Thursday - Alex Taylor Learns To Drift

Alex Taylor arrived at Ford Fest with one main goal in mind: to learn how to drift properly. She already has a huge list of accomplishments under her belt, such as recently winning RMRW Race Week 2.0's Unlimited class, being a Drag Week veteran, being a YouTuber, a content creator, and an industry personality. But she also has a particular drive to her...if she doesn't know how to do something, she will dive right in, learn everything she can, and continue to learn until she is fully capable in whatever the subject matter is. So if drifting isn't her strong suit coming into Ford Fest, she will at least be competent once she leaves Beech Bend. On Thursday, while participants were registering for their passes and NMRA racers were making some early test-and-tune laps down the dragstrip, Taylor teamed up with the Fun Haver team and took out Vaughn Gittin, Jr.'s "Play Toy" 1990 Ford Mustang GT and Chelsea DeNofa's for some practice in the wide-open, fully paved area of Beech Bend's oval track. With DeNofa offering driving tips, Taylor learned the fine aspects of car control when the car is, by definition, out of control.

Said Taylor, "Drifting was totally different than I expected. But I loved it! I already want to try doing it again. Two hours is not enough to master anything by any means, but I learned how much I didn't know, and Chelsea was a great teacher. It's amazing how much more patience is required than I expected. I went into it thinking it was just a lot of aggressive driving but it's just as much about patience. Anytime I can learn something about car control, I'm down!"