Digital Social Hour - Inside the World of Professional Drifting & High-Speed Racing | Amanda Sorensen DSH #1241

Episode Date: March 16, 2025

🔥 Amanda Sorensen on Breaking Barriers in Drifting, Racing Extreme E & Making History 🚀 In this high-energy episode, we sit down with Amanda Sorensen, a professional drifter, off-road racer, and motorsports trailblazer, to discuss her journey to the top, competing in Formula Drift, Extreme E, and making history as the first female podium finisher in Formula Drift Pro Spec. Topics Covered: ✅ The intense world of professional drifting & what it takes to win ✅ Breaking barriers as a female in motorsports ✅ Competing in Extreme E & racing in Saudi Arabia ✅ How she built her own racing team & manages sponsorships ✅ The future of motorsports – from electric racing to hydrogen cars This episode is packed with adrenaline, strategy, and behind-the-scenes insights into one of the fastest-growing sports in the world! 📲 Follow Amanda Sorensen & Learn More: 🔗 Instagram: @Amanda.Sorensen12 🔗 YouTube: Amanda Sorensen 🔗 Website: AmandaSorensen.com ⏱ CHAPTERS ⏳ 00:00 – What It’s Like to Drift Inches Away from Competitors ⏳ 03:15 – The Mental & Physical Preparation for Drifting ⏳ 07:30 – The High Costs & Risks of Competitive Drifting ⏳ 12:10 – Making History: First Female Podium in Formula Drift Pro Spec ⏳ 17:40 – The Challenges of Competing in a Male-Dominated Sport ⏳ 23:50 – Competing in Extreme E & Racing in Saudi Arabia ⏳ 30:25 – The Future of Motorsports: Hydrogen & Electric Racing ⏳ 36:10 – Running Her Own Racing Team & Managing Sponsorships ⏳ 42:00 – The Rise of Drifting & Its International Popularity ⏳ 50:15 – Skydiving with the Air Force & Other Wild Adventures ⏳ 55:30 – What’s Next for Amanda Sorensen & Her Racing Career 🔥 Apply to Be on the Podcast & Business Inquiries: 🎙 APPLY TO BE ON THE PODCAST: https://www.digitalsocialhour.com/application 📩 BUSINESS INQUIRIES/SPONSORS: [e-mail] SPONSORS: SPECIALIZED RECRUITING GROUP:  https://www.srgpros.com/ LISTEN ON: Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/digital-social-hour/id1676846015 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5Jn7LXarRlI8Hc0GtTn759 Sean Kelly Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/seanmikekelly/

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Yeah, we are driving within inches of each other. So like, typically we have a brand new like pain scheme on the car like for the first round. And by not even 10, 20 minutes into your first practice session, you have like tire marks on your door. Or driving like so close to each other that it's like you're rubbing like the tires

on like the front fenders or like you're getting your rear bumpers close to the wall and they call it like, you know, you ride the wall and leave the paint mark on the white, like concrete barriers. So saying your car must be racing. Yeah, we, we go through a lot of taillights, a lot of bumpers. There's definitely not like bumper budget is like another thing. All right guys we got Amanda on today, professional drifter. Thanks for coming on. Yeah thanks for

having me. Absolutely. I do not know much about drifting. So I'd love to just hear the basics how you got into this and everything. Yeah, drifting is actually a very unique sport because it's more like a competition style It's not like who is the first person across the finish line with like typical racing There's a lot of like mentality Training that goes into it because you really just have one shot or you go home Physicality training that goes into it because you really just have one shot or you go home But um, it's kind of like surfing or similar to like ice skating. There's three judges. You have a line angle style and We're driving on these tracks that are about like a quarter of a mile

And we're driving on the NASCAR tracks typically are like a road racing track like Atlanta so these are like same tracks that like a lot of the IMSA circuit goes on or NASCAR. And they'll put out these clipping points so I can outside zone and inside zone. And like the goal is you basically we get up to speed so speeds anywhere from like 80 to 120 going a straight line where you have full traction and then you break traction and go sideways. Holy crap. That's not scary. You have to fill these zones.

