Inside the World of Professional Drifting & High-Speed Racing | Amanda Sorensen DSH #1241

Speaker 1 Are accidents pretty common in this?

Speaker 2 Um, yeah, we are driving within inches of each other. So, like,

Speaker 2 typically, we have a brand new like paint scheme on the car, like, for the first round. And by not even 10-20 minutes into your first practice session, you have like tire marks on your door.

Speaker 2 We're driving, like, so close to each other that it's like you're rubbing

Speaker 2 like the tires on like the front fenders, or like you're getting your rear bumpers close to the wall.

Speaker 2 And they call it, like, you know, you ride the wall and you leave the paint mark on the white like concrete barrier.

Speaker 2 so saying your heart must be racing yeah we uh we go through a lot of taillights um gosh a lot of bumpers there's like definitely not like bumper budget is like another thing

Speaker 1 All right, guys, we got Amanda on today, professional drifter. Thanks for coming on.

Speaker 2 Yeah, thanks for having me.

Speaker 1 Absolutely.

Speaker 1 I do not know much about drifting, so I'd love to just hear the basics, how you got into this and everything.

Speaker 2 Yeah, drifting is actually a very unique sport because it's more of like a competition style. It's not like who is the first person across the finish line with like typical racing.

Speaker 2 There's a lot of like mentality training that goes into it because you really just have one shot or you go home.

Speaker 2 But it's kind of like surfing or similar to like ice skating. There's three judges.
You have a line, angle, style.

Speaker 2 And we're driving on these tracks that are about like a quarter of a mile

Speaker 2 and we're driving on the NASCAR tracks typically or like a road racing track, like Atlanta. Um,

Speaker 2 so these are like the same tracks that like a lot of the IMSA circuit goes on, or NASCAR,

Speaker 2 and they'll put out these clipping points, so like an outside zone, an inside zone.

Speaker 2 And like, the goal is you basically we get up to speed, so speeds anywhere from like 80 to 120, going in a straight line where you have full traction, and then you break traction and go sideways.

Speaker 2 Holy crap!

Speaker 1 That's not scary.

Speaker 2 You have to fill these zones. So, outside zones, getting your rear bumper as close to the wall as possible.
Damn.

Speaker 2 Or your front bumper, like as close to the clipping point as possible, while maintaining your line angle and then style, which is broken down into like fluidity and commitment.

Speaker 2 Like, how committed are you? How good does it look? Is it graceful? Is it choppy? Like, every small adjustment

Speaker 2 is a deduction in points. So there's 100 points that you can get in qualifying.
And then from there, we go into competition style. And

Speaker 2 top 16 drivers go into main competition, and typically, there's anywhere from 40 to 50 competitors that show up on a weekend.

Speaker 1 Wow, that's a lot. You said you only got one attempt, or how does that work?

Speaker 2 Yeah, so basically, it's a bracket-style competition,

Speaker 2 and in order to determine your bracket, you have a qualifying

Speaker 2 with qualifying. You have,

Speaker 2 and it's kind of different in every circuit.

Speaker 2 Some of them are, they want you to battle it out to where the top 32 drivers battled for those positions,

Speaker 2 meaning like they did a proper tandem style competition. Tandem, which means you have a lead driver and a follow driver.

Speaker 2 The lead drivers performing what they would call a perfect qualifying run, maintaining line angle style, you know, like how we talked about those outside zones, those inside zones.

Speaker 2 Yeah, the follow driver has to be a mere image of what the lead driver is doing.

Speaker 2 So, like, it's crazy because everything happens so fast. It's so important that you study your other components, like, all of your other competition.

Speaker 2 And you want to know, okay, how is this person going to initiate? How are they going to adjust? At what speeds do they enter? How do they enter?

Speaker 2 And as a follow driver, you want to mirror them. So then, once they go and do their lead run, you swap, go back to the line, and

Speaker 2 then the then now it's your turn. You do a lead run, and your other person who's following does a follow run.
That's insane. So, and the crazy thing about it all is

Speaker 2 each run that we do, the reason why it's kind of so short is because we go through a set of tires every two laps. Oh my gosh.

Speaker 2 So, you get your lead run, and then you get your follow run on that set of tires.

Speaker 1 Because the rubber's just burning off, right?

Speaker 2 Yeah, exactly.

Speaker 1 That's crazy. Sounds expensive, too.

Speaker 2 Yeah,

Speaker 2 tire budgets are definitely a thing. Damn, that's nuts.

Speaker 1 You much prefer a lead, I'd imagine, right, than a follower.

Speaker 2 Honestly, I think in competition, it's kind of it depends. When you lead first,

Speaker 2 you are

Speaker 2 more subject to

Speaker 2 if you make a mistake in the lead line, obviously your person who's following is going to be affected by your mistake, right?

Speaker 2 So if you're leading first, you have the most pressure. Because if I mess up in my run, then I know I really have to push in my follow run.

