Mad Mike Formula Drift Round 2 Atlanta, GA 2016

Formula Drift Round 2: Advance Auto Parts - Road to the Championship

In this round Recap - MadMike and team head back to Road Atlanta for the 2nd year in his Red Bull, Nitto Tire, Mazda MX5 - RADBUL where the Pro Championship point standings were shaken up, with with the Top 3 points leaders knocked out of competition in the top 32.

Experience proved to be a factor with the Top 3 finishers which included three past champions, who have competed at every Formula Drift event at Road Atlanta since the beginning 13 years ago.

This round last season was the first ever event for the MX5 and Mikes 2nd time at the venue where he finished Atlanta in a respectable 13th. This year the team set out to better that result. Confident heading into qualifying Mike laid down two top runs qualifying him for the top 32 main competition and placing him in the 11th spot of the battle tree format.

Top32 vs Alex Heilbrunn
win - MadMike

Mike paired off against his Nitto Tire Team mate - Alex Heilbrunn. According to the track data Alex was very fast. The crew set the car up for as much grip as possible in order to keep pace with Alex through out the course. Mike laid down an amazing lead and chase run to take the win.

Top 16 vs Daijiro Yoshihara
win - Daijiro Yoshihara

Meeting Dai is always a good battle - he drives with an aggressive and clean style and you can be sure he won't play any tactical games on track. With that in mind heading into the battle Mike was prepared to go all in. In the first battles the runs were so close the judges couldn't make a decision and the battle went One More Time. In the re-run Mike again laid down aggressive runs but the judges called it to Dai.

Mike finished Formula Drift Round 2 event in 9th putting him into 13th overall in the Formula Drift Championship.

The next event for the team is Formula Drift Ebisu in Japan.

Special thanks to: Red Bull, Nitto Tire, Mazda, rotiform, Haltech, Turbo by Garrett, TAKATA, ilabb, KW Suspensions, Next Level Racing, Deatschwerks and to the crew Toni, Warren, JT, Mickey, Aaron & Tommy


Film by:
Thomas Babiarz | tomimoto films

Music:
MeRCY Muzic
http://www.musicbymercy.com/

Tatreal
https://tatreal.bandcamp.com/

Thumbnail Photo by Ryan Lopez