloody huge!!!

It honestly felt like we drove for a week but we finally made it too Hi Octane Racing which is in the thick of Sydney. We meet up with Ian, Kyle and Nath from Hi Octane and after a quick hello is was back to business. We had to have the display ready in the mall that night for the morning. So we dropped the car off at Hi octane and headed down to catch up with the Advan Australia crew and get the display setup.

Once we had it all ready for the cars to just roll in we then got the chance to get some sleep. With around 4 or 5 hours sleep it was time to be back up again to go pick the car up and get it down to the mall in time for the opening.

Thursday July 28th 2011

unloaded and chilling in the street on Paramatta hahaaa

The store was very worried about the floors so we had to use go-jacks to push the car in the shop and to its position.

Bones and myself got bored while setting up!!!

Bones approved!!!!

It was fairly surreal to have my car in a major shopping mall and I was looking forward to seeing what people through of it.

All covered up ready for the unveiling on the Thursday night

The Thursday night was the launch of WTAC and a huge amount of Media came along to shoot the cars on display.

The cars where on display from the Thursday through till the Sunday. Bones and I spent the whole 4 days speaking to people and making the event aware to the public. It was long days but at the same time fairly funny. Bones even found a good mate which I think he is still in contact with hahaha

Here is a video from Advan Australia on the opening launch, its damn cool!! Check it out

MONDAY 1st August 2011,

We got the cars out the night before and packed up the whole display, it was now time for Bones and myself to get stuck into getting the car ready. With my dog box being serviced I was only able to pick it up on my way to Sydney. So while we had a spare morning Bones and myself took the car to Hi Octane Racing and quickly changed the gearboxes over.

Out with the Standard and in with the Goodness of a PPG Dog box!!!

While we had to car on the hoist we went over it good and proper.

Once we had that sorted it was now time to get back to helping Hi Octane and Advan with WTAC. All the international cars had arrived into Sydney but needed unpacking. Now this sounds like an easy job right??? 6 to 7 containers and around 13 or 14 cars.... ahhhhhh yeah might be a little hard lol. Bones and I had the job of unloading them haha....

TUESDAY 2nd August 2011,

Here is the first one!!! too easy

Wait.................... Another haha (first to touch the Revolution car :P

Oh so as we open the door to the fully packed Kiwi container, another rocks up LOL! "Yo Bones I think we are here all night bro" haha

So all up we had 7 odd containers, to tell you the truth the amount of work it was it was so crazy opening such awesome cars and seeing them in the flesh. Trying so hard not to touch anything and spending stupid amounts of time making sure everything is clear for when we push them out. Was awesome fun and honestly cant wait to do it all over again next year ;)

We finished late late that night and the man (Ian Baker) treated Bones and myself to an awesome meal and beers down the road at some farm restaurant place. Had animals running around all over the place haha

WEDNESDAY 3rd August 2011,

Its fair to say we have done a fair bit of work up until now but we haven't even started with the big event. We ran around getting stuff for Ian like all the Japan/US and Aussie teams fuel. Total of like 20x44gallon drums of E85 haha.

We also had our mates from Kiwi land arriving today, was fair pumped to introduce them to Bones as he hadn't had the pleasure of meeting the crazy crew yet. Once the day of running around was over and my car was at Eastern creek I could head back to the Hotel and catch up with the Kiwi crew and all the boys from SA that came up.

Gold!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yokohama Rig!!!! The other one with Mark Berry's R34 on it is so damn awesome... Who would like to see a Yokohama Rig with the Squid on it??? haha

To find out all the goodness from the event and how I did go to the next blog for a full write up ;)

Thanks for reading

Peace
-Squid

G1 Round 2 2011 (First outing since the rebuild)

2011-07-24T04:40:00.000-07:00

Hey all,

G1 Extreme Drift comp Round 2, 2011

So we finished the car at 3AM the morning of the Saturday hahaa.... Talk about 'last min racing', thanks is in order to my mates Luke, Marc, Taylor, Lee and Trackster for the efforts put in through till 3AM.

Check out the finished product!!!!

There was some really crazy pics from the event including these couple I found from Stewart Wilkins

But as the morning rolled on so did the dramas, as I was lining up for a good old car check over the power steering belt jumped off. As I knew this was already an issue I quickly took the car back to my pit and changed the whole power steering pump over. I had a spare second hand one and thought I should change it over as its the only thing that hasn't been changed. I had that fixed and the car was cleared to run.

First up was practice as always and I decided I would run on a pair of YOKOHAMA S Drives 255/35/18's. As I hadn't even driven the car yet since the entire rebuild I was amped to give it a blast. I always use the first practice session to get back to grips with my car, push the limits within reason hahaa...

hmmmmm yeah right Jake.......

O_o hahaha I got it!!!

After realising how slippery the track was and the fact I was struggling the get the 360rwkw to the ground I chose to run the tyre pressures another 10psi lower then normal. Only issue now was worrying about the tyres de-beading mid-slide. But due to the way the Equips bead I wasn't too worried.

So after practice was done it was back in the pits and time to chuck another fresh pair of YOKOHAMA S Drives 255/35/18's on the rear. Notice the awesome shiny new engine bay :P Thanks to Hi Octane Performance Coatings.

I made sure this picture was in here so you don't think I just drive the car!!! haha

Now with the car back on Fresh YOKOHAMA S Drives I was ready for Qualifying. This is where I get nervous and pumped as I love putting down an Awesome run. I normally just warm the car up as soon as I get out of track so I can hit up my first Qualifying run straight away.

With the car all ready thanks to my awesome crew I was ready to go.

My First Qualifying lap is always a smooth easy going one. Once I nail a half decent first one its all out on the second one.

I came back into the pits to get the crew to check pressures and make sure everything was sweet. I was having a lot of trouble getting power down so we made a few adjustments and went straight back out again for qualifying lap number 2.

With a decent run in the bag already I decided to push my limits on the second run!! I finished the run with a lot of confidence so I was sure it was going to put me in a good place for the Battles. Now that the Qualifying was over I decided to save tyres and stay in the pits while everyone practiced with the remaining 20mins we had.

While the crew went over the car and got it ready for battles I pulled the car out of the garage so people could check it out up close. While this was on we were awaiting the scores for Qualifying.