Speaker 2 Whereas if I follow first and the other guy makes a mistake, I know that I don't have to do anything crazy or wow to win the judge is over in my lead run.

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Speaker 1 That makes sense. So it's almost good to go second then.

Speaker 2 I know. Follow first.
Some people have different preferences. It really just depends on the track, like who you're battling.
Some people, there's a lot of like,

Speaker 2 there are some drivers that love to play games. So, you know, they'll hesitate on the takeoff or they'll be doing a certain type of

Speaker 2 initiation and entry every single time during practice, but then as soon as it gets to competition, they'll change it. So, like, you know, there's very,

Speaker 2 there's a lot of strategies that go on behind.

Speaker 1 I like that because I'm a chess player.

Speaker 2 Yeah, exactly. Kind of similar.

Speaker 1 So there's some mental games going on, too.

Speaker 2 It's not just about the race. So you got to really just, you cannot react to your lead driver.
You have to anticipate your lead driver. You know, similar with chess.

Speaker 2 I'm not a big chess fan, but like I've never really played chess, to be honest.

Speaker 2 Assuming it's the same.

Speaker 1 It's a good game because it's all skill-based. Yeah.
I'm not a fan of luck.

Speaker 2 Yeah, exactly. There's a lot of skill.

Speaker 2 Back to what I was saying, though, with like, you have one chance. You have one chance to rely on your car to also work

Speaker 2 You know so like it's huge and it's crucial that the preparation that goes into preparing for the competition is very perfect

Speaker 2 My team that I have I have a team of quite a few people and you know we have our engineers We have our tire changers We have our fuelers but even that like our crew chief like I could go out and my car could overheat at the line.

Speaker 2 Wow. And I can call a five-minute timeout and I have have five minutes to fix the car.

Speaker 2 Has that happen to you?

Speaker 2 I've definitely had to call five before.

Speaker 2 When you call a five, it's typically when you're on the spot, like up, ready to go and compete.

Speaker 2 Or possibly you do your lead run, you find a problem with the car, something happens, you want to call five.

Speaker 2 You're not allowed to touch the car until the technical directors are there and they start the clock at five minutes. If you touch the car, you're automatically disqualified.

Speaker 2 Holy that's when your time starts.

Speaker 2 The preparation that goes on behind the scenes with pre-season prep is like, say we do get into a crash in my lead run, you know, and my guys have five minutes to fix the shock in the front arm.

Speaker 2 I have these spare boxes that are full complete sets of bolt-on, bolt-off

Speaker 2 for each corner of the car. So typically in our trailer, we have my car as well as my brother's car.
We have two full sets to build two completely different cars. That's insane.

Speaker 2 In five minutes? Five minutes. And our crew guys will practice that.

Speaker 2 Obviously, there is a point in time where you're like, okay, this is unreasonable to do like a motor change in five minutes.

Speaker 2 You know, like, you just have to call it, but there is that kind of crucial factor.

Speaker 2 But, like, as much as you can prepare for those moments, the better off you are because, you know, you don't, there's really no luck. It's more of like the preparation and the skill.

Speaker 1 Yeah, that's insane. Are accidents pretty common in this?

Speaker 2 Yeah, we are driving within inches of each other. So, like,

Speaker 2 typically we have a brand new like paint scheme on the car like for the first round. And by not even 10, 20 minutes into your first practice session, you have like tire marks on your door.

Speaker 2 We're driving so close to each other that it's like you're rubbing

Speaker 2 the tires on like the front fenders or like you're getting your rear bumpers close to the wall.

Speaker 2 And they call it like, you know, you ride the wall and you leave the paint mark on the white, like concrete barrier. So

Speaker 1 your heart must be racing.

Speaker 2 Yeah, we go through a lot of taillights.

Speaker 2 Gosh. A lot of bumpers.
There's like definitely not like bumper budget is like another thing.

Speaker 1 Yeah, you gotta have crazy mental resilience for this sport, I'd imagine.

Speaker 2 Yeah, it's very, um, it's very

Speaker 2 like mind-challenging, I would say. A lot of other drivers,

Speaker 2 I personally feel like I've driven in many different forms of motorsports and many different like disciplines. So for me, drifting is honestly the hardest when it came to mental preparation.

Speaker 2 Like, I figure skated for 10 years, and like every single time I would practice my routine over and over and over again, at least one of my jumps or spins would not be how I wanted it to be during competition.

Speaker 2 You know, so it's kind of similar to when I'm drifting.

Speaker 2 It's like you can prepare as much as you possibly can, but when you're actually like get up to the line, the nerves are applied, the pressure's applied, that's when it really matters.

Speaker 2 Like, that's when the mental training can kind of really come into play.

Speaker 1 I'm the same way in basketball with free throws. I'll make 20 in a a row.
Exactly. Yeah.
And then the game starts. I'll miss every single free throw.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 It's crazy how the sport can do that to you, right?

