The guys over at DSTROYR clothing created an all new Team Bakchis shirt for the 2013 season inspired from the RPM DSTROYR tee. The shirt pulls inspiration from his new livery and sponsors including his Formula Drift car number #723. What do you think of his new 2013 shirt? You can pick it up at DSTROYR right now!
Buy This Shirt: http://www.dstroyr.bigcartel.com/product/odi-bakchis-x-dstroyr-2013
We sent out David Moore to also capture the action that was happening at Streets of Long Beach. The veteran motorsports shooter traveled around the Streets of Long Beach capturing all the moments from a unique perspective. We really enjoyed all of his images he put together from Round 1.
Check out the gallery: http://www.wreckedmagazine.com/gallery/thumbnails.php?album=329
With the first round out of the way, Dai Yoshihara leads the points by taking the win along with earning top qualifier. 2012 champion Daigo Saito sits in 10th place after getting knocked out in the round of 16 by Freddy Aasbo, matching his worst finish from 2012. JR was the last champion to win the Long Beach event and go on to win the championship back in 2010, it will be interesting to see if Dai Yoshihara can repeat that. Who’s your favorite to win the 2013 championship after Long Beach?
1. Daijiro Yoshihara 112 points
2. Vaughn Gittin Jr. 92 points
3. Chris Forsberg 79 points
4. Chelsea DeNofa 75 points
5. Kenny Moen 65 points
6. Darren McNamara 64 points
6. Ryan Tuerck 64 points
8. Fredric Aasbo 63 points
9. Ken Gushi 62 points
9. Michael Essa 62 points
11. Daigo Saito 57 points
12. Aurimas”Odi” Bakchis 56 points
13. Ryan Kado 55 points
14. Matt Powers 55 points
15. Patrick Mordaunt 54.5 points
16. Justin Pawlak 54.5 points
The main event gallery from Formula Drift has arrived shot by Justin Kaehler with over 700 images from the Top 32 to the podium. Many drivers rode the turn 9 and 10 walls all weekend leaving wing end plates and tail lights behind. Dai Yoshihara drove his S13 to a victory over Vaughn Gittin Jr. closing out the weekend which saw second year driver Chelsea DeNofa land a fourth place spot. All the photos are below.
Check out the Gallery: http://www.wreckedmagazine.com/gallery/thumbnails.php?album=328
The other new championship for 2013 is the Tire Manufacturers championship, where the top two finishers on each tire company earn points for their sponsor. All drivers are eligible for these points, regardless of whether they are sponsored by the manufacturer or just buying the tires. Falken has taken the early lead due to a win from Dai Yoshihara and a top 8 finish from Darren McNamara, but Nitto is hot on their tail with two drivers in the top 4. In this case, the qualifying points were the difference between the two manufacturers. It will be interesting to see how this plays out over the course of the season. Again, thanks to Jacob Leveton for helping us calculate the numbers.
1. Falken- 176
2. Nitto- 167
3. Hankook- 141
4. Yokohama- 116.5
5. Nexen- 111
The first weekend of the Manufacturers Championship kicked off at Long Beach which is one of the two new championships replacing the Tires.com Triple Crown. To qualify as a manufacture your car must have an engine that matches manufactures with your chassis. This means someone like Dai Yoshihara doesn’t accumulate points but a motor swapped driver like Ryan Tuerck with his Scion FR-S will. Here is how the Top 5 look after Long Beach. Special thanks to Jacob Leveton for helping us with the calculation.
1. Ford- 146.5 points
2. Nissan- 137 points
2. BMW- 137 points
3. Scion- 126 points
4. Lexus- 111 points
What a day we had to kick off the 2013 season at a gloomy Long Beach day. The sun vanished and really good tandem battles took place all day setting quite a ton for the 2013 season. The most memorable battle by far was Daigo Saito and Fredric Aasbo which saw Aasbo take the in one crazy double OMT battle. Here is how it finished with Vaughn losing to his old Falken teammate to close it off. Here is the top 4:
1. Dai Yoshihara
2. Vaughn Gittin Jr.
3. Chris Forsberg
4. Chelsea DeNofa
The 2013 season is underway with an intense but very long and delayed qualifying session. Justin Pawlak wrecked his first run and got his car back and rallied to a 23rd place. Tyler McQuarrie snuck in at 32nd after 0 practice time and two blown steering racks on his Camaro. He is not spending the night swapping engines in the car.
Check out the Gallery: http://www.wreckedmagazine.com/gallery/thumbnails.php?album=327
Alex Lee showed up in this Toyota Aristo for the 2013 Formula Drift season backed by SerialNINE, Achilles Radial, and ACT Clutch. At the moment the new car is running the same 418 Stroker LS3 as last year, 580whp 550tq output and adding more power is in the plans for this 2013 season.
SerialNINE who had previously been helping out with suspension components and aero has stepped up this year helping tremendously with the chassis’ development. They have developed a new set of front & rear wide fenders with a CSL style rear trunk. Also all new SerialNINE front steering suspension components are being tested on this car. We will see how he does at the Streets of Long Beach and the 2013 season!