BOOOOM It was announced I qualified 1st place. This put me up against who ever won the bottom 16 battles. I was pumped to be going up against someone who had been battling all the way through from the bottom 16 as they would be all amped and ready to go. Would make for an exciting battle.

First battle was up and I was eager to get on track!!

I was up against Jack Colins in the R31 skyline.

Was a good battle and was awesome fun. I won which put me through to the top 8

Without changing tyres we had to go straight into the top 8 battles. I was now up against Jarrod Ridgway who I knew wasn't going to be an easy battle. Jarrod's car is very grippy and works crazy well. I was the lead car in the first run while Jarrod chased

Jarrod was following close so I knew I had to make sure I could do the same and follow him where ever he went.

I won the battle and went through to the final 4. It had been so long since I had Driven Mallala in my own car and I was so excited to be in the Top 4 again.

The crew put on another fresh pair of YOKOHAMA S Drives 255/35/18's and let the pressures down to try get some traction on the slippery Mallala track. I was up against Corporal Pickering!!! :)

I was to lead being the higher qualifier and Christian was to follow. Christian was on R1R's so I knew we were about to put on one heck of a good show!!!

As we got through the esses I was struggling for drive and Christian was all over me.

I was pushing hard all the way through the end of turn 2 trying to get drive out of the car. Knowing Christian was on me I knew I had to do as much as I could to win the battle.

It was now my turn to chase, the fun part ;)

I was on Christian enough to call a re-run. It was bloody hard to keep up but I pushed as hard as I could.

Now with the re-run I was following again and Christian was Chasing

Obviously Christian was pushing hard but he was going to hard he smashed the tyre barriers on turn 1!!

Now it was my turn to push just as hard. We line up again and wave each other off the line for the final time. As Christian takes off I struggled for drive but managed to catch him out the esses.

Just after the esses into turn 1 Christian went backwards into turn 1 which slowed me down too much to continue and I pulled out before I hit his car. Due to Christian not coming to a full spin it was called his way from the judges. This means I lost the battle and was now in the battle for 3rd place.

I was up against old school James Mardle in his S13. Ive battled James a few times and its always been exciting. I was straight up against him and leading the first run as I qualified higher. With the YOKOHAMA S Drives on the limits I was going to take this last battle easy....... haaaaaaa yeah right!!!!

Full noise!!! was off and killing it but then on the last corner disaster struck. Oil pressure went to 0 on my gauge and I instantly backed off. Looked behind and a crazy amount of smoke was still following me. I knew something was wrong so I instantly shut the car down and rolled to where I stopped on the track. Quick check under the hood to make sure it wasn't on fire and I sat down waiting for the final battle to take place. All I could think was "I have to leave for WTAC in 2 days and I need a new motor :( ". This also means I had to forfeit the battle and ended up with 4th place.

After the Final battles ended they came and towed me back into the pits. The crew looked more devastated then I did. We tried looking at the issue but it was dark, we had no light and Andy from ASR was keen to check it out back at his workshop.

Before the day was over though they had the presentation. Which also means Victory skids, by far the most fun part of the day especially when you get to do them yourself haha. While the presentations went off to my shock I was called up.

I won the Best presented car for the event! The crew and myself always make sure the presentation of the car is perfect so receiving this trophy was unreal. Thanks heaps to everyone at Mallala from Clem to all the officials and fire marshals for making the day happen. Was a great day out and I now have 2 days to get the car ready so I can leave for WTAC in Sydney.

Peace
-Squid

NEW ADVAN Livery (DriftSquids re-birth)

2011-07-23T07:45:00.000-07:00

Hey all,

Been awhile since ive done an update as its been so crazy since I returned back from New Zealand. The car arrived and within a couple days I had the whole car back to a rolling shell.

With all my awesome supporters still on board and keen to help me give the Sonvia a re-birth it was going to turn out damn good!!!

First place the car was sent was to Helps Metalworks for some fabrication work to the rear end. My inspiration for the revised rear end was from Forrest Wangs S13.

The rear end was cut out completely and replaced for a much easier and nicer tube rear end. Fitted with an Alloy fuel cell, external fuel pumps and battery. With Craig being so busy he had the car for a little longer then expected and in turn made the dead line for the car to be finished a little tricky. But with all my supporters I wasnt too worried as they are more then capable of getting the work done in time.

G1 Round 2 was fast approaching and the car was still a fair way off being finished. Craigs work was now complete and was well worth the wait. It turned out alot better then I thought, making it alot easier to work with in the rear end too.

I had now taken the car back to my place (Squid shack) for the final assembly of all the goodies.

The motor and gearbox was pulled out as I had the gearbox serviced and alot of the engine parts sent off to Hi Octane for some colour treatment ;)

Hi Octane Performance Coatings had gone crazy on my engine parts and turned them into this!!!

I couldnt wait to have the motor back together to see what it looked like and before I knew it I had it all back in the car and ready to rumble!!!

Damn!!!! looks good hey????

Now that everything was back in the car I wasnt able to run it due to upgrading the whole fuel system. I went down to MORPOWA in Adelaide and got myself a heap of Speed flow fittings and new fuel lines. -8 feed line and -6 return. After playing around with all this for a few days getting the right fittings and the right amount of fuel lines it was now ready to rumble.

G1 was so close and I still havnt even painted the car haha. My good mate KC was painting the car for me and with his busy schedule he needed to get my car done when it suited him. Sure enough he didnt have any free time because he was so busy, so he did the amazing and painted the car after hours for me. Once the shell was done he allowed me to have the car back to finish it off.

MY new sponsor Empire Aero had the brand new WORK9 kit arrive and without even fitting it up i sent it down to KC for paint. KC was onto that while I focused on getting the car ready. G1 was on the weekend coming and we still had to get paint done, new graphics, support mounts for whole new kit, new brakes, new suspension parts and a heap of tiny things.

While still working a full time job the 2 too 3 hours sleep a day was getting the better of me and the RedBulls started to cost me a fortune hahahaha.

But I think the final result speaks for itself. Even if we did only finish it at 3am the morning before G1 Round 2 hahaha. Hence the first pic of the car was at the event.

Even had a few little fans approve of the new look!!

A HUGE thanks to KC for painting the car in just a quick time. Luke Bing for the awesome sticker work. Taylor, Lee, Marc, and the rest of the crew at Bingles on the night before the comp for getting it ready.

