Formula Drift returns to LVMS

"Mad" Mike Whiddett

Hey everybody!

Mad Mike here all the way from New Zealand. I will be at Las Vegas Motor Speedway this Friday and Saturday competing at Round 5 of the Formula Drift series.

At the last round in Washington my Need for Speed/ Redbull Mazda RX8 was running like never before! I’m finally feeling comfortable in this car to the point where I feel like the car is a part of me and I can put it where ever I want. I’m pumped to get to the track for the next round of competition; it’ll be my first time competing at this circuit, so I am both excited and anxious to finally get on track after watching the previous rounds on DVD.

If you haven’t seen drifting up close, I strongly encourage you to come down and check it out.  Not only will you see such close action driving, but you will be amazed at the different styles of drivers and vehicles we have on show for you.

Come and meet me in the Need for Speed Electro Lounge, have a seat and try to beat my score on the newly released Hot Pursuit!

- MM

http://www.madmike.co.nz

Summer is here and racing is heating up!

Cheyanne Schindler

Hi everyone!

I'm so happy its summer! School is out, I get to sleep in and go swimming in this heat! Softball season also is about to start and I'm super excited. I love playing softball just as much as I love being on the track .

I'm living the life! Besides racing each week, we get to go the the lake every other weekend. Summer came so fast. It feels like just yesterday it was New Years Day.

I'm second in points right now and hopefully I'll win the championship. I've been doing pretty well this year, but earlier in the year there was something wrong with my car. It didn't have as much power as last year for some reason, but we got it all fixed up and it's ready now. So this weekend, those boys better watch out! (: I'm so excited for the upcoming Night of Fire at the Bullring! It's my favorite race of the year! I won it last year, so let's hope I can do it again.

Hope to see you all there!

2010 here I come!

Brooke Wakenhut

The new season officialy begins this weekend, March 6th, and I am ready to get to that finish line! I finished in 7th place last year, but am shooting for the top five this season.

The LVMS banquet was great. My sister (Kylie) recieved a skateboard deck as a Championship trophie! She was the Champion of Jr. Novice for 2009. I got a gold Christmas tree, and my dad (Jon Wakenhut) got a great surprise. He got the "Come back of the Year" award. The Wakenhut Racing Team is hoping to go far this year.

Well, it's the new season, and it's going to be a fun one! So come out and watch.
-Brooke Wakenhut

Looking for a great weekend at our home track

Karen Stoffer

It is going to be a great weekend, and that's saying a lot because although this is our home track, we generally have not had the best of luck here.

Some of our bad luck has been related to the racing and some of it not.

The last couple years have been pretty good here though and this year I am feeling really good coming into this weekend.  Our GEICO Powersports Suzuki is running fast.  We were able to get to a final round in a countdown race this year and I believe we will be able to go to the final round again in our home state of Nevada.

Some people may not know this, but The Strip at LVMS used to be over where the Bullring short track is.  My husband and crew chief Gary and I both raced motorcycles and cars many times and won many races at the old track both in divisionals and the sportsman levels.  After they moved the drag strip to its current location, Gary and I have continued to race here.  We have probably been down this track, along with Sonoma, more than any other racetrack.  Coming from northern Nevada, I consider both Las Vegas and Sonoma home tracks of ours. 

There is so much to do here in Las Vegas for us racers and the fans.  I played in a charity poker tournament Wednesday night which benefited the Las Vegas chapter of Speedway Childrens Charities.  On Thursday night, we will be down on Fremont Street for the fanfest which is always a great event. In addition, we are also helping the racetrack in the canned food drive to help those in need here in Las Vegas.  Last but not least, we will be giving out candy to all the children at the track on Saturday after we qualify. It feels great to give back to the children, our fans, and those in need through all these programs.

Nevada is home and I can't wait to begin racing and see all of our wonderful fans here.  Our fans from Hawaii always come here in strong numbers and I look forward to seeing them as well.

Plus, we get to see all the locals and  some of our biggest fans, many of whom write me letters after each race.  The Vegas race always seems like the one that everyone wants to come out to and having them all here makes me really excited and wanting to win this race.  See you at the track.


Karen

Formula Drift Driver Vaughn Gittin Jr.

Vaughn Gittin, Jr.

Hey everyone! Vaughn Gittin Jr. here blogging live from Las Vegas Motor Speedway. I'm out here for Formula Drift Round 4 which I am so pumped for.

Practice yesterday was incredible! The 2010 Falken Tire Ford Mustang came straight out of Autosport Dynamics and was ready to rock. I went out on the track and put down some solid runs. I love the new course set-up at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. The crew at Formula Drift tried to mimic a very well known Japanese course - Ebisu - and it's incredible to have this layout here in the states to compete on.

My team will be doing a couple minor changes to the car today, but the car honestly was near to perfect yesterday. My only expectations for this weekend are to have an amazing crowd and to go out and drive as hard as I possibly can and have a ton of fun. If all goes well, we will be standing on the podium again just like we were at the last round. For everyone that is coming to this awesome event, make sure you stop by the Falken Tire pit and throw me a high-five.