Speaker 2 Well, and for me, it's crazy too, just because, like, I had like an I was able to see how, like, my younger childhood, like, sports that I played in, really translated into like what I'm doing as a career now.

Speaker 2 And like, with figure skating, like, it wasn't up until I was about maybe 14, 15, and I was at a drift competition, and it just clicked on like one day, and I was like, it's no different than a practice room.

Speaker 2 Like, why am am I getting so worked up about it?

Speaker 2 You know,

Speaker 2 I found ways to actually calm my body down. I love cold plunging.
And, like, when I first started cold plunging, I used to be like.

Speaker 2 freaking out, you know, like you get in the water and you're like, this is so hard. Yeah.
But you kind of find a way to bring your heart rate down.

Speaker 2 You know, you focus on one thing, you slow your breath down, you slow your heart rate down.

Speaker 2 Like same concept when it comes to, you know, pulling up to the line or going out to skate in the competition.

Speaker 1 Yeah, that's probably important to have that method of kind of decompressing, decompressing, right?

Speaker 2 Yeah, exactly.

Speaker 1 Before a big race, and you've raced in some big ones lately. You just made the podium at Formula Drift, right?

Speaker 2 Yes, first female to podium in Formula Drift. That's incredible.
Making history. I've been working at that goal for about three years.
Congrats. So it was very emotional.

Speaker 2 Emotional accomplishment.

Speaker 2 There's no female in pro, so I'm in pro spec. There's four ranks, similar to NASCAR.

Speaker 2 You know how, like in NASCAR, you have ARCA, Trucks, Xfinity, and Cup Series.

Speaker 2 with Formula Drift or the drifting scene. You have like a grassroots level, which is more of like lower horsepower cars.
You know, you could bring like your mom's car up and try to drift it.

Speaker 2 And then you have like your pro-am level.

Speaker 2 And in order to move into the like up the ranks, you have to place top three in the championship. So that's for a full season, which means like events anywhere between four to eight rounds.

Speaker 2 Winning that championship and placing top three. So there's pro-am, pro-spec, and then Pro.
So I'm in Pro Spec, and I'm the highest ranking in ProSpec for females, but no

Speaker 2 female has ever made it to Pro. Wow.
Like in the world.

Speaker 2 So

Speaker 2 for me, my goal is to be, you know, that one. And like, I don't know how I ended up in this sport, to be honest.
Like, my brother and I just kind of really gravitated towards it.

Speaker 2 We love the idea of it. We have great support there.
We love the atmosphere.

Speaker 2 And, you know, it's more of like a family hobby turned career type situation. But my goal is to be the first female in pro.

Speaker 1 That's impressive. I've had Danica on here, I think.

Speaker 2 Oh, really?

Speaker 1 Was she the first for NASCAR for NASCAR female?

Speaker 2 I don't know about like first, but she definitely was like an icon. Yeah.

Speaker 1 I remember watching her on ESPN as a kid. Yeah.
Yeah, she was a legend. Yeah, it amazes me how people like her and you are like, there's not many female competitors, right, in this scene at all.

Speaker 2 Yeah, there's, we have one other female in my division.

Speaker 2 Internationally, there's about,

Speaker 2 I would say, at a higher level, kind of like similar to my level, there's only about like five or six females.

Speaker 2 Damn. And I couldn't even put a number on how many males.

Speaker 1 Yeah, probably thousands.

Speaker 2 Yeah, exactly.

Speaker 1 And do you keep them separate? Like, are you friends with them or do you view them as competition?

Speaker 2 No, we're all friends. Oh, you're all friends? Everyone, that's what I love about the drifting community.

Speaker 2 And like, even when I go to a practice event, like I'm going to one this Saturday, and like you pull up to a practice event, and it's so accessible to the the general public, like the drifting events and just drifting in general, that there is such a large female audience there.

Speaker 2 Really? So a lot of the females support each other. Over on the East Coast, they have this like club called Drift Kitchen, and it's like at least 20 females that have drift cars like in one state.

Speaker 2 And so

Speaker 2 a lot of the girls support each other. Everyone loves to just go out and like drive with your friends.
Like that's the concept of drifting.

Speaker 1 That's cool. Is it a new sport? Like how long has this been around drifting?

Speaker 2 So Four Meal Drift came to the United States in 2003. Okay.

Speaker 2 And I, like, was one years old, like, at that time. But, um, it's crazy because I didn't really follow it until about COVID time, like, 2019, I would say.
Um,

Speaker 2 but it came to the United States in 2003, and it's the fastest-growing motorsport in the USA right now.

Speaker 1 That's impressive.

Speaker 2 So, um, for me, I have really just been able to go and travel the world and see the other drift series other than just Formula Drift here. So there's like Driftmasters in Europe.

Speaker 2 Their last round is in Poland in a stadium that sells out with 60,000 people. Damn.
So it's crazy because I didn't really understand the potential of this sport until I had gone international with it.

