Cyrious Report: Formula Drift Round 2 Recap

Round 2 of Formula Drift Canada brought the competition closer to home in Toronto and to say it was a tough round for the team would be pretty accurate. All weekend long we were suffering from mechanical issues, which was unusual since our car is very reliable.

During the Friday practice, we had fuel delivery issues and suspected it was the fuel pump, so we rushed back to the shop and changed out the pumps. We only got about 2 laps of practice that night.

Saturday morning, I was feeling good and ready to tackle the competition head on feeling confident we had fixed the FR-S. However first lap out during the first corner, all of the sudden the car lost all boost. The intercooler split wide open causing a major boost leak, resulting in the car not making any power. We couldn't find an aluminum tig welding at the track so I had to send one of my guys back to my shop over an hour away to weld it up. We had roughly 2 hours of practice, a 1-hour break, then moved on to qualifying. It was going to take my guys about 2.5-3 hours to get the intercooler back to the track, so the timing was definitely tight!

In the end, we got the car back together just before my first qualifying run! My first lap of qualifying wasn't bad considering it was technically my first lap of the day. I think the score was a 69. On my second qualifying lap I scored a 73, which put us in 9th position.

Entering Top 16, we were to go up against Jonathan Guitard. He's always been a contender and one to not take lightly, and with our very few laps around the track that weekend (I had done about 5 up to that point) it was tough for us to make a good car set choice. I decided to run as much grip as possible, more than we had run all weekend. I was to follow first. I struggled to stay sideways behind him, I figured Jonathan's car would of been much faster than it was and my FR-S was making a ton of grip, so it wasn’t my greatest lap. On my lead lap I rocketed away from him, and had gaped him about 5 car lengths into the final turn, but then my transmission broke... We lose.

Now back at the shop, we have installed a new transmission, a new clutch, an entirely new fuel system, and a new differential. I’m really hoping this is the end of the mechanical failures for us this season!

Next up for the team, we are off to Montreal for FD Canada Round 3 this weekend. And while we’re getting ready for the race, I'm also moving my shop Cyrious Garageworks to our new 5000-square foot facility (hence the delayed report) so it’s been a busy summer!

Hopefully we’ll have better news to report next time. Thanks for the support!

Cyrious Report: Formula Drift Round 1 Recap

Drifting season for the Cyrious Garageworks and Scion Canada drift team has returned! I've been looking forward to the beginning of this season all year long, so it was nice to get back behind the wheel of FR-S again!

Over the off season we have made a few improvements to the car to make it faster and more responsive. I was excited to see how we would stack up against the competition at Round 1 of Formula Drift Canada.

Practice was a bit rough for us. We were fighting a random mis-fire problem in the engine, which took the team a while to figure out, so by the time we had that sorted out, there was only enough time for about 3 laps of practice, which didn’t really give us much time to play with the car set up and they weren't my best laps by any means. But on to qualifying we went!

First lap out I messed up and missed my downshift from 4th to 3rd gear in the braking zone, resulting in my car straightening out, zero score. Do or die lap. This time going into this lap I decided I wasn't going to downshift, just keep it in 4th and see what happens. Well, it worked great and we qualified 2nd!

Top 16 was in front of a huge crowd and the weather couldn't have been better! My first battle was against Stephen Van Sleuwen. We had a decent battle and I was able to edge him out and take the win!

On to the top 8. We were to go against Youri Levesque. He's been around for a few years now and has been one of those drivers with potential. I led first, he followed me closely but made a few corrections and drifted at less angle to stay close. When I followed him, I wasn't as close but my line and angle was better. And while I didn’t have any corrections, he was given the win.

Like all race events, we walk away with lessons learned and know where we need to improve for the next one. I will be driving much more aggressive from here on in, I can promise you that. Next round is finally just outside Toronto, so I look forward to seeing all of you local fans at Sunset Speedway on June 25th!

Thanks for the support!

Cyrious Report: Season Recap

Formula Drift Canada's biggest round of the year was set to take place at the home of Canadian drifting, the place where it all started for me, Autodrome St.Eustache!

The track is about 30 minutes outside of Montreal, and over 10,000 people came out to watch. The fans are truly the best in the world, very vocal about what they like by cheering loudly or chanting one more time when there is a close run. It's quite an electric feeling at St. Eustache, and one that I look forward to attending each and every year.

Going into this round we decided to freshen up the tune in our 2JZ-powered Scion FR-S, so Sasha from Onpoint Dyno came in and together we were able to get an extra 80lb-ft and 40hp. We also changed our alignment settings to get the maximum amount of mechanical grip possible. The car was as strong as it could be for the weekend.

