TNVC PRO Driver Blake Olsen Wins His First Formula Drift Event

We are so proud of our Pro Driver Blake for winning his first Formula Drift event in the series finale. It was by no means an easy feat, as he had to go head to head with the eventual series winner en route to the top of the podium! Below is Blake’s personal account of what lead to such a satisfying first win.

Preparation for the final round of my Formula Drift season began virtually the day after I returned home from round 3 in St. Louis. That monday I made several orders to replace spare parts and other consumables that we expelled during the previous round. Fast forward a few weeks, I have all the items I need to execute a very thorough prep on the car to give myself the best chances of having a successful weekend in Utah, as this is a round of competition I’ve been looking forward to ever since it was announced on the schedule. I knew I would do well here, formal race tracks have always suited my driving style due to my profession, and also taking into consideration my car is one of the longest wheelbase cars in the series, naturally it likes long, flowing courses.

Fast forward to the week before the event, prep on the car is complete, the only items left are a few aesthetic fixes on the body of the car after some hits in St. Louis, prep the trailer and spares package, and load up. I hit the road Wednesday morning, and after a short 7-hour trip, we make it to Utah Motorsports Campus(UMC) just outside of Salt Lake City. A gorgeous facility that also hosts other professional racing series such as WRL and Nitro Circus Rallycross. I get the car unloaded, do a quick check on the alignment after the haul, get some tires mounted, and get to the hotel early. Shortly after, my parents made it. This is the first event of the season that my mother and father have been able to attend. Normally my dad is a large chunk of the team, and every successful weekend i’ve had, he’s played a major role in. Later that evening my girlfriend Becca and other friend/crewman Michael arrive. 
Thursday morning, we arrive at the track at 6:00 A.M. The schedule kicks off extremely early because they need to fit Pro and Prospec practice and qualifying into one day before the sun sets. We have a drivers meeting at 6:30 and immediately head out for first practice. By 7:00 we have the hot pit setup and am in line up for practice. Shortly after my last team member Dave makes it to the track after an early flight from Phoenix. During our 2.5 hours of total practice I make a total of 6 laps. The first 2 were complete garbage, misjudging initiation points, missing jones, pretty much every mistake one can make aside from spinning out. The next few were better but still not where I wanted to be. Another factor that increased the difficulty is how much the track was changing. We went from a completely clean track to something fully rubbered up in the matter of hours. So grip was constantly evolving. Due to this, we never made a single adjustment through the entire event aside from a slight gear change for Friday and a small tire pressure change for the finals. This has been a common theme all year, we found a great baseline in the car and barely stray from it.

Now moving into qualifying, my confidence has slightly increased through practice but I still feel inconsistent on my entries because the approach is so quick but the grip levels are still varying. I leave the line, click through the gears, snap to angle and as i pass the first inner clip i feel the car begin the tighten up and front slightly washes. With a slight adjustment on the footbrake while still wide open I’m able to make it through clean, fill outer zone 1 and 2 very well, close to inner clip 2, but outer 3 I overslow my entry and am unable to fully fill the entire zone. Overall I was happy with the lap, just slightly misjudged 2 areas. Everything else was fluid. In my head I felt like that was somewhere between a 82-84 point run. When I return to the pit, I watch the replay and see it was a 75, landing me in 13th. Slightly bummed but still got the job done. Unbeknownst to me we had the fastest entry speed of the prospec field in qualifying. Unfortunately that isnt a criteria when it comes to judging. Once we get packed up and back the main pit I debrief with my spotter Gregg, he could sense my frustration as he knew I wanted more and set my expectations higher, and he gave me the best advice possible that resonated the entire next day “Get out of your head, you do this every fucking day at work and this is no different, just drive for fun.” We do a quick prep and check on the car, and after a quick look at the Motec Data we decide on a gear change to drop wheel speed and assist with tire wear.

Friday morning we arrive at the track, this time a little later 8:00 A.M., load the truck and pit box and head out to set up our hot-pit. After a race with some other teams waiting for the track crew to open the gates onto the track at 9:00 sharp, we get the very first pit stall and I get my car in line first for practice. Track goes hot and I’m first up, in the lead run. I think about what Gregg told me, take a few slow deep breaths and launch from the line. Once I got to angle everything clicked. Nearly a perfect lap. As I crossed the finish I remember telling myself “I can win this today.” During practice and warmup I did a total of 5 laps. We finished with one hour left, and I just relaxed. We got some fresh GT Radial rubber mounted up and waited for competition.
Top 32 I run against my friend Ricky Hofmann. I qualified higher than him so I led first. I run a near perfect lead run and he understeers behind me, giving me huge advantage going into run 2. On my return lap back to the pits My spotter Gregg tells me on the radio ” Your lead runs will get you on the podium alone.” When I follow Ricky I play it safe, leaving a 1-2 car gap through the lap. I got the win, advancing to the top 16. Now we have a 3 hour break until 16 begins. Quick check on the car, drive it back to the main pit for half time intermission and autograph signing.

