Irwindale

HT: Who is your favorite or least favorite person to drive against in competition?TM: I have two that I enjoy driving against. The first is Sam Hubinette. You can really trust him, and the few times I've run tandem with him, you know it's going to be real close. Any time you go up against another racer, you know they are going to take the same line you are, their thought process is the same as yours, so it's exciting. The other person I love going up against is Alex. It's a blast. It's probably the most fun because we've known each other the longest, and we know what each other is going to do. It's great!

My least favorite isn't so much a driver but the Corollas. The low horsepower cars are really a challenge; it's very hard to drive against. With the Supra and now with the S2000, when you go up against the Corollas, it just throws you off. Your timing is way off. You have to adjust your line; it's tough. When you get up against a Corolla, you really just start stressing. You think, do I give them more space or do I just run my line? Whereas when you run against Sam or Rhys or the other higher horsepower cars, you know they're going to go all out and go as hard as they can, so you do the same.

HT: What is your favorite track to drift at?
TM: Irwindale is by far my favorite. It's fast and I like that kind of entry. I'd rather have the fast long tracks than the tight technical ones.

HT: Do you have any plans to do any driving in Japan?
TM: There's always talk about it. Right now I'm probably going to be going to China for a competition before the end of the year. That will be really cool. But the Spoon guys are always hooked up in Japan, so there's always an opportunity with that. Whether it's drifting or racing, I'll probably end up over there in Japan sooner or later.

HT: If Honda gave you a free car tomorrow, what would you get and what would you do with it?
TM: That's a really good question. Hmm ... I've always wanted to take an S2000 and go race it in a series. I know with the touring car series I'm in, the cars have to have 4 seats, so you can't race with it in that series. I'd really love to race it competitively and see how it does. There aren't any flat-out race S2000's in the professional series, and a lot of it has to do with the rules that they set up, but I'd really love to try it. The rules really keep it out. Being a 2-seater, it gets put into the GT class, but then you're going against Vipers and stuff like that and it doesn't have enough power to compete against them. I think it just falls into a category that keeps it out of competitive racing, which is too bad because it would be a good platform. Then there's always NSX's. With my job, I've been able to drive pretty much everything from Carerra GT's to Enzo's to McClarens, and the NSX is definitely up there on the list of fun cars to drive.