So outside zones, getting your rear bumper as close to the wall as possible. Or your front bumper as close to the clipping point as possible while maintaining your line, angle, and then style, which is broken down into fluidity and commitment. How committed are you? How good does it look? Is it graceful? Is it choppy? Every small adjustment is a deduction in points.

There's a hundred points that you can get in qualifying, and then from there we go into competition style. Top 16 drivers go into main competition. And typically there's anywhere from 40 to 50 competitors that show up on a weekend. Wow, that's a lot. You said you only got one attempt? Or how does it work? So basically it's a bracket style competition. And in order to determine your bracket, you have a qualifying.

With qualifying you have... And it's kind of different in every circuit. Some of them are, they want you to battle it out to where the top 32 drivers battled for those positions. Meaning like they did a proper tandem style competition. Tandem, which means you have a lead driver and a follow driver. The lead driver is performing what they would call a perfect qualifying run, maintaining line angle style. How we talked about those outside zones, those inside zones. The follow driver has to be a mirror image of what the lead driver is doing.

It's crazy because everything happens so fast. It's so important that you study your other components, like all of your other competition, and you want to know, okay, how is this person going to initiate? How are they going to adjust? At what speeds do they enter? How do they enter? And as a follow driver, you want to mirror them. So then once they go and do their lead run, you swap, go back to the line, and then now it's your turn. You do a lead run, and your other person who's following does a follow run. That's insane. And the crazy thing about it all is each run that we do, the reason why it's kind of so

short is because we go through a set of tires every two laps. Oh my gosh. So you get your lead run and then you get your follow run on that set of tires. Because the rubber is just burning off right? Yeah exactly. That's crazy. Sounds expensive too. Yeah tire budgets are definitely a thing. Damn that's nuts. You much prefer a lead I'd imagine right than a follower Honestly, I think in competition it's kind of it depends when you lead first you are more subject to

If you make a mistake in the lead line, obviously your person who's following is going to be affected by your mistake, right? So if you're leading first, you have the most pressure because if I mess up in my run, then I know I really have to push in my follow run. Whereas if I follow first and the other guy makes a mistake, I know that I don't have to do anything crazy or wow to when the judge is over in my lead run. Navigating the professional job search is hard. You know the perfect job is out there, you're just not sure how to find it. The good news is you don't have to go at it alone. You need Specialized Recruiting Group.

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change it. So there's a lot of strategies that go on behind. I like that because I'm a chess player. Yeah, exactly. Kind of similar. So there's some mental games going on too. It's not just about the race So you got a really just you cannot react to your lead driver You have to anticipate your driver, you know similar with chess. I'm not a big chess fan, but like you know I've never really played chess to be honest. Oh, I'm assuming is the same. It's a good game because it's all skill-based

Yeah, I'm not a fan of luck. Yeah, exactly. There's a lot of skill. Um, back to what I was saying though, with like, you have one chance, you have one chance to rely on your car to also work, you know? So like it's huge and it's crucial that the preparation that goes into preparing for the competition is very perfect. Um, my team that I have, I have a team of quite a few people and we have our engineers, we have our tire changers, we have our fuelers, but even that, like our crew chief, I could go out and my car could overheat at the line.

And I can call a five minute timeout and I have five minutes to fix the car. What's that happen to you? I've definitely had to call five before. When you call a five it's typically when you're on the spot like up ready to go and compete or possibly do your lead run you find a problem with the car something happens you want to call five you're not allowed to touch the car until the technical directors are there and they start the clock at five minutes if you touch car, you're automatically disqualified. That's when your time starts.

The preparation that goes on behind the scenes with pre-season prep is like, say we do get into a crash in my lead run, and my guys have five minutes to fix the shock in the front arm. I have these spare boxes that are full complete sets of bolt on bolt off for each corner of the car. So typically in our trailer we have my car as well as my brother's car.

We have two full sets to build two completely different cars. That's insane. In five minutes? Five minutes. And our crew guys will practice that. Obviously there is a point in time where you're like, okay, this is unreasonable to do a motor change in five minutes, you know?

