IRWINDALE — Kyle Mohan, 38, is a 17-year veteran of the Formula Drift Racing series and knew it would be his passion after he failed to qualify for the first real national drifting event in the USA in 2003 at Irwindale Speedway.

It was billed as USA vs. Japan, D1 Grand Prix, USA.

It was Labor Day of that year and it turned out to be the beginning of a phenomenon in drifting that continues in a huge way to this day.

And the beginning of a love affair of the sport for Mohan.

“I worked on one of the teams, Grenade USA, that was there,” said Mohan, of his opportunity to get into the event. “I just loved the cars and atmosphere.”

The atmosphere was over 10,000 fans at Irwindale Speedway, affectionately nicknamed the “House of Drift” by the announcer.

Mohan described drifting this past weekend in perfect form – “Modern TV is all about the drama, but man, drifting has got drama.”

Unfortunately, this year most of the drama that comes from the fans was missing for the most part in two of the four events on the circuit due to COVID-19 of course.

The 2003 event was the first professional drifting event in the U.S., tabbed as D1 Grand Prix USA. Eight drivers represented the U.S. against some of the best Japanese drifters.

Drifting is a high-skill, high powered motorsport with an emphasis on car control. In the Formula Drift series, now in its 17th season, drivers compete in knockout heats on a closed course, sliding sideways in trials judged in speed and style. With origins in Japan, it is one of the fastest growing forms of motorsport in the world.

This past weekend, Irwindale Speedway hosted the 2020 Formula Drift Pro Championship final round. But, with no fans for the first time in the history of the event.

Coming away with his second title in 10 years was 17-year veteran Vaughn Gittin, Jr.

“We’ve been battling all year and our double wins in Seattle and two podiums in Texas put us up by 40 points and with the experience, you can’t chase championships, you have to earn them,” Gittin, Jr. said. “I’ve earned to be where I’m at and I was very confident coming in (Sunday), but I wasn’t focused on winning a championship, but winning every battle.”

Gittin, Jr. has been racing alongside Mohan and respects everything he has done with his team.

“I know Kyle and his father and they are incredible people and I’ve always rooted for him,” Gittin, Jr. said. ”Even though he’s a competitor, I’ve always wanted to see him do well. I relate to him, because I started where he did. I started in my garage, on my own car and I never forget where I come from and I have huge respect for anyone that keeps coming out here and battling.”

Gitten, Jr. also won the USA vs. Japan event in 2005, the first year with his Mustang.

Mohan, racing in his second event of the four-event series, went up against No. 2-ranked Ryan Tuerck at the time at Friday’s opening round and was eliminated in a close battle.

Ironically, it was his second time facing Tuerck in two rounds. He also faced him in Texas.

After a day off, when the junior circuit Link ECU Pro2 crowned a champion (Dmitriy Brutskiy of Belarus), the eighth and final round on Sunday found Mohan up against another top competitor in Gittin, Jr.

In the round of 32, as in all competitions in drifting, two runs are held.

“The first run (chasing) we were fairly equal and in the second run I had an advantage (leading),” Mohan said. “But, then in the last turn I knocked down two of the pylons and that took the advantage away from me and gave it back to Vaughn.

“It’s a little bit of heartbreak, but I’d rather go out giving 120% effort with a car that still runs that we can go do anything we want with, then having some kind of failure or making a mistake myself. I feel good about how we ended the year, but it’s not good enough and we’re going to come back and try to do better. We were trying to upset him right there.”

Mohan, who has attended every Long Beach Grand Prix, got his start in “racing” actually in RC (Radio Controlled) cars at a young age with his dad, Joe.

“When I was younger I raced RC cars and had some success,” Mohan said. “We won the west coast championship in our class at the time. I also got really into building models and slot cars.

“In the end I got a job a Mazdatrix and learned how to build rotary engines and helped with their race team. This led to me racing and then starting my own team (Kyle Mohan Racing).”

Mohan, however, had different aspirations as a young man.

“I took art in school, but didn’t really want to sit behind a computer and be a graphic designer," Mohan said.

“I thought I’d just go after the car thing. Really, my first goal wasn’t to be a driver. I wanted to be on a race team, building race motors. I kind of worked my way up at Mazdatrix (current sponsor) and sort of helped some drift teams,” he said.

