Greatness; it is something we all strive for and I believe that it is achieved through working hard and giving it your best, despite the odds. Whether it is studying your butt off for tomorrow’s test or trying to shave the last millisecond off your lap time, as long as you give it 100%, you are great. One such person that I believe achieved greatness is Mr. Jordan Lipman.

Jordan lives in sunny Huntington Beach, CA and is happily married to a beautiful wife, who actually used to drag race muscle cars back in the day. In addition, as if that wasn’t awesome enough, Lipman also works as a technician for Porsche and was on crew for 2008 Formula D season with JIC Porsche GT2. At this point many of you are probably quoting Charlie Sheen, because this guy is most definitely “Bi-Winning”. However, the story just gets better.

In 2010, Ken Block hosted the first ever Gymkhanna Grid invitational event. If you have ever watched any of his Gymkhanna videos on youtube, you can guess that this event was pretty sweet. The Gymkhanna Grid consisted of drivers from different racing backgrounds, with faces like Vaughn Gittin Jr.( drifting ) and Andrew Comrie-Picard (rallying). (Watch the video for info on the event.) However, there was also qualifying for those who didn’t exactly have fully prepped race cars.

“I had convinced my wife to come out to this event at the Hollywood Park horse racing track parking lot to check out this event with Ken Block. I had never seen anything like it except on youtube and wanted to see what all the fuss was about. It was organized by Speedventures, who I have run a few track days with. We were just going to watch but at the last minute I signed up to run. It turned out to be way overbooked and I only had 3 runs of the course and spent most of the day sitting in a long line of cars. There were professional drifters, racers, and everyday people like me there. It was a lot of fun and didn’t really expect much. After going my first time slowly though the course, the second time I got lost and just wound up doing donuts in the middle of the course. The third time I nailed it and had a perfect run. After that run and figuring I wouldn’t get another without waiting in line for another hour we decided to leave. A few days later I was checking the Gymkhana Grid facebook page for info and I saw my name and “congratulations to our top 3 drivers”!! I had actually finished in 2nd place out of all those cars with only Alex Pfeiffer faster than me. I was so surprised!”

His car you ask? The JIC Porsche? Nope. It’s his daily driven 2004 Subaru Impreza WRX STI with 149,600 miles, Enkei RPF-1’s, ARP extended wheel studs, a black vinyl roof, K&N air filter, and home made under chassis sub frame brace. Here is where are story begins ladies and gentlemen, this is where Jordan achieves greatness, he has the guts to compete against professional drivers with fully race prepped cars, in front of a crowd of people and thousands of online viewers everywhere.

“That event got me into the Irwindale Gymkhana event. I have never been so nervous in my life. I had worked on the pit crew for the Formula Drift Hankook JIC Porsche in 2008 and that was the last time I had been to Irwindale. I was good to be back and even better to be there as a driver. Everyone was really nice to me and treated me like part of the racing family even though I really didn’t belong. I knew I had zero chance competing against fully prepared race cars with professional drivers but was so stoked to be there it didn’t matter. I came up with a goal. If I could drive to the track and back in my own car I was ok with whatever place I ended up in after the event. The first day was quite a learning experience since I had never actually drifted my car before and now it was a requirement of the event.
The first time leaving the starting line and heading towards the back wall at 70 mph, shifting from 3rd to second, pulling the brake and pitching it sideways was so intense. My heart was pumping! It all worked out, my car didn’t roll, and the all wheel drive system disengages when the handbrake is pulled so the car can rotate and when the brake is released all 4 wheels light up and presto! 4 wheel drive drifting. It was actually quite controllable but I had to go really fast otherwise I would either stall or not slide and it would hook up and under-steer. I spent the first day hitting barrels, stalling, spinning out, and just trying to get my timing, tire pressures, and fuel level for ballast correct. I only had two sets of tires, one set were all seasons that slid around at slow speed to practice on, and summer tires for the main event that would hold some more speed once warmed up. I learned that I had better duct tape my ebrake handle button down because it latched a few times and really messed up my drift. By the end of the day I felt pretty confident that I wasn’t going to die, but still didn’t have a chance in hell of being competitive.”

“My competition was pretty stiff, but there were only a handfull of us in the AWD class and one car blew its clutch before the final so that narrowed the field down. The odds were actually not too bad for me to make it to the final. My opponent for the first elimination round didn’t have an e-brake at all so he could not rotate the car as well as I could. Even though I was down on power by almost 300hp and suspension tuning, roll cage, etc. I managed to have a clean enough run to beat him! That means I made it to the final 8. At the opening ceremony I stood with the other racers in my jeans and tshirt and waved to the crowd and could hear them all cheering. What a night! This is where the elimination rounds put fastest against slowest and I raced Tanner Foust. Obviously I didn’t have a chance but it was great just being out there. I finished the race and enjoyed the rest of the night amongst the other racers. Tanner went on to win so I didn’t feel too bad. He even beat Ken Block at his own event. I really did drive to work on Monday in the same car I raced in. All I did was peel off the stickers. I have made some great friends because of this event and had the time of my life. I hope they have another event because I would love the chance to get out there and do it again.”
Here’s a video of his run against Tanner Foust. For more videos, just youtube search “Jordan Lipman”

Greatness; it is something that Jordan achieved at that event. Competing in a near stock car with over 100,000 miles on it, in an event full of professional race cars and drivers, is no small feat. Against all odds, he gave it his best and made it to the final 8. I watched this event live online and needless to say I was very impressed. I became an instant fan of Jordan Lipman, so much so that I made a Facebook fanpage for him (no lie) and was inspired to bring this feature to you today. I hope all of you find this feature as inspiring as I did. Also, you can become a fan of Jordan Lipman of Facebook HERE.

The awesome photo’s taken below are by Cars X Hype’s RJ Deslate
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