You just have to call it, but there is that kind of crucial factor, but as much as you can prepare for those moments, the better off you are, because there's really no luck. It's more of the preparation and the skill. Yeah, that's insane. Are accidents pretty common in this? Yeah, we are driving within inches of each other. So like

Typically we have a brand new like paint scheme on the car like for the first round and by Not even 10 20 minutes into your first practice session. You have like tire marks on your door We're driving like so close to each other that it's like you're rubbing Like the tires on like the front fenders or like you're getting your rear bumpers close to the wall and they call it like You know you ride the wall and yeah leave the the tires on the front fenders or you're getting your rear bumpers close to the wall and they call it like you ride the wall and leave the paint mark on the white concrete barrier. That's insane. Your heart must be racing.

Yeah, we go through a lot of taillights. Oh my gosh. A lot of bumpers. There's definitely not like bumper budget is another thing. Yeah, you got to have crazy mental resilience for this sport, I'd imagine. Yeah, it's very like mind challenging, I would say. A lot of other drivers, I personally feel like I've driven in many different forms of motor sports and many different disciplines. So for me, drifting is honestly the hardest when it came to mental preparation.

Like, I figure skated for 10 years, and like every single time I would practice my routine over and over and over again, at least one of my jumps or spins would not be how I wanted it to be during competition. You know, so it's kind of similar to when I'm drifting. It's like, you can prepare as much as you possibly can, but when you're actually like, get up to the line, the nerves are applied, the pressure is applied. That's when it really matters. Like that's when the mental training can kind of really come into play. I'm the same way in basketball with free throws. I'll make 20 in a row and then the game starts. I'll miss every single free throw. It's crazy how the sport can do that to you, right? Well and for me is crazy too. Just because like I

had like an I Was able to see how like my younger childhood like sports that I played in really translated into like what I'm doing his career now Hmm and like with figure skating like it wasn't up until I was about maybe 1415 and I was at a drift competition and it just clicked on like one day until I was about maybe 14, 15, and I was at a drift competition, and it just clicked on, like, one day, and I was like, it's no different than a practice run. Like, why am I getting so worked up about it? You know?

I found ways to actually calm my body down. I love cold plunging. And, like, when I first started cold plunging, I used to be, like, freaking out, you know? Like, you get in the water, and you're like, this is so hard. But you kind of find a way to bring your heart rate down. You know, you focus on one thing, you slow your breath down, you slow your heart rate down like same concept when it comes to, you know, pulling up to the line or going out

to skate in the competition. Yeah, that's probably important to have that method of kind of decompressing, right? Yeah, exactly. Before a big race. And you've raced in some big ones lately. You just made the podium at Formula Drift, right? Yes, first female to podium in Formula Drift. That's incredible.

Making history. I've been working at that goal for about three years. Congrats. So it was very emotional, emotional accomplishment. There's no female in pro. So I'm in pro spec. There's four ranks similar to NASCAR You know how like in NASCAR you have Arca trucks

Xfinity and cup series with formula drift or the drifting scene You have like a grassroots level which is more of like lower horsepower cars You know you could bring like your mom's car up to drift it and then you have like your pro-am level Hmm and in order to move into the like up the ranks, you have to place top three in the championship. So that's for a full season, which means like events anywhere between four to eight rounds winning that championship and placing top three.

So there's Pro-Am, Pro-Spec and then Pro. So I'm in Pro-Spec and I'm the highest ranking in pro spec for females but no female has ever made it to pro. Wow. Like in the world. So for me my goal is to be you know that one and like I don't know how I ended up in this sport to be honest like my brother and I just kind of really gravitated towards it. We love the idea of it. We have great support there. We love the atmosphere. And you know, it's more of like a family

hobby turned career type situation, but my goal is to be the first female in pro. That's impressive. I've had Danica on here, I think. Oh really? Was she the first for NASCAR female? I don't know about like first, but she definitely was like an icon.

