Paint, Vinyl, and Hardware: D-Spare Preps for Formula D Texas
Words and photos by Michael Chandler
Brandon Wicknick drives in the Formula D Professional Drifting Championship. He’s also a buddy of mine. While we were in Idaho he invited me to come by his shop and snap some photos of the preparations that were going to be going on before he loaded up and went off to Texas. It was nothing too crazy: just repainting the car, applying new graphics and sponsor decals, hanging some new body panels, rebuilding the motor. Some rather basic stuff that everyone competing on a professional level (privateer or factory backed driver) does.
Brandon and Jose handled the nuts and bolts stuff. Literally. Brandon was putting the motor back together, while Jose was working on a differential for Brandon’s S13 and also doing some work on Juha Rintanen’s widebody S14. For the uninitiated: Juha is a Finnish Formula D rookie, but he’s no stranger to competition. He’s won a national championship in Finland, and was the 2013 Drift All Starts European champion. He’s currently 61st in the Championship. ANYWAY…
While Jose and Brandon put things mechanical in nature together, Danny and MsRae Rossi of Stick-It Vinyl Graphics were busy applying vinyl to the car. They’re the ones for the original wild color stripe scheme, and they were back at it. Since this was just a refresh nothing was going to change livery wise, but a few sponsor decals were moved around a bit to make them easier to see.
Speaking of his sponsors, whom you should support only because they support this mad man in his endeavors, are:
- Driftmotion
- Turbo by Garrett
- Chase Bays
- Feal Suspension
- Voodoo Thirteen
- Grip Royal
- Achilles Radial
- Stick-It Vinyl Graphics
- RaceCo
At the time of writing, Brandon qualified 10th in Pro2, which has him paired with… Wait for it… Juha Rintanen. Yup, garage mate vs. garage mate. S13 vs. S14. 2JZ vs. … another 2JZ. Whatever, We’re pulling for Brandon to be on top of the podium, he and the rest of the D-Spare crew have been working too hard not to get a win in Texas.
UPDATE: He won!