ADVAN AUSTRALIA
HI OCTANE RACING
HI OCTANE DIRECT
MCA SUSPENSION
PPG GEARBOXES
ICON HELMETS
HELPS METALWORKS
EMPIRE AERO

G1 Round 2 wrap up coming next.... with a video if I can get the footage in time ;)

Peace
-Squid

DriftSquid Video's from ROUND 6 of D1NZ!!!

2011-05-20T22:01:00.000-07:00

Hey yallllll,

Got a few awesome videos made by ADVAN Australia from my recent journey to NZ.

Here is my first one which is just Raw footage of my car screaming its guts out!!!

This next one is me checking out my good mate MadMike WHIDDETT's factory and seeing what hes been up to the day before the Comp. Awesome lil video ;)

Here is a video OVERSTEER made of me from the event which is fair sick I must say!!

Here is a few interviews I had with more D1NZ drivers about coming to OZZZZIE for WTAC!!!!

GAZ WHITER

CURT WHITTAKER

COLE ARMSTRONG

And last but not least.... My own video i made for now. I will have a full vid coming soon but I'm still waiting on more footage from my mate L whip!!

Hope you enjoyed the show ;)

Regard
JAKE JONES
www.driftsquid.com

The Lead up and the Final Fight in D1NZ!!! 'ROUND 6'

2011-05-14T23:43:00.000-07:00

Hey all,

Sorry its a little late but it will be worth the wait!! ;)

AS you know this was the last round of D1NZ. My car was still in Christchurch the week before the event as my good mate Paul Tomlin was trying to get it out of SPEC and ready to rumble. He worked so hard getting things done to it and also rebuilding a Standard box for it. He got it all done while also getting his own car done. Paul put them both in a container and got them shipped up to Auckland.

The container arrived the same day me and my number pit crew Lee Boehm did. Friday week before the comp. MadMikes Mechanic 'Cromey' picked up my car and took it to a workshop to get it checked out on the dyno. The car stayed there for the weekend while Lee and Me caught up with MadMike and Toni. Mike and Toni put us up for the entire time we were in Auckland. Not only did they let us sleep where their little son 'Linc' had his Train set, which had to be packed up "Sorry Linc" they also Made sure we had transport and awesome food in our guts. Thanks heaps guys!!!

So we had the weekend before the comp to do what ever we wanted. Mike had a Drift demo at the Hamilton 400 and he said we could tag along so that we did. Lee and I went with the crew down to the Hamilton 400 and had a awesome few days seeing how different it actually is compaired to the Clipsal back home.

As we walked into the joint we seen the gig bus!!

AS you can see i was excited!! haha

We fair keen to see this class race!!!

All the D1NZ crew, Top 8 were invited to do the demo's and heck the crowd was loving it! CLIPSAL 500 PLEASE TAKE NOTE!!!!

Hmmmm Driftsquid/ADVAN mobile pit crew setup for World Time attack!!! I think so :P

mmmmm JD

MadMikes new 4 rota and induction setup 'flame chucker' sounded so porn! Check out this vid from the Hamilton Demos's

The weekend finished and the whole event was fair sick to be at so thanks to Mike and Carl fr the passes to get in. Lee and I appreciate it heaps!!

MONDAY 18th
It's now monday and we can start getting things ready for the final round of D1NZ which starts on Thursday. We jump in the car Mike and Toni lent us and went to hire a car trailer to go pick up the Sonvia.

Filled it up with fuel and only noticed the price when I finished hahaha

The last time I seen my Drift car was when teh earthquake went off and abandoned it. So i really couldnt wait to see it again, the car was in Pukekohe so off we went. We picked the car up from E and H motors who ran it up on the dyno for a quick check. SPEC didnt leave the tuning cable with the car so we couldnt tune it and therefore just had to remove some timing out of it to make sure it was sweet. With the timing pulled out it still managed to pull 550rwkw on the hub dyno!!! :O yeah I was shocked too haha.

We loaded the car up and set off to get an alignment down at the famous Auotlign where MIke, Fanga and all the driftcorp blokes have been too for years.

The guys were awesome and got the alignment done so quick. They even noticed a few things we Aussies do differently haha. Now the car was ready to skid and its 2 days till the event!!! WTF???? Im prepaired hahaa

So we loaded the beast up and set out GPS back to home which was Madmikes joint!

We noticed this joint on our way back to Mikes hahahaha.. gold!!

TUESDAY 19th

Now the car was back at Mikes and we had one more thing to do..... Make it look pretty haha! That we did.

All the way through till the late of Tuesday night. While Mike was busy finising his up and also Stikcering the KTM up haha. Busy bloke!!

remember kids :)

WEDNESDAY 20th

Today we dedicated a whole day to hanging out with Ian Baker and Mark Boxer to go do some cool stuff. We travelled around Auckland to all the coolest shops and interviewed them.

Here is Madmikes Head Quarters which we were staying at. Check it out!!

We also went to check out Redline Performance where the famous HKS evo was just chillin waiting for me to drive it!!

Someone had to get in it :P Video coming soon of this so stay tuned to the ADVAN youtube site!!

Before we knew it we had to head back to Mikes to load the truck up and get everything ready for tomorrows practice day.

TOUGH!!!

Mike nad the crew had everything ready when we got back so all we had to do was load everything up into the rig

All this was soon in the truck and ready to roll on down to Hampton Downs for the practice day! I was so pumped and ready for this.

265/35/18's YOKOHAMA S DRIVES Yoooooo!!

THURSDAY 21ST

Early mornings and so excited I hardly slept the nigth before. After 3 years of drifting I still get that excited the night before Drifting im like a little kid hahaha. Love it!!

In Mikes Fursty Rig and on our way to Hampton Downs for the final round of D1NZ. If your not awake before you get in this rig you suyre as hell are when you start moving, Straight through stacks and on the engine brake everywhere not needed hahaha awesome fun!!!

Never thought id see this site! The Sonvia being unloaded from Madmikes rig on a frosty morning in NZ. Dreams do really come true!!

SO we got everything ready and made sure we checked over the car!!

Drivers Briefings are always exciting :S Mike, Fanga and myself went down to check the track out to see what was in store. They told me a few tips and i soon knew which line i was going to hit straigth up. The track is fairly simple but heaps of fun as it has an elevated rise which you can see the other side of until you get over it. It also has a huge striaght line which only a few people could link and I had to give it a crack myself haha.