Practice day was on Saturday. We did a few laps working on our set up, but the rear gearing wasn’t right. I always come to events with 3 differentials with different gear ratios, so we decided to swap the one that was in the car for what we felt was a ratio better suited for the track. Unfortunately we had some problems installing the new differential, so we didn't have a chance to test it out that day but we would be ready for battle the next day!

Qualifying day. The track layout we were running is one of my favorites. Despite the lack of practice the day before, I was confident that we would be able to get the hang of it quickly. We started our second day of practice strong. Our rear end gear choice was spot on! For the rest of the day I pretty much ran the same lap. Placing the car in the same spot every time. My first qualifying lap was pretty good. Typically on the first qualifying lap, I drive with a little bit in reserve and pulled off a good run with a score of 85. On my second lap I went all out and put down probably my best lap of the weekend! That gave me a score of 91 with a final qualifying position of 3rd place!

The competition was set up as a top 32, and our first battle was against Riley Sexsmith. Riley and I are good friends off the track so it was a bit disappointing for both of us that we had to go against each other in the first round. I was to lead first. I ran a lap very similar to my qualifying lap, Riley kept up but made a few small mistakes in the follow position. When we switched positions, I stuck with Riley through the course and was awarded the win. Next up, top 16…

The Top 16 ceremony was pretty cool. I rolled out with my fellow Scion Racing driver Fredric Aasbo. It was my birthday that day as well so the crowd gave me a loud "happy birthday" after my introduction! After the intros were done Fredric and I did tandem donuts while Lisa with Scion Canada rode in my car shooting live on Periscope! You can check out the video below.

In the top 16 I went up against Dean "karnage" Kearney in his Dodge Viper. I led first, and once again ran the same line I had been running all weekend. Dean stuck with me through the entire course until we got to the last clipping point, where he got too close, bumping into me and causing me to spin. When I spun around he proceeded to drive over my right front wheel, damaging my steering. We rushed back to the pits to assess the damage. The steering rack, rack spacer and inner tie rod was bent. The judges declared Dean at fault, so we were given about 25 minutes to fix my car. We scrambled to get it straight, I had a spare inner tie rod and spare steering rack but there was not enough time to do the rack. So we bashed it straight with a hammer the best we could. Time had run out and my car was far from perfect with the front toe being out almost 2 inches, but I wasn’t ready to back down from this battle. I pulled up to the line first and the crowd cheered very loud. I was a bit worried about what my car was going to do in the first corner when we initiated drift, but Dean slowed down a lot more than I expected and I straighten out. I spent the rest of the run trying to catch up. The Judges called for "one more time". But as I drove back to the pits my clutch started to slip really badly. I had hoped it was just over heated and that during the tire change it would cool off enough to do our next run, but it didn’t. The car wouldn't move at all, which meant that our weekend was done.

Overall it was a great event. Everyone was saying it was the best drifting they had ever seen me do and the support and love from the fans made it one of the most memorable weekends of the season. I am really feeling at one with my Scion FR-S and we're only going to get better in the years to come! We’ll be racing again soon and our clutch is out getting rebuilt so it won’t be long before I’ll be sideways again.

Thanks so much for the support!

Cyrious Report: Return to the Podium

It’s been over 2 years since I've stood on the top of the podium and feels great to be back!

We returned victorious from the first round of Formula Drift Canada at Autodrome St. Eustache, and I'm very proud of our team and my FR-S on a long awaited win.

The two weeks leading up to this event were hectic to say the least. I spent most of the break fixing the car from our crash in Florida. It came down to the wire, with parts showing up only days before the event, and then finding other parts that were damaged the day we were about to leave. Luckily, I was able to get it all sorted out with just enough time to make the six-hour trip to Montreal.

The event was held over the weekend. Saturday was just a practice day, which was great because I figured there would be some bugs to work out of the FR-S. However, everything felt right the moment we got on the track. I was feeling comfortable with the car very quickly and after 10 laps of consistently hitting the same line, we decided to shut it down and save the car/tires for the main event!

Sunday morning we had two-hours of practice before moving straight into qualifying due to the stormy weather approaching. I did about six laps in practice, all relativity the same – very smooth, smoky and consistent. We threw on a fresh set of AD08's and went into qualifying. My first lap out I did the same line I had been doing all weekend, which put us in second place. On my next lap, I pushed a bit harder and got a slightly better score but got edged out by two other drivers so we ended qualifying third.

The battles that followed were pretty tough. The competition pushed the FR-S and I to do some of the best driving we’ve ever done together. We had an edge on everyone! The FR-S just seemed to have more grip than the rest of the field. On all my lead laps I would gap the competition by at least one or two car lengths, and then on my follow laps I was able to stick on everyone. We fought our way through with no "one more time" battles, and the judges’ decisions were all definitive. Nobody was able to touch us that day, from the Top 16 to the win!

