Drift Indy Street League Round 3 capped off both a killer No Star Bash XIII and a competitive season that saw the best in the midwest throw down in a competition of style and skill.
After three rounds and three straight podium finishes, Cash Staub finished top of the table with an impressive 69 points. With podium-worthy performances at rounds one and two, Sam Cornewell secured second place with 51 points. Returning to the podium at round three after his win at round one, Roy Outcalt managed to edge out Justin Medina by a single point to earn third with 46 points. Our final top three, then, is simply a reshuffling of our podium trio from the first round way back in April.
This final round ended up being something of an endurance test for drivers as they weighed the benefits of hopping in some signature NSB trains against the potential for a wreck or mechanical issues. Justin Medina ended up hopping in Dylan Lobbestael’s spare car when he blew the K20 in his S2000 early on in the four-day carnage. For the most part, though, the drivers balanced the risks well.
After a few hours of practice on the DISL layout Saturday night, everybody turned up Sunday pretty locked in. For the most part, everyone looked comfortable with the tricky, technical entry that is a staple of the layout.
After lining up on the bank in a nice display of the style portion of DISL, the drivers’ meeting kicked off.
“We’re doing away with everything that makes drifting suck,” said judge Derek King. Instead of focusing so heavily on the minutiae of precisely filling zones and hitting marks that sees series like Formula Drift become stale and rewards a single type of build, they instead judged based on what’s fun and exciting to watch. Zones and the like played a part, but they were far from the be-all and end-all.
The drivers’ meeting was briefly interrupted by a domestic dispute in the pits that saw a lady land herself a leg sweep from a sheriff’s deputy and a resisting arrest charge, prelims got under way.
With a worrying forecast that suggested pretty heavy rain was headed our way, prelims got under way. We were fortunate enough to avoid DISL Volume 9-level rain that made the track an ice rink during qualifying, but did end up getting some showers mid-way through the judged single runs. Still, after a little over 40 drivers gave our judges their best two runs, we had our 16 qualifiers.
Team Shade shredder and DISL Volume 9 winner Clint Stotts put down two killer runs to earn the first qualifying spot. Dylan Lobbestael, winner of the DK Driver’s Award for the round, followed in second. In an impressive underdog performance, Justin Wantz (Jay Dubs) and his Datsun 280ZX showed out to secure third. Rounding out the top four qualifiers, Josh Estey continued his return to form with two great laps.
Those four joined the other 12 top qualifiers to match up with our top 16 seeded drivers, sending us into the main competition.
This round featured some of the most exciting, competitive matchups this season of DISL has had. Clint Stotts vs. Rodney Blankenship, Joey Ritter vs. Eric Fisher, Vance Kearns vs. Jake Clark, Josh Estey vs. Adam Day, Chandler Marshall vs. Colten Terrell and Kyle Robertson vs. Dylan Lobbestael all had the makings of great battles, and they largely delivered.
One standout performance, though, came from Jeremiah Reyes. Securing the 15th qualifying spot saw the 17-year-old matched up with overall second-seeded Sam Cornewell. Jeremiah is a solid driver, but until Round 3 he had never been super competitive when it came to DISL. Coming up against Sam, though, he hit another level. Both drivers were incredibly locked in, putting down killer lap after killer lap and forcing two One-More-Time battles. Derek King radioed to grid to pass on the message that one of them needed to do something special to make a winner more obvious after a second set of too-close-to-call battles. Jeremiah did enough to earn the nod, advancing to the top 16.
In a real David and Goliath showdown, Jay Dubs and Matt Berlin ended up matched up in the top 32. Matt’s Mustang isn’t pushing crazy horsepower numbers, but it was still almost certainly at least quadruple what Jay’s Datsun makes. Choked up in the chase but running away in the lead, Matt didn’t have an easy time. With barely any tire left on the Datsun, they went OMT. Jay blew a tire, and with none left to swap, Matt got the win. Still, the crowd loved the matchup and Jay treated them to a burnout as he exited the track, blowing the other tire just as he crested the exit.
The top 16 saw some equally nail-biting matchups, including one between Cash Staub and the man he credits with turning him into the ripper he is, Clint Stotts. They’ve turned countless laps together, and it showed in the performance they put on for the crowd. They went OMT, but Cash came out on top.