Mohan, who was between 17 and 20, had an ’82 Mazda RX he built for the Sports Car Club of America (SCCA) Racing.

However, enter drifting the hard way – drifting in the local mountains. He met a Japanese student while he was in college and all Mohan could say to him was “…..drift in the mountains?”

Mohan followed him and was in a local club and was on the edge of dying with the craziness of the “sport.” To this day, competitive drifting in the mountains is very popular in Japan.

Mohan then found track time out at Willow Springs in Rosamond, CA. And his love of drifting took off from there, from the parking lots of Irwindale to major racetracks through the last 17 years.

His race team, which is like family as evidenced this past weekend at Irwindale, consists of: Dad, Joe Mohan; Cody Rodrigues, fabrication; Nick Rainone, fabricator; Zerek Fewell, Suspension; Alexandria Fewell (Zerek’s wife), spotter and Mervyn Radley.

Mohan’s car is the only rotary-engine Mazda RX8 in the series and is titled: American Ethanol, Renewable Lubricants, Mazdatrix  Mazda RX8.

Long name, but lives up to everything it’s built for.

“My biggest sponsors are American Ethanol, Renewable Lubricants, Mazdatrix and Exedy USA,” Mohan said. “I’m also definitely very grateful for the support of my family and team.”  

Mohan, who briefly went to college for two years at Long Beach City College and had a side gig playing in a band, explained what it’s like in the seat of a drift car.

“There’s nothing else I know that puts so much pressure on a single individual for a single moment in time. Once the crew steps away, I enter the burnout box. It’s me and the car and the track, just like an Olympic athlete against the judges. Or, it’s me and the car against another competitor against the judges. So, you’re adding in a whole other aspect, where the car is battling for advancement. That’s what makes it unique.

“It’s an immense amount of preparation time.”

Due to the emergence of COVID-19 this summer, it has limited the number of events some drivers had attended.

A few teams haven’t been able to make the full circuit this season, including Mohan. The final championship at Irwindale was only the second event he has competed in this season, the other was at the Texas Speedway.

The championships were the final run of the shortened 2020 season for the series and Mohan went out with a blaze!

Mohan, who has raced with rotary engines since the beginning, faced the top drivers in both rounds of the championships.

He is the only remaining driver competing with a rotary engine in the series.

“At an event in Las Vegas (2011 or ’12) I really floored it and went into the wall hard,” Mohan said. “They clocked me at 100 MPH. There’s always a lot of concern and there’s always a lot of stress that all go into those moments.

“I was really just getting good as a professional. I remember my crew got it all back together three weeks later and I sat in there in the burnout box and started again.”

It appears things could be looking up for everybody who likes long, tire-smoking slides in rear-wheel-drive cars, especially Kyle Mohan!

What they said:

Joe Mohan, Kyle's father: “We’re going to race something. There’s a lot of passion. With me, with Kyle, we’re just racers and we like to play and we’re car guys. I like to restore vintage cars and Kyle likes to race and he’s just doing what he loves to do. Like I said, Life is not a dress rehearsal. You gotta do what you want to do, because one day the play is over!”

More from Joe regarding the tires: “We start with brand new tires, with stickers on them. A competition is two passes and at the end of those two passes, you don’t have any tires left. You’re on bald, slick, very sticky rubber.

“There is a warm-up in the burnout box, with a maximum time of 30 seconds to clean them. And then the driver will feel them start to bite when it gets hot enough. And then it’s take-off time.”

Lisa Mohan, Kyle’s mom: “He was always interested in the automotive industry. He’s passionate about working and the automotive industry is just a great love of his and it turned into drifting. He loves everything about it and he’s always built his own cars.”

Adrienne Mohan - Kyle’s wife: “Kyle has been tremendously dedicated to the sport for as long as I’ve known him. Ever since right after high school he’s been really dedicated to making it happen. It’s been a lot of late nights and weekends being at the shop.

“To just try to come out each year and try and be competitive and keep up with the teams that do have those big budgets, that are able to do research and development and have the top dollar to spend. He’s had some of his sponsors for his whole career and they believe in him.”

Cody Rodrigues (9 years) – Team Mohan, Fabrication: “It’s more important that the show goes on quickly. We’re really not racing, we’re putting on a show. It’s a lot different, for sure, but I do really miss the crowd.

