With the demise of Redline Time Attack earlier this year, the MotoIQ Pacific Tuner Car Championship left Dai Yoshihara as Tuner Under class leader but no closure was brought to the series. Fast forward to this past weekend at the North American Festival of Speed which picked up the last two races of the MPTCC’s 2011 Season, and after a tough battle between Tuner Under Class’ APD Motorsports TSX, Dai Yoshihara emerged victorious as he went on to become the 2011 MotoIQ Pacific Tuner Car Champion.

That means Dai now holds 2011 Champion titles for not only two race series, but two racing disciplines. Congratulations Dai!

Formula Drift Asia took over Indonesia for a round of the Asian series this year. The event was broadcast live on Star Sports and saw a huge number of viewers during the event. The drifting event took place at Jakarta International Expo and featured Ken Gushi and Robbie Nishida from Formula Drift. Daigo Saito from D1GP also attended the event and took home first place again at the Indonesia event. 2011 Formula Drift champion Dai Yoshihara was also on the judging stand again for this FD Asia event. Here is how the podium stacked up:

1. Daigo Saito
2. Muhammad Rulli Armando
3. Pond Dechapon

If your driving down the 110 South by the PCH exit soon you will this awesome billboard put up by America’stire.com (Discount Tire) celebrating the victory they took home in the DT S13. Dai Yoshihara had quite the journey to victory this year in the car but pulled it off at one wild Final Fight this year. Falken Tire took home its second championship with Dai Yoshihara and his crew compiled of SPD Metal Works and others I am sure cannot be more happy about how the year finished.

We are running a mock setup similar to the one Dai Yoshihara runs on his 2011 Formula Drift championship winning S13. Thanks to SPD Metalworks for providing a duplicate of the bracket Dai Yoshihara runs on his competition car. Find out what our plans are and how this got installed on the S13 over at the project car blog or follow the link below.

Read Our Install: http://www.wreckedmagazine.com/v8s13nissan240sx/2011/10/15/we-go-dual-caliber-in-the-rear-with-wilwood-brakes-installation

After the 2011 season Formula Drift has 52 events in the books. The series now has 17 overall event winners meaning just about every 3 events (twice a season) a driver will receive his first win in the sport. Now after 2011 nine drivers are multiple events winners in the series. This year added two of those nine drivers with Justin Pawlak winning both his events this season and Tyler McQuarrie earning his second at Irwindale Speedway this season joining the club.

1. Sam Hubinette (9 Wins)
1. 2004 Road Atlanta
2. 2004 Houston
3. 2004 Infineon Raceway (Sonoma)
4. 2005 Road Atlanta
5. 2005 Chicago
6. 2006 Streets of Long Beach
7. 2006 Chicago
8. 2006 Wall Speedway
9. 2007 Summit Point

2. Tanner Foust (7 Wins)
1. 2006 Road Atlanta
2. 2007 Irwindale Speedway
3. 2008 Streets of Long Beach
4. 2008 Englishtown
5. 2008 Infineon Raceway (Sonoma)
6. 2009 Las Vegas
7. 2010 Evergreen Speedway
8. 2010 Irwindale Speedway

3. Chris Forsberg (6 Wins)
1. 2005 Irwnidale
2. 2007 Road Atlanta
3. 2007 Infineon Raceway (Sonoma)
4. 2008 Streets of Long Beach
5. 2009 Road Atlanta
6. 2009 Evergreen Speedway

3. Rhys Millen (6 Wins)
1. 2004 Irwindale Speedway
2. 2005 Wall Speedway
3. 2006 Infineon Raceway (Sonoma)
4. 2008 Road Atlanta
5. 2008 Evergreen Speedway
6. 2011 Las Vegas

3. Dai Yoshihara (6 Wins)
1. 2006 Irwindale Speedway
2. 2007 Evergreen Speedway
3. 2007 Wall Speedway
4. 2010 Road Atlanta
5. 2011 Road Atlanta
6. 2011 Evergreen Speedway

6. Vaughn Gittin Jr. (3 Wins)
1. 2008 Irwindale Speedway
2. 2010 Streets of Long Beach
3. 2010 Infineon Raceway (Sonoma)

7. Ryan Tuerck (2 Wins)
1. 2009 Streets of Long Beach
2. 2009 Irwindale Speedway

7. Tyler McQuarrie (2 Wins)
1. 2010 Las Vegas
2. 2011 Irwindale Speedway

7. Justin Pawlak (2 Wins)
1. 2011 Streets of Long Beach
2. 2011 Palm Beach International Raceway

10. Ken Gushi (1 Win)
1. 2005 Houston

10. Calvin Wan (1 Win)
1. 2005 Infineon Raceway (Sonoma

10. Yukinobu Okubo (1 Win)
1. 2006 Evergreen Speedway

10. Mitsuru Haraguchi (1 Win)
1. 2007 Streets of Long Beach

10. Toshiki Yoshioka (1 Win)
1. 2008 Las Vegas

10. Darren McNamara (1 Win)
1. 2009 Wall Speedway

10. Stephan Verdier (1 Win)
1. 2009 Infineon Raceway (Sonoma)

10. Conrad Grunewald (1 Win)
1. 2011 Wall Speedway

The last award we are writing about is Crew Member of the Year which went to Mike Kojima who works on the SPD Metal Works crew who runs/manages Dai Yoshihara and the Discount Tire S13. They built a S13 Nissan 240sx that gave Dai Yoshihara a chance to drive his way to a championship and that alone allows him to earn this award. Mike is a well respected suspension engineer and any top 10 Formula Drift team would be lucky to have him.