Further down the same side of the bracket, Josh Estey and Roy Outcalt were matched up. With Estey representing the old guard of DISL royalty and Roy the new class of successful shredders, theirs was yet another battle of the titans. It was a super close one, but Roy got the nod in the end.
The heavyweight matchups weren’t limited to the left half of the bracket. Justin Medina and Matt Berlin went head-to-head directly following Josh and Roy. While it wasn’t evident until Roy podiumed, Berlin’s win in the battle meant that Medina fell just short of the season’s top three.
Alek Morelock and Chad Anderson followed them, with Morelock putting down a killer chase run and opening up enough of a gap in his lead to get the nod. Anderson was in a similar boat to Medina, hopping behind the wheel of a different car than his usual DISL machine.
With so many sick combos in the top 16, it feels redundant to say that Cam Stone and Colten Terrell had an exciting battle, but they didn’t disappoint either. They’re both killer drivers, but Colty’s impressive performance in the chase ushered him into the top 8. Closing out the top 16, Jeremiah Reyes continued his run with a win over Kyle Robertson.
Having conquered one Team Shade member, Cash found himself matched up against Joey Ritter in the top 8. With Medina and Cornewell both out of contention for first overall, Cash could’ve let off the gas a little at this point. Luckily for everyone watching, though, he did not. He and Joey put on a killer performance that went OMT before Cash got the nod, thanks largely to his proximity in the chase.
Roy Outcalt and Vance Kearns kept up the pace in, you guessed it, another nail-biter of a battle. Roy put down a super solid lead and then was on Vance’s door in the chase, enough to give him his second win against a Bobby’s Crew member on the day.
Matt Berlin’s mistake in his chase against Alek Morelock knocked him out of the top 8, and the final battle of the stage saw Jeremiah Reyes come against Colty. Unfortunately for the kid, the former king of the first 10 volumes of DISL would prove to be too much for him.
While heavyweight is perhaps overused as a term, the hardware accumulated by our final four drivers over the course of DISL meant that it is as fitting to describe them as it will ever be. With seven podium finishes between them, their tires, plaques and oversized checks lend Cash Staub, Roy Outcalt, Alek Morelock and Colten Terrell quite a bit of well-earned weight.
In a rematch from Round 1 earlier this season, Cash and Roy threw down first. Roy put down a killer chase lap on a solid lead from Cash, but in his lead he got into the wall on the bank and it caused him to straighten slightly. Paired with a decent chase from Cash, it was enough for the judges to weigh in favor of the Foxbody.
While they might’ve had less on the line in terms of the overall season, Alek and Colten still put on an exciting show in their battle. Consistent where it mattered and aggressive where it counted, Alek did enough to get the nod over Colty.
With the final two set, the battle for third between Roy and Colty got underway. Leading first, Roy and his E46 managed to open up a decent gap. Colty closed it by the end of the lap, but it wasn’t enough to overcome Roy’s aggressive chase run that saw him glued to the red 240’s door. For the second time this season, Roy secured his place on the podium.
Our final battle between Alek and Cash had all the promise of an all-time great showdown, but it ended somewhat disappointingly. Cash led first and Alek was pushing hard to stay on his door, but he transitioned just a hair too late and too close in the infield, making contact and potentially catching his wheel on the Foxbody’s bash bar. It was enough to break the Z’s tierod and knock Alek out of competition.
Earning his second first place finish in a row and further solidifying his spot at the top of this season’s rankings, Cash Staub won the round. He celebrated with a suitably joyful victory lap that made use of a layout never seen before at Kil-kare, probably because he was making it up as he went along.
“Oh that boy freestyling,” said photographer Sam Igel. Cash disappeared into the smoke of a final celebratory burnout that almost saw his motor catch on fire in the pits.
All three of our podium finishers drove their asses off in what was potentially the most competitive and exciting round of DISL this season. Roy Outcalt earned the bronze, Alek Morelock the silver and Cash Staub the gold, both for the round and the season as a whole. Now, we can all look forward to Halloween Jam and the return of DISL teams!