I couldnt wait to head out for practice. Everyone lined up and out we went

First lap and the track felt awesome!!!

Quick wave to the judges to say it was a sick as track hahaha!!

But before i knew it i was back in the pits with a problem. The power steering belt came off and was long gone. We had to rush back to the shops in town to get some more. Lee took off to get some and on return found out it was the wrong one. its all they had in stock so while Lee took off again to head to a different shop i looked around the pits. Carl had one which I borrowed but by the time i got it Lee was back with the new ones. Put the new one on and went out again in the second session

Sure enough after a couple laps it poped off again. We decided to change a few things around on the pulleys. Before we knew it the day was in the final session and I had one more chance the check it. In the Laps i had done I noticed how grippy the car was and I didnt want to blow the gearbox so we took the wing off to aid helping it.

Yeeeah!!!

Here is a quick little video i made from the practice session

The car held its belt on and it felt good. Crazy slippery with 50psi in the tyres and no wing but it was going to make sure the box stayed alive. We were happy with the car and its stupid new power so now we packed the car up and headed back to Mikes for a good nights rest.

FRIDAY 22nd (COMP DAY)

We all rolled in early again but afer a hot chocolate and a Mcsick burger was ready to hit the track again. Lee and I were still worried about the power steering belt but we couldnt do anything more to what we have done. With is lasting a whole practice session yesterday arvo and chewing up a set of 265 YOKOHAMA S DRIVES I was confident it will be sweet.

WE lined up and had a good old yarn to Mike before we hit the track.

Hi Octane Direct for all your awesome parts!!

The Practice session was going well. Found my feet and was ready to Qualify well

Making sure I had it nailed i did as many laps as I could

But sure enough the Belt came off again, with qualifying just around the corner I had no choice but to put another one on and hope for the best. SO thats exactly what we did. and back out for qualifying we went.

A quick video by Oversteer of me also

I was worried about the belt but i just wanted to make sure I made it into the top 16. After all the struggle ive had this season I had to make it happen. I put down a decent run without being to aggressive on the throttle as that wasnt helping the belt stay on haha.

I came bakc in the pits after the first run to make sure the belt was still fine. Sure enough it was so I headed back out again for the second run of my qualifying.

I made sure it was a awesome run!

With plenty of YOKOHAMA Smoke filling the air!!

As i finished the run i knew it was going to be a good enough run to make the top 16. How ever i didnt see how the other drivers were going so it was all up in the air still. I looked down to my temp gauge and seen it rising as I was coming back to the pits. It got to 100 degrees and I shut the car down as i knew the water pump belt came off.

I was towed back into the pits and Lee and I knew it was the harmonic balancer that was the issue. I did a quick shout out on the radio for a balancer from someone in the pits and before I even got to talk to Lee Adam Wyndham came up and said “bro take mine off my car”. I missed my third qualifying run but wasn’t too worried about it as I was fairly sure my second run was good enough. We got quickly too it and took Adam’s balancer off and swap it with mine. Pun, Lee and Adam were going like cut snakes trying to get it done as the Top 16 gets introduced and then its straight into battles. I didn’t know if I made Top 16 yet but if I did I wanted to make sure my car was running for it.

As the guys were half way through taking my balancer off they called the Top 16 qualifiers and to my shock I pulled 3rd spot. Just behind the 2 top qualifiers by only a couple points I was fairly happy with that result. But I still had an issue and the count down to the battles was on. The D1NZ crew came up and said we had to get to the grid ASAP. The guys were still working on the car and having issues with getting the new balancer on my car. The Organisers came up and said a final call so I got suited up and in the car while the guys did the finishing touches on the balancer. The guys did an awesome job to get it done and on time. Thanks heaps to Adam, Pun and Lee for getting it all sorted and done.

Having found what we think the issue was I was pumped for the battles. We went out for our Top 16 introduction for the crowd and as we pulled up to the front on the crowd I thought I'd check the belts to make sure they were still fine. As I pulled up the bonnet I saw the power steering belt had jump a cog and I was freaking out. They introduced us and I rushed back into the pits before my battle to get the belt back on. I had just enough time and cam back out to the grid to line up against Bruce Tannock.

This was my second tandem battle for the whole year, I couldn’t believe the excitement I had for this battle and as I was the higher qualifier I was leading first. I had a decent run but was lacking huge amounts of drive out of the car. Lee was out on the form up grid to help with any issues with the belt as we just didn’t know what was going to happen so as I came back around to swap over to chase, Lee quickly checked the belts and all was good.

My turn to chase and I find nothing more exciting then chasing. I left a little bit of room between Bruce and myself on the entry and I caught up more then I thought coming into the second corner. Bruce ran wide and I managed to pass him on the inside down the hill. I won the battle and was into the Top 8!! Stoked!

I was faced off against Fanga Dan in the Top 8. To say I was excited for this was a small understatement haha. I’ve looked up to the likes of Fanga, Gaz and MadMike since I was a kid and this was like a dream come true for me so I just wanted to get this battle underway. As I came back around we dropped my tyres pressures down to 30psi to try getting some drive out of the car. Checked the belts and everything seemed to be in place and ready to roar. Fanga and I wished each other good luck and we were off. I was leading first being the higher qualifier and went into my run full steam.

I pushed a little too hard and ran slightly wide coming up the hill and finished the run fine. As I pulled up to the start grid again to swap positions Lee checked the belts and all was good. Sweeeeet!!

Now my turn to follow and as we came into the entry I lost a lot of drive coming out of the corner leading up to the first corner as the wheels were just spinning up and in turn Fanga pulled a fair gap on me. I tried to catch up and managed to stay the same distance from him but didn’t lose any ground on him. I knew it would have been a close call and Fanga went through with the win.

I ended up coming 7th overall and was happy the car stuck it out for the battles. I just wish this happened 6 rounds ago haha! I just want to say a huge thanks to Adam and Pun for the help of the balancer. Lee for going like a cut snake all day making sure the car was on song and missing out on most of the live action (sorry mate). Mike and Toni for taking me under their wing and making sure everything was just right and lil Linc for making sure my Easter involved a damn good egg haha!! Thanks so much guys.

