Tanner Foust and Stephan Papadakis linked up with Rockstar Energy Drink for 2008 to have a sponsorship for their 2008 season. It looks like Rockstar gained a relationship with Tanner Foust first in rally and through the X Games. It appears that Daijiro Yoshihara is no longer being partnered with Rockstar. 2008 should be interesting.
Saturday February 2nd, 2008 has everyone getting together at Garage Boso! Come get BBQ and prizes all day. Everything gets started at 1:00pm and they are wrapping it up at 7:00pm.
Location:
Garage Boso
123 E. Gardena Blvd. #C
Gardena, CA 90248
Check out the flyer for all the other information. Wrecked Magazine will see you their!
We spotted four names in the Drifting circuit doing some testing with the International All Star team and their Mazda Mx5’s. They have all three cars out with four drivers.
1. Kyle Mohan
2. Patrick Mordaunt
3. Lisa Klassen
4. Brian Rogers
We are not sure the purpose of this testing? Are they looking for a team or just trying to get the cars broken in? The one name you may not be familiar with Lisa Klassen was announced earlier on Wrecked Magazine as a rally driver looking to make the transition into Drifting. A possible new Drifting team could be in the works?
We got sent to a former Formula D drivers blog that happens to mention him working for NOPI. Here is the blog post. This was posted on Mike Peter’s myspace page (myspace.com/mikespeed95) today! He was a top 10 Formula D driver in 2005 as we mentioned before in our speculation post.
“And next weekend I get to go on a trip, and talk to some people about some drifting stuff I might be doing next year. I want to get some security in my life, but I still want to travel and help the sport and I’d still like to get as much exposure and have fun for all the people that have helped me along the way. Ill just say this for now, thanks to our old pals the beach boys. I gotta also give HUUUUGE thanks to the guys over at Nopi Motorsports for allowing me to do this, I’ll be “working” most the time I’m there, and its kinda a business trip, but It’s really awesome to have the opportunity to work for something I have a passion in, and I’m relly looking forward to going to Hawaii although I doubt I’ll have much free time I’m sure I’ll be able to see some cool new things in life and see something new, which is always awesome and I’ve been really blessed to have the opportunity to see/do a lot more than most people my age.”
This is from www.myspace.com/mikespeed95.
As rumors circulate we have gotten a little more information on the judging scenario. We broke to you that one judge is a one time Top 10 Formula D star but a second judge has been brought to our attention. He is apparently a 2007 NOPI Drift event champion. After some calculating and hunting across the Internet we found four drivers who meet this criteria.
Bill Sherman
Justin Pawlak
Rob Fleming
Kenji Yamanaka
We have sources who can confirm that currently NOPI is in talks with one of these drivers. A third judge is rumored to be a former Formula D driver as well that we haven’t seen since 2005. Keep posted.
An announcement was made on the NOPI forums today referring to the fact that the former trio judging team will not be involved in Drifting for 2008. This team consisted of Ernie Fixmer, Wes Hamachi, and Jacob Leveton.
Rumors have been circulating however that one of the new judges is a former Top 10 Formula D driver….
We will keep everyone posted on this! We think NOPI will have a hard time replacing the likes of current D1 driver Ernie Fixmer and former Formula D driver Wes with their vast knowledge of the sport and influence they brought. NOPI has surprised us before though so we will stay tuned and keep you on watch.
Source: www.nopiforums.com/index.php?showtopic=4581
If you want more complete coverage of Auto Salon (outside of Drifting content) from the show check out our collaboration story/gallery over at Tunerzine. Check out the coverage we did for Tunerzine.com of the Tokyo Auto Salon.
Here is a direct link to the story/gallery.
Thanks again to Exedy Racing Clutches for providing us the ability to get to Japan! At the Exedy booth we get to hang out with Tetsuya Yamano who has won the JGTC 300 several times! The booth was full of people trying to visit the Exedy models and check out the new clutch products.
Wrecked Magazine’s favorite car at the show on Day 2 was the Tom’s Lexus SC430. It was flat black with some carbon pieces. It looks like a killer machine and we hope to see it in action during 2008!
Here is the R34 Skyline that was in the Goodyear Tires booth.
Here are some other rides from the show.
Oh no!!!!! Guess what we found at the Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X at the Mitsubishi booth! We did, Kumakubo is going to pilot this thing in 2008 and it should be insane! Here are two pics of it!
Exedy Racing Clutches hooked Wrecked Magazine with over a full week in Japan! So to spread the thanks of Exedy to our fans we are going to hook you up with all the drifting cars we found at Tokyo Auto Salon! This place was a MOB!
This car was a show stealer for me! It was in the Dunlop Tires booth, new for 2008, a Nissan Skyline R35 GTR!
The D1 Grand Prix booth had a ton of arcade systems (we want one for the office! Send us an e-mail if you have a lead on how to snag one!) and some car models.
The Top Secret Nissan 350z (Z33) Drift car was in the D1GP booth.
The JUN booth showcased the Team Orange/Yukes Subaru WRX.
The Lotus Exige in the Exedy booth!
Dunlop Tires also had a R34 Skyline!
Here are some more D1 cars from the show! Enjoy, we are going to cover more of Japan in the next week from Exedy and we are going to hook it up with tons of cool coverage!
