Samuel Hubinette
I took part in the Team Drift event following the Formula Drift points event in Long Beach. My team came in second, and it was a spectacular experience to be a part of and a great opportunity to showcase the sport of drifting at the Long Beach Grand Prix for an audience that wouldn’t normally come out to a drifting event. We received standing ovations from the crowd and some amazing feedback after the show there, as I tore it up in my Mopar Dodge Viper SRT10. It was a very, very fun exhibition we did. I also got to drive the pace car between all of the races. So I got a lot of seat time on the Streets of Long Beach road course—both going sideways and straight ahead.
After that event I began prepping for my new driving school, 360 Performance Driving Academy. I had my first class, a full group, and we taught them car control, everything from drifting to high-speed slalom, and it went very well. People left with a big smile and rubber in their hair! There were 13 students in the class and I held the session at the El Toro air base. It took a lot of hard work to get the school off the ground, so it’s very rewarding to have the first class come through. It’s a project I’m really looking to grow in the future.
I’ve been selling quite a few copies of my new DVD, “Drift Ya Later,” which I debuted during the Formula Drift Long Beach race. I sold a couple of hundred DVDs the first weekend, so my wife Stina and I are very stoked about the energy surrounding the DVD. People seem to really enjoy the mix of drifting instruction and the crazy stunts and the characters we have in the DVD.
Stina and I are heading out to Colorado for the next few days to see some friends in Denver, then we’re heading over to Florida for a few days off and to get acclimated to East Coast time. Then we’re driving up from Florida to Atlanta for the event. It’s great seeing all the East Coast fans out there. We’ll test on Thursday, May 7 from Noon to 4 p.m. at Road Atlanta, then have the practice day and qualifying on Friday and race day on Saturday. The Mopar NuFormz team is looking to break through for that first win of the season after our runner-up at Long Beach, and I’m going to do my best to make that happen.