Speaker 2 I also didn't understand my social media following until I had realized how huge it is, like internationally, in Brazil, in Europe, in Japan. Like the scenes over there are insane.

Speaker 1 So, you got a big international following then?

Speaker 2 Yeah, exactly. And I didn't understand that, you know, like until I went to like a true, like, cultured car event in our seas.

Speaker 1 Was that the Saudi Arabia trip you took?

Speaker 2 That was different. That was like a rally race that I was doing.
So, I race in this series called Extreme E. There's 10 races.
We race in five different remote locations in an electric race car.

Speaker 1 That's crazy. Electric race car.

Speaker 2 All-wheel drive, electric race car.

Speaker 2 I raced for GMC and our car was like a replica of a Hummer EV. I actually dailied a Hummer EV, which I thought was like pretty great.

Speaker 2 Like I really wasn't into electric cars until I dailied one and I was like, okay, this is kinda cool.

Speaker 2 But yeah, I got to work a lot with the team on developing the front to rear power.

Speaker 2 There's so much you can do with the technology with having an electric race car that I had no idea about.

Speaker 1 I didn't know they were that advanced.

Speaker 2 Yeah, like turning inputs. Like if my steering wheel is turned at like 10, 15 degrees, I can distribute the power front rear to a certain ratio.

Speaker 2 You know, you can't do that with a combustion engine.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 2 So there was a lot of like development that I worked with, with the team there.

Speaker 1 Some of them are fast. I think, what is it, the Cybertrucks, like 1.8 seconds, 0 to 60 now?

Speaker 2 Yeah, they're crazy.

Speaker 1 That's really fast. That must be faster than most like non-electric cars, I'd imagine.

Speaker 2 I definitely think like the electric with combustion engine, like the hybrid

Speaker 2 prototype cars that they're doing, are like insane insane because obviously you have the torque. You know, you can't have that torque without the electric

Speaker 2 motor. Yeah.

Speaker 1 How often are you doing rallies?

Speaker 2 This year I'm actually taking off. The Xtreme E series has been put on a pause right now.
They're developing a hydrogen car. Damn.
It's the first FIA licensed hydrogen racing series called Extreme H.

Speaker 2 As soon as they come out with the full schedule for Extreme H, Extreme E will more than likely be a taglong series. So I'll get back into that stuff once they launch all the season details.

Speaker 1 My buddy came on the show two years ago and predicted hydrogen cars blowing up.

Speaker 2 And then all the comments were...

Speaker 1 Yeah, all the comments were like, no way, like hating on them.

Speaker 2 Yeah, it's crazy. You don't like them, though? I've never tested one, if I'm being honest.
Like, it'll be my first time going and driving a hydrogen car.

Speaker 2 But also, that was like, I never drove an electric car. And then I drove an electric race car for my first time in Saudi Arabia.

Speaker 2 You know, so it was definitely the craziest thing for me to get used to was we're racing, you know, in Saudi Arabia, we were racing over kind of where the neon project is actually.

Speaker 2 And

Speaker 2 I just couldn't get over the concept of like no noise. I could hear everything.
I could hear the shocks compressing. I could hear the sand hitting the like the fenders.
Like

Speaker 2 I was just like, I cannot like, is the car breaking? It feels weird. It's happening, you know, like, so there was for me, I was just kind of like, that was the biggest change.

Speaker 2 Um, is just you know being used to hearing everything that's happening with the car yeah exactly if you go 200 in a gas car you're hearing everything yeah well i mean you're hearing the motor right you're not hearing like you're not really hearing like the shocks compressing or like a rock hit the side of the car so like for me i was just like okay we gotta really get used to that

Speaker 1 have you heard that race across the u.s

Speaker 1 um is that in like more of a sports car uh it's like the fastest person to get from cali to new york or something i've seen something like that yeah that one is so interesting to me.

Speaker 2 I've never actually followed it, but.

Speaker 1 People get arrested everywhere.

Speaker 2 It's crazy.

Speaker 2 I personally, like, I drove like a grandma on the road. Like, I didn't like follow the speed limit, but like.
Wow. Because, like, you know, I just like, I don't know.

Speaker 2 So for me, sometimes when I'm driving, like, I see someone blow by me at like going 110. I'm like, is that necessary?

Speaker 2 Like, I just understand the fact that I'm on the road with other drivers who, like, you know, you get into the car with like a friend in the passenger seat and like they don't really know how to drive.

Speaker 2 And you're like, you can't put that person in the same environment as someone else doing 150.

Speaker 1 that's so funny to me how you have that mindset yeah i was just like professional driver me so nervous i got pulled over a few days ago actually oh really 97 nice in a 65 in a 65 it to be fair it just turned from 75 to 65.

Speaker 1 okay and they never tell you like when that change happens so yeah but yeah i deserve that i pulled away i pulled off so quick he was like uh oh thanks for pulling over that fast yeah i i saw him i mean he got me on the gun yeah Have you been pulled over?

Speaker 2 I have about like five speeding tickets. Okay.

