Photo courtesy of Jerry Hughes II | @trackingfocus
Justin “The Cheetah” Medina has made quite a name for himself in drifting in a relatively short span of time. From his start on a rainy day at Kil-kare in 2020 behind the wheel of his E46 sedan to the DISL podium in his Honda S2000 in 2022 and third overall in the 2024 DISL rankings, Justin has packed a ton of shredding into just a few seasons.
The Michigan native became a father earlier this year, and has been taking the opportunity to relax and resist the all-consuming draw of drifting. Despite his more relaxed outlook on this season, he’s well-positioned to knock his neighbors atop the DISL rankings down a step this weekend at Round 3.
I sat down with The Cheetah to talk through how he got his start in drifting and how he got to where he is now:
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So what got you into cars originally?
It was probably my dad and one of my older brothers. They've kind of always been into cars, but I would say probably more so my brother that I'm closest with. He's always had cool cars. I specifically remember he had a Mk. 3 Jetta with a VR6 in it when I was really little. For some reason, that car's always stuck in my head.
The first manual car I ever drove was his 1990 Civic Si hatch, which was supposed to be my first car but I didn't end up getting it. He kind of always just had me around cars. I don't know how I fell into the import stuff because my dad's like totally opposite, he’s a big muscle car dude, a big Chrysler guy.
What did end up being your first car?
So my first car was technically a ‘94 GMC Sonoma, but I didn't have very long. It was like my little first $400 car I bought to just get around. But my first cool car is actually a really cool car. It’s the only car that I wish that I still owned to this day. It was a ‘99 Civic Si that was all original that I bought from my older brother.
That was the car that got me started with modding cars, or at least thinking I was modding cars, like doing small stuff, HIDs, air intake, exhaust that kind of stuff. And I ended up trading that car. That is one car that I always wish that I could have back, because it only had two owners, my brother and then the guy who was the original owner, which was his friend's dad, and it was such a clean, OEM car.
Now the car is worth a bunch of money, but for some reason I just really want that car back. And I know it's not the same now, but it would be cool. I mean, it's the only civic that ever came with a B-series in America.
When did you get interested in rear-wheel-drive stuff and getting sideways?
So my first rear wheel drive car would actually be my S2000, which is funny, and I originally didn't start drifting it. It was my daily driver. I had used all the money I had to buy this car. I had to use a credit card for the next couple of weeks. I spent every single dollar I had to buy this car and I dailied it through the winter. It was awesome in the snow. I actually missed driving in the snow cause it was so much fun and did really well, like Miatas do in the snow.
Then I did a little bit of autocross stuff with it, somehow down the road I ended up turboing it and had a really fast street car for a little bit.
The first stage of the stock motor was like 450 horsepower. Then I built a motor and I made like 6-to-700. And then I went full drag car and I had a car that probably made over a thousand horsepower and ran like high 8s in the quarter mile. It had a turbo 400, I had an automatic transmission in it, it was a pretty serious drag car for a while.
Then, drifting came about to me. I've always liked it. I did some sliding on the back roads and doing dumb shit, but I just never did it. And Dylan [Lobestael] was always harassing me. He's like, “You should get a drift car. You should get a drift car.”
Once I started working for Link I was being exposed to it a lot more. Working for them I got to go to FD and stuff and I'm like, “That's cool.”
Then I had a deal kind of fall into my lap for a BMW E46, and Dylan convinced me to get it.
I was never a big fan of BMWs. I used to always make fun of Dylan for having BMWs and I’d tell him how horrible they were to work on and crappy, but then I went down the rabbit hole.
I started asking Dylan what I needed to do to start drifting. I bought like a $120 CNC71 angle kit. I put that on the car and I think I had an in-line handbrake set up that I bought. I went to my very first ever event, I think it was Opening Day at Drift Indy, and tt would’ve been 2019, or maybe 2020.
Yeah, 2020. Because I think I've been driving for four years, I don't know, 2019 or 2020, and I went out and it was super rainy and at first, I was not nervous at all about going to drift at the track, but then once I got there, with it being rainy I was just super stressed out.
So I had Cory Misko ride with me for my first time to go do a lap. And on the very first entry, E46s have a plastic gas pedal where they slide into the slot, and right on initiation I was trying to initiate the gas pedal, and it slipped out of the slot and then got stuck under the brake pedal.
So I had the throttle stuck on it and I spun out of course, but I was still trying to make it through the lap because I didn't know how the track ran yet, really.
So I'm trying to get out of the way, my gas pedal’s stuck under the brake pedal, pretty ridiculous. I ended up just using a wood screw, jammed it through there and I ended up linking the track on my very first day.
I picked it up very, very quickly, which was awesome. Then I remember my second event I went to, it was dry and again, I was linking the track and doing pretty well. I think I have a clip of me running the wall at my second ever event, which was pretty wild. So pretty much from that point on I was just dead on hooked, like a full-on addict.
So then when was the first DISL Volume that you drove? It must’ve been early on.
