Apr 9, 2015

“Anytime you see a car burning tires flying around,” said Chris Forsberg, “it looks impressive.”

: Hanging in the hallway are some of my old race suits. Each represents a milestone for me — my first big sponsor, my first championship, etc.

: Caesar! This little guy is 14 years old and has been with me on many of my adventures, riding with my wife and me in the team hauler to drift events around the country. #caesarchills

: Claudius! The newest member of the Forsberg family! He was a pound puppy only two months ago and he is about to embark on a cross country trip to California with us.

: Breakfast time! Feed the dogs before yourself…

: Sitting down to check out a recent edit of an episode of Drift Garage, a YouTube series on Network A where my friend/fellow drifter Ryan Tuerck show you how to build drift cars. Check it out!

: Not a big football fan, but who doesn’t love the movie Rudy! We have one in the house and one in our race hauler — it’s inspiration for every day.

: Many of you might recognize this spot; it’s a favorite for my wife and me. We’ve had many breakfast dates/work meetings here at Papermoon Diner.

: Tofu scrambles today, but sometimes I go for the Big Dipper. (That’s my wife Mich!)

: Spro on the Avenue. Drink coffee and destroy!

: Coffee genius in action. I don’t come here everyday, but it is always a treat.

: Finally on my way to the shop in my big old Dodge truck. A little inconvenient for everyday, but I constantly need to pick up parts and/or tow cars so it is justified…

: In 2012, my wife and I moved our entire operation from Southern California to Baltimore with the sole purpose of working with Brian Wilkerson and Ray Shake, co-owners of MA Motorsports. They have been a staple in the East Coast automotive scene for over a decade, doing everything from building championship winning race cars to your everyday oil change. Their experience and work ethic are second to none.

: It’s a family affair … This is Brian’s brother, Jon Wilkerson, the shop manager. To his right are the fruits of our labor; thanks to MA, the trophy wall continues to grow.

: In drifting, we tend to break a lot of rims. This coffee table was a great way to give those rims new life. Reduce, Reuse, Recycle!

: Quick stop in engine room to check on our spare motor for the 2015 season … needless to say, I hope we won’t be needing it, but when it comes to success, preparation is the name of the game.

: Somewhere beneath all those spare parts is my practice car. Today we will be installing a lot these freshly painted body panels onto the competition chassis. It’s exciting to finally see the cars come together.

: As the panels get fitted to the car, we need to take measurements for vinyl. John Bruning from Speedesign (another local Baltimore business) will add the final touches and sponsor logos that will make an otherwise plain-looking car into a proper race car.

: All hands on deck! We field two cars in Formula Drift; the second is driven by Dominican driver Jhonnattan Castro. The two cars you see here are almost identical, which allows us to share spare parts but more importantly, we are able to share information on set-up. This allows us to dial our cars in to perform well at each track in about half the time.

: Every off-season, the cars are torn down and re-built to increase performance and reliability. Brian and Ray check every detail to make sure the cars are ready to go. I check in with them daily to make sure they have all the parts and tools they need.

: Now that I’ve checked in with the guys and done a few things around the shop, it’s time to move onto my main project for today — prepping the hauler.

: Starting off with the trailer. We haul the two competition cars, our pit truck and all the spare parts and tools we need to make repairs at the track.

: Loading time … First in, nitrous oxide (NOS) which gives us an extra 200 horsepower, putting us up around 1000hp total.

: As I wheel in our VP Racing Fuel, you can see how the stacker works — two cars up top and parts, fuel, and our pit truck all fit below.

: These trailers need maintenance, too — a quick oil and filter change to keep the generators running up to snuff.

: Caught Mich up front with the dogs … She came in to prep the truck and also to let the new little guy get used to being in the rig before we hit the road.

: Breaking for lunch. This area is used for sponsor meetings and chilling out for the crew at the track.

: Caught these two, Dylan Hughes and Ian Newsome, having some fun on their break. They are always trying to out-wheelie each other.

: Here is me giving it my best, but I’ll definitely never make it as a 12 o’clock boy. Better stick to four wheels.

