Blog 25: Mentorship

Literal

Mentorship Hour Log Here!

Contact Information:
Daniel Rascon
(626)-419-8232

Interpretive

By working all of these hours, I have gained countless connections who ultimately are huge resources for me when I begin to venture into drifting myself.  Many of the drivers here are very willing to help others but you just have to ask and with this project I gained the confidence to go for it and ask questions.  The most important connection and resource I have now is Spike Chen, a pro amateur drifter who is literally living out my essential question.  With the knowledge he has given me I can now enter drifting in a much more effective way as well a have him as a resource if anything comes up.


Applied


From working extensive hours at Adam's Motorsports Park I have gained the ability to critically analyze drifts and understand the judging criteria much better.  This will help me when I am on trrack in my own car because I will know what points on the course are more critical than others as well as understand fully, what the judges wis to see.  This puts me in a great advantageous position against any competitors who may be riding the fence about these things. This leads back to my essential question which ultimately means I can secure a win much more effectively.

Blog 11: Mentorship 10 Hours Check

1.) Adam's Motorsports Park
2.) Adam Matthews
3.) So far I have completed 72 hours
4.) In the service hours I have completed, I worked the track staff at Adam's Motorsports Park.  This entails sweeping the track, picking up debris, and other duties like this.

Blog 1: Summer Mentorship Component

Assignment

Know

August 23, 2012

- Location: Las Vegas Motor Speedway
- Hours: 6PM-1AM (7 Hours)
- What I Did: I was stationed in a pit on the track where the drifting practice runs were taking   place. As a volunteer I was responsible for monitoring the track and making sure no cones,clipping points, or lights were knocked out of place. If they were it was my job to go onto the track and take care of them. In addition if there was ever a collision between two cars or a car and a wall I had to go onto the track and pick up any debris left by the car as well as make sure the driver was ok.

August 24th, 2013
       
- Location: Las Vegas Motor Speedway
- Hours: 3PM - 1AM (10 Hours)
- What I Did: It was the same thing as the previous day only this time it was an actual open to the public event where the drivers were competing, not a closed practice session. Again I took care of track maintenance.


Contact information:
Patrick Cawley*
(406)-218-8336

*This was my contact for my summer mentorship hours but I have found someone else due to the fact that Patrick Cawley belongs to the Formula Drift organization and their season ends in October and sine he is not local so I cannot continue working with him.

Need to Know

What is the criteria for judging a drifter on the track?
What are the rules on the track?
What regulations must all drivers follow?
How are points scored?
What are the standards for all drift cars?
What techniques are used by drivers to accomplish a drift?
What makes certain cars more popular than others?
How are the cars built?

Interpretive

The most important thing I gained from this experience is a general understanding for the drifting community, its participants, and its functionality.  I am now aware of how the races are structured and normally run.  This general knowledge has not only been one of the most important things I have learned but another thing I gained was the fuel to learn much more in depth information.  Now that I understand things on a general level I have an urge to delve deeper into the topic and really pick each element apart piece by piece.

Applied

With the 17 hours I spent on the track at Las Vegas Motorspeedway being track staff for Formula Drift, I have deepened the passion I have for cars and motor sports like drifting.  Now that I have experienced for the first time what drifting is all about first hand, I know I really want to do drifting as my senior project because there are so many elements that I would love to know about.  This first hand experience really helped to introduce to me the world I was getting myself into and I am very much satisfied with this choice.