Yeah, I remember watching her on ESPN as a kid Yeah, yeah, she was a legend Yeah, it amazes me how people like her and you are like, there's not many female competitors right in this scene at all Yeah, there's we have one other female in my division Internationally, there's about I would say at a higher level kind of like similar to my level there's only about like five or six females damn and I couldn't even put a number on how many males like Thousands. Yeah, exactly. And do you keep them separate? Like are you friends with them or do you view them as competition? No, we're all friends. Oh, yeah

I've run that's what I love about the drifting community and like even when I go to a practice event like I'm going to one this Saturday and like you pull up to a practice event and It's so accessible to the general public like the drifting events and it's drifting in general That there is such a large female audience there really so a lot of the females support each other over on the East Coast They have this like club called drift kitchen and it's like at least 20 females that have drift cars like in the state and so a lot of the girls support each other everyone loves to just go out and like drive with your friends like that's the concept of drifting that's cool is it a new sport like how long has this been around drifting so formula drift came to

United States in 2003 okay and I like was one year old at that time. It's crazy because I didn't really follow it until about COVID time, like 2019 I would say. But I came to United States in 2003 and it's the fastest growing motorsport in the USA right now. That's impressive. So for me, I have really just been able to go and travel the world and see the other Drift Series other than just Formula Drift here. So there's like Drift Masters in Europe. Their last round is in Poland in a stadium that sells out with 60,000 people. So it's crazy because I didn't really

understand the potential of the sport until I had gone international with it. I also didn't understand my social media following until I had realized how huge it is internationally, in Brazil, in Europe, in Japan. The scenes over there are insane. So you got a big international following then. Yeah, exactly.

And I didn't understand that, you know, like until I went to like a true like cultured car event. Yeah. Was that the Saudi Arabia trip you took or? Uh, that was different. That was like a rally, um, race that I was doing. So I raced in the series called Xtreme. There's 10 races. We race in five different remote locations and an electric race car. That's crazy. Electric race car. All wheel drive electric race car. I raced for GMC and our car was like a replica of a Hummer EV.

I actually daily to Hummer EV, which I thought was like pretty great. Like I really wasn't into electric cars until I daily to one. And I was like, okay, this is kind of cool. But yeah, I got to work a lot with the team on developing the front to rear power there's so much you can do with the technology with having an electric race car that I had no idea about. I didn't know there were that advanced. Yeah like turning inputs like if my steering wheel is turned at like 10-15 degrees I can distribute the power front rear to certain ratio.

You know, you can't do that with a combustion engine. Yeah. So there was a lot of like development that I worked with, with the team there. Some of them are fast. I think, what is it, the Cybertruck's like 1.8 seconds, zero to 60 now. Yeah, they're crazy.

That's really fast. That must be faster than most like non-electric cars, I'd imagine. I definitely think like the electric with commungent engine like the hybrid prototype cars that they're doing are like insane because obviously you have the torque. You know, you can't have that torque without the electric motor.

Yeah. How often are you doing rallies? This year I'm actually taking off the Xtreme series has been put on a pause right now. They're developing a hydrogen car Damn, it's the first FIA licensed hydrogen racing series called Xtreme H As soon as they come out with the full schedule for Xtreme H, Xtreme E will more than likely be a tag-long series So I'll get back into that stuff once they launch all the season Details my buddy came on the show two years ago and predicted hydrogen cars blowing up and all the comments were Yeah, all the comments were like no way like hating on him. Yeah, it's crazy. You don't like them though

I've never tested one if I'm being honest like yeah, it'll be my first time Going and driving a hydrogen car But also that was like I never drove an electric car and then I drove an electric race car for my first time going and driving a hydrogen car. But also that was like, I never drove an electric car. And then I drove an electric race car for my first time in Saudi Arabia. You know, so it was definitely the craziest thing for me to get used to was we're racing, you know, in Saudi Arabia, we were racing over kind of where the neon project is actually. And I just couldn't get over the concept of like no noise. I could

hear everything. I could hear the shocks compressing. I could hear the sand hitting the like the fenders. Like I was just like, I cannot like, is the car breaking? It feels weird. You know, like, so there was for me, I was just kind of like, that was the biggest change is just, you know, being used to hearing everything that's happening with the car yeah if you go 200 in a gas car you're hearing everything yeah well I mean you're hearing the motor right you're not hearing like you're not really hearing like the shocks compressing or like a rock hit the side of the car so like for me I was just like okay we got it really get used to

