Coffman Racing Formula Drift Orlando 2017 Recap.

This last weekend, the Coffman Racing Team headed to Orlando Florida for Round Two of the Formula Drift Championship.  The competition took place at Orlando Speed World, a swamp-lovers paradise.  Not even a week after the team’s win at the Oregon Trail Rally, they were ready to face competition.  The team started the event sixth overall in series points after a strong finish at Round One, Long Beach, a month earlier. 

Thursday the team was at the track bright and early, prepping the car for practice.  Orlando is the first Formula Drift round of 2017 to include the Pro 2 Championship which consists of those who hope to advance into the Pro 1 Series in the near future.  Because this doubles the amount of cars competing at the event, the scheduling becomes impacted.  Matt was looking very comfortable and confident during practice.  The judges and fans have come to know Matt for his rolling burnout into initiation on the bank of Orlando Speed World.  Changes made to the suspension since the team last visited this track seemed to make major improvements to the drivability of the car on such a harsh race track.  The Orlando Speed World track includes a transition off the bank through the midfield that tests chassis sturdiness, part durability and driver commitment. While many drivers would de-bead tires or lose control of their cars from harsh suspension rebound, the Coffman car and its KW suspension performed flawlessly.

Friday the team was able to get in some extra practice before qualifying.  During qualifying Matt laid down a spectacular first run, receiving a score in the high 80’s.  Matt’s second qualifying run was equally strong, but received a score in the low 80’s.  Matt ended up qualifying ninth overall, putting him up against Piotr Wiecek for the Top 32 competition on Saturday.

Saturday the team was able to run a full practice session to prepare for the Top 32 battle.  Unfortunately, that battle would never come.  During the last practice run, Matt made contact with the wall damaging the car.  With only 15 mins before Top 32 was slated to begin, the team worked as quickly as possible to get the car back on the track.  Unfortunately, even using the allotted competition time-out wouldn't provide the team with enough time to repair the car before the competition began.  Team Coffman was in an unfortunate situation, and was forced to forfeit their position in the Top 32 Competition.  This was not the end of the weekend, however.  Teammate Alec Hohnadell advanced through the competition making it into the Great Eight.  The Coffman Racing Team worked to help ensure that Alec was ready for competition.