Speaker 1 I feel like it's so easy to speed though.

Speaker 2 Honestly, I agree. And for me, my speeding tickets actually, majority of them came from California towing a trailer.

Speaker 2 Towing a trailer. In California, you have to do 55 towing the trailer.
Wow. Towards like everyone else is driving 80 around.
You are like 70. So yeah, I've been caught a few times in California.

Speaker 1 My U-Haul trip from Cali to Vegas felt forever.

Speaker 2 It's, yeah, it's very annoying.

Speaker 1 Yeah, they only hit like 65, I think, the U-Hauls. Yeah, and everyone else is going 80 to 90 past two.

Speaker 2 I know, and you're just like, this makes the trip feel 10 times longer.

Speaker 1 Turned into a six and a half hour trip from Cali.

Speaker 2 Yeah, it's crazy.

Speaker 1 Yeah, that sucked. How was Scotland? I've always wanted to go to Scotland.

Speaker 2 Scotland's good. Scotland, I've actually been to twice now.

Speaker 2 Actually, three times. So, Scotland is where our second stop was for the Extreme E-Series.
We were racing in an abandoned mine. So, it was was an abandoned coal mine.
That's cool.

Speaker 2 It was about like 700 feet into the ground, I would say. Like, it was pretty insane.
Wow. We were racing in and out of this mine.
So they set up a track in the inside of it.

Speaker 2 Then they had a nice little like outside track on the outside of it. And Scotland is crazy because

Speaker 2 the weather is never reliable. You know, one day on a Saturday, we raced.
It was super sunny.

Speaker 2 Sunday, we got to the track at like 7 a.m.

Speaker 2 There was so much fog and we couldn't start the race the live stream had to get pushed back by like a couple hours because our um medivac helicopter wasn't able to get in wow so um that was unfortunate Xtreme was like live um aired live so a lot of the live streaming stuff was very important but unfortunately you know like we showed up and there was nothing we could do with the weather how many people are on those live streams usually did them out um well so it's actually aired on TV internationally Oh, wow.

Speaker 2 So it's on the networks.

Speaker 2 Don't ask me the channels.

Speaker 2 The unfortunate part is it doesn't have the largest following here in America. So majority of the time, like my family or friends that were watching, it would come on the channels at like 11 p.m.

Speaker 2 or like 2 a.m. You know, so like one episode for 30 minutes, the other episode for 30 minutes for like a Saturday, Sunday.

Speaker 2 And, but it was huge in Europe. A lot of the drivers were from Europe.
A lot of the drivers were actually like, we had Sebastian Loeb, who is like an insane rally car driver.

Speaker 2 Someone like Tanner Faust, who is also rally cars, you know, off-road. So I was racing against like the top-level drivers.
Wow.

Speaker 2 But a lot of them come from Europe. Yeah.
So it was huge over in Europe.

Speaker 1 I've noticed that with F1 Vegas, it's not as big here as F1 in Europe, right?

Speaker 2 Yeah, exactly. And I think that's just because if you look back like 20, 30 years and it's like NASCAR was what was popular here.

Speaker 2 You You know, we're kind of in that phase where I personally think NASCAR is fading out.

Speaker 2 You still see a lot of like brands spending insane amount of money there,

Speaker 2 but there is, you know, like I said, the drifting community is growing. And

Speaker 2 now we have F1 in Miami, F1 in Vegas, F1 in Texas. So like, I think we're starting to get more of like a diverse feel for motorsports other than just NASCAR in America.

Speaker 1 Yeah, I don't hear as much about NASCAR as I used to. I'll say that.

Speaker 2 Yeah, for sure. The stands are like not packed.
Like, I went to a NASCAR race and I watched the truck series, and there was like very few people in the game. Really?

Speaker 2 And I'm just like, it's crazy to me. Like, wow.

Speaker 2 And, like, the money that the brands are spending there, like, millions and millions of dollars, like, easily $7 million for like a tier two sponsor NASCAR.

Speaker 1 Rap. Just to be on TV on the car.

Speaker 2 Just to be on the car. And it's like,

Speaker 2 you know, like, there's other motorsports where they are doing larger numbers. Like, drifting is second to NASCAR in, um,

Speaker 2 like, their following.

Speaker 2 And so, or sorry, I know drifting is second most followed on social media. And that's with all American motorsports.
So, like, IMSA, like, sports car racing, that kind of stuff. Wow.

Speaker 2 Um, but, like, our audience is millennials, right? Like, we're on social media, watching on live streams, um, towards, like, NASCAR is more of, like, they're on the network.

Speaker 2 So, like, the older generation.

Speaker 1 Old school, yeah. Exactly.
So, more money in that that space, basically.

Speaker 2 Yeah, I definitely would say, like, not as much money as like an IMSA or an F1, but NASCAR is just, I don't know.

Speaker 1 Hopefully, the money gets there and drifting. I know with pickleball, they're still trying to figure out how to make money, too.