So I think that was actually my third event ever. I didn't think I should do a comp yet, and I was supposed to do DISL Lite, So Dylan's like, “Hey, go do Lite, you're going to do super good I bet. You can win a set of coilovers or something,” And I said, “okay, whatever. I guess I'll do it.”
So I pulled a trailer with me and Dylan's tires with my car down to Street League 4 hours from Michigan to Dayton.
When we were in the drivers meeting, Geoff Stoneback was there with his Chaser and Edgar, being how he is in the drivers meeting, said, “who wants to go against f*****g Geoff Stoneback?” And Dylan's poking me, and I didn't know who Geoff Stoneback really was at the time, so I'm like, “Okay, I'll do it!”
I had no idea. I had never even tandemed before. So I just got thrown right into the ring, and I’m actually glad I did that because doing that, forcing myself to tandem because I kept saying, “I don't know, I feel like I shouldn't tandem with people. I've only drove twice before this,” but that got me comfortable to actually drive with somebody, and I felt like I did pretty good, like I made a mistake chasing, but I felt like I did a pretty good job for my first time ever following somebody. I got knocked out in 32, but it was a really cool experience and it kickstarted me into starting to tandem with people right away too, which was really good.
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A trial by fire with one of the best drivers in the midwest is as good a way to learn to tandem as any, I suppose! With friends like Dylan Lobbestael and Cory Misko to push him and teach him, it’s not a huge surprise that Justin managed to progress as quickly as he did. With them helping shape him as a driver and with their knowledge of E46s, all it really took was his eagerness to learn and ability to pick up on the skills quickly for him to become a force to be reckoned with in DISL.
On a slightly different note, his E46 is also a big part of how he got his nickname. He said he’s always been a fan of animal print, so when he was building his BMW he went with a cheetah print livery and it spiraled from there. Before long, he had NRG Cheetah seats, a cheetah print headliner and as many cheetah print accents as he could get his hands on. “Cheetah” and “Medina” go together pretty well, so the nickname stuck.
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So going from your first comp at Volume 4 to a podium at Volume 7, what was that experience like?
So that was really cool because that was the first year with the S2000. So I was going to sell my S2000 as a drag car and I was kind of just over it. I sat on it for like two years after I was done drag racing and I didn't do anything with the car, but then I came up with this crazy idea that I should drift it.
Everybody told me it would be such a terrible idea because they're supposed to be super bad drift cars, supposedly. And I was like, “Well, you know, if I do this, if I sell all this really expensive drag car stuff I'll just essentially pay for everything I want to do to dumb down the car, and I'll put money back in my pocket, and if I don't like it, I have a really cool street car or I can sell it and I'll still make more money because I already parted out some of the more expensive stuff.”
So going into that year, I didn't really know what to expect because everybody told me I was an idiot and it was going to be super hard and I wasn't going be able to do it, especially since that was the second year I drove.
I drove The E46 for one full season, and then I was told I was stupid for switching chassis after learning so fast, that I was going to stunt my growth and yeah, so I put this whole thing together. I didn't really know what to expect and I kind of just had a chip on my shoulder from everybody telling me that this thing wasn't going to work.
I kind of knew after the first event driving it that this car actually was going to work really well, and it benefited me in so many ways. With the E46, I kind of felt like I was already running out of the means of the stock power of the car, like I needed a little bit more power to do the things I needed to do and yeah, it kind of just jumpstarted me.
I came into that round like, I know I felt really good, the car felt awesome, car looked really good at that time. It was super clean, I had just painted it myself, did all the body stuff and didn't know what to expect.
I had some really tough battles on that one too. I had a super patchy battle with Kyle Antonovich, I think in 32 where it was dry all day and all of a sudden a light rain came through and the track was so frickin slick, like him and I both almost hit each other and spun out. It was pretty wild. And then I remember in 16, I think I had Neville. That was also a really good battle. Then I had Colten Terrell.
So for me, 32 is always the hardest. But then once I had Colten, I knew it was going to be a really hard battle and he came over and showed me that he had bent his tie rod. I think he bumped somebody. He's like, “Hey, man, I don't want to be that guy. But like, can you take a look at this?”
And I said, “Man, that thing is really bad.” He said, “Well, I just don't want to it to break and make us hit,” And I'm like, “Dude, I would probably drive. Like, to be honest, I would just drive because that's how I am,” and I have that competitive feeling in me, and then once I took him out, I felt like I was literally going to go all the way.
I kept talking crap specifically to Josh Estey, on the bank being like, “I'll see you in the finals.” Every time I'd beat somebody, I was like, “I'll see you there.”
Just good, friendly banter. He's like, “I hope I do, I hope I do.” And it was really cool, man, that event was awesome.
I feel like that event specifically leveled me up more as a driver and with tandeming and pushing myself. Yeah, honestly, I've been searching to get back on a podium. I really want to, badly. I've really pushed hard the last year on trying to get another podium and this year I kind of actually took a step back almost in a way, because I feel like I was taking it really serious, like I was hard on myself when I would lose.
And this year I've kind of just came into each event like, I don't know, it sounds stupid, but barely prepping my car, maybe not taking as much care about it. Whereas before I'd be like making sure everything's all good. And this year I've just been coming out with, like, a totally different attitude, just having fun showing up.