We will carry this momentum into Round 2 of Formula Drift Canada in July. I truly love drifting the FR-S. After two years and a lot of hard work, it’s the car that I’ve always dreamed it could be!

I hope you had a chance to check out the live stream on Periscope. You can now watch the team and I get ready on race day by following @ScionCanada on the app. I enjoyed answering your questions and I'm stoked you get to see the action live from the side of the track!

I'm very excited for the rest of the season and looking forward to the next battle. Thanks for the support!

Cyrious Report: Recovery

Last month was round 1 of FormulaD Pro 2 in Orlando. While things did not go quite as we expected, our trip provided us with an experience that we can definitely learn from.

The team and I made the 20-hour trip down to Florida and got in on Tuesday night. We were at the track first thing Wednesday morning for tech inspection and the FR-S passed with flying colours, so we were good to race!

Our practice and qualifying was all on the Thursday. We had one 2.5-hour practice session in the morning, another 1-hour practice later in the afternoon then it was straight into qualifying. With so little time to practice, and about 35 drivers competing, I knew we were not going to get very many practice laps in so every lap needed to count. The course was very short, it was a stock car style oval: one large bank, a transition on the infield, and then an inner bank to shut down. With such short courses you have to make a big impact right from the start and be on line everywhere, as errors would be easy to spot.

My first lap out? Nailed it. I've always enjoyed running banked tracks and have always done very well at them. This track was no different, and we were looking great! The next 2 laps out were the same. I was running high on the back, placing the car in all the right spots and making tons of smoke with the Yokohama tires. I was feeling great and we were easily looking like one of the top 3 drivers out there!

However, just before my fourth lap I was waiting in line on the grid, and one of the FD staff noticed I wasn't wearing my HANS device, and informed me that I had to put it on. The HANS (head and neck support) device is a piece of safety equipment that reduces the likelihood of head injuries in the event of a hard front-end crash. Formula D is the only drifting series I compete in that makes it mandatory to wear one. With the HANS device on, I approached the start line, launched and initiated into the bank. Mid to three-quarters of the way through the bank I lightly tapped the wall with the rear of the car and kept drifting. At the time I didn't think much of it but it was kind of a weird spot in the bank to wall tap as in that section you are slowing down and increasing steering angle to zone in on the first inner clipping point. Either way, we were feeling good about our performance in the first practice session and looked forward to the next one in a few hours!

Practice session 2. I strapped into the FR-S and lined up for my lap. I launched down the straight, initiated drift, running a nice high line but clipped the wall again with the rear of the car in the same spot on the bank! This time it was a little bit harder though, and it pulled the front end of the car into the wall. The car came to a halt and I knew the damage was going to be pretty bad. We unfortunately had no spare suspension parts with us so that meant our weekend was done.

I’ve spent the last couple of days sitting in my truck driving home replaying the crash in my mind, and there was one odd thing I kept thinking about. Both times I tapped the wall I didn't see it coming and didn't expect it to happen. I've been drifting for 10 years now and anytime I make a mistake or I'm going to go off track or go too deep into a corner, I know it’s going to happen. I can feel it. This time I didn't feel it. I couldn't figure out why it happened but realized that the only difference was not being used to wearing the HANS device.

Going forward, I will be looking into different versions of the HANS device to find one that is more suited for my driving style. When you’re drifting 8-inches off the wall at 60-70mph, there really is no room for error and corrections need to be made quickly. We will also be getting more spare parts for the car so that if a crash like this ever happens again, we have the parts to fix it to stay in the game!

Our next race will be the first round of FD Canada in Montreal and I'm really looking forward to getting back behind the wheel of my FR-S again and seeing you in the stands.

Thanks so much for all the support!

Photography: OMGDrift.com

Cyrious Report: Strong Start to the Season.

Hi everyone! Round one of DMCC has just passed and I'm very happy to say we finished in 3rd place!

This was our first official competition in our freshly built Scion FR-S, and the car proved to be very competitive! All those long hours in the shop and improvements we made on the new car over the off-season were well worth the effort!

The event took place at Sanair raceway. It’s a track that I have had some rough times at so I was hoping to redeem myself with a strong finish. We went into this round with 2 test days under our belt and I was feeling very comfortable and confident with the car. The power of the 2JZ engine was like nothing I had ever felt in a drift car and our steering/suspension setup was better than any car I had ever drifted.

