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Vaughn Gittin Jr. and RC Drift Car Spread Viral Automotive Video Fever

13.02.2012

RC drift car takes a ride on K&N Factory conveyor.

We are seemly at odds and bickering about nearly every little thing these days, yet there's one lasting invariable, and it's our love affair with cars. As with all affections it can be a love-hate relationship, what with traffic jams, gas prices and accidents, yet overall it's been an enduring and fascinating ride. We are a nation with more cars than drivers so it should come as no surprise that this love affair has been going on for 126 years, since 1885 when Karl Benz built his first gasoline powered three-wheeler.

Vaughn Gittin Jr. chasing RC drift car through K&N Facility.

We worship all things about our rides, from the new-car smell, to the head-jerking power and roar of acceleration. We'll drive gigantic blinged-out cruisers and amusingly tiny gas-sipping dink-mobiles, but mostly we exist somewhere in the Goldilocks' middle. We adore movies about cars doing absurdly unnatural stunts and we live vicariously through racers, spinning them into heroes. Few venues embrace our admiration for vehicular shenanigans, race idols, and our need for immediate gratification anymore succinctly than viral automotive videos. They are miniature quick-fix action flicks, without the unnecessary back-story bogging it down.

Two weeks ago K&N Filters launched an automotive video of muscle car burnouts and roaring engine sounds combined with a fast miniature radio controlled underdog. The end of the video promotes a sweepstakes on K&N's Facebook page where fans can actually win a Limited Edition Vaughn Gittin Jr. RC Drift Car. So far the viral automotive video has over 450,000 views on YouTube. The video appeals to all our automotive senses by simply being a fun watch, without hitting viewers over the head with some overly contrived message.

Vaughn Gittin Jr. has the co-starring role with the lead going to the limited edition Monster Energy, Falken Tire, 2011 Ford Mustang GT RTR E10 Drift RC car. This cool little radio control model is a 1/10th scale version of JR's 2011 Formula Drift car, which is one of the sport's most identifiable cars, being that Gittin is one of drift racing's most iconic figures.

Gittin is identified by his aggressive, foot to the floor, big smoke driving style and being a fearless competitor. He is still the only American to win a D1 Grand Prix event, not just once, but twice. In 2005 Gittin stunned the drift racing world when he won the D1GP USA versus Japan. Then two years later he brought home the gold once more by winning the D1GP World Championship. In 2010 Gittin earned his first Formula Drift Championship, becoming the second-ever Champion with a strictly-drifting only background.

In the engaging viral video Gittin's gift for driving is on full display as he careens around K&N's crowded storage yard and warehouse buildings attempting to catch the evasive little RC bugger. The cartoonish action sequence is made that much more compelling because of the onboard car footage provided by Contour HD Cameras, which highlights the diminutive RC car going slide-for-slide with Gittin.

The remote camera manufacturer, Gittin's sponsors, the RC Car manufacturer and K&N partners have promoted the video on their websites, Facebook pages and Twitter accounts, and by every indication the Limited Edition Vaughn Gittin Jr. RC Drift Car Sweepstakes video has reset the viral automotive video benchmark. It's also been a good way to drum up some Formula Drift 2012 excitement before the season.

Adding further to this video's intriguing nature is your chance of winning one of the Limited Edition Vaughn Gittin Jr. HPI Remote Control Drift Cars. The HPI Racing team only produced 5,000 of these little gems and K&N has already given two of them away to sweepstakes winners. Three more will be given away through the sweepstakes at the rate of one per week up until March 2, 2012. You can find the details regarding how to enter the sweepstakes at www.knfilters.com/rccar/. If nothing else you'll get three-and-half minutes of viral automotive video happiness. The outtakes at the end are worth watching too.

Find K&N products for your vehicle using the K&N application search then use the K&N dealer search to find a K&N dealer in your part of the world.

Ray Cook Ignites 2012 Race Season by Winning his Second Ice Bowl at Talladega

10.02.2012

Cook first won the Ice Bowl in 2009, one of his best seasons to date, hopes are that this victory is a forerunner to a repeat performance. Photos by Ron Skinner

Racers are comforted by familiar patterns, any overt sign, or the slightest hint of indication that the fickle lady of luck may once again be smiling their way. In 2009 when the "Tarheel Tiger" Ray Cook won his first 50-lap super late model Ice Bowl, he followed it up with arguably the finest season of his career.

