Every few months Frank Siharath from Garage Boso comes up to Performance Options in Oakland to do some ECU tuning on NorCal cars. This time, Pat Mordaunt drove up with Frank and took a few moments from his busy day to let me interview him. Thanks Pat!
LB: Hey dude, who are you?
PM: Hey what’s up!? My name is Patrick Mordaunt. I don’t know what to say…
LB: How did the 2011 season of Formula DRIFT go for you?
PM: I’d have to say this is probably my worst season in FD so far in regards to my points standings. I had a lot of motor problems throughout the year, and I crashed in Seattle. It was really one of those years where you get tried and pushed to the limits of what you can actually take. We definitely came out on top towards the end, the last two rounds the car was running great and I’m finally really comfortable in it and making serious progress with chassis development. In the end, it was a rough year but I’m still pretty happy.
Pat and Frank enjoy some Steak Chow Fun. This particular place serves enough steak to make a sandwich out of and still have some left for the Chow Fun.
LB: Where’d you end up?
PM: Finished 26th in the points. Realistically I only drove in four of the seven events, the other three I had DNFs or DNQs.
LB: Out of 45 guys, that’s still not bad! What are you looking forward to the most about the off-season?
PM: Right now I’m looking at my options for going to Abu Dhabi and hopefully also Panama. Last year Panama was an absolute blast. It’s a gorgeous country, all the people there were great, and we had an amazing time drifting. I was supposed to go to China this year, but unfortunately that fell through. I really hope that opportunity comes back next year. Mainly in the off season I’m looking forward to doing more testing in the car now that it’s really holding together and running solid, and talking to potential sponsors for next year. I might even jump into someone else’s car, you never know!
LB: Anything non-drift oriented?
PM: I wish I could go on a vacation or something like that, haha. Really, my international drifting demos tend to be my vacations. This year with the budgets being as tight as they are, its going to be an off season that I stay at home and relax. Sometimes it’s better that way, after everything that’s happened I’m excited for the opportunity to clear my head and re-organize my whole program.
LB: What do you think about Tony Angelo as a judge, and what do you think about Ross Petty’s notorious comments?
PM: I thought Tony’s judging this year was for the most part very fair. I thought he was very even, and he didn’t seem biased at all. At the same time, I completely agree with Ross. There is a conflict of interest when you have an ex-driver in the judging booth who is still associated with certain people. Whether his judging was biased or not, it’s the grey area that creates the issue. It takes away from the legitimacy of the judging, and the sport. Personally, I think that Tony stepping down this year will be a good thing for FD in regards to getting the fans on the same page with the judging, and making everybody happy.
Frank tunes the ECU on local drifter Ruck Cunanan’s turbo F22 powered AE86 Corolla.
LB: Have you heard anything about a possible new judge?
PM: I haven’t heard anything in regards to a new judge. We definitely heard something was going to happen at the end of the year, but we weren’t quite sure if Tony was actually going to step down. It’s really up in the air who will be in there next year, and Formula DRIFT really are going to have to stay away from anyone who is politically questionable or affiliated with any teams.
LB: What do you think about the Obama Administration?
PM: I think they’re a bunch of puppets being run by the world banks. I personally think they’re fucking up everything for everyone, and that he didn’t follow through with a lot of the stuff he pitched during his presidential campaign. I disagree with most of the stuff he’s been doing like the super congress, or the under-the-table dealings that have been going on. I don’t quite understand how Obama can be the head of the UN Security council, as well as President of the United States because that’s acting in two world-power positions at the same time. It’s a little fishy, and I don’t like it.
Performance Options Owner Joey Gauthier has been anxiously awaiting the finishing of Rick’s car, now he wants to test drive it!
LB: Performance Options.
PM: Coming back to a shop like this sparks all those old memories. Back in the ProAm days in my Corolla, just a little 15 year old kid just trying to do whatever I could to get by and make it to the next event, you know? Everybody here has cars right on that same level running at ProAm level events like ThunderDrift and Just Drift, so it really brings back all those warm-hearted good-old-days memories because that was really when it was less stressful for us and we were just in it for the fun. We still love it, and it’s still amazing but with the business aspect it’s a little bit rougher. It’s okay, I guess it’s one of those things that comes with the territory. It’s great seeing all these little corollas and other classics, though. In Los Angeles you don’t really see the older cars, it’s just 240’s all day long.
LB: Yup, just a bunch of homies all working on their cars.
PM: Yeah, you really don’t see camaraderie like you guys have up here in the Bay. Everyone’s here helping out on each others’ cars, you know, a lot of the shops in LA are really picky about that sort of thing, so it’s cool to see the friendship going on.
LB: You mentioned something earlier about Rick’s car reminding you of your old Corolla…
PM: Oh man! The lovely Corolla on the dyno at the moment almost brings a tear to my eye because it’s nearly identical to my original corolla back in 2005/2006. When the car hit it’s prime I had just painted it Porsche Guards red, it had a fresh 20V 4AG-E in it, kouki tail lights just like this car, except for the front-end it was exactly like this car.
LB: What would 2005 Pat Mordaunt have done with a 350 horsepower Honda F22 Turbo motor in his Corolla?
PM: I think if I had one of those insane motors back then, I might not have stuffed it into the bank and my car might still be alive! I think Corollas might’ve been even crazier than they are now had people started doing the S2000 swaps earlier, but it’s one of those things where it’s evolved along with the needs and demands. Just like our S-chassis have gotten crazy, Corollas have gotten crazy too, they’re just few and far between.
LB: How do you like wink mirrors?
PM: I fuckin love wink mirrors. Those are the shit, dude, you can never see anything out of a race car. One of those would be like a whole new fuckin’ world.
LB: We’ll get you one for Christmas. How do you feel about the idea of drifting in a HANS device?
PM: I’ve been hearing a lot of speculation after Jim Guthrie’s crash at Irwindale. Personally, I’ve done testing in the past with a HANS device, and I feel you can get enough movement to compete in professional drifting. If it’s going to keep us safer, and keep me from breaking my neck, I’m all for it. Its going to be harder for the ProAm guys because they’ll have to cough up an extra grand for the equipment, but in the long run it’ll be a big thing to help give the sport more legitimacy, and help us be accepted more by actual professional racing communities.
LB: Let’s talk crazy dream-world stuff for a moment. If Formula DRIFT put on an event where they provided identical cars like an S-chassis to all the drivers in the series and had a competition, who do you think would podium, and who would crash out in a spectacular fashion?
PM: Oh man, that’s hard! I really have to think about that. I’d have to say maybe like Ross or Ken Gushi would wreck it insanely. Wait, I take it back. Alex Pfeiffer for sure would go out in a blaze of glory because he would just wanna go out that way, and as for top three, I’d say Dai realistically because he’s still driving an S-chassis, Tuerck because he’s always been good in an S-chassis, and… Me! It’d go me first, Dai second, and Tuerck third.
LB: Well duh, this is YOUR interview! Okay well let’s close this thing with a statement of some sort. Do you read LifeBlasters?
PM: Hell yeah man!
LB: Well then say something to all the LifeBlasters fans out there.
PM: You can’t put me on the spot like this man…
LB: Anything…
PM: *blank stare*
Extra photos for this article provided by Chris Harrington. Thanks Chris!
-G