In our first lap out in practice, the FR-S developed a weird noise coming from the back end of the car. We tracked it down to the differential, so my crew replaced it with the spare diff that we brought, but by the time we were done that, the first practice session was over. Going into practice session 2 we knew there wasn't much time to mess about, so we settled on a setup I liked and focused on nailing down the line.

Qualifying time. I went into my first lap of qualifying with the mindset that I would take a safe run and go really hard on the second lap. So I did my run, hit all the clips and overall pulled out a really good lap! I knew my next lap out I could get a little better, but my spotter informed me that DMCC locks in the top 8, and that we had qualified 3rd! So there was no need to do a second lap.

For my first battle of the top 16 I was to go against newcomer to DMCC, Bass Gauthier. I was to lead first, laid down a good lap placing the car in all the right spots with lots of speed, angle and smoke. Gauthier ran a shallow line and was straight a few times so we had the advantage. During my follow lap Gauthier caught me a little off guard. We entered the first corner and Gauthier basically avoided all of the outer zones and picked the fastest way through the track. By the end he had gaped me by about 5 car lengths. The judges saw all of that and awarded me the win!

In the top 8 we were to go against Jonathan Guitard. He has a powerful car and is a decent driver so we knew it was going to be a fight. I led first and laid down a good lap placing the car just where it needed to be. Guitard stuck with me for most of the run, so I knew I was going to have to push on my follow lap to get the win, and push I did! I stuck with Guitard all the way around the course and was awarded the win.

In the Top 8 we matched up against Jeff Laflamme. Jeff and I have had some strong, tough battles over the years and this one was going to be no different. Jeff led first, I made a small mistake on entry behind him but otherwise stuck with him all the way around the track. On my lead, Jeff stuck close with me, and the judges couldn't decide a winner so they called a "One More Time". We went at it again and pretty much ran the same 2 laps as before. So again the judges called for a "One More Time". This was the final time we would go and the judges would have to decide a winner. I ran two very clean laps pushing the FR-S as hard as I could, but in the end, the Judges awarded Jeff the win. After the event I spoke with the judges, they had said the battles were very close, and that it came down to some very small factors to give Jeff the win. On a positive note though it was a very good stress test on the FR-S to do 6 laps like that, we had no overheating issues and the car pulled through just fine! All of the fans there said that our runs were the best battles of the day!

After all that we still had to battle for a podium position against Francis Tassé. I was to lead first, I ran a great lap and Tassé was nowhere to be seen. Turns out his car broke and he had to forfeit his second run, so we were given the win and awarded with 3rd place!

Overall it was a great event! We still have some fine-tuning of the suspension to do, and I'm still learning what the car is fully capable off, but overall it was a great start to the season! I'm really feeling at one with this new car and am looking forward to the rest of the season! The fans also seemed to really like the new car too! If you search #DMCC in Instagram, about half the post on there from fans involve my Scion FR-S!

Up next for us is Formula Drift Pro2 in Florida. Really looking forward to seeing how we stack up again some of the best in the world!

Thanks so much for the support!

Cyrious Report: Eat, Sleep, Test, Repeat.

Hey it’s Pat Cyr here, just giving you a little update before the drifting season begins!

This off-season has been the busiest one we’ve had to date! At the end of last season, we realized some major changes were needed if we wanted to keep up with the way drifting is going worldwide! So we decided it would be best to start from scratch. A fresh FR-S chassis was taken down to bare metal and built from the ground up at my shop, Cyrious Garageworks!

The two most significant changes to this car was a completely new steering/suspension setup from Wisefab and a swap to the all mighty 2JZ engine! With those major parts in place, we focused on making the chassis as light as possible, and moved some weight around by installing a Mishimoto radiator in the trunk.

Many hours of hard work and planning came together a few weeks ago with the help of Sasha from OnPoint Dyno, where he tuned the Motec M150 ECU controlling our 2JZ to make 630whp! This is by far the most powerful drift car I have ever had! Once that was done, we finished off a few loose ends to get the car ready for testing!

In the past few seasons, our off-season build would leave us with little time to test. However, this year we made sure to put in some crazy hours at the shop to ensure that the car would be done as early as possible. So we were able to test it at the track and make any changes necessary before the season starts. I’m hoping to get in as much seat time as possible in the new car, so you can bet that we’ll be coming out of the gate swinging!

Our first test session was nothing short of amazing. The new car is an absolute monster! The 2JZ engine has a very wide powerband, is very controllable, and even has power to spare! Along with the steering set up from Wisefab, the steering angle and return feel has never felt better.

Overall I'm extremely excited for the 2015 season to begin and I have a feeling this is going to be our best season ever! Be sure to follow our journey this summer and I look forward to meeting you at the tracks!