that mmm have you heard that race across the US um is that like more of a sports car uh it's like the fastest person to get from Cali to New York or something Have you heard that race across the US? Is that like more of a sports car? Uh It's like the fastest person to get from Cali to New York something. I've seen something. Yeah, that one is so interesting to me I've never actually followed it but people get arrested everywhere. It's crazy Yeah, I was really like I drove like a grandma on the road like really follow the speed limit But like wow because like you know, I just like I don't know the speed limit. Wow. Because like, you know, I just like, I don't know. So for me, sometimes when I'm driving, like I see someone blow by me, like going 110. I'm like, is that necessary? Like, I just understand the fact that I'm on the road with other drivers who like, you

know, you get into the car with like a friend and passenger seat and like they don't really know how to drive. And you're like, you can't put that person in the same environment as someone else doing 150. Yeah. That's so funny to me how you have that mindset. Yeah, it's like, it makes me so nervous. I got pulled over a few days ago, actually. Oh, really? 97. Nice, in a 65?

In a 65. To be fair, it just turned from 75 to 65. Oh, okay. And they never tell you, like, when that change happens. I know, so, yeah. But yeah, I deserve that. I pulled away. I pulled off so pulled off so quick he was like oh thanks for pulling over that fast yeah I saw him I mean he got me on the gun yeah have you been pulled over okay I feel like it's so easy to speed though honestly I agree and for me my speeding tickets actually majority of them came from California.

Towing a trailer. Towing a trailer. In California, you have to do 55, towing the trailer towards like everyone else is driving 80 around, you're like 70. So, yeah, I've been caught a few times in California. My U-Haul trip from Cali to Vegas felt forever. It's very annoying. Yeah, they only hit like 65, I think, the U-Hauls. Yeah. And everyone else is going 80 to 90 past you

I know and you're just like this makes the trip feel 10 times longer turned into a six and a half hour trip from Cali Yeah, it's crazy. Yeah, that sucked. How was Scotland? I've always wanted to go to Scotland. Scotland's good Scotland I've actually been to twice now Actually three times. So Scotland is where our second stop was for the Extreme E-Series. We were racing in an abandoned mine. So it was an abandoned coal mine. That's cool. Um, it was about like 700 feet into the ground, I would say.

Like it was pretty insane. Wow. We were racing in and out of this mine. So they set up a track in the inside of it. Um, then they had a nice little like outside track on the outside of it. And Scotland is crazy because the weather is never reliable. You know, one day on a Saturday we raced, it was super sunny. Sunday we got to the track at like 7 a.m.

There was so much fog and we couldn't start the race. The live stream had to get pushed back by like a couple hours because our Medevac helicopter wasn't able to get in Wow, so That was unfortunate extremely was like live aired live. So a lot of live streaming stuff was very important, but Unfortunately, you know like we showed up and there was nothing we could do with the weather. How many people are on those live streams usually? That amount? Well, so it's actually aired on TV internationally.

Oh, wow. So it's on the networks. Don't ask me the channels. The unfortunate part is it doesn't have the largest following here in America. So majority of the time, like my family and friends that were watching, it would come on the channels at like 11 p.m. or like 2 a.m. So like one episode for 30 minutes,

the other episode for 30 minutes for like a Saturday Sunday. But it was huge in Europe. A lot of the drivers were from Europe. A lot of the drivers were actually like, we had Sebastian Loeb, who is like an insane rally car driver. Someone like Tanner Faust, who is also rally cars, you know, off road. So I was racing against like the top level drivers.

Wow. But a lot of them come from Europe. Yeah. It was huge over in Europe. I've noticed that with F1 Vegas, it's not as big here as F1 in Europe, right? Yeah, exactly. And I think that's just because if you look back like 20, 30 years, and it's like NASCAR was what was popular, you know, we're kind of in that phase where I personally think NASCAR is fading out. Um, you still see a lot of like brand spending insane amount of money there, but there is, you know, like I said, the drifting community is growing and now we have F1 in

Miami, F1 in Vegas, F1 in Texas. So like, I think we're starting to get more of like a diverse feel for motorsports other than just NASCAR in America. Yeah, I don't hear as much about NASCAR as I used to. I'll say that. Yeah, for sure. The stands are like not packed like I went to a NASCAR race and I watched the truck series and there was like

Very few people really I'm just like it's crazy to me like wow I'm like the money that the brains are spending they're like millions and millions of dollars like easily seven million for like a tier two sponsor whole car just to be on TV on the car just to be on And it's like, you know, like there's other motor sports where they are doing larger numbers. Like drifting is second to NASCAR in, um, like they're following. And so, or sorry, no, drifting is second most followed on social media. And that's with all American motor sports. So like IMSA Like sports car racing that kind of stuff Wow, but like our audience is Millennials, right?

