ROCKINGHAM — The team for MB Drift is gearing up for the season’s second competitive event on Saturday.
Organizers Marshall Eggerling, Devin Creeze and Zach Sebald went live on various social media outlets May 11 to preview the event.
After briefly discussing the recent panic-caused gas shortage following a Colonial Pipeline hack, the team mentioned event sponsors and talked about recent repaving efforts.
Repaving of the road course is one of the recent renovations at the track.
Justin Jones, vice president of operations, said crews were out Thursday and Friday widening a few turns to make it better for drifting.
“We put some pretty serious shovel time in,” Eggerling said after he and Sebald held up their hands to show blisters.
Eggerling and Sebald thanked several people for stopping by to help, including one who loaned them an excavator.
“That goes to show people look out for each other in the sport that they love,” Sebald said. “It’s all just helping hands.”
MB Drift has a deal worked out with the Speedway owners to gradually contribute to repaving.
“They’re definitely doing their part to help,” Jones said Friday.
Jones said the repaving deal is a “mutually advantageous agreement.”
Crezee outlined the planned competition route — which has been different each time — along a section the road course, pointing out the areas that were widened. He added that the full course would be used for open drifting after the competition.
“We’re just really excited that adding these sections here are going to make everything quite a bit more versatile, give us quite a bit more flexibility,” Crezee said, adding that it should make it better for tandem runs — when two or more cars skid along the course at the same time.
Crezee went on to say that the courses become more difficult and complex as the series advances throughout the season.
“We’re trying to develop drivers at the entry-level competition level,” Eggerling said. “So you take someone who may or may not want to compete, they just want to get more seat time out there and develop their skills and give them a taste for what the competition style of drifting is about.”
T.J. Gutierrez, of Charleston, South Carolina, won the first round “Battle of Little Rock” in March. Guiterrez, who has been drifting competitively since 2018, said it was the first time he had driven on an oval track.
Guitterrez and third-place winner Joseph Busam are among the drivers confirmed to compete in Round 2.
MB Drift started the season with the Ice Breaker Challenge in February and has events scheduled each month through November.
Round 3 of the competition is slated for June 12 and the final round is scheduled for Aug. 14.
The July and September events are slated as open drift days.
The Halloween Havoc Fall Matsuri is another two-day event scheduled for Oct. 24-25 and the season closes Nov. 20 with another open drift day.
Qualifying begins at 12:30 p.m., with the competition running from around 1:45-4, with open drifting after the ceremony until around 8 p.m.
There will be a food truck on site for Saturday’s competition. Tickets are $20 at the gate and kids 12 and under are admitted free. Entry for the event is at Gate D off of N.C. 177.
