It's a typical cold night in Laughlin, Nevada. I have three jackets on and the wind is blowing and chapping my lips. We're in a parking lot next to the river practicing for a drifting competition which I'm a little apprehensive about. I've done my runs, taken out the clipping points a few times and am generally ready to call it a night and see where the cards fall tomorrow. How different things were just a year ago, I thought, as I drove our 2005 Subaru STi drift car onto the trailer.

Last year the night was also cold and windy, except we were across the river competing in the Laughlin International Rally in the same STi, which was born into the racing scene as a rally car in all its AWD, Boxer engine glory. This time I had been allowed to drive it because I was in line to win the California Rally Series championship overall and in the Open 4WD class. All I had to do was finish ahead of this one guy and his mutant neon green Subaru that was a crazy mix of fast parts. I clearly had the equipment advantage with a newer, fresher vehicle and all I needed to do was step up as a driver.

I'd never driven the car before. It was a rough experience at first. With the seat too far back, I had to sit on pillows to reach the pedals, and after driving Evos for so long, the steering response of the Subaru felt alien to me. All I wanted to do was win, so I made the most of my practice runs before the race, nailing fourth and fifth gear crests, flying through the air, landing sideways and gathering it up for the next crest.

I was at the point in my rally career where I was ready to take it to the next level, to gain that sixth sense of predicting the unpredictable that really makes good rally drivers great. I started the rally a little bit cautiously. I was nervous and afraid. It was all coming down to the wire, so I stayed in my car visualizing the roads and how natural it would be to drive them.

When I came back for service, my times were appalling and I was devastated. I was a top driver with a speed rating of .93 out of 1.00 running in the top five at national events. I'm so much better than this, was all I could think. The last service happened more like an ER triage, and that's when my brother, our mechanic and my coach, diagnosed the problem - a huge exhaust leak right under the shift boot. My desire to focus and win by meditating in the car had sabotaged me and I had succumbed to the effects of CO2 poisoning. It was over for me. To this day, I still feel bad about it, but there's always going to be one that gets away.

As a consolation prize, my coach, SCCA PoRally champ Leon Styles, took over the Subaru after we fixed the missing exhaust gasket and he went on to win the championship. He also took me across the river to go drifting. Leon can drift anything with wheels, so getting the AWD STi sideways wasn't a problem. Unlike rally, drifting was all glitz and glamour, shiny cars and huge crowds. That's when we got the idea...

We finished the RWD conversion of our former rally car earlier this year. We switched the seat and moved it closer to the pedals. I was finally comfortable in the car! The first time I drifted the new RWD STi was on the segment I filmed for the TLC program "LA Ink," but my first day of drifting competition came exactly one year after the rally disaster.

As I tested the track for the first time, I was everything but what I was a year before. Everything from my driving lines to how I moved in the car was chaos, and unlike before, I was at the bottom on the heap, totally clueless in this world of clipping points and kissing walls.

Just as I kept spinning out at the hairpin, we had spun around and changed our direction. Do I mind being a newbie again? Nope. As it turned out, there were plenty of drifting masters ready to offer driving advice. They got me sliding happily away during practice, and the mental skills I learned rallying got me through the competition the next day. Now that I'm off drifting in a new direction, I can breathe easier - literally. - LK

Lisa is a girl who loves to drive. She's also won the Western States Rally Championship for Open 2WD cars in 2005 and was the first woman to win a national, professional level rally since the sport began in 1972 in a Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution 6.5. Learn more at:

www.rallyestar.com
www.myspace.com/driftpiratequeen