Like we're on social media watching on live streams towards like NASCAR is more of like they're on the network So like the older generation old school. Yeah, exactly. So more money in that space basically Yeah, I definitely would say like not as much money as like an IMSA or an f1 But NASCAR is just I don't know Hopefully the money gets there and drifting I know with pickleball. They're still trying to figure out how to make money, too Oh, yeah, I actually just compete in the celebrity pickleball tournament. Oh you did yeah with them I co-hosted the first day with Mario Lopez, okay, and on the second day I actually competed in the pickleball tournament

Yeah, let me tell you like I play pickleball with my friends just down the street as like a fun thing to do but to see the brands that we were able to bring on board like door-dash for example It was just crazy to see like how fast this like sports growing I just went to do it and pickle Pickle down the street here in Vegas, and the thing's packed. To get a bay, it was like I had to book two days in advance. I didn't know that was open yet.

I need to get out there. I love pickleball. Was that the one with Andy Roddick and Andre Agassi, or was that a different pickleball event? I'm not sure. Oh, no, no, no. This was different. It's called Celebrity Pickleball Bash.

We had like Terrell Owens, Brandy Chastain. So some fun like celebrities. And then we had a few like professional pickleball players. Nice. Was Ben Johns there? He's the number one, I think. I don't know anyone else. Honestly, I was co-hosting the first day. There was so much going on as my first time co-hosting.

Like, I I've never like done anything like that. I was co-hosting the first day, there was so much going on as my first time co-hosting. I've never done anything like that, so I was just following the script, the script was going off. We were trying to get back on center, it was great. Pickleball is fun. It's a hard sport, actually. People think it's easy, but it's not. I think it's so entry-level, accessible, but then as soon as you start playing with the pros, yeah, you'll like there's levels. Oh, yeah for sure

Yeah, not my issue is I'm so tall so I want to hit everything. Yeah Yeah, cuz it's going out but my instinct is to hit it some slams. Yeah, I used to play tennis. Okay, okay Yeah You ever play tennis? No, so like this was my first time playing like, like I'm not even going to ping pong, you know? So I was like, I'm going to go on stage and go play pickleball in front of all these people in the theater. And it was like NBA All-Star weekend. So, you know, we were in the theater in San Francisco and I was just like, all right, you know, like I'll be the

laugh of the show. I'm not going to be the pro. That's for sure. And I'm bracing it before I go out there. How'd you do? my t-bloss So, you know, it was fine. I think We were it was me and hunter pence. I don't know he's a former

Basketball No former baseball player baseball. Yeah, and so Him and I were teammates. He's very competitive. He definitely held most of the way for our team. But I've seen those videos where the guy is playing with the girl and the guy will just hit all the shots. I was playing against Brandi Chastain and also Uriah, who is like a former UFC.

Uriah Hall? Yeah. Yeah, he was on the show. Yeah, so that's who I was playing against. Like Brandi just honestly like bullied me like so bad like she was just like we're ready This is all right. Well, you probably had you probably have really fast reaction time, right? Yeah, but honestly like when we're on the stage, there were so many lights I couldn't see the ball coming and I was like, I don't know if I'm like silly or what it is

But also everyone played the day prior everyone was able they got loose, you know, like whatever so it was fun time Yeah, that's what it was about. You did some stuff with the Air Force. I saw on your YouTube Yeah, so I'm actually sponsored by the Air Force. Wow. I've been working with them. This is going to be year four working with them So we are actually we do a lot with their recruiting team We really like to you know highlight the concept of in the Air Force there's jets, right? With the jets there's a crew chief, tire changer, fuel or mechanics and that's very similar to our race team. So it's a very good crossover club that we always do like highlighting the similarities

between the racing industry and like the Air Force and the military. Like one team, one goal type situation. Yeah. So, um, I've been fortunate enough to do insane things with them. I went fluent on F16 with them with the Thunderbirds, pulled 9.1 Gs. That's the fastest jet, right? Yes. I did some canine training with them.