Speaker 2 Yeah, I actually just competed in a celebrity pickleball tournament. Oh, you did? Yeah, with I co-hosted the first day with Mario Lopez.
Okay.

Speaker 2 And on the second day, I actually competed in the pickleball tournament. Damn.
Let me tell you, like, I play pickleball with my friends just just down the street as like a fun thing to do.

Speaker 2 But to see the brands that we were able to bring on board, like DoorDash, for example,

Speaker 2 it was just crazy to see like how fast this sport's growing. I just went to Drinking and Pickleball down the street, like here in Vegas, and the thing's packed.

Speaker 2 Like to get the bay, it was like I had to book two days in advance.

Speaker 1 I didn't know that was open yet. Yes.
I need to get out there.

Speaker 2 I love pickleball.

Speaker 1 Was that the one with Andy Roddick?

Speaker 1 And Andre Agassi, or was that a different pickleball event?

Speaker 2 I'm not sure. Oh, no, no, no.
This was different.

Speaker 2 It's called Celebrity Pickleball Bash. We had like Terrell Owens, Brandy Chastain,

Speaker 2 so some fun like celebrities, and then we had a few professional pickleball players.

Speaker 1 Nice. Was Ben Johns there?

Speaker 1 He's the number one, I think. I don't know anyone else out there for the first time.

Speaker 2 Honestly, I was co-hosting the first day. There was so much going on.
It was my first time co-hosting.

Speaker 2 I've never done anything like that. So

Speaker 2 I was just following the script.

Speaker 2 The the script was going off like you know we're trying to get back on center like it was great but yeah pickleball is fun it's um it's a hard sport actually people think it's easy but it's not like I think it's so like entry level like accessible but then as soon as you start playing with the pros you feel like there's levels oh yeah for sure yeah and my issue is I'm so tall so I want to hit everything yeah yeah yeah like dunk them like yeah because it's going out but my instinct is to hit it some slams on the ground because I used to play tennis oh okay okay yeah

Speaker 2 you ever play tennis? Uh, no. So, like, this was my first time playing.
Like, I'm not even gonna ping pong, you know. So, I was like, I'm gonna go on stage and go play

Speaker 2 pickleball in front of all these people in a theater. And it was like NBA All-Star weekend.

Speaker 2 So, you know, we were in the theater in San Francisco, and I was just like, all right, you know, like, I'll be the laugh of the show. I'm not gonna be the pro, that's for sure.

Speaker 2 Not embracing it before I go out there.

Speaker 1 How'd you do?

Speaker 2 Um, my T-boss.

Speaker 2 So, you know, it was fine. I think

Speaker 2 we were, it was me and Hunter Pence. I don't know.
Um, he's a

Speaker 2 former

Speaker 2 basketball,

Speaker 2 no, former baseball player, baseball guy, yeah. And so, him and I were teammates.
He's very competitive.

Speaker 2 He definitely held most of the weight for our team.

Speaker 1 But, um, I've seen those videos where the guy's playing with the girl and the guy will just hit all the shots.

Speaker 2 I was playing with against Brandy Trestain and

Speaker 2 also Uriah, who is like a former UFC. Uriah Hall? Yeah.
Yeah, he was on the show. Yeah, so

Speaker 2 that's who I was playing against. But like, Brandy just honestly, like, bullied me, like, so bad.
Like, he was just like, we're winning this.

Speaker 2 All right.

Speaker 1 Well, you probably had, you probably have really fast reaction time, right?

Speaker 2 Yeah, but honestly, like, when we were on the stage, there were so many lights, I couldn't see the ball coming. Oh, wow.

Speaker 2 And I was like, I don't know if I'm like silly or what it is, but also everyone played the day prior. Everyone was able to

Speaker 2 do it. You know, like, whatever.
So, it was a fun time, though. That's what it was about.

Speaker 1 You did some stuff with the Air Force I saw on your YouTube.

Speaker 2 Yeah, so I'm actually sponsored by the Air Force. Wow.
I've been working with them. This is going to be year four working with them.

Speaker 2 So we are actually,

Speaker 2 we do a lot with their recruiting team.

Speaker 2 We really like to, you know, highlight the concept of in the Air Force there's jets, right?

Speaker 2 And with the jets, there's a crew chief, tire change, your fuel, or mechanics, and that's very similar to our race team.

Speaker 2 So it's a very good crossover collab that we always do, like highlighting the similarities between the racing industry and like the Air Force and the military.

Speaker 2 Like one team, one goal type situation. Yeah.

Speaker 2 So I've been fortunate enough to do insane things with them. I went and flew on an F-16 with them with the Thunderbirds.
Pulled 9.1 Gs.

Speaker 1 That's the fastest jet, right?

