South Florida Times February 25, 2016

SCHOOL IS BORING, LET’S GO DRIFTING.

From racing games to actual race cars to Formula Drift Pro-Am: Kevin Phillips

By Scott FederSouth Florida Times

Like a lot of young high school teenage boys, Kevin Phillips was spending his time skateboarding and playing video games. As he got older and started college Kevin, like most young men in college, was still playing video games. Racing games in particular were the ones that got played the most.

Most nights he was bored, lacking motivation. Then one day he had an epiphany. Kevin asked himself, “Why am I wasting my nights playing online racing games when I can just buy one of these for real?”

Let’s Go Drifting �1

South Florida Times February 25, 2016

Motivated by his love for cars and racing, he soon took a full-time job to start putting his own car together.

“I think my first car was a [Nissan] 240sx I bought for like $4,000…it was like maroon colored and all fading away and I bought like ten dollars worth of cans and spray-painted it matte black,” Kevin laughed as he retold that story.

It started with drag racing but, “With drag racing, the it’s all about the car,” Kevin said, “but with drifting it was about the better drivers. The driver means more than the car. That is fun, I want to be doing that.”

For those who may be unfamiliar with drifting, take a look at this video filmed by Kevin at Homestead International Speedway.

Kevin spent his free time making racing videos, working on his car and even helping others with theirs as well. Through his networking, Kevin landed an opportunity working in Formula Drift and was hired as a spotter for 2013 Formula Drift World Champion Mike Essa’s team.

When asked about Kevin’s potential to compete at the highest level Essa said, “Having Kevin on our team spotting for us, he has really figured out what’s going on out there, what it takes when you’re driving to be competitive and all of the little intricacies that go on on the track, off the track behind the scenes. If he can get a ride he would be a real competitor.”

While working for Essa, Kevin gained more exposure as well as recognition amongst his peers. With the help of a few sponsors, like Falken Tire and HeadlightsDepot.com, he made a run at his Formula Drift license in 2014. Although he didn’t achieve that goal, he knew what he needed to do.

The financial challenge is one that Kevin admits cannot be overlooked. “The sponsorship well has dried up. There are only so many sponsors and they can’t sponsor every car.”

For some cost perspective, AMDrift.com published an article that interviewed the 2012 rookie class of Formula Drift drivers. A few disclosed that it was costing them $5,000-7000 per race. That season, relatively smaller than current schedules was seven races. At minimum, the budget would be around $50,000 to run on Formula Drift for a season!

Kevin said this upcoming season, “You would need at least $75,000 to run on the circuit and that’s running a small team and crew.”

To progress towards the goal of landing a spot in the top-flight of professional

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“The driver means more than the car.”

-KEVIN PHILLIPS

South Florida Times February 25, 2016

drifting circuits here in the U.S., Kevin moved from his home in Pompano Beach, Fla. to Orlando. There, he was hired by Titan Motorsports to run the digital media and online marketing campaigns.

Titan produces some of the world’s fastest street and race cars, most notably Toyota Supras, Nissan GT-Rs and Lamborghinis with over 1000 horsepower and very capable of reaching speeds of 200mph in less than a mile.

Working at Titan is helping Kevin with sponsorship as well as providing him with a state-of-the-art work environment conducive to those who love fast cars and enjoy the opportunity to shoot videos of them in action. This opportunity is allowing Kevin to work harder than ever to achieve his goal of reaching the FD circuit.

With the right sponsors and a good marketing strategy, Kevin will surely be a force to be reckoned with on the Formula Drift circuit. He knows, like his peers, that he has the ability, the biggest obstacle between himself and the driver seat is funding. Until then, he’ll just keep on drifting. You can follow him on Instagram, @therealkevinphillips, as well as Vimeo at Vimeo.com/kevinphillips.

Let’s Go Drifting �3