Ray Cook says his team learned a lot of valuable lesson about running on tracks with extreme conditions after his win at the 2012 Talladega Ice Bowl. Photos by Ron Skinner

"Back in 2009 when I won the Ice Bowl for the first time, it helped propel us to maybe the best year in my career," remarked Cook after lighting the fuse on 2012. "Hopefully, this Ice Bowl victory will come close to doing the same thing!"

The annual Ice Bowl race at Talladega short track in Eastaboga, Alabama could have more appropriately been tagged the Sludge Bowl. A determined morning drizzle turned the one-third mile, newly clayed track into muck, making one of the biggest dirt races of the season that much more challenging. Of the 25 cars that started the race, only nine saw the checkered flag.

Committing on the high attrition rate the Brasstown, North Carolina driver said, ""Due to track conditions people just couldn't stand it anymore. A lot of it was just due to parts failure." Then in support of the impressive efforts done by the Talladega track officials to fix the racing surface Cook added, "They've done the best they could."

Despite a shifting, uneven and fast race track, the K&N veteran was able to muscle his new orange paint scheme No. 53 MasterSbilt racecar to a convincing Ice Bowl XXI victory. By lap eight Cook had worked his way to the lead where he remained for the rest of the race.

After collecting his $6,000 payday Cook stated, "We are just so tickled to get a win right off the bat in 2012 and especially at a race with so much prestige like the Ice Bowl. Everything worked real well all weekend and we learned some stuff on our car to get through those rough track conditions. I have to thank my entire team, but especially Keith (Masters) and Gary (Winger) for some valuable help on how to get through those holes."

After their successful run at the Talladega short track aptly nicknamed the "Hornets Nest," the D&R Motorsports team went back to work at the shop, combing through the No. 53 car for any bent or broken parts. Weather permitting, the teams next race will be this weekend, January 27, at the Cabin Fever 40. Cook will be gunning for his second straight win in the race held at the Boyd's Speedway in Ringgold, Georgia. On the line this year is a $3,000 winner's check.

Find K&N products for your vehicle using the K&N application search then use the K&N dealer search to find a K&N dealer in your part of the world.

K&N's Tommy Phillips Locked and Loaded for 2012 Season Kick-Off in Pomona

10.02.2012

Tommy Phillips' Super Gas Corvette roadster

With yet another NHRA Division 4 title under his belt after the 2011 season, Forney, Texas resident Tommy Phillips is set to hit the trail of what should prove to be another fantastic NHRA season with his stable of four K&N Engineering/CBS Arc Safe race cars, three of which he will drive in competition. The 2012 season marks the fourth consecutive year with K&N as the primary sponsor for the veteran racer.

Tommy Phillips' K&N Engineering/CBS Arc Safe Super Comp dragster

"2011 was an odd year," Phillips pointed out. "Certainly we are proud of how we finished, but when I look back at the very beginning of the season, the first few races I just didn't drive that well. I don't know why, but I just wasn't myself. For the first time in a while I was back to racing full-time, so I was really very focused on the business and marketing side of it all and maybe just not as focused on the driving side of things. If you want to know the truth, I just think I wasn't really ready to race and it really showed."

Phillips comes into the new year with twenty-five NHRA National events victories and a total of twenty-eight division wins already to his name and mentions that what he learned over the past season should help him add to that total in the months to come. "If you look at my points at the end of the season, for some reason I have always done well at the National meets and not so well at the points meets [division races]," Phillips explained. "I don't understand why, it's the same racers at all the events. But I think I finally came to the realization that I just don't get as up for the points races as I do the nationals. I mean, let's face it, they take as long to run, cost about the same to go to and don't pay out as much to win as the national events do. It's not all about the money, but it is part of the deal since you have to factor in what it cost to travel and so on. So by putting more focus into my point's races last year, it did pay off and we won four of them."

Tommy Phillips plans to bring his Super Comp dragster and Super Gas Corvette roadster to the 2012 O'Reilly Auto Parts NHRA Winternationals

"So by being more committed to the point's races, I was pretty happy with the outcome," he continued. "But what I really learned is that I need to be more consistent overall and that I needed to look at my season race schedule a little differently. I needed to not be out on the road so many races in a row and even if I had to travel a little more, how could I be home a little more and not have four or five races in a row. I even bit the bullet and hired someone full-time for the race team, someone who could take care of the rig and get it to the events for me, so maybe that would buy me another ten to fifteen days a year to be at home."