: Signing the pistons from my 2014 championship-winning engine to send back to JE Pistons. They’ll use them as a promotional giveaway!

: Ian lending a hand, finishing up installation of those body panels.

: Brian and I like to hit the road, or sometimes the trails, on our bikes. It serves as a good break from work. It keeps us fit and allows us time to talk about what’s going on in the shop and plan for upcoming projects, as well.

: This is my cockpit. A Recaro carbon Kevlar racing seat with full head restraint and Takata Racing 6 point harnesses. It is a squeeze, but you need to be held down tight to feel what the car is telling you through the seat.

: Checking seat and steering wheel position. Everything is adjustable to make sure it is set up just the way I need it to be. That digital dash display reads and records hundreds of inputs to help us set up the car. Everything from RPM, nitrous pressures, and even GPS track mapping. Not to mention Ray leaning in for his closeup as he checks my shoulder straps.

: I hop out of the car and Ray finishes up locking down the harnesses now that the lengths are set. That long lever on the far side of the shifter is my handbrake; I use it to lock up the rear wheels whenever I am not using the throttle to maintain my drift.

: And here it is sitting on the ground almost ready to go. The guys spend five months rebuilding the car to its current form. Dylan guides Ray as he backs it up and heads straight for the alignment rack to start setting up the suspension. Don’t worry, we will peel off that protective cover for the windshield before we hit the track!

: Brian and Ray getting the car on the alignment rack for final setup. I will now hop in the car and we use individual weight scales under each tire to adjust the springs to balance the car perfectly on all four corners.

: While the guys finish up measuring everything on the chassis, I mount up our new Hankook tires to our race rims. They have a few scrapes and scratches from running wheel to wheel with our competitors. Every drifter should know how to use a tire machine, because we will burn each set down in about 30 seconds of drifting.

: Did I mention we go through a lot of tires? I made a bit of a mess but I will clean it up guys, promise!

: Yup, still loading … It takes a very long time to load all of these wheels, tires, spare parts and checking inventory.

: Ray looks in the cabinets to make sure we are not forgetting anything as I clean up this front counter. It is kind of like a temporary holding pattern until each piece finds a home in a cabinet.

: I continue to load wheels and tires in as Brian straps down the hundreds of pounds of nitrous. Double check those straps!

: Sorry for the jump in time, but it takes all hands to push these cars out of the shop and onto the liftgate and into the trailer. But as you can see, both race cars fit up top on the second floor above the work space below. For the sake of keeping our new body panels “new” for the first round, we leave most of them off for testing.

: Playtime! Brian, Dylan, and I like to spend the end of each day with a Crazy Cart drift session in the warehouse. They are tiny electric carts (that we barely fit on) but are insanely fun with your friends. Small rewards for a hard day’s work!

Forsberg, a 33-year-old professional drifter and Hampden resident, discovered his passion at age 16 when he and his similarly thrill-seeking friends became licensed to drive.

“We started to develop this urge to go express ourselves with these cars, and drifting seemed to be the most suitable way to do so,” he said. “It’s more of a show than it is a race.”

Now Forsberg, who moved to Baltimore with his wife in 2012, is gearing up to defend his title as Formula DRIFT Pro Champion in the first round of this year’s competition, which begins Friday in Long Beach, Calif. — “the highest standard, the pinnacle, the final destination, if you will” of the sport of drifting. Drifting, which is essentially “professional stunt driving done on a competition level,” is comprised by three aspects: speed, line and angle.

Formula DRIFT is a full-time job for Forsberg, who sometimes is recognized in Baltimore for commercials he’s been in or videos he’s uploaded. (Forsberg also boasts an impressive social media following.) He’ll be training with his team constantly until the season ends in October.

“We’re always pushing to find the next thing that will give us the competitive edge,” he said. “There’s never really a point where you can sit idly and wait for something to happen, because the competition will catch up.”

24 hours with is a series highlighting a day in the lives of Baltimore’s creatives and characters, from their perspective. If you would like to suggest someone to be featured, please email community coordinator Quinn Kelley at qkelley[at]baltsun[dot]com.

24 hours with: The professional drifter

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