Yves Meyer: Laughing and crying eye 🎥
NOT MUCH MATTERS At the fourth round of Formula Drift 2022 in the USA, Yves Meyer managed an almost perfect qualifying run at the wheel of his Toyota GT86. Despite a flawless battle, he then got stuck in the sixteenth final.
The fourth event of the world's most important drift racing series took the teams and their drivers to Old Bridge Township Raceway Park in Englishtown in the southern New York borough of New Jersey. However, it got off to an unpleasant start for The Drift Force and Toyota Gazoo Racing Switzerland, the team from Nidwalden founded by Yves Meyer and Joshua Reynolds.
Damage limitation in training
Due to a driving error by the car in front of him, free practice ended for Meyer after just one lap in the wall.
Yves Meyer: "My opponent had spun in, and to avoid hitting him head-on in the side, I initiated a spin myself, whereupon I hit the boundary wall of the circuit hard with the rear."
Meyer and his American partner team then had to spend the entire first day of practice repairing the Toyota GT86. The qualifying session showed that they did an excellent job.
No reason for disappointment
After only one warm-up lap, Yves Meyer managed a very good run with 85 out of 100 possible points without any previous practice on this race track. This meant 16th place in the main field of 32 qualified drift artists.
As required by the rules, Wataru Masuyama, the 17th from the qualification, was his opponent in the first battle (gallery left). Both drivers showed a clean chase run and lead run without any obvious mistakes. Afterwards, the three judges decided in favor of the Japanese.
Despite the disappointment about the out in the sixteenth final, the positive feelings outweighed the negative ones for Yves Meyer.
Yves Meyer: "I was very happy with my Qualirun, and against Masuyama it was a close race. Someone had to advance. Thanks to the points from qualifying, I've moved up from 24th to 18th in the championship. If it continues like this, it's going to be good."
Still only a one man show
His confidence for the next event is given by the flawlessly functioning technology of the Toyota GT86 and the prospect of new tires from partner Nexen Tires. Thanks to the Nexen Nfera Sport R tires, which have been newly developed in Korea for 2022 and feature a wider tire width and stronger sidewalls, it should now be possible to deliver the power to the asphalt in a better and more targeted manner.
Meyer's team partner Joshua Reynolds had to continue watching because spare parts for the front axle of his Toyota GT86 cannot be produced due to the worldwide shortage of aluminum. How long this will last is uncertain.
The next Formula Drift event will be held July 14-16 at Madison Raceway in St. Louis, Illinois.