In addition to racing full-time, Phillips continues to work alongside his mom at home, overseeing the day-to-day operations of two large bingo halls. "By dividing up my schedule differently for this coming season, not only will it help me to be able to stay on top of things that I need to at home, with payroll and all the items that I take care of, but it will also allow me to go to several races that I normally wouldn't attend. So this season I only have one time where I will have a three races stretch and I think it will help me battle the, whatever you want to call it, being on the road too long at a time, you know burnout and beat down."

Phillips will start his 2012 quest at the NHRA season opener in Pomona, California where he will compete in his K&N Engineering/CBS Arc Safe #5 Super Comp dragster and his #4 Super Gas Corvette roadster during the O'Reilly Auto Parts NHRA Winternationals.

"My focus this season is to win a National Championship and everything else will fall into place," he admitted. "I geared my schedule and my races around that for this year, and the one thing that will mess me up a little is the JEGS races [All-Star]. I really do like those races and it will mess my chances up for that, but at some point, you just have to prioritize your goals and mine is to win a National Championship in 2012."

With the change in Phillips' sponsor line up from last season, it has been a very hectic off-season for he and his crew, making all the changes needed in addition to the normal end of year maintenance. "We have been just crazy getting everything redone, all the cars, the rig even the golf carts and scooters had to be stripped and rewrapped," he chuckled. "That on top of freshening the motors and transmissions. When it's all done and you have it out there, you kind of take it for granted, but man is it a lot of work to get everything to that point."

Phillips points out that he is honored to continue his partnership with K&N Engineering. "Even before I started working with K&N, I used many of their products because I know they are superior in their field," he said. "But I'll tell ya, in the years of being involved with them now, I really have an unbelievable respect for how K&N does business, especially after I had a chance to witness everything that goes into the products that they manufacture. Strictly speaking as a racer, K&N is really behind everything that is right. They not only continue to do everything they can to constantly improve their products by listening to and working with racers of all sorts of motorsports, but in what they really stand for and all of the various projects they are behind."

"I am all K&N all the time," he added. "From using their oil and air filters on every one of my race cars to even adding the new Heavy Duty K&N air filter to my Freightliner motorhome that I use to tow the race trailer. I am really looking forward to the added advantage it will give me in all the miles I intend on putting on it this year."

Find K&N products for your vehicle using the K&N application search then use the K&N dealer search to find a K&N dealer in your part of the world.

Mike Ballard's Drag Racing Family Puts Daughters in Junior Dragster

10.02.2012

Ballard family's 1992 Chevy S-10 Blazer

Sometimes racing brings together special people. And other times special people just happen to race. Meet the Ballard's, a drag racing family full of good people. A longtime racer, family patriarch Mike decided to give his daughters a chance at the family hobby at a young age. Oldest daughter Emma started in a junior dragster and younger sister Arley followed when she became of age to do so.

Meet the Ballard family. They are a drag racing family full of good people.

But the amazing thing about the Ballard's isn't the faith that Mike and his wife have in their daughters driving abilities, or even those abilities themselves. Instead, what makes this family special is their dedication to others. It's that dedication to others that made a relationship with K&N such a perfect fit, and that relationship is paying huge dividends for those in need.

"It truly is amazing what we discover just by listening and talking to people," said Ballard, who helps his daughters collect aluminum cans and recycle them. "Before we would donate half the money to those in need or the local food bank, and the other half would go to the racing budget. Now that K&N has increased their involvement with us, we donate one hundred percent of the money."

The Ballard's also volunteer their time to the food bank, helping with the sorting and bagging of food and donating food to help stock the bank. They also keep an ear out for those in need. The family has been known to help shovel snow at elderly people's houses, donate clothes to those in need, and even donate money to those less fortunate.

The family also lends their time and cars to local parades, and last Memorial Day they were able to put a smile on Arley's classmate Noah's face. Noah has Down's Syndrome, but that hasn't kept the youngest Ballard from making a close friend and helping out where she can.

Last year Arley and Emma split time in the family's junior dragster, and Emma made her debut in a full-sized car, or SUV in this case. The family purchased a 1992 Chevy S-10 Blazer and plan on taking it to some Street Eliminator events in Illinois this season.

"Watching Emma learn to drive a big car down the track, and the excitement she had when she learned how fast she went was awesome," Mike said.

Having your two daughters drive cars in excess of 70 mph can be taxing on parents, but the Ballard's handle it well while keeping an eye on safety.

