palmer sanderson rd.1 recap from sonoma drift

​This weekend was the inaugural event of the Sonoma Drift Series.  It's a 4 race series that will put amateur drivers to the test on a course that is both power inspired as well as technical.  Having a well rounded car and being a smooth driver is paramount.  The title winner at the end of the series gets to walk away with $3,000 cash!  LIC Motorsports sponsored driver Palmer Sanderson was in attendance with his 1993 240sx (S13) and gave us an event recap on how his weekend went.


A great photo often says a lot and explains this past weekend perfectly; keep pushing through fall backs. It was a lot of fun, and I learned a lot. Making some changes to my setup and I had no time for an alignment, it was off by a lot. Tried to get it close but it didn't quite work out like I had hoped

The last minute tech rules added on short notice took quite a bit from my budget and much added stress. I had trouble with focusing on the setup and with no one available to do tires on Saturday, it led to me leaving for most of the day and my buddy Jose Cortez saving me by mounting some tires on his lunch break.

Sunday rolled around and my right rear wheel bearing started failing due to my negligence. Kyle Jedd, Matt Madrigali, and I got it as good as we could before we had to qualify.  On new tires for the first time I had the psi way too high and I couldn't complete the course. Second try I made adjustments and it felt perfect, but touching the inner clip cone with my front bumper put it under the car as I tried to continue the course the bumper sucked under the car and pushed the front wheels off the ground and resulting in an explosion of fiberglass and a spin resulting in a second 0. Not exactly how I wanted it to go but that's motorsports.

Now starting at the bottom of the bracket and my clutch going out, I was up against Matt Madrigali. It always seems I have to battle people I'm good friends with. On my follow run we had quite a long way to the first corner and as soon as he hit the pace cone he took off. I went as fast as I could and did not get left behind, I matched his line even though I couldn't put it on his door like I had hoped. In his follow run he left some gap assuming he would easily catch my much lower powered car. He slowly caught me through the course, but never was able to close the gap. I felt like it was close, they gave the win to Matt who went on to winning the whole event. This meant I was knocked out in the top 16.

Even though on paper it was a loss, I feel like with my car setup I did well. I think I will easily do better next time because I know what I need to change. I really want to thank everyone at LIC Motorsports for going over my car and fixing all my mistakes, and helping me out with everything and telling me what I need to make the best of my setup. This is my first event driving for them and if it's up to me it won't be my last. Thank you to Jose Cortez for saving me by getting some tires on my wheels. I want to thank Jason Bostrom for trying to help me get my setup dialed in via text, and Andy Gillespie for hooking me up with air and a place to keep the car during the event.
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*Photo Credit Carbon Studios