-Vaughn Gittin Jr.

www.VaughnGittin.com

A Big Win for Wakenhut Racing

Brooke Wakenhut

Hi race fans! 

Last weekend's Hot Rod Heritage race turned out great for the Wakenhut Racing Team.  My Dad, Jon got his first event win in the Hot Rod class. We were all very excited and happy to bring home a trophy!

This weekend, Kylie and I will be racing our Jr. Dragsters in two events. The first one is Saturday night and it will be fun running under the lights! The second racing session will be Sunday morning. Hopefully we can bring home a couple of trophies too! 

Hope to see all of you there!


-Brooke

Getting ready for a two-day racing weekend

Brooke Wakenhut

Hi race fans! This weekend we are having a Junior Drag Racing doubleheader. We will be hitting the track on both Saturday and Sunday starting at 9 a.m. Please come out and watch us race!

We had a great time at the NHRA SummitRacing.com Nationals a couple of weeks ago. Kylie and I even got to have our Junior Dragsters signed by Cruz Pedregon and Ashley Force Hood. Hopefully that will give us good luck!

See you at the races!

Brooke Wakenhut

Back to racing at the Bullring

Cheyanne Schindler

Racing season is finally back at the Bullring! I have been staying busy during the off-season playing fast pitch softball at school. This is my first year and it is a lot of fun, but not as fun as racing! So far, we have won all of our games!

For me, the first race of the year was not a very happy one.  My car was running great and I qualified third, but when the green flag dropped, my transponder wasn't working.  I had to go off of the track to get a new one. They had to restart the race but I wasn't allowed to get back into the race.  I don't really know the reason for that, but that's my Aunt Donna's job!    

Congratulations to Rachel in the Young Guns for winning two races in a row, but I do have to cheer for my teammate, Amanda. Those two are fun to watch on the track.  My little friend Kayle in the Bandits is doing so well and I know she is going to win a race this year. It will be an exciting season for all of us.

That's all for now! See you at the races!

Cheyanne

NHRA Driver Entry: Matt Hagan

Matt Hagan

We got to the Cashman Center for the USBC US Open on Thursday in Las Vegas
and everybody was so nice. They got us set up with our bowling balls and measured our fingers and drilled the balls for us and got us hooked up with bags and other really nice stuff.

That was really cool because I haven't been able to experience that before and I didn't even realize you had to get measured for a bowling ball. I just thought that they drilled the balls and you just went up and grabbed one that best fit you. I was impressed with the fact that the balls were made custom for you.

We started doing a little bit of practice and one time my ball surprisingly changed lanes. That was a first and I was like, Man, did that just really happen? Just like anything it's a learning experience.

I came away feeling like I was learning a lot about this sport with each game (we played three). I had a lot of fun. Del Worsham and Robert Hight carried us through and we ended up winning  the deal among the three teams of drag racers, and that was the icing on the cake for me. Although I felt like I was struggling, at least I felt we did enough to where I could get by and not let everybody else down. Every game I was improving a little bit here and there and the guys were all really laid back and didn't put a lot of pressure on me to do well, but we all still wanted to win.

We played against a huge number of real bowlers and I believe this tournament is still going on for five months. It's seven days a week for five months, and they have new teams coming in every day and bowl. It's a pretty intense deal. There is also a form of tech inspection. They weigh your ball and make sure it's legal. To me it was, Wow these people take this very seriously. There's no joking around. They're there to win and be very competitive about it.

I felt a little bit out of my element because a lot of times people come to the race track and you're able to tell them things and show them things about the race car. And, during this bowling experience I felt like I was more like one of those people coming to the race track. You just try to do the best that you can and have a lot of fun.

Now it's back to what I'm familiar with and that's racing the Shelor.com Dodge Funny Car for Don Schumacher Racing at The Strip. Today we have two rounds of qualifying and it's nice and cool outside. That should produce some good numbers.

NHRA Driver Entry: Jack Beckman

Jack Beckman

You know, bowling is an interesting sport, and now that I took part in the USBC US Open at the Cashman Center on Thursday I understand why I do it once every three years with a beer in my hand.

I've got to tell you, I was impressed with Del Worsham, Robert Hight is just awesome with all that mental stuff, and Jeff Arend is a killer on the bowling alley. And, thank God, because Matt (Hagan, Don Schumacher Racing teammate) and I certainly didn't bring the team average up.

But it was cool because we actually won amongst the NHRA teams out there. And it was fun. It was not something I would normally have done and it was an opportunity that NHRA opened up for us and I'm really glad I did it.

Now I have my own bowling ball and I have no excuses next time I go out with my buddies.

This week I showed up in Las Vegas Tuesday, and on Wednesday I did the NHRA media luncheon, then we went over to Cashman Center to register for the bowling tournament , then I went to the Nellis Air Force Base hospital and did my usual tour there when we're in town for the NHRA races.

We then participated in the bowling tournament for three hours on Thursday and went straight from there to the Stratosphere Hotel and Casino for the DSR autograph session. Next it was to the Palms for the NHRA autograph session there.

This busy schedule this week makes the racing almost seem like a vacation part of it. It's actually less hectic now that I'm at the race track getting ready for the qualifying sessions today.