I have worked with them on doing some ground training stuff with their team that goes in with the other military when they're going into a place or a base and they're not allowed to bring any guns. They will be the people protecting everyone as far as training chokeholds and self-defense, that kind of stuff, self-defense, like that kind of stuff. Um, so that was fun. I changed a tire on a carrier plane. That's impressive. I can't even change a tire on a car. So, yeah, that's fun.

I think it's very book to book when it comes to how they do things, which is like similar to our race team. Yeah. Um, my tire changers, similar concept just to their airplane team. My tire changer, similar concept, just to their airplane tire changer. So the most recent thing I've done with them was skydiving. I jumped out of an airplane, which I never thought I was going to do.

I honestly, so I fly planes, and I don't have my license for my private pilot's license, but I have about 45 hours. So I just haven't done the ground for my private pilot's license, but I have about like 45 hours. So I just haven't done the ground school. But regardless of that, I am like, I'm never jumping out of a perfectly good airplane. You know? And they're like, hey, do you wanna go jump

with the Wings of Blue in Colorado at the Air Force Academy? And I was like, if I say no, like I'm turning on a one time. Yeah, that sounds crazy. We went and jumped with their Wings of Blue team, which is their demo team that like jump into a lot of their events with like the smoke on their feet. So I did a tandem jump and I honestly would love to go again and do skydiving and I want to go get certified. Dan, you like to dive huh? I've had so much fun. I love like adrenaline rushing things.

The concept of like you know you could, it could go wrong fast. I think it's similar to anything else that we do and as long as you're prepared, you know, like you kind of limit that fear of it, but I'm definitely gonna be going and jumping. Wow, so you weren't shitting your pants during that? I was. I totally was.

Until I jumped out of the airplane and I'm terrified of heights. Like I will not even cliff dive. Like I don't like jumping off cliffs. I don't jump off the waterfall of the airplane. And I'm terrified of heights. I will not even cliff dive. I don't like jumping off cliffs. I don't jump off the waterfall into the pool. I'm terrified of that. Wow. It makes me sick to my stomach.

But when I stood on the edge, he was like, okay, take another step. And I was like, what? But for me, it was more just the thought of falling out before I was ready. You know what I mean? But there was really no time to be ready. He was ready, so that didn't matter? But once you jumped out of the plane like

it was so peaceful. I find like it was very similar to like just like riding a Harley or like riding a motorcycle. Like you know you have a lot of like wind in your face. So it was peaceful though. Like it was so cool once you like deploy the shoe you're kind of just floating around. We did some tricks like we did a backflip. Oh my god on your first jump you did it back So, I mean it was the wings of blue teams like full trust in him I had they probably done thousands of those insane amount of jumps and we were at the Air Force Academy in Colorado So we actually went up in the plane with quite a few other kids that were taking skydiving as an elective So they that's an elective. So they-

That's an elective? Yeah, in the Air Force, you can choose like your electives and- Wow. The only role that I found out about though, that I was like, there's no way. There was a guy that was in our plane and he was like, I'm jumping out for my first time, but he was by himself. Really?

So in the Air Force, like when you take this academy, like the Air Force Academy in Colorado, when you choose a selective, they train you. And they do a, like the training facility is insane, you know, like there's, um, repels coming out of the roof, like simulating more of like skydiving for your first time. Got it. Um, but he trained for a certain amount of weeks and then he went up in the plane and that was his first time jumping.

So the whole idea is to trust your process, trust in yourself and like he packed his own shoe and everything. Like he jumped out of the plane. Now I'm like, this is your first time jumping out. Like there's no way I would jump out. But I mean, I guess with that training, it's like, it's crazy. But yeah, there was like a group of students up there and that was their elective. It's skydiving. First time by yourself. Because I think if you do it like out of place, you need to jump with like someone, what, a hundred times or something yeah yeah oh my gosh wow the air force does great training shout out to them yeah it is their training facilities are top-notch and like

