So the big rumor is that Nitto Tires will not be joining Formula D in 2009! The word on the street is that Nitto Tire’s parent company (Toyo Tire Holdings of Americas Inc.) told the Nitto and Toyo brand (they own both) that only one of them needed to be involved with Drifting. At least they are not hiding behind the “poor economy” excuse like so many other companies. With a few companies slimming back with the market it seems like a pretty logical choice for hte parent company to make.So now we know that Toyo Tires is locked in for hte new year but without Tanner Foust who just left for Hankook.

The two major teams that are getting hit by this rumor would be Conrad Gruenwald in his Chevrolet Corvette and the Bergenholtz brothers with the Mazda drifting program. The Bergenholtz have a long standing relationship from drag racing with Nitto Tires so that makes us wonder where they will wind up. Perhaps since they released Ryuji Miki and accquired Justin Pawlak that maybe he will bring Maxxis Tires to the team. It will be interesting to see what results and we will let you know if we hear anything more concrete in the upcoming weeks of 2009.

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