Paul, Troy, Hugo, Cromey, Damo and everyone who helped me with the lead up to the final round. Ian and Boxer for coming over from Oz to do some filming, footage to come people!! The whole D1NZ crew for making the series happen. ADVAN Australia, HI OCTANE DIRECT, ICON helmets, PPG, ASR, Lewis engines, Helps Metalwork’s and MCA for supporting me throughout the whole season. All my friends, family and fans back home for the great support throughout the year. Considering the season I had I’m so pumped to have experienced it all and made some awesome new friends.

Now with everyone from NZ coming over for World Time Attack in August I cant wait, its going to be one massive event you wont want to miss. For more details on the event click here :

http://www.worldtimeattack.com/index.php/jake-jones-returns-to-compete-in-tectaloy-drift-challenge/

Thanks heaps

Regards

Jake ‘Driftsquid’ Jones

Earthquake Terror to then D1NZ Round 4

2011-03-01T17:38:00.000-08:00

Hey all,

Been awhile since an update but this one is well worth the wait!!

As you know I’ve been in New Zealand competing in the D1NZ drift series. I missed Round 3 due to financial issues and just couldn't afford to make it. I had now put everything I had left into making Round 4 happen.

Round 4 of the D1NZ series was held at Taupo Raceway and I’ve always been a huge fan of this track since seeing it on youtube. However the D1NZ officials decided to mix it up a bit this year and redo the layout of the track. Not only was it going to be backwards but in a whole new section. Everyone loved the idea and its fair to say it worked well.

First off ill fill everyone in on the lead up to the event as it wasn't at all how it should have gone. I’ve been saving up my holidays so i could get over to NZ a week earlier to make sure my car was going to be competition ready. I organised with Paul Tomlin and Spec Performance to have the car ready for the V 4 Rota South Nationals.

I flew into Christchurch on the 19th of FEB @ 1am in the morning. Paul picked me up and we had a couple hours sleep till we were up at the big Stadium where the V 4 Rota Nationals where being held.

The Spec performance stand was a fairly decent display considering the time frame they had to get it ready.

Spec Performance Drag car

Phillip's 2JZ Cefiro

Paul’s Crazy Sr20 S13

My Rather bland looking Sonvia :P

Paul was busy getting my new front guards fixed as im now borrowing a pair of different from rims :)

The Spec Performance stand was getting a lot of attention and this show was so much different to any other show Ive been to in Australia. We really need to step our game up!!

Here are a few more pics from Saturday's show at the stadium. The cars in NZ are leaps and bounds ahead of anything in South Australia. Well the ones that come out to play anyway ;)

Cole Armstrong's VR34 after he did his phat skid in the car park :)

Spec's Cabinet with the crazy Borg Warner turbo which was bigger then my head

Mad Stag rolling on Equips! I loved it

Roof chopped S13/ R34 front abortion with a 2JZ. Was not a huge fan to tell you the truth. But so much work has been put in to this its crazy!!

Slim's mad Rx7 with i believe a 800hp 20B. Nuts!

Heard a lot of stories behind this Evo drag car and to say it was awesome was a complete understatement. 1200hp Evo motor and yes i did see it go down the quarter :P

The famous HKS evo time attack car. A lot of people walked past this like it wasn't anything special. I was damn excited to see it in the flesh. Wish they could have brought it to WTA in August this year as it would be insane to see it live.

3 Rotas.... 3 turbos.... why not??

R.I.P.S mental Rb26/30 drag car.

FJ20. I will always have a soft spot for these motors. Why did I ever sell my DR30 :(

This S15 looked awesome. The kit along with the wheel and colour choice worked well i thought. Not bad for a daily hey?

Crazy RB26 engine bay.

RX8 Drag car! Oath

Memories hahaha

This Batty caught my eye not only because of the graphics but the donk. Was so keen to see this perform but apparently the owner is new to drifting and hasn't even taken it out yet :(

Here is a video from Cole in his VR34 doing his crazy burnout haha

The V 4 Rota Nats went onto the Sunday. Lucky for us though it went to Ruapuna Raceway yeah yeah!!! It was mainly a Drag event but we had Drift shows on in the down time which was where we got to have fun. Well some of us...

They asked us drifters if we would like to have a run down the quarter mile and sure enough I jumped as the chance as we don't have a drag strip back home. I warmed up the Sonvia with its newly acquired 440rwkw and all I had were some 235/40/18 Neutons on the back, Running 45psi HAHA.... I ended up running an 11.8 quarter with a 133MPH pass. It was awesome, if I had some grip I could have run into the 10's with eaze... So Spec went back to the shop to get some slicks for my car. While they went back I went out for a Drift show. The car was feeling unreal and i couldn't wait to slide it. But as my luck would have it the selector hub for 3rd and 4th gear blew on my first slide. My day was now over but i still enjoyed getting burnt and watching the Drags. It’s unreal how much you enjoy something you haven’t been able to watch in so long! SA please bring back drag racing!!! PLEASE

It was now Monday the 21st of FEB and the car was back at Spec Performance. I was now onto the task of fixing the gearbox. I pulled the box out in the morning and had it apart by lunch time. As we inspected the gear set in the box it was soon declared to risky to get the part that broke and slap it back together. So I was now on the hunt for a standard RB gear set. Sure enough I found one down the road. Paul and I went down picked it up and got it stripped down in no time. It had a broken selector fork but Paul had a spare one thankfully. I had to send the gear set down to a gearbox shop to get the gears pressed off. They took it and said it will be ready first thing in the morning. So now we had nothing else to do I got stuck into making the car was alright everywhere else... Checked all the nuts and bolts underneath the car.

Tuesday 22nd FEB (The day of the earthquake)
As i was free loading at Jon's house *Owner of spec* we all rolled into spec first thing in the morning as if it was a normal day. I was waiting on my gearbox so i continued on working on my car. Just making sure it was all sweet, oils, water, suspension and everything was in tact. Everything seemed to be fine as it has hardly been used for a whole year haha... 12pm came around and Paul and I went to get the gearbox. Once we got it back to the shop we were on a mission to get the gear set onto my main shaft and casing so we could get the car going by the afternoon. As we were working on the gearbox it hit! Paul and I were at the back of the workshop and it was like nothing you could ever explain or describe. Imagine everything around you moving so much you didn't know what way was best to run, even running felt like you weren't going anywhere. It was like running up a set of stairs and then dropping down stairs as the ground moves so much. Walls pushing you away and cars smashing into you as you are trying to run past them to get out of the workshop. Things flying around, parts, tools, wheels and everything falling over. Just total craziness!!