After a little over an hour and a few hundred signatures I drove the car out to driver introductions then into top 16. My next opponent is Tommy Lemaire, a very good driver and 3x Canadian Champion. He qualified better than me so he leads first. On the run up, his trunk comes unlatched and flies open. As this happens I hesitate and lose my rhythm. By then he builds a gap and going into the last outer zone I get lost in his smoke and drop wheels. As we cross the line I tell Gregg about the trunk as this is a big rule and last season a similar event cost my teammate Nick Noback the championship. Moving into our second run, I lead and once again lay down a near perfect lap. He chases me well, just misses a couple zones. Before I make it back to the line the judges had already declared him the winner due to my mistake in the chase. A mix of emotion flooded me, and I made the decision to file a formal petition on the basis of his trunk coming undone with the hopes that we could run again. We throw tires on the car and just sit and wait. Very seldom do these petitions ever go through. After about 20 minutes of accepting defeat, Gregg calls me on the team radio and screams that we advance to the top 8! The judges agreed that was in line with the rules, essentially giving him a zero on his lead run, and solely going off of run 2 where I ran a great lead run. I never expected this outcome, and hate winning this way, but I’m so accustomed to having bad luck, that when the good luck comes around you have to take it.

Top 8 I run against Rudy Hansen. Back in May I went against him at round 1 in Orlando during top 32 and beat him. At this point my confidence is extremely high. He leads first, I give a decent follow, and he misses inner clip 2 entirely, giving me a large opportunity. If I can run my typical lead run we have this. Sure enough, I ran my best run of the weekend in the lead position, he gets lost in the smoke, and makes a huge mistake warranting an incomplete. Easy win and confidence booster on my part. Now we’re into the round of 4.

Top 4, we are now against Robert Thorne, a seasoned GT3 and Time attack driver. Not to mention in top 8 he just secured the Season Championship so I know his confidence is at an all time high. I know how he drives like a tactician. I know this because I ran against him in New Jersey at round 2. After an OMT we had him beat but a mistake on my own in the last zone there took me out. He leads first, pretty good lead run, I fall into his smoke through outer zone 1 and stay within 2 car lengths of him. Not a terrible chase considering I was blind from his smoke for a majority putting myself into about the worst position possible. On the return back the line I know that he’s very aggressive in the chase and I’ll have to run a 100pt lead lap and hope that he makes a mistake behind me. We leave the line, I hit my regular initiation reference, and aggressively snap to full angle, I get back to throttle super early because all the angle slows me down, and right as I’m passing inner clip 1 I feel a very hard hit in my left rear. This hard contact pushes me wide at outer zone 1, I’m able to gather the car, and blindlessly hope that nothing is broken as I transition to outer zone 2. I come up slightly shallow but once the car takes a set, everything feels fine aside from a slight vibration from a bent wheel and I finish the rest of the run. As I cross the line, Gregg informs me that Robert straightened after the contact, they placed him at fault giving me the win so we’re into the Finals!

The other top 4 battle that determined who I would go against in the finals felt like it took an eternity. On one hand I have Andy Hately, a good friend that I’ve competed with over the last 8 years, and most recently qualified and finished first in Orlando this season. The other driver is Derek Madison, a hard charger who just finished 2nd the previous round. After some contact and mechanical issues with Derek’s car, Andy was placed at fault, and Derek awarded the win. The problem with this was that Derek had bent his steering rack and barely fixed it in time. Not an ideal situation for the fastest track on the circuit.

Moving into the finals, the sun is nearly down and ambient temps are dropping quickly. This causes a significant increase in grip out of the track.  To be safe I make the decision to bump the rear pressures up a few pounds. Speed isn’t generally an issue for me so I’d prefer the security of a car that is loosened up a bit and driveable. I lead first, and once again run a near perfect lap. As I cross the line Gregg radios “Derek zeroed.” Watching the run later, his car got extremely tight and full understeer behind me as we left outer zone 2 nearly hitting me, then again approaching outer zone 3. I knew I just had to complete a lap. Not knowing the issues his car was having, but also knowing I had a massive advantage, I played it safe in my chase just in case his car broke to avoid crashing us both. On the run up, I gave him a 3 car gap. In clean air, Derek ran an excellent lead and was fast, ending the lap with a 5 car gap. In retrospect I wish I gave him a better follow but at the time this option made the most sense. 

Once they announced they had decided a winner, I almost began crying in my helmet. Derek and I rolled back towards the grand stands, and did donuts together in front of the fans before exiting our cars. Once parked we hugged and congratulated each other, knowing the outcome. Right behind was my dad, Gregg, Michael, and Dave. After an emotional exchange they formally announced me as the winner. There was a wave of happiness and joy, probably made better by the somber feelings of a couple hours prior thinking I had lost in the top 16. I was so elated, during my initial interview I forgot to thank any of my sponsors, but regained composure for the following ones. I was at a loss for words. I hadn’t been on the podium since round 1 last season, over a year without success. A sweet conclusion to a difficult season. I knew my driving had improved this season, and it was only a matter of time until my luck would line up with it. With my win, this bumped me from 14th in points up to 7th, and I have now formally submitted my application to move up to the pro class. I know that if approved next season will be a ton of learning and growth, but I look forward to the challenge of driving with the best in the world. Now to prepare and look forward to a busy 2023!