Dodge Forum Brings the Viper Action from Formula Drift New Jersey
Packing a 1,350 horsepower twin-turbo V10, the sole Viper represented Dodge in Round 4 of drifting competition.
If you want to see a Dodge Viper in competition, Formula Drift is one of your only tickets to make that happen. Dodge Forum attended Round 1 in Long Beach earlier this year. And we recently caught up on the action for Formula Drift Round 4 (aka “The Gauntlet”) at Wall Stadium Speedway in New Jersey.
The lone Dodge Viper, driven by Dean “Karnage” Kearney, was ready to continue making waves with its 1,350 horsepower twin-turbo V10 engine. Last we saw Kearney and his Viper at Long Beach, he had gone to war.
After a slew of “One More Time” battles, the Viper was overheating. Kearney eventually fell to the defending back-to-back Formula Drift champion James Deane. But not before we got an inside look of Kearney and his team throwing everything they had at his Viper to get it ready for the next battle.
Wall Speedway is so named after the town, but also due to the wall of rigid overlapping guardrails that like to come out and eat parts of drift cars. But the wall was not the problem this round. Formula Drift was having issues with the quality of the track in a certain section where the competitors crossover the drift course.
The decision was made to forgo the figure eight-like layout used in recent years in favor of a more peanut-like layout. Figure eight or peanut style makes no difference. Wall gives drift fans one of the best track views on the calendar. So, if you want to see every inch of Formula Drift action, go to Wall.
Long Beach, however, was more kind to Kearney and his Viper. There, he made it to the Top 16. Plus, he earned the respect of going toe to toe with the defending champ; while fighting his car with his team.
At Wall, Kearney qualified 18th and made the Top 32 round of competition. But he fell in Top 32 to former Formula Drift champion Vaughn Gittin Jr. Gittin went on to finish in fourth place.
To scratch your Viper itch, be sure to check out more of our drift shots below.
Photos for Dodge Forum by Danny Korecki
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