Matt Coffman Lands Season Best Final 4 Appearance at Formula Drift NJ

12 jun 2017

Matt Coffman drifts the 30-degree banking of Wall Speedway at Formula Drift Round 4

Matt Coffman piloted his Coffman Racing Nissan S13 to a Final 4 appearance at the fourth round of the Formula Drift season, and currently sits in the top 10 in points at the halfway point of the series. Coffman, who qualified in a career-best 6th position, was unfortunately disallowed from competing in the Final 4 due to not completing repairs to his car before his 5-minute competition timeout expired. While repairs had been completed, the car was not fired up and driving towards grid when the time expired, instead firing up just seconds after the clock struck zero. Coffman is currently sitting in a career-best overall standings spot, tied for ninth place 123 points behind series leader James Deane.

Thursday’s practice session and Friday’s qualifying session both went smoothly for the team, with the 93-point qualifying run being a career high both in score and in placing for Coffman. The 30-degree banking of Wall Speedway is one of the most dynamic courses on the schedule, and a track that many of the top teams struggle with. Coffman Racing was able to setup the car to handle the difficult track conditions well, and Coffman was feeling more comfortable with each pass. The tandem ladder would pair Coffman up with Kyle Mohan in the Top 32 round of tandem, a matchup that allowed Coffman to showcase his steering angle and superior tire smoke in earning the unanimous decision from the judges. Prior to the Top 16 tandem round, Coffman would appear in his third Opening Ceremony of the season, matching the number of Top 16 appearances in the entire 2016 season.

Matt Coffman eliminated Robbie Nishida's Nissan GTR in the Top 16 round at Formula Drift NJ

Coffman’s Top 16 battle against Robbie Nishida went much like this Top 32 battle with a pair of clean runs that resulted in all three judges voting in Coffman’s favor. As Coffman lined up with Jeff Jones for his Top 8 battle, he felt as confident as ever. Mirroring his previous two tandem battles, Coffman laid down a pair of consistent tire-shredding runs that met the criteria laid out by the three Formula Drift judges over the weekend and again earned the unanimous decision from the judges. The team was excited to hit their second career Top 4 appearance, but was hungry to see their driver step on the podium for the first time.

Matt Coffman awaits the Top 16 opening ceremonies at Wall Speedway

As Coffman pulled to the line for his Final 4 battle against Odi Bakchis, he noticed an anomaly in the fuel pressure. Simultaneously, start line officials alerted him to fluids leaking from the car, so Coffman called his lone competition timeout of the weekend. The team quickly diagnosed and replaced the problematic part, then buttoned up the car for the Final 4 battle.

As the clock on the competition timeout expired, all repairs had been completed. Unfortunately, the kill switch for the car had been flipped by the tow truck crew, which caused a slight delay in getting the car fired up. Upon locating this issue, the switch was flipped, the car fired right up, and Coffman made his way to the start line. He was then informed that since his car was not running and en route to the start line when time was expired, he was not allowed to continue. While Coffman was not happy with the decision, he respects that the rule was followed to the extent that it is currently written. The team was still satisfied with the Top 4 finish, especially since Coffman had retained unanimous decisions in all of his tandem battles leading up to the Final 4 round.

Looking ahead, Coffman and team are excited to take the strong results to the next round of Formula Drift, which takes place at Autodrome St. Eustache just outside of Montreal, Quebec, Canada.