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Las Vegas ProAm // Updates!

The Evergreen Drift crew is down in force at the Las Vegas Formula Drift ProAm run by Vegas Drift.

Check out this nice overview of the fast and risky course with a ride along video from a practice session.

Friday Qualifying //

Andrew Coomes of Oregon and Roland Gallagher of Washington made the trek down and are competing with drivers from Vegas, Cali, and other locations.

Friday practice and qualifying was exciting with 1 rollover and a couple of cars dropping out due to mechanical issues.

Our guys did awesome and Roland qualified 2nd and Andrew 3rd!

The man to beat is Forrest Wang who qualified 1st.

Saturday is the tandem eliminations to determine final position and confirm who gets the invites to the ProAm Nationals at Firebird   Raceway in Phoenix .

Saturday Finals //

Andrew Coomes qualified in 4th place but was battling over heating issues, and his team thrashed all the rest of Friday to try and fix it. They bled the system (multiple times), installed better fans on the VMount, did a ghetto-fabulous hood vent with a Harbor Freight cutoffwheel, and made some ducting shroud from scrap metal found on the ground to try and master the 110 degree heat. Testing on Saturday before practice showed that the problem wasn’t fixed with temps still rapidly spiking so Andrew sat out practice to save his engine.  The lack of practice hurt him as he spun on his first lead run of the competition handing the win to Johnny Kanavas. In the consolation battle with Roland he had great lines but slower speed. He finished 4th which landed him an invite to ProAm Nationals in Phoenix.

Roland Gallagher took a step up during the Top 4 Battle with high entry speeds, sticking it to the wall. During Tandems, he was paired up with Forrest Wang in his S13.4. Unfortunately, Forrest wouldn’t allow for Gallagher to top him, taking aggressive initiations at high speeds. Gallagher straightened out in the 2nd corner. Later he was paired with Andrew Coomes, to battle out for 3rd place. Both drivers had solid runs, but Gallagher was able to impress the judges with his aggressive high speed initiations. He manage to scrap wall on initiation, dragging the bumper across the clipping point.

Johnny Kanavas and Forrest Wang paired up for the final battle. Both drivers carried high speed into the course, initiating with aggressive faints. Forrest Wang was able to carry higher speeds then Kanavas. Wang carved the walls like a surfer riding a wave. Through the tight and technical corners, Kanavas straightened out a few times. Wang took 1st place going fully locked in his fully built S13.4.

Congratulations to all drivers in 2009’s Vegas ProAm. We hope to see a few of you come up to invade Evergreen Drift.

Thanks to Nick and the Vegas Drift crew for putting on a stellar event and being great hosts!

Results//

Finals -

• 1st – #8 Forrest Wang – Awarded: Formula Drift ProAm Invitation to Nationals – 1/2 inch Snap On 18v impact wrench – Custom CP Pistons, Custom Carillo Rods – 2 K&N air and oil filters – Smoked DMax taillights
• 2nd – #14 Johnny Kanavis – Awarded: Formula Drift ProAm Invitation to Nationals – $1000 Check from Exedy – Longacre Temperature Compensated Digital Tire Pressure Gauge
• 3rd – #13 Roland Gallagher – Awarded: Formula Drift ProAm Invitation to Nationals – 1 case of Wilwood 600 dot 4 brake fluid. 2 K&N air and oil filters
• 4th – #11 Andrew Coomes – Awarded: Formula Drift ProAm Invitation 5th -
• 5th - #7 Shawn Coward -DNF
• Jacky Sin – 0 – Crashed – Kevin from LS auto and Jacky’s team mechanic got the car put back together, both qual runs failed to maintain drift
• Andy Hateley – 0 Broke on Start 2 times
• Ron Freitas – 0 Broken Transmission
• Kelvin Arreola – 0 Crashed Out

Qualifying -

• 1st – #8 Forrest Wang 92.7
• 2nd – #13 Gallagher 74.6
• 3rd – #11 Andrew Coomes 67.7
• 4th – #7 Shawn Coward – 59
• 5th – #14 Johnny Kanavis – 58.5
• Jacky Sin – 0
• Andy Hateley -0
• Ron Freitas – 0
• Kelvin Arreola – 0

Additional photos can be found on the Vegas Proam site.
Photos from Photo Finish Media will be posted as soon as they get back and get them posted!