FL-Based drift team Enjuku Racing debuted its new heavyweight contenders Bill Sherman and Robby Unser last weekend at Formula D’s season opener in Long Beach California. Coming out of a team practice session at Robby’s home turf at New Mexico’s Sandia Motor Speedway, the team headed out to California to take on the nation’s best drifters.
Tearing up the Cooper Zeon tires, abusing their SPEC clutches, and keeping the energy up with grooves supplied by Dual Audio all weekend, Team Enjuku brought recognition to the east coast operation by bringing Florida’s biggest representative to the national arena at Formula D’s Round 1 in Long Beach, CA. As the first event with the new team, they let the competition know a new challenger is on their rise to the top, fielding two competition cars with drivers Robby Unser and Bill Sherman. Pitted against factory-backed teams like Pontiac and Dodge-Mopar, the east-coast privateer effort let the drifting world know they will not be conquered.
After a long day of qualifying on day 1, only 1 driver made the top 32 cut, allowing Bill Sherman (2006 Formula D Rookie of the Year) to bring the Enjuku Racing/Cooper Tire/Dual Audio Nissan S13.5 into the top 32 practice sessions. Come the 2nd day of eliminations and the main event, Bill looked hungry for top 16. Exactly a year before, in his debut to the series, he crashed his personal vehicle here in the outside wall of turn 2, but with new training and professional discipline, he would not make that mistake again! Bill entered with terrifying speed, clipped every apex, and put on an incredible show for the judges and over 10,000 spectators, placing him safely within the top 16 at 14th place! Unfortunately, Bill was knocked out by the end of the qualifying round and pushed down to a tie for 17th just out of the realm of top 16. So close!
With the day not yet over, the team headed back to the crowd area to pass out freebies from SPEC, Dual AV, and Cooper, and hold autograph sessions for the team’s fans. Later, crew chief Kevin VanCleave and the entire crew were awarded the prestigious UTI Top Tech Award on the main stage to recognize their incredible work in the build and maintenance of the team’s competition vehicles. Congratulations Guys!
At the end of the event, Team Enjuku stood strong as a force to be reckoned with, as the unlikely challenger to conquer the race for the nation’s best drifters. With a massive crowd response and colossal event coverage featuring the team and drivers from over 15 different print, television, and electronic sources, Team Enjuku is the people’s choice for 2007! Make sure to root for them in Formula D’s Round 2 at Road Atlanta!