Speaker 2 Yes, insane. I did some canine training with them.
I have worked with them on doing some like ground training stuff with their

Speaker 2 team that goes in with the other like military when they're going into like to a place or a base like and they're not allowed to bring any guns they will be the people like protect protecting like everyone as far as like training like chokeholds and like oh hand-to-hand stuff self-defense like that kind of stuff um so that was fun i changed a tire on a carrier plane that's impressive i can't even change a tire on a car so yeah fun everything is very book to book when it comes to how they do things which is like similar to our race team.

Speaker 2 Yeah. My tire changer is similar concept just to their airplane tire changer.
So the most recent thing I've done with them was skydiving.

Speaker 2 I jumped out of an airplane, which I never thought I was going to do. I honestly, like, so I fly planes.
Yeah.

Speaker 2 And I'm not, I don't have my license for my private pilot's license, but I have about like 45 hours.

Speaker 2 So I just haven't done the ground school. But regardless of that, I am like, I'm never jumping out of a perfectly perfectly good airplane, you know?

Speaker 2 And they're like, hey, do you want to go jump with the Wings of Blue in Colorado at the Air Force Academy? And I was like, if I say no, like, I'm turning on a one-time offer. That sounds crazy.

Speaker 2 We went and jumped with their Wings of Blue team, which is their demo team that like jump into a lot of their events with like the smoke on their feet.

Speaker 2 So I did a tandem jump, and I honestly would love to go again and do skydiving. And I want to go get certified.
Dan, like a dummy. It's so much fun.
I love like adrenaline rushing things.

Speaker 2 things um the concept of like you know

Speaker 2 you really could it could go wrong fast um i think is similar to anything else that we do and as long as you're prepared you know like you kind of limit that fear of it but i'm definitely gonna be going and jumping wow so you weren't shitting your pants during that i was i totally was until i jumped out of the airplane and i'm terrified of heights like i will not even cliff dive like i don't like jumping off cliffs i don't jump off the waterfall into the pool like i'm terrified of that wow um it makes me sick to my stomach.

Speaker 2 But when I stood on the edge, he was like, okay, like, take another step. And I was like, what? But, like, for me, it was more just, like, the thought of, like, falling out before I was ready.

Speaker 2 You know what I mean? But, like, there was really no, like, time to be ready. Like, he was ready.
So, that didn't matter, you know?

Speaker 2 But once you jumped out of the plane, like, it was so peaceful. Um,

Speaker 2 I

Speaker 2 find like it was very similar to, like, just, like, riding a Harley or, like, riding a motorcycle. Like, you know, you have a lot of, like, wind in your face.
Um,

Speaker 2 so it was peaceful, though. Like, it was so cool.
Once you like deploy the shoot, you're kind of just floating around. We did some tricks, like we did a backflip.
Oh, my God.

Speaker 1 On your first job, you did a backflip.

Speaker 2 So, I mean, it was the wings of blue teams. Like, full trust in him.

Speaker 1 Yeah, they've probably done thousands of those.

Speaker 2 Insane amount of jumps. And we were at the Air Force Academy in Colorado.
So, we actually went up in the plane with quite a few other kids that were taking skydiving as an elective.

Speaker 2 So, they that's an elective? Yeah,

Speaker 2 in the air force, you can choose like your electives. And

Speaker 2 the only rule that I found out about, though, that I was like, there's no way. There was a guy that was in our plane, and he was like, I'm jumping out for my first time.
But he was by himself. Really?

Speaker 2 So, in the Air Force, like when you take this academy, like the Air Force Academy in Colorado, when you choose this elective, they train you. And they do a like the training facility is insane.

Speaker 2 You know, like there's rappels coming out of the roof, like simulating more of like skydiving for your first time. Got it.

Speaker 2 But he trained for a certain amount of weeks, and then he went up in the plane, and that was his first time jumping. So the whole idea is to trust your process, trust in yourself.

Speaker 2 And like he packed his own shoe and everything. Like he jumped out of the plane.
I'm like, this is your first time jumping out. Like there's no way I would jump out.

Speaker 2 But I mean, I guess with that training, it's like, it's crazy. But yeah, there was like a group of students up there and that was their elective.
That's it. It's skydiving.

Speaker 1 First time by yourself. Because I think if you do it like out of place, you need to jump with like someone

Speaker 2 what, a hundred times or something? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 Oh my gosh. Wow.
The Air Force does great training.

Speaker 2 Shout out to them. Yeah, it is.
Their training facilities are top-notch. And like, I, when I toured this Air Force Academy,

Speaker 2 you know, there's so much that's going on there. They have reaction time training.
A lot of the training, actually, I was like, wow, I could use this for my own benefit, you know?

Speaker 2 The facilities are so nice.

Speaker 2 As far as like, the electives, they have so many electives. They have, it's so focused around like your physical fitness.
And, like, I'm so into that stuff.

Speaker 2 And, like, you know, just learning about the body and, like, that kind of stuff. So, they have, you know, pools and sky like high dive jumping and

Speaker 2 just a lot of cool like features. Simulators that will simulate, like, I went into a simulator and simulated hypoxia.
Really? So, for like when the jets

Speaker 2 obviously begin to lose cabin press pressure at a certain altitude, you know, you're you have a loss of oxygen. Your body goes into hypoxia.