I when I toured this air force academy um you know there's so much that's going on there they have reaction time training. A lot of the training, actually, I was like, wow, I could use this for my own benefit. You know, the facilities are so nice. As far as like the electives, they have so many electives they have. It's so focused around like your physical fitness and like, I'm so into that stuff and like, you know, just learning about the body and that kind of stuff. They have pools and skydive, high dive jumping and just a lot of cool features,

simulators that will simulate. I went into a simulator and simulated hypoxia. Really? So for when the jets obviously begin to lose cabin pressure at a certain altitude, you know, you have a loss of oxygen, your body goes into hypoxia. So Brandon and I simulated hypoxia on the simulator where they like put a mask on us, we're flying a jet on a sim. And they're like, okay, like, we want you to recognize the symptoms of hypoxia. So this is how they train their fighter jet pilots, like, you know, to know what to do

when something like that happens or to recognize the symptoms before it happens and it's too late. That's actually really cool. Yeah. So you just got dizzy on the simulator basically? Actually my color went first, so like everything turned black and white. Damn. And for my brother, he immediately recognized it.

He just felt very lightheaded, he said. So for me, everything turned black and white. And I was like, whoa. Like, but it's the loss of oxygen to your brain. Yeah, that's nuts. Do you ever do those race simulators? Are those accurate? Yeah, I actually drive on a SimMagic Racing Sim, which

is really popular in the drift industry. It's a full e-brake throttle brake steering wheel set up with a seat. I have a full 360 screen that goes around so I can see everything left to right. That's how we train because we're about like those higher budgets are not cheap. Yeah, so Um, it's very very accurate. It helps with training muscle memory. Just getting uh used to like the visuals And so that's how I usually typically train for an event. All right sense. You said it's scored you start out a hundred What's the highest score you've ever gotten on drifting? That's a good question like I would say I St. Louis two years ago I qualified second which was like the highest I've ever qualified okay and

for me like I do four events a year for the Formula Drift series so with that it's like I've only you about 16, I would say. 16 races. Yeah, yeah, with Formula Drift. Yeah, that's not that many, right? Yeah. So with the pro level, you do eight a year. So like I go to almost all of them because I own the team with my brother. And so I'm there like managing everything.

I do all the sponsorship side of things. So making sure partners are happy, that kind of stuff. But yeah, outside of those four Formula Drift events, we also drive and like, there's like a grid life event that's like, T-Pain will like play there and then he'll also go drift his car. So it's like more of a festival style. More casual. But I do compete in events about every like three weeks out of the month, I would say. Oh god. So you're traveling a lot. Yeah. That's cool. I didn't know you owned the team too.

Yeah. So my brother and I own it together. Um, we have two cars obviously, but we do all of the sponsorship funding. Like I do that kind of side and he does the car management side. That's impressive. You might be the youngest team owners, right? Uh, yeah, we are. That's super cool.

And this year we're bringing on, I have a 13-year-old brother. He is now the youngest licensed ProSpec driver. Wow. So in Formula Drift, he's the youngest licensed driver. So he'll be joining our team. So I'll have three cars, two semis, traveling around, and then we're going to have a pro driver come on the other teams. So two semis traveling to eight major markets

across the United States competing in these Formula Drift events. That's cool. And four cars total. Did your parents really push this on you guys? Because three of you guys are doing this. Honestly, it's one of those things, the family time that you get driving at the track together,

doing motorsports is so addictive. In motorsports, there's more than just driving the car, like we've talked about. Managing the budgets, managing partnerships, managing relationships, understanding how to build a personal brand, talking to PR. It's nonstop. Every single day that I wake up is Dedicated to growing like my own personal brand as well as like my career in letter sports, you know, so Same with my brothers and it was just kind of like that hobby

Like I said that took over and turned into a career. That's awesome What's next for you and the brother and where people find you? As far as what's next, you never really know. Like, going into 2025, I will be driving in Formula Drift and Prospec, possibly dipping my feet into some more off-road stuff. I have a huge partnership announcement coming out, so I'm super stoked. And I'll be signing with an energy drink, which I think is super awesome. Nice. But I, yeah, just continue like pushing, growing the personal brand,

driving in all these different types of motorsports. And they can find me on Instagram, YouTube, Facebook at Amanda Sorensen. Perfect. Check her out, guys. Thanks for coming on. That was fun. See you guys. Thank you.