How Instagram Helps Racers Go Pro
Desert camping, Le Mans and making the professional leap — plus much more.
A weekly newsletter by Ryan K. ZumMallen | @zoomy575m
Happy Race Day, especially to this hero who did what Elon Musk couldn’t:
Turn all your Teslas into pickup trucks, you cowards!
Some sad news. The search for Davey G. Johnson, the automotive journalist who went missing in Northern California earlier this month, has been called off. Authorities searched the nearby woods for days, and ultimately determined Johnson entered a fast-moving river on his own and suffered “accidental drowning.”
Johnson was one of the few writers in this profession who had the talent to think of himself as a big shot, but didn’t. I didn’t know him, but through his groundbreaking and meandering style in the early days of car blogs, he influenced me immeasurably.
Many tried to emulate it — God knows I have — but his early writing stands out with its deft talent and wit, even now. There are tributes to Johnson all over the Internet. Here is a good one by Jeff Glucker of Hooniverse.
Ride easy, Davey.
Culture
Over the weekend I led a three-truck team on an overlanding trip across Mojave Road, an old trading route now frequented by off-road enthusiasts and other weirdos.
It was a blast! Stay tuned for more photos and articles coming soon.
If you’re looking for evidence that Millennials have taken over car culture for good, the tubular Radwood is leading USA Today voting for best car show in the nation.
Please congratulate the nutjobs who are going to race this Bentley up a mountain.
Video Reel
Are you kidding me with this amazing review of the 1986 Peugeot 205 GTI right now?
The trailer for The Art of Racing in the Rain is here. You want to cry over race cars and puppers? You got it:
The steering wheel of a Le Mans racer is insane. Here’s a quick walkthrough.
Chris Harris drives the Ferrari 488 Pista. REPEAT: Chris Harris drives the Ferrari 488 Pista!
Actor Patrick Dempsey — who my wife once literally tracked and chased like a puma in the Long Beach Grand Prix pits — speaks about the importance of Le Mans.
The word monocoque might get thrown around here from time to time. Here’s a good primer on what the hell it means.
Race Results
24 Hours of Le Mans: Enjoy the start here. The word that keeps coming to mind is “graceful.”
Nice highlight package of the race here, courtesy of Michelin. Le Mans needs a competitive jolt, but this is the sound and fury I fell in love with. That hasn’t changed.
Someone took the crashes at Le Mans and set them to Mario Kart and it’s glorious.
Australian Supercars: Scott McLaughlin took both races from his furious challengers at the BetEasy Darwin Triple Crown.
World Rally Championship: No racing series is as consistently bonkers as WRC. Here they are bouncing off the rev limiters in mid-air along the stunning Italian coast.
Here’s insane up-close footage of the WRC cars screaming within inches of spectators. Even caught a couple of them getting stuck in the sand.
Ask A Millennial! Nick Franco, 25
Franco and his BMW drift car. Photo by Bri Lynch.
This weekend at the Top Drift pro-am series, Franco emerged victorious at the Balcony — the skidpad that looks down over Willow Springs Raceway in the California desert. A veteran of the amateur drift scene, Franco is looking to make his way in the pro ranks. Here’s an excerpt of our conversation.
The sign of a good weekend is when the car has problems. And it was a really good weekend. I practiced all day Saturday and ended up breaking an axle doing a burnout. Luckily a friend had an extra car so at 11 at night I drove there and pulled the axles off in his backyard — I was hammering all night. Got about three hours of sleep and went back to the track. Everyone was asleep in their trailers and I started making all this noise and got the axles swapped just in time for the drivers meeting. Then the steering pump started going out. I had to keep the rpm high or the steering would go out while I was going door-to-door with someone. But it held up enough — we got lucky.
I built the car up and it’s getting to the point I’ve always wanted. Looks-wise, engine-wise. I always wanted a 1JZ engine. To go through all this and win a pro-am event with the car I want is awesome. When you do all the work yourself and you’re learning as you go everything pays off. You put the time in and got it onto the podium — it’s pretty special.
I’ll get my pro license this year. I built the car to be competitive but if I get the license I’m going to need another 300 horsepower, new parts and a new chassis to move up. Back when Formula Drift started the cars were 400 horsepower. It’s so extreme now with 1,500-horsepower cars built from the ground up. Even Pro2 Drift is full-blown race cars. That’s not stuff everyone can do. It’s hard to transition from amateur to that level when you don’t have a huge team or company backing. That’s the position I’m in. I have good sponsors that will stick with me. My plan is to get the license and put a car together and see which rounds I can make. I’ve been using Instagram as a business tool to get support. Every company now asks to see your social media following and engagement. They want their name seen. So I try to keep up as much as I can. That’s definitely helped this year.
The drift community is pretty small in SoCal. It makes it fun because you get to know each other. Everyone is really friendly. People come up to me, especially teenagers, and ask how they can get into drifting. I tell them don’t overthink too much, you can go out and have a blast all day and learn in something very basic. Rear-wheel-drive, fairly cheap, build the way you want and don’t think you need 600 horsepower or this fancy suspension part. You can get to know people and have fun and learn too. All you need is spare tires, a welded differential and some mods here and there. No one pushes anyone out, no one has cliques, everyone lends a hand when a car breaks. Its a really welcoming community and it’s awesome to be part of it.
This Weekend
The 11th running of the Gold Rush Rally kicks off on Saturday. Get ready for multi-stickered hypercars to barrel across the country from Austin to Miami. Here’s the map and here’s the IG.
The Coyote Creek Concours takes place Saturday and Sunday in Morgan Hill, Calif. with featured marques Corvette and Ferrari. If the concours is a little hoity-toity for your taste, they’re hosting a Cars And Coffee on Sunday morning too.
And Finally…
BMW will retire its optically-massive M8 racecar from Le Mans after last weekend’s final running. This is only relevant because we will no longer see fake images of its enormous body spread around Twitter.
I love you, My Big Beefy Son.
Drive hard and be safe.
Want your event included? Shoot me a note with subject line “Race Day” at ryan@carrarabooks.com.