Vd – As VegasDrift gears up for the third season of VegasProAm, Robert Strohmeyer prepares his “bastard child” for it’s first season. Robert has helped out with the Vegas scene since his arrival with driver instruction as well as videos of earlier VegasProAms. Fill us in about your history with drifting.

RS – It mainly started in late 2003 after being stationed in Florida at Eglin AFB. There was a big rain storm when I was on leave in Virginia and my Miata that I was going to drive down to Florida was wrecked two days before I moved my stuff to Florida. My friend I met in tech school was stationed at Eglin a month before me, so after I showed up he already had heard of this shop called MPHAutomod. When I walked into the shop, soon to be Professional Drifter Ben Schwartz and the owners of the shop where all watching JDM Insider 2 siting in bucket seats on the floor. Once I watched the whole video with them that first day I went back to the dorms found a white 1993 SE coupe on ebay and bought it. It was in Virginia so I had an old high school friend drive it down from Virginia. The next two years where filled with nothing but traveling by truck and trailer to events all around the east coast, mid west, Texas and California. A highlight for me was traveling up to RS-R Drift festival at Chicago in 2004 and placing 4^th at the time it was my 4^th event ever.  A bunch of other military stuff happened between 06-09.  I met Nick and the main members of VegasDrift at the first powdered drift night at FastLap in early 09.

Vd – Tell us about “Bastard Child” and it’s predecessor, “High Hopes”.(Check Rob’s build thread here.)

RS – Well, after being in the Vegas and west coast FD scene for a few years, I got sick and tired of not driving. I’ve talked about driving again to other people in the scene. After working at this past FD Irwindale event with the VegasDrift crew, I had just about had enough with not driving. I went out and bought “High Hopes” just in time for the “Best of Vegas” event on the inside road course at LVMS. Bastard Child comes in for the simple fact of being fiscally cheaper for me to buy a shell with a cage in it then putting a cage in High Hopes.  Bastard Child will be a full ProAm build with around 300hp and pretty much everything you can do suspension wise except aftermarket LCAs. Vd – Being a race car instructor has to be fun job, what steps did you take to get there?

RS – Well, I guess it came down to the ol’ “who you know.”  I knew a few people that worked there and I was called by one of them when Exotics Racing was looking for another instructor. I interviewed for the job and started the next day. It’s nice to drive exotic cars but the real experience is an abundance of track time. I now have over 12,000 on track miles as an instructor, which is pretty crazy to think about. Its also cool because quite a few celebrities stop by. Recently Mickie Frial, a so-cal drifter hopped in a 458 with me and turned some fast laps. Vd – What advice would you give to someone that wants to start drifting?

RS – While everyone gives the stock answer of “practice makes perfect” and have fun yadda yadda. I will say to anyone that wants to start….THINK about it first. What do you plan to accomplish by starting? Will it be hobby or are you going to try and make something of it? For many people it will start as a hobby and as they progress they start taking bigger steps. But really think about it first. For me, it has become a 9 year obsession that has caused great moments in my life but has also demanded the high sacrifices. Vd- Are there any sponsors or people you would like to thank or mention?

RS – I’d like to thank the current crew signed up for the 2012 VDPA season, Crew Chief-Danny Libonati, Spotter-Marlon Tecson, PR/Art Director- Jovany Martinez. DDS performance for letting me use the shop and their tools when I didn’t have the right tools/space to get the job done. I’d like to thank Eladio at H1 Performance for helping the team out with chassis tuning during the season. I’d also like to thank Nick, Wes, Ace, Ray, Mando, Robert, Danillo, Aj, Jc, and anyone in the VegasDrift crew that I didn’t mention. You guys are great and it has meant a lot to me being apart of these events! I also have a few prospective sponsors in mix, which I hope to add at a later date but wanted to acknowledge them with a thanks as well (you know who you are).

Photo Credit

Larry Chen – Drift Fotos

Joel Cada – Third 3ye Photography

Brenton Ho – Brentonho.com

Import Racer