Whatever I do, I'm happy with, and I feel like this year the results have shown consistency. But yeah, I really want to get on the podium again. I feel like this last round, I'm definitely gonna push even harder.
So, talking about the competition this year, you finished 20th overall after the first 10 Volumes over the past few seasons and you’re sitting at third overall this season, how do you feel like these rounds have compared to past volumes?
I think that the driving has gotten a lot harder. In Top 32 before, I feel like there was kind of this thought that you feel like it could be an easier battle. Whereas now, I just feel like anybody you're going to get matched up with in 32 is going to be a hard battle, and the 32 battle is always the hardest battle, at least for me.
That battle is either the battle that makes or breaks you for the event. For me, if I win my 32 battle and I get in the zone, I feel like it's really easy for me to just keep turning it up from there.
At the first round this year, I had Mike Steele first and I was like, “man, this is going to be extremely tough.” Bobby's Crew, you know, all amazing drivers. Once I beat him, I was feeling okay. And then now I have Chad [Anderson], Bobby's Crew again.
And yeah, that was probably some of my best driving in that battle, too. And man, I just feel like when you get somebody good and it just pushes you, I don't know, this year I've just been getting pushed. Everybody drives so good now that it's just really hard, you can't come out and try to drive conservative. You really have to push yourself.
And that's kind of one of the things this year where I've just been, like I said, taking it fun, not being as hard on myself if I was to lose in 32, whereas before I'd have been sitting there frickin’ watching the video over and over, like, “what am I doing wrong?”
I still do hyper-analyze stuff. I'm a nerd when it comes to that kind of stuff, but this year I'm just having more fun, I think, and battling my friends like Mike Steele, Chad, all my friends. People I like to drive with anyway, so it feels cool and you can just push hard against each other and it's good.
I think the relaxing thing though, is like pulling up to the line this year versus pulling up to the line last year, I remember being so antsy on the line, whereas this year I'm just like, “Yep, let's go.”
It just feels like I'm doing a regular run now and I feel like that would probably help a lot of people if they can get into that mindset of where you're just having fun and not thinking of it like a competition, because I know it's really helped me a lot.
So, how are you feeling going into No Star Bash and Round 3?
So for me, I'm slightly stressed. My head gasket was slightly hurt before USAir, and I kind of thought that I was going to fix it after USAir, but I actually haven't even touched or started my car since I got home from USAir. So I'm going to drive a conservative amount of laps before Saturday. And just honestly, I think it'll be fine.
It's kind of been like this since Gridlife Midwest and I've just been being lazy since I had a baby this year, which is exciting and has been taking up some time and I've just been enjoying other things. I really drove a lot the last few years and it's been nice to kind of take a step back, not spend as much money and just, I don't know, there's other things in life to enjoy than drifting sometimes.
I think it's very easy to forget that when you get into the drifting bubble. When you're just in that mode where you feel like all you have to do is drift, fix the car and do it again, it's very easy to get consumed by it.
It's been nice to take a step back and just enjoy drifting for what it is and what I fell in love with it for instead of feeling like it's like a second job, because a lot of times it is.
I'm feeling pretty good, though. I think my driving will be there. I haven't driven since USAir, but I know I'll be able to just turn it on and hopefully, you know, being pretty familiar, driving Kil-kare and it pretty much being my home track since is where I drove the most, I think I'll do well. I'm excited to see if I get a chance to either battle Sam [Cornewell] or Cash [Staub] again, because I would love to try to take one of them out and move up higher in the ranks. But I definitely want to try to get a podium again. A win would be ideal. I’ve still got the check here and the third place trophy upstairs under the TV, but I’d really like to get a gold one.
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If my math is correct, and there’s a very good chance that it is not, The Cheetah’s the only one that could finish first overall ahead of Cash and Sam. It’ll take them going out early and him taking the gold at Round 3, but it’s not out of the question. He is yet another factor contributing to this final round being an absolute nailbiter.
Finally, a walkthrough of Justin’s unique Honda S2000 build:
There’s not many parts of this car that are untouched. He’s swapped in a K24 with a Pulsar 3076 Gen 2 turbo mounted to a one-off Fresh Produce Manufacturing manifold. He’s built the bottom end with pistons and rods, working in conjunction with Kelford retainer springs and ARP head studs. That setup makes around 530 hp on E85, managed of course by a Link ECU.
That motor setup sends power to the Ford 8.8 rear end through a BMW ZF transmission coupled via a TF Works adaptor plate.
Suspension- and steering-wise, he’s rocking a prototype FDF angle kit up front with the stock S2000 steering rack and custom FDF upper control arms in the rear. BC Racing coilovers all the way around paired with custom swift springs.
Continuing toward the exterior, he’s got a KBD front bumper, J’s Racing fenders and ASM overs. He custom cut the hood and rear bumper vents himself. For wheels this season he’s been on Advan RG3s. His livery was designed by Olivier Gagnon. A carbon fiber Mugen hardtop, Sparco Halo seats and a special-edition Cheetah Medina Grip Royal steering wheel more or less round out the build.