Speaker 2 So, Brandon and I simulated hypoxia on the simulator where they like put a mask on us. We're flying a jet on a sim,

Speaker 2 and they're like, Okay, like, we want you to recognize the symptoms of hypoxia.

Speaker 2 So, this is how they train their fighter jet pilots, like you know, to know what to do when something like that happens or to recognize the symptoms before it happens and it's too late.

Speaker 1 That's actually really cool, yeah. So, you just got dizzy on the simulator, basically.

Speaker 2 Um, actually, my color went first, so like everything turned black and white.

Speaker 2 damn and for my brother he he immediately recognized it um he just felt very lightheaded he said so for me like everything turned black and white and i was like whoa like crap but it's the loss of oxygen to your brain yeah that's nuts do you ever do those race simulators like are those accurate um yeah i actually i drive on a sim magic racing sim

Speaker 2 um which is really popular in the drift industry. It's a full e-brake,

Speaker 2 throttle brake, like steering wheel set up with a seat. So I have a full 3D screen that kind of like, or sorry, a full 360 screen that goes around so like I can see everything left to right.

Speaker 2 And that's how we train because like we were talking about, like those tire budgets are not cheap. Yeah.

Speaker 2 So

Speaker 2 it's very, very accurate. It helps with training muscle memory, just getting used to like the visuals.

Speaker 2 And so that's how I usually typically train for an event.

Speaker 1 That makes sense. You said it's scored, you start at 100.
What's the highest score you've ever gotten on drifting?

Speaker 2 That's a good question. Like, I would say

Speaker 2 St. Louis two years ago, I qualified second, which was like the highest I've ever qualified.
Oh, gosh.

Speaker 2 And for me, like, I do four events a year for the Formula Drift series.

Speaker 2 So with that, it's like I've only, you know, done about 16, I would say.

Speaker 2 16 races? Yeah, yeah, with Formula Drift.

Speaker 1 Yeah, that's not that many, right? Yeah.

Speaker 2 So with the pro level, you do eight a year. So like I go to almost all of them because I own the team with my brother.
And so I'm there like managing everything.

Speaker 2 I do all the sponsorship side of things. So making sure partners are happy, that kind of stuff.
But

Speaker 2 yeah. Outside of those four formula drift events, we also drive and like there's like a grid life event that's like

Speaker 2 T-Payne will like play there and then he'll also go drift his car. So it's like more of a festival style.
More casual. But I do compete in events about every like

Speaker 2 three weeks out of the month. I would say, so you're traveling a lot.

Speaker 1 Yeah, that's cool. I didn't know you owned the team, too.

Speaker 2 Yeah, so my brother and I own it together.

Speaker 2 We have two cars, obviously, but we do all of the sponsorship funding. Like, I do that kind of side, and he does the car management side.

Speaker 1 That's impressive. You might be the youngest team owners, right?

Speaker 2 Yeah, we are. That's super cool.
And this year, we're bringing on, I have a

Speaker 2 13-year-old brother. He is now the youngest licensed prospect driver.
Wow. So, in Formula Drift, he's the youngest licensed driver.
So, he'll be joining our team.

Speaker 2 So, I'll have three cars, two semis traveling around, and then we're going to have a pro driver come on the other team.

Speaker 2 So, two semis traveling to eight major like markets across the United States, competing in these formula drift events. That's cool.
And four cars total.

Speaker 1 Did your parents really push this on you guys? Because three of you guys are doing this.

Speaker 2 Honestly, it's one of those things, like the family time that you get driving at the track together, doing in, like, motorsports is so addictive, you know, like, in motorsports, there's more than just driving the car, like we've talked about.

Speaker 2 Like, you know, managing the budgets, managing partnerships, managing relationships, understanding how to build a personal brand, um, talking to PR.

Speaker 2 So, it's non-stop. Like, every single day that I wake up is dedicated to growing, like, my own personal brand as well as, like, my career in motorsports, you know.

Speaker 2 So, um, same with my brothers, and it was just kind of like that hobby, like I said, that took over and turned into a career.

Speaker 1 That's awesome. What's next for you and the brother, and where can people find you?

Speaker 2 Um, as far as what's next, you never really know. Like, going into 2025, um, I will be driving in Formula Drift and ProSpec, um, possibly dipping my feet into some more off-road stuff.

Speaker 2 I have a huge partnership announcement coming out, so I'm super stoked. Um,

Speaker 2 and I'll be signing with an energy drink, which I think is super awesome. Nice, but

Speaker 2 I, yeah, just continue like pushing, growing the personal brand, driving in all these different types of motorsports. Um,

Speaker 2 and they can find me on Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, at Amanda Sorensen.

Speaker 1 Perfect. Check her out, guys.
Thanks for coming on. That was fun.
See you guys. Thank you.