Once we all got out the shop and realised what just happened we were all in total shock. Buildings down the road falling down and people all around us from other shops screaming and yelling out to anyone they could to help. Everyone from Spec had to go find there families and friends so I stayed at the shop in total shock of what was going on...I stayed at the shop as looters could have come to steal anything but I honestly thought that was crazy. Why would someone do that just after what’s happened, sure enough when I wasn't watching someone has come into the shop and snapped the key off in one of the cabinets where all the turbos are kept. It’s sad to think people are this low but I guess it’s just the way of life now days.

After everyone from spec found out there families and friends were safe they all came back and we shut up the shop and started to get out of Christchurch. It was so crazy seeing the aftermath and I just couldn't believe what i was seeing, knowing so many people are trapped and there is nothing you can do to help just mad it worse. People banked up at servos trying to get fuel for hours and hours. Shops with mass amounts of people trying to buy what ever was left and car line ups for a far as you could see. People running around like mad trying to find out if their family and friends were alright! It felt so surreal and not even i could get onto my family back home to tell them i was safe...

So we all got in cars and drove them back to Jon's house. Driving through the aftermath was just in real and something ill never experience again in my life... The last thing on my mind was to take pictures but just before the end of the trip home to Jon's I got a few snaps of the craziness.

Lucky Burger found this scooter in the shop and he would take off ahead of us to find a path out of the town as the traffic was just going no where.

As you can see this truck just sunk into the road. The quake moves so much of the earth underground that it just makes holes like this. It’s just unreal

This black sludge was everywhere as it’s the silt that comes up from the ground when the earthquake happens. This compound was coming from everywhere! Under just about everyone's buildings you would see huge amounts of this stuff just being pumped out from the earth.

The side of the side i was on was a lot lower then the other. Its so crazy seeing how much the earth can move and how much it damages everything.

It so hard to describe what exactly happened and i just wish it never happens again!

Once we got back to Jon's house we had to work out what we had left and what to do next. We got Jon's other scooter and went to try help others but it was useless. We weren't allowed to help anywhere so we went back to Jon's and waited for something to happen. With no power, no water and 1 candle it made the next 24 hours hard. I then decided for Jon to drop me off at the air port and ill find a way out of here... I left everything behind and just wanted to get out.

Wednesday 23rd

Jon dropped me at the airport. All the flights where booked out till Sunday and some flights were opening up when extra planes were coming in but it was hopeless. I then thought ill get a hire car and drive up to the North Island. The first 4 hire companies had cars to hire but they had no fuel in them. Seeing as it was taking people 6 hours of lining up to get fuel I couldn't go down that path. I was stuck and waiting for something to come up and it wasn't looking good, until.... a lady overheard me at the counter and asked if i wanted to hitch a ride with them up to Picton. Picton was just before the ferry so i jumped at the opportunity and off we went!

Along the way i took some crazy shots of just how awesome the scenery is in NZ.

Once i got to the Ferry it was then a 3 hour trip to Wellington. Once I got on the Ferry it was a huge relief that I was able to get out but I felt so sorry for everyone still in Christchurch. Once I got into Wellington at 2am in the morning Hugo picked me up. Hugo is also competing in the D1NZ series and was in Wellington working on his car during the week. Lucky for me he said it was cool to travel up with him to Taupo raceway to the round.

Thursday 24th FEB.
Woke up at Hugo's beach house with this view

We were now on the 7 hour drive up to Taupo Raceway but first we needed to get Hugo's insane 86. His car was being worked on at SHRED Motor sport in Wellington and i was lucky enough to meet them all. The work they have done and the cars they have built is just crazy! For a shop you never really hear about they do some awesome work.

once we picked the car up and loaded all the tools, tyres and equipment on we were on our way. 7 hours till Taupo and the way we were checking all the sites out it was going to take us even longer haha... Here are a few shot from our journey.

Looking from the top of Wellington :)

Gotta love NZ

So we found this random as side road and ended up here! This place was so awesome... so many hidden things in NZ which just makes the place so insane! I think I'm going to make the move ;)

Hugo marking his land!!

3o point turn madness to get out haha

And this is when Hugo's tow car got up to 100Km/H haha

So the trans oil temp light came on. That's normal right haha

We stopped to check out some more scenery. Love it!!

Random Tank...

So we made the long haul to Taupo and it was late when we got in after all the stopping we did haha. All I heard on the way up was Hugo talking about 'burgerfuel' I had never heard of the joint and i was sure as hell keen on getting into some so sure enough i got into it once we arrived. The expression on my face says it all!

I was just so happy to have finally made it after the crazy journey I have had! Thanks so much to everyone for getting me to Taupo from the random ladies letting me hitch a ride to Hugo for letting me cramp his style on the way up :)

Friday 25th FEB (D1NZ day 1 PRACTICE)

So first up a MASSIVE thanks to Jacob for lending me his S13 so i could still drift at Taupo for Round 4 of the D1NZ series. Ian Sheppard and Ian his mate for towing the car over and being my pit crew for the weekend. Jacob's car is a basic S13 with a Rb25 motor. Very much the same as my car but with only half the horsepower haha. Was still more then enough to kick some butt and have a blast!

So this was Jacob's car before i jumped into it :)

Before i even got to meet Jacob i was in the car and out on track to test it out for the first time. Ian Cromey Sheppard was nice enough to organise to get the car to the track ready to race for me. It was amazing to see how far everyone in the D1NZ family went to get me a car to drive after everything i had been through i thought it was going to be the last thing i was doing. So once again thanks so much to everyone for making it happen.

Onto the story about me driving this S13 anyway, The first lap in the car seemed to feel extremely good and as soon as i kicked it out sideways i was on FIRE..... Literally....

It took about 20 seconds for me to realise the car was on fire. Once it went past my head and started burning my neck I knew what was going on and I wanted out ASAP!! In the above pic you can see the fire around my helmet and this was doing around 100KM/H. When i stopped I jumped out of the car and lucky enough the Photographers, fire crews and drivers all got their extinguishers and put the fire ball out. It was easy but after an axe to the boot and a few ripped off parts here and there it was soon out. Thanks to everyone for getting the fire out as it was so close to being a small rubble of nothing.