"My wife and I don't really get nervous because we've been around racing for so long, but we do get anxious before the first round," Mike said. "We just hope they remember what to do if something goes wrong."

This year the team will campaign both the junior dragster and the Blazer, which Emma will drive in a high school program that rewards youngsters with scholarships. The team will also attend numerous car shows and will participate in a pair of parades as well, all while trying to help others who are less fortunate.

Mike provided a few laughs when asked about the degree of difficulty in being a family race team.

"There's nothing hard about it, but trying to remember everything the females need before we go to the track can be a challenge," Mike said.

The Ballard's and K&N have forged a strong relationship, and the team see's the benefits of it every day.

"K&N really puts our minds at ease when it comes to protecting the engines, whether it be the one in the race cars or the support vehicles," Mike said. "Any racer can tell you the fewer things they have to worry about the better they can focus on the task at hand, winning races!"

Find K&N products for your vehicle using the K&N application search then use the K&N dealer search to find a K&N dealer in your part of the world.

Jason Meyers Sweeps Sydney Speedway Lighting Fire to 2012 with Four Wins

10.02.2012

Meyers' 2011 win at Williams Groove was his second in a row at the speedway.

As a racer you learn real fast to let go of the stuff you can't control and move on, because in racing the amount of stuff you have no say over can be staggering. To have any hope at triumph then, you best tighten-up on things you can manage. Jason Meyers' procedure for keeping on his game is to reduce down time and keep racing.

K&N supported Jason Meyers kicked-off 2012 the same way he has his last two championship seasons, by keeping his skills sharp and winning in Australia.

"I think it is very important to do some racing through the winter in order to keep in proper shape," Meyers told K&N. "You can work in the Gym all winter, but there is no way of replicating the G-forces that your body experiences in the car. We had a good run in Australia this season and we are looking forward to getting to Florida in a few weeks."

Who could argue with his procedure, as the results state all that needs to be said. Meyers and the Elite Racing Team completed 2010 and 2011 with back-to-back World of Outlaw Championships, and only seven days into 2012 Meyers and the team were already celebrating their third win at Sydney Speedway in Australia. Then in the week between races at Sydney Speedway, Meyers took on Archerfield Speedway, to bump any remaining rust off with some of his American rivals.

After doing battle with fellow Californian Rico Abreu in the early rounds of the 35-lap contest at Archerfield, and swapping positions with David Muir in the later laps, Meyers managed to wrestle an edge finishing sixth.

A win is always special remarked Meyers, but flipping, then fixing his car, making it through the B-Main and enduring a tough feature race, makes for a particularly sweet victory.

However, it's his return to Sydney Speedway the following Saturday that best illustrates the state of readiness Meyers and his team are in already. The sweetest road to victory is often the bumpiest and hardiest earned, for Meyers and Elite Racing that first potholed road to reward came during that weekend.

Meyers started the evening by timing in second behind Lynton Jeffery. Then, in one of those moments you have no control over, Meyers flipped with a second car in the heat race, forcing the team to rebuild his car in time to send him to the B-Main.

Each year the races in Australia continue to get more competitive as word gets out and more top American and Australia racers enter the field.

"We tore a lot of stuff up in a heat race down there and it was all we could do to get back out for the B-Main," said Meyers. "We had a lot of help from a lot of other teams in order to get ready in time. That is the impressive thing about sprint car racing, how everyone works together to get a competitors' car back into competition."

After winning the B-Main, Meyers lined up 21st for the main event. The two-time champion sliced and diced his way through the field, outlasting several cautions in the 35-lap A-Main. Once he made his way to the front, the Californian had to endure three more green-white-checkered flag restarts before taking the win at Sydney Speedway. This was Meyers' third victory at the track going into the Scott Darley $50,000 Challenge at Sydney Speedway. (Note: The Scott Darley $50,000 Challenge has been rescheduled and will now run on Friday and Saturday March 16 and 17).

Meyers added, "A win is always special, but to come from the B-Main after crashing, and then racing from the tail of the A-Main to the lead in 17 laps was a great night."

Meyers and the Elite Racing Team will head back to Florida on February 15th for the season opener at Volusia Speedway Park in DeLeon Springs, Florida. "We race two nights with the Allstar's and three nights with the World of Outlaws. Five nights in a row to start," laughs Meyers, "the Outlaws try to separate the men from the boys in the first week."

Find K&N products for your vehicle using the K&N application search then use the K&N dealer search to find a K&N dealer in your part of the world.