“Literally, nobody here is walking away rich from this. Every single person here just loves drifting. Tokyo Drift (the movie) gave me the bug and I figured out how to get out here, which is cool. I was hooked up with tickets for Irwindale and experienced it all. Everything was 240’s back in the day and some RX7’s.

“When I was in UTI they had a program you had a chance to go and work on a pit crew and I was assigned to Kyle’s crew with the first race in Vegas.”

Mervyn Radley – Team Mohan crew: “I just got involved because I like motor racing and I’ve been involved in just about every aspect of motor racing. I got involved with (Mohan Racing) because Joe (Mohan) knew my background. He wanted me to be involved with the team. It’s just another day for me.

Note: Radley, from England, has been on the race management committee for the Long Beach Grand Prix. He used to race MG Midgets in England and now races MGB’s here in the states.

Zerek Fewell – Team Mohan crew member, Suspension: “If (Kyle) crashes, I get to weld more tubes back together to make the car ready to hit the wall again, or hit another car. Then he (Nick Rainone, fabricator) has to make it look pretty. My stuff gets hidden.”

Nick Rainone – Team Mohan crew member, fabricator:

“I’ve been working with Zerek (Fewell) for a year now and he came on with Kyle last year and this year he brought me with him. I actually fabricate roll bars and this is my second event working in Formula Drift. Kyle and his family are great people and awesome and I’d love to continue on with them. It’s all passion and commitment and Kyle has a ton of it. He’s a great driver. You put a solid car underneath him and he rips. This is new to me and I love it.”

Jim Liaw – President, Co-Founder, Formula Drift: “The atmosphere is different here (Irwindale), where we are in an arena where the fans are in close and bring a different spark.

“And funny enough, the speedway is setting up for their drive-through Christmas event (Dec. 1 to January 10) and we’re getting all of their holiday festivities for our event. It’s been cool.

“I think the appeal of this sport is a cross between action sports and motor sports in general.

“(The teams’) following and fan base as a team and a driver is just as much about your personality, as it is how successful you are on the track.

“How closely connected drivers are to their fans, that’s given guys like Kyle the longevity. He’s one of the few, if not the only Mazda driver. He’s been loyal and dedicated and uses the rotary platform and has been driving Mazda’s the last decade and a half. When we’re in Long Beach, he’s a Long Beach native and there is a local support for him. Things like that all play a part in giving him the motivation to continue.”

Chris Forsberg – Three-time Formula Drift Champion driver: “In 2003 I drove out for the 2003 event and didn’t qualify. There were sixty of us here and only eight qualified. The fans are the best part of it. Up until COVID we were selling out every venue that we went to.

“(Kyle) and I would always see each other outside of the track (Irwindale) in the early days being California residents. He’s a super nice guy and has always been hard-working and a humble guy. It’s nice to see someone who has that personality out here.

“Nine out of 10 drivers that are out here are running a private team. You still have drivers wrenching on their cars. I still wrench on my car."

Vaughn Gittin, Jr. – 2020 Pro Champion: “I’ve been here, like Kyle, doing this for 17 years. That’s a long time. I remember the days when the tracks wouldn’t even let us be there. They would say, ‘you want to do what?..... nah, you can go in the parking lot’. Now they’re begging us to come.

“The progression doesn’t end. The things that are happening on the tracks these days are beyond what any of us ever imagined possible with these cars.”

“That’s a cool thing about drifting. It’s a very skilled game and you can have the teams that are full time like our team or the Forsbergs’ or Papadakis’ and you can also have the teams like Kyle Mohan that come out and put their blood, sweat and tears in this thing. We all started the way in what Kyle is doing. The way he runs his program is the way we all started. Kyle has continued to run his own business and do this. My hat always goes off to him. With both of us being fathers now and he is a killer and a phenomenal driver. For him, he’s having fun and enjoying his passion. I think he has the opportunity if he wanted, to continue to take it to the next level, but it would require him to take focus off of other things.

“For me, seeing Kyle out here only the last two rounds, it’s like ‘hell yeah, you’re still doing it buddy’. People don’t realize whether you win, lose or draw, just being here and having a car that you can line up against any of these cars, and no one has any idea the effort except those that do it.”