I did the old Stop drop and roll haha... nah i kind of tripped over my own feet LOL

Photographer Simon Anderson being the first to the scene.

So i was freaking out badly as i hadn't even met Jacob yet and I’ve burnt the whole arse end of his car. Jacob rocked up and the first words he said "oh is that all" soon after he was posing in the pic making a joke about it all. I was relieved but still also felt so bad about what had happened. Turned out the fire was going to happen it was just a matter of time and as Jacob said he is happy it happened here at the track with fire marshals instead of on the street where he could have lost the lot.

Before i knew it everyone was getting their hands dirt to get the car fixed :)

It wasn't too bad a damage but it was enough to take a few hours to fix it all up. The Shred boys got onto re wiring it all up. The Bennett Motor sport crew got onto getting the tank out and putting all new lines in and making sure it was safe to rock again

The support from everyone was awesome!!

Peer pressure from Gaz to get back out there haha

So before I knew it the crew had it all back together and ready for the very last session of the day. With a quick check over from the officials I was sweet to test it out. It was a scary feeling but also very awesome to slide a car again. I got my one lap in and everything seemed sweet as. So i didn’t push my luck, i just came straight back into the pits and sat the car in the shed for a good rest for the main day which will be tomorrow.

Thanks SO much to the Jacob, Bennett Motor sport crew, SHRED Motor sport, Cromey and E-man, Gee much and everyone who helped get the car back together and running

SATURDAY 26th FEB (RACE DAY)

I was so pumped to get to the track and give it all I had. Jacob was just as keen as I was to rip up the track. With only 1 lap's practice I had to go all out straight away to prepare for qualifying. So in the practice session in the morning I push myself to the limit to see where and how quick I could go in every spot of the track. This equalled a lot of offs but Taupo had no walls or anything too close to hit. Once I had found my limits the practice session was over.

I was now straight into qualifying and I was so nervous and excited haha... Was like my first ever competition again. The first 2 runs I spun and i was now on my last straw. The S13 I was using had standard steering lock and mad it extremely hard to adjust to in only a few laps. I knew I had to give it my all and this is my 3rd qualifying lap which scored me 8th position

I was cheering haha

I even got myself a new Kiwi Fan! :)

It was now into the battles and wow i couldn't wait! The down time was killing me as i hadn't been in a battle for almost a whole year. It’s been so long that i was wondering if i still had it in me. I was up against Sellers in his brother’s car as his retired due to mechanical failure. This was going to be one awesome battle as we had the lowest power cars on the day and similar setups.

The first run was too close to call so a re run was called.. This made things ever more excited and i was so pumped now. This was my lead run against Sellers and as you can see on was pushing it hard. Gave it all I had

As i had the advantage from the first run i decided i would go easy on the second..... haha yeah right!!! its always all out for me and that's what i did. I was so close to Sellers i was Cm's away from giving him a nice tyre mark on his passenger door. And as we were coming around the last corner and i was on his door i ran out of lock and spun. Normally I'm use to having huge amount of lock and it just caught me out. I still had a ball and it was awesome to see Sellers go on.

Overall i had an awesome weekend and i was so grateful to even be driving.

I also managed to catch up with a long time youtube fan while i was there. Darryl the champ also made this vid below! Sorry i couldn't have my car there mate. Maybe next time :)

Oh and i couldnt leave without taking pics of the crazy Lake Taupo! Yep... Lake!!

Even seen a plane fly in :)

We were now on out journey back to Auckland. Once again thanks to Jacob for lending me his car. Cromey and E-man for pitting and towing everything up to the track. The whole D1NZ community for looking after me and hooking everything up! Was so awesome... Thanks all and bring on Round 5 :)

Chow for now

Regards

Squid ;)

Oh wait!!! there is a little more :P

DRIFT KARTS!!!!

Its been a dream since i was a kid and it would have come true if i beat sellers but drifting with Gaz in the karts was good enough for now haha.... Till round 5 Gaz!!! :) Cant wait!!

D1NZ ROUND 2 (Manfield) Mechanical Dramas again

2010-12-06T16:39:00.000-08:00

Hey yall,

Another adventure was on its way in NZ and my car was in need of some work before the event, so I had the following work carried out.

Steel Gears put in the N1 Pump. *lucky as the N1 Gear has cracks already*
ROSS Balancer
E85 Fuel will now be what the car is run on so
Fuel pump
Injectors
Rail
Fuel lines etc all modified to suit

And just to make the most of it all the Turbo was changed to a GT35R. The main reason for changing the Turbo was to not only make more power but to keep the intake temps down. The Td06 i have been running on the car so the last 2 years has been maxed out and causing the intake air temps to sky rocket. I can safely say my temp problems are now a thing of the past.

After all this the car was then ready to be run up on the dyno and sure enough it shocked everyone.

just a tiny bit more then before @ 470RWKW. I had Spec Performance De tune it back down to 450rwkw which was way more then i was expecting and way more then i should need haha.

After this was all taken care of while i was working i was then on my way over to road trip up with the Spec Performance crew and my mates to the North Island for ROUND 2.

I arrived in Christchurch on the Wednesday and we went straight to Spec Performance where the car has been getting its work done. I have never been away from the car for such a long period of time and it was damn good to finally see it again haha.

I Was worried when i first heard the power output of the car and really wanted to De-tune the car. But Spec said it will be fine as the tune was safe as houses :)

While i was around spec i took a look at some of the customer cars and its fair to say they work on some crazy rides.

Mate Paul Tomlin was heading over for Round 2 also and his new motor blew up on the Wednesday before we left on the Thursday. So Paul had a loan motor from SPEC which he put in over night and then just needed a tune up. Spec made a healthy 300rwkw out of it so Paul could still make the event.

Good mate Phil Sutherland was also heading over with his crazy 2JZ powered A31 Ceffy. I cruised with him for the 5 hour treck to the Ferry while the Spec crew towed my car up to meet us. On the way i seen some of the best scenery ive ever seen. It may not look like much to you but i was loving it!!!

Water you can actually see through :O

As we were getting closer and closer to the ferry Tommo's trailer was getting more and more camber on the left hand side. We needed a welder and soon lol

More crazy fresh water... It may be stupid to most but i find it damn awesome.

We finally got to a town were we pulled up and used a workshops welder. Tommo had a mate weld it up and we were off again..

