Aaren has been a busy boy.  As he is preparing to head out to race in Atlanta, let’s look at what he’s been up to lately.

First up was Lone Star Drift round 1.  Aaren qualified second overall, smoking his Kenda tires into oblivion.  Unfortunately, he would later be paired against XDC champion Chelsea DeNofa, who advanced and eventually finished in second place.  Aaren did finish fifth in the competition and is currently in fourth place for overall points.

Then there was the Mean Streets car show and drift competition.  Aaren qualified in fourth and finished in fifth place.  Ultimately, he real competitor was gremlins.  His car suffered a broken hand brake, a few other small difficulties, and then there was an unfortunate encounter with a fence.  But don’t let this dissuade you – the mustang will be back and better than ever very soon!

Here’s a little video of Aaren put together by our friend Jake Guendthardt of WFSU fame.

Aaren Smith from WFSU.net on Vimeo.

Short promo video made for fun with Aaren and his ’05 Mustang GT. Footage is from Round 1 of the Lone Star Series in Houston, Texas.

Songs:
Black Lab – This Night
Sarah McLachlan – Silence (Mt. Eden Dubstep Remix)

ASD MOB Prospect Brock White’s Green Nissan 240sx on Enkei RPF1.

Alex, of Enkei International, dropped by Duke Paint and Body to snap a few shots of the car prior to its less-than-a-week makeover. We’re very thankful that the photos made it onto the Enkei blog, as well as the What Monsters Do blog. Click the links and check it out!

For the full feature, click here to go to Fabricated Motorsports.

Slide Factory would like to officially welcome Aaren Smith and his Mustang drift car to the roster.  He has been around for quite a while now, and is definitely down for the cause.  This addition just makes sense.  Look for his drift machine to be sporting the Slide Factory logo at a drift event near you!

With the first annual ASD Mob drift suspension seminar being held at Autosport Dynamics in Charlotte NC this past weekend, there are a well known group of Pro-Am drivers now even more excited to begin the 2011 drifting season.

Fifteen drivers from around the USA and Canada flew into ASD headquarters throughout Friday, coming from as far away as Washington, California, Florida, Toronto Canada, and everywhere in between. All ten ASD Mob members and five ASD Mob Prospects made the trip to ASD for a jam packed seminar the following day.

Topics included the expected chassis set-up techniques used by ASD in the Formula D Pro series with the Falken Tire program, but also included discussions on data collection, driver and crew relationships, drivetrain systems, and good sportsmanship.

ASD also surprised the Mob members with an array of guest speakers, including Clayton Triggs as a former Vice President of the American LeMan Series, a marketing and partnership expert. Mr. Triggs spoke with the attendees on the importance of marketing partner relationships and how to approach and maintain financial partners in drifting. Having created over $30M in motorsport sponsorships and $65M in business to business relationships with various motorsport teams, Mr. Triggs offered an invaluable insight rarely seen in Pro-Am drifting circles.

In addition, longtime ASD partner Falken Tire came forward with a generous contingency program for ASD Mob members, offering heavily discounted Falken tires and a cash payout for podium appearances on the XDC Pro-Am circuit for 2011. Falken Tire will be offering ASD Mob members $800.00 in cash for first place, $400.00 for second place, and $200.00 for third place finishes when competing on Falken tire products.

Other ASD partners, including Staubli North America with their line of quick release couplings, are in the process of closing contingency programs for ASD Mob members that will be announced shortly.

Reaction from the ASD Mob members in attendance was extremely positive. Eric Hill, from Huntington Beach, California said “The smoke from my ears is finally settling but my head is still spinning. Thank you Ian and Dave for the opportunity to be part of this amazing program. I seriously learned more yesterday than I have with trial and error over the last 5 years”.

Other attendees such as Jason Jiovani from Florida echoed those sentiments. Jason claimed “This was the best non-drift trip ever. I can’t wait to go to an event and try some tweaking. I hope to see everyone at the track sometime.”

There’s no doubt the ASD Mob campaign is already off to a successful start for 2011. With the intent of helping bridge the gap between talented Pro-Am drivers and full scale Formula D teams, ASD and their partners will be working hard to ensure all of the ASD Mob drivers have a very successful 2011 season.

This was supposed to be our “crazy” pic.  Apparently, that only applied to Andy and Brock!