Chris Forsberg Vs. Darren McNamara Insane 3rd Place Battle

Check out the insane tandem battle between Chris Forsberg and Darren McNamara for 3rd place at Formula Drift Irwindale. Darren McNamara crashes into Forsberg on the first lap and then both guys crash so hard on the second lap. Darren McNamara made contact hard enough to remove the rear bash bar off the Saturn Sky.

Watch the video: http://www.wreckedmagazine.com/watchvideo/chris-forsberg-vs-darren-mcnamara—an-insane

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 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

Check out the tentative drivers list here for Formula Drift Round 7. No big shockers in the drivers list (hopefully some last minute shocking entries show up) but read it up and down. The finals are going to be up in the air and we cannot wait until the main event:

1. Fredric Aasbo
2. Jeff Abbott
3. Emmanuel Amandio
4. Odi Bakchis
5. Tony Brakohiapa
6. Patrick Cyr
7. Michael Essa
8. Mike Feiock
9. Matt Field
10. Chris Forsberg
11. Vaughn Gittin Jr.
12. Otto Graven
13. Conrad Grunewald
14. Ken Gushi
15. Jim Guthrie
16. Sam Hubinettte
17. Jeff Jones
18. Ryan kado
19. Dean Kearney
20. Nikolay Konstantinov
21. Alex Lee
22. Luke Lonberger
23. Joon Maeng
24. Cyrus Martinez
25. Darren McNamara
26. Tyler McQuarrie
27. Dennis Mertzanis
28. Rhys Millen
29. Kenneth Moen
30. Kyle Mohan
31. Patrick Mordaunt
32. Charles Ng
33. Robbie Nishida
34. Justin Pawlak
35. Ross Petty
36. Alex Pfeiffer
37. Kyle Pollard
38. Saranon Pornpatanarak
39. Matt Powers
40. John Russakoff
41. Ryan Tuerck
42. Matt Waldin
43. Walker Wilkerson
44. Daijiro Yoshihara
45. Toshiki Yoshioka

A big debate around the sport has fallen upon how many events should the series be for years end. The rumor/almost confident announcement for SEMA in November is that the series is going to move to 8 events (adding Texas Motor Speedway perhaps?).

While Formula Drift issued a September hiatus in the schedule this year almost all the drivers have been out and about competing internationally or around the United States. The Drift Alliance was all at Clubloose for Freedom Moves, Odi/Dennis have been attending Adams Motorsports Park and Slideway Sunday at Irwindale, Fredric Aasbo/DMac went on a European tour, and even Dai Yoshihara took to some BDC action. The list could go on but you get the point already…. the media and our site has been swarmed with Formula Drift drivers doing everything but driving in Formula Drift.

So can we please have 8 events next year or maybe 9? If you look at how a 9 event system would change the championship structure it would be amazing. This would give a much more realistic opportunity for drivers who messed up one event (see Vaughn Gittin Jr. at Long Beach) a proper chance to claw his way back into a championship hope!

The grid at Mondello was full of Formula Drift stars, but it was James Deane that came out on top in his S13, ousting Darren McNamara and the Need for Speed AE86 in the final round at Mondello.

Dai Yoshihara and Dean Kearney also made the trip out. Dai managed to defeat Dean Kearney in top 16, but was knocked out by Darren McNamara in the top 8.

Deane took out Fredric Aasbo in his Supra in the top 8, Phil Morrison in Final 4, and was battling Darren McNamara for the top spot when DMac suffered mechanical issues, giving James Deane the win. James Deane suffered mechanical issues himself losing 2nd and 4th gears, but was able to overcome and take top honors with half a transmission!

Check out the BDC Round 5 coverage from the famous Formula 1 Silverstone circuit. Darren McNamara brought out the rotary AE86 and Fredric Aasbo brought out his Toyota Supra that ran in the UAE. Some great coverage from Chris Wynne. Enjoy our 100+ photos inside.

Check Out the Gallery: http://www.wreckedmagazine.com/gallery/thumbnails.php?album=262

The event started off with Fredric Aasbo taking home second in qualifying just behind Phil Morrison and Darren McNamara slotted in with his AE86 in 5th. A Formula Drift battle broke out in the Semi-Finals between Fredric Aasbo and Darren McNamara which resulted in Aasbo taking the victory and moving into the finals. Darren McNamara ended up with transmission issues. After a 5 minute rule for the 3rd place battle he had to give up his hopes of landing on the podium with the debut of his new AE86. Here is how the podium finished up:

1. Fredric Aasbo
2. Phil Morrison
3. David Waterworth

I was working on championship opportunities today of who can win and how it would all happen for a post later in the week and found some shocking information about the opportunity Tyler McQuarrie had wide open to him and was stripped away by his own team.

Let’s go over the assumptions I made to get to this conclusion: 
1. Justin Pawlak scores a 0 from his Ford Mustang not working. (You could assume he got a few points from driving the S15 but judging by how Tyler looked in it the car was far from competition ready.)
2. Tyler McQuarrie did amazing here last year and scored 104 points in the process. I used his performance data from last year and plugged that into his score for this event (subtracting the poor performance points in the S15.)
3. Everyone else for Round 6 I gave the performance they put on (everyone ahead of Tyler McQuarrie except Darren McNamara did pretty bad).

2011 Formula D Championship Standings*
1. Daijiro Yoshihara – 470 points
2. Darren McNamara – 435.50 points
3. Chris Forsberg – 429 points
4. Tyler McQuarrie – 420.50 points
5. Matt Powers – 418.50 points
6. Justin Pawlak – 399.75

Of course this is complete speculation and this is more of an ideal world for Tyler McQuarrie scenario I have painted out here on display but nobody has a way of disputing this claim anymore. Quite a few of the top tandem drivers he would of faced were eliminated early at the event making it even more of a feasible action I feel like. 50 points is a realistic hurdle to tackle for a championship win as well and shouldn’t be discredited. Tyler McQuarrie has performed very well at Irwindale Speedway before and anything can happen with the two drivers above him.