Photo Source: MotoIQ.com

Dai Yoshihara took home the Tires.com Triple Crown, the 2011 Championship, and the Best Drift Style Award. We aren’t sure how this was a voteable category when you could of taken a tally of style points from the style judge but we digress. Dai Yoshihara has had some insane transitions this season and aggressive follows (almost two aggressive at times). A true fan favorite since the start of the series.

After a rollercoaster of a series the man who has come so close in the championship has finally taken home a championship! He held out Justin Pawlak and took home the Discount Tire S13 to a championship in the series by a margin of less than 10 points. Dai Yoshihara has finally done it after a ton of close calls to the championship!

The most winning driver in Formula Drift Sam Hubinette took the top qualifying spot this weekend at Irwindale Speedway which is something we haven’t seen from him in sometime. A huge congrats to his performance after a rough start to the 2011 season! Here is how the Top 32 stacked up with Rookie of the Year leader Odi Bakchis missing out with a 33rd place finish.

1.Sam Hubinette – 92.7 points
2. Justin Pawlak – 90.4 points
3. Tyler McQuarrie – 88.4 points
4. Ryan Tuerck – 86.1 points
5. Rhys Millen – 85.9 points
6. Dai Yoshihara – 83.5 points
7. Walker Wilkerson – 83.3 points
8. Robbie Nishida – 83.2 points
9. Conrad Grunewald – 82.3 points
10. Matt Powers – 79.4 points
11. Ken Gushi – 79.0 points
12. Vaughn Gittin Jr. – 77.7 points
13. Fredric Aasbo – 77.3 points
14. Dean Kearney – 77.1 points
15. Luke Lonberger – 77 points
16. Chris Forsberg – 76.9 points
17. Matt Field – 76.5 points
18. Toshiki Yoshioka – 73.1 points
19. Ryan Kado – 72.8 points
20. Kyle Mohan – 72.8 points
21. Michael Essa – 71.2 points
22. Taka Aono – 70.8 points
23. Ross Petty – 68.9 points
24. E. Armandio “Dio” – 68.6 points
25. Dennis Mertzanis – 68.3 points
26. Darren McNamara – 67.9 points
27. Jeff Abbott – 67.8 points
28. Pat Cyr – 66.3 points
29. Kenneth Moen – 66.2 points
30. Cyrus Martinez – 63.3 points
31. Charles Ng – 62.5 points
32. Patrick Mordaunt – 61 points

Here are the drivers found on the poll for the 2011 Formula Drift Awards that are presented at the banquet after the season ends. Here are the nine questions which each have four options selected by Formula D. I heard they are going to make a new category this year called driver who missed driving their own race car the most but I don’t think we need multiple choice options for that one (this is a joke for you non sense of humored people).

1. Crew Member of the year (this person can be the crew chief, mechanic, suspension engineer, etc.)

A. Mike Kojima (Discount Tire S13/Dai Yoshihara)
B. Scott Dodgen (Discount Tire S13/Dai Yoshihara)
C. Kevin Wells (NOS Energy Drink 370z/Chris Forsberg)
D. Costa Gialamas (Team Need for Speed S14/Matt Powers)

2. Team Manager of the year (this person can be the manager, owner or the person instrumental in managing the team well)

A. Jonathan Bradford (Falken Tire)
B. Stephan Papadakis (Team Need for Speed Scion tC)
C. Chris Forsberg (NOS Energy Drink 370z)
D. Ron Bergenholtz (Full Tilt Poker Mazda Rx-8)

3. Hardest Charging Driver of the Year”
A. Matt Powers
B. Dai Yoshihara
C. Darren McNamara
D. Walker Wilkerson
E. Conrad Grunewald
F. Justin Pawlak

4. Best Drifting Style:
A. Matt Powers
B. Dai Yoshihara
C. Ryan Tuerck
D. Fredric Aasbo

5. Spirit of Drifting:
A. Joon Maneg
B. Ross Petty
C. Walker Wilkerson
D. Dai Yoshihara

6. Best Style (the person with the best overall style this season, not driving style)
A. Matt Powers
B. Matt Field
C. Ross Petty
D. Dai Yoshihara

7. Most Improved Driver:
A. Odi Bakchis
B. Cyrus Martinez
C. Justin Pawlak
D. Matt Powers

8. Best Comeback of the Year:
A. Rhys Millen
B. Fredric Aasbo
C. Odi Bakchis
D. Vaughn Gittin Jr.

9. Best Looking Car of the Year:
A. Dai Yoshihara
B. Matt Field
C. Fredric Aasbo
D. Chris Forsberg