Not without the help of Bull though mmmmmm...

We made the ferry just in time.

How ever my car was still a good 20 mins away and the cut off time was getting very close. Thanks to a great pair of understanding NZ ladies we had the boat cut off time delayed slightly so my car made the boat in time :) Thanks Ladies!!

We made it over to the North island on the 3 hour ferry ride. Was awesome to see so much of NZ. We then got over and had another long drive to get to Palmerston North were Manfield is.

Check out the Snow caped mountains, just awesome!!!

Macca's in NZ that bad they leave the Plastic on the seats :S haha

We arrived at our little hotel and crammed the cars in..

It was a long journey and one ill never forget. THanks Lip Lip for putting up with me the whole way (Even though i had to take over after the ferry) hahaha.

Got to the track and sure enough Mike was already there. Mike has also been kind enough to help carry all my gear around in NZ. So thanks heaps to Toni and Mike for their help :)

God damn the Rig is just awesome isnt it!! Love the whole setup Mike has its just wicked...

It was now into the Drifting on the Friday. After the drivers briefing we were lining up straight away ready to rumble. I checked over my car to make sure everything was still in tack and lined up with Mike ready for a practice run.

To say the car was crazy quick in an understatement. ITS INSANE!!!!

Thanks to Matt Malcolm these pics are from the Friday practice session.

I was loving the track but unfortunately i was having Missing issues and then the Steering rack didn't want to turn right anymore.

I was now on the look out for a Power steering rack and with the day ended and no shops open around town i was left with one option. To take Lip Lip's rack out of his Ceffy and put it in mine. Phil blew his gearbox so he wasn't going to be driving on the Saturday anyway. Thanks Phil and the boys for helping out Friday night at the Hotel changing them over.

It was now Saturday, the main day and i was pumped to put down a solid days drifting and having a blast with my new setup. Steering sorted and new coil packs in ready to solve the missing issue.

Well.... the first session was the end of the weekend for me. After the first 2 laps around the track i seen the temperature raise up to 90'c which is didn't get to all Friday so i knew something was up. I drove another half lap to just try cool the car down and it then went to 100'c. I quickly came in the pits and shut the car down.

Sure enough something that never ever happens to anyone happens to me lol. The welsh plug from the back of the head came clean out and lost its water. To fix this we had to take the head off and we didn't have time before qualifying to get that done. So my weekend of drifting was finished early once again. It didn't mean my weekend was over though. I took this chance to take in how it all works from a spectators point of view.

The setup at Manfield was cool. Corporate boxes all up above the pits which i was invited to for a few beers during the battles :) yeah!!!!

The crowds getting around during the early morning on Saturday.

I went out to check out this Laurel i spotted from the corporate box and loved it! Kiwi style ;)

Adam Richards RB26 Ceffy is damn cool. Adam was kind enough to lend me his spare coil packs also. Thanks Adam

Curt Whittaker 2JZ R34 is just awesome. Ive got a few ideas from this car :P

This was the corporate box i was in while the battles were on. Thanks to Murray Coote for getting me up there :)

Big Crowd! Something Aussie hasn't seen in a fair while :(

I also took the opportunity to make my car flash and put it on display. Getting maximum exposure next to Optimus Prime!!! :D

I have a heap of vids I'm going to share from my crazy stupid quick car to the victory burnouts that i was like one meter away from. Awesome!!!!

More to come all but hope you enjoy this update

Regards
-Squid

D1NZ ROUND 1 Across the ditch

2010-11-03T08:28:00.000-07:00

Hey all,

As you all know my car was shipped off to New Zealand to compete in the D1NZ drift series.

The car arrived safely and was sent to a good mate’s workshop in Christchurch. The car awaited the team’s arrival and as we rolled in on the Wednesday it was straight to work.

The car needed a check up on the Dyno on NZ fuel and Craig from Helps Metalwork’s went over a few days earlier to get the screamer plumbed back into the exhaust.

With the car all ready to rumble it was loaded onto a tow truck to head to the track on the Friday morning. When we rocked up Jon from Spec Performance jumped in the passenger seat and we did a quick road tune to make sure everything was perfect. Will all the checks taken care of and everything under control it was go time. As I drove the car back to the pits and shut it down for a while, I started the car up again and had no oil pressure. We didn’t waste anytime and flat towed the car back to Spec Performance.

Back as the work shop (ICON) my new helmet sponsor :)

One of my best mates "Lee" from Australia made the trek over with me to help out

Mark and Janita Boxer from Hoon Media came over to do some filming from the event. Here is basically day 1 of how things unfolded (PART1) Please note part 2 is down the page :)

Sure enough we had the car fix that night and went back to the motel for a couple hours sleep.

The next morning the car was flat towed back to the track to make it in time. It wasn’t long till I got out to the first practice session as I had been so keen too do all weekend :)

I took a lap to putt around and just zone everything out.

First practice session without any testing since way back at the start of 2010 and an eye alignment it felt rather good considering.

Mark and Janita were running around putting Cameras all over the car haha. Here is a shot from inside the car :)

The New Zealand scene is so much bigger then the Australian Scene. I couldn’t believe how much the crowd gets into it all. Mind you when you have 4 rotor screaming FD's like MadMikes it’s fairly easy to get pumped haha

Going back into the pits to put a fresh batch of Yokohama S Drives on the car for Qualifying

Qualifying was up and I was ready for it. Layed down 5 laps and managed to get 20th spot which didn’t put me into the top 16.

One thing I love about the D1NZ series is how easy they make everyone watching know what we are trying to aim for :) *Oz take note* :P

Overall I finished 20th for the round and considering the lack of driving I had and the mechanical problems it wasn’t a bad place.

Part 2 of the video Mark and Janita is here thanks to ADVAN Australia and HIOCTANEDIRECT.com

Matt from Speedhunters was out in force taking some awesome pics also

The car is now getting some serious work done to it ready for round 2. Corn juice is now the fuel it will be sucking down :)

Can’t wait for round 2 which is only 3 weeks away so I better get back to work haha

Thanks again to Advan Australia and HiOctane Direct.com for making this all happen :)

To check out all my sponsors follow through onto my website which will have the updating from each day when I head over next time.

DRIFTSQUID

Till then...
Peace :)
-Squid

DRIFTSQUID **Its a lifestyle not a hobby**