Drift Aliiance QUALIFYING CONTEST: Rd 2-3

Check out the Drift Alliance Films video featuring the qualifying speed and early entry contest they run internally at every round of Formula D. Watch as Road Atlanta and Wall Speedway unwind and the drivers try to stop the dominance of Vaughn Gittin Jr. in their respective categories.

Watch the video: http://www.wreckedmagazine.com/watchvideo/drift-aliiance-qualifying-contest-rd-2-3-

2010 Falken Throwdown – DMac takes 3rd at Evergreen Speedway
Team Falken Driver Darren McNamara scored his first podium of the year by taking third in Saturday night’s Formula Drift Championship at Evergreen Speedway. It was Falken’s sixth podium in four races and Falken’s Vaughn Gittin, Jr., who qualified first for the weekend event, continues to lead the series championship.

Watch the video: http://www.wreckedmagazine.com/watchvideo/2010-falken-throwdown—dmac-takes-3rd-at-eve

Here is how the qualifying order went at Formula Drift Las Vegas yesterday.

1. Sam Hubinette 93.5
2. Kyle Mohan 91.2
3. Conrad Grunewald 89.4
4. Chris Forsberg 88.9
5. Vaughn Gittin Jr. 88.2
6. Tyler McQuarrie 87.1
7. Michihiro Takatori 86.3
8. Dai Yoshihara 86.2
9. Mad Mike Whiddet 86
10. Justin Pawlak 83.8
11. Darren McNamara 82.6
12. Ryan Tuerck 81.1
13. Charles Ng 80.9
14. Joon Maeng 79.8
15. Ryuji Miki 79
16. Tanner Foust 77.4
17. Eric O’Sullivan 75.9
18. Alex Pfeiffer 75.6
19. Jeff Jones 74.5
20. Fredric Aasbo 73.2
21. Ross Petty 72.7
22. Matt Field 72.2
23. Matt Powers 71.6
24. James Deane 71.3
25. Taka Aono 69.7
26. Tony Brakohiapa 68.6
27. Michael Essa 68.3
28. Brian Wilkerson 67.3
29. Rhys Millen 67.1
30. Patrick Mordaunt 65
31. Nicoli Konstantinov 63.7
32. Jeff Abbott 59.6

Thursday night practice was pretty insane/crazy for a night practice before an event starts. Forrest Wang took honors for the hardest hit of the weekend and clearly totaled the Infiniti G35. Just looking at the car it had some frame damage and I cannot see him driving it at all this weekend. Joon Maeng had some contact with the wall in his Mazda Rx-8 but it looks like it did some minimal damage.

Fredric Aasbo had some contact with the wall and I am not sure on the condition of that car. However, when I left the track around 1:00am his team was hard at work fixing it up. With all day to prepare I can only imagine the car will be ready for qualifying. Sam Hubinette connected with the wall in practice but just made contact with the tire wall. Everything looked fine on the car so he should have no concerns.

Justin Pawlak was the fastest consistently of the day by far and I was told by Falken he was being clocked at 88mph on entry. If he can keep that performance level up in tandem he has an easy shot at the podium. Tyler McQuarrie from the Falken camp looked better than he has all season by a mile.

Tanner Foust and Tyler McQuarrie both got clocked at 89mph which were the top entries of the day. Tanner Foust looked amazing and did win this race last year. Ryan Tuerck never ran a real constant line and has some things to work before he can put down a top qualifying performance. Practice/qualifying will kick off around 7:00pm tonight.

If you are at X-Games 16 this weekend you will have a great opportunity to get some autographs signed by Drift Alliance members. Even though none of them are running in X-Games events this weekend they will have the Mustangs on display at the Mobil 1 booth. One of our sponsors at Wrecked Magazine and a huge sponsor of Formula Drift will have a separate autograph signing for each driver. Here are the hours below:

Mobil 1 Booth at 2010 X-Games Autograph Schedule
Friday, July 30, 2010 Justin Pawlak 3pm – 5pm
Saturday, July 31, 2010 Ryan Tuerck 2pm – 5pm
Sunday, August 1, 2010 Vaughn Gittin Jr. 3pm – 5pm

Ken Gushi took over his blog to talk about his battles in Seattle. The car broke a ton of parts drivetrain related but the team got Ken Gushi back out on the track and qualified 15th. He beat Cody Parkhouse in the Top 32 and then faced against Justin Pawlak in the Top 16. He talks about beating Pawlak and being told he was “too slow” which he has a great reply for. Read about all of this and his Top 8 battle with Takatori.

Read Ken Gushi’s Blog Post about Seattle: http://kenshirogushi.blogspot.com/2010/07/post-seattle-and-scion-exposed.html

Check out Formula Drift Evergreen Speedway coverage which saw Tanner Foust win his first event of the year. It helped him jump to second in the championship points. Mike Kippen took our photography which features over 350 photos from the weekend.

Check out the Gallery: http://www.wreckedmagazine.com/gallery/thumbnails.php?album=183

The championship race this year has been one to keep an eye on. Even though Vaughn Gittin Jr. holds the first place we witnessed that he won’t coast his way to a championship this year. Tanner Foust soared in the points with his win and Daijiro Yoshihara’s early elimination in the round. Note that we announced the 2010 Redbull World Championship is happening this year in Atlanta, Georgia which means if your out of championship contention you still want to fight to finish in the Top 16 so you can receive an invite. That is assuming Formula Drift runs the same format as they did in 2008.

1. Vaughn Gittin Jr. (357 points)
2. Tanner Foust (331 points)
3. Daijiro Yoshihara (326 points)
4. Ryan Tuerck (305 points)
5. Darren McNamara (286 points)
6. Chris Forsberg (266 points)
7. Rhys Millen (237.50 points)
8. Sam Hubinette (231 points)
9. Michihiro Takatori (212.50 points)
10. Justin Pawlak (211.50 points)
11. Ken Gushi (203.50 points)
12. Tyler McQuarrie (171.50 points)
13. Charles Ng (166.50 points)
14. Ross Petty (161.50 points)
15. Stephan Verdier (160 points)
16. Forrest Wang (157.50 points)
17. Conrad Grunewald (144 points)
18. Patrick Mordaunt (141.50 points)
19. Joon Maeng (135.25 points)
20. Fredric Aasbo (134 points)
21. Dean Kearney (128 points)
22. Michael Essa (121.75 points)
23. Ryuji Miki (105.25 points)
24. Robbie Nishida (104.75 points)
25. Kyle Mohan (98.75 points)

Vaughn Gittin Jr. just continues to dominate the 2010 season by qualifying first and gaining more qualifying points than any other driver today. This is just pushing his lead slightly farther from Daijiro Yoshihara (2nd) in points. He will line up against Alex Pfeiffer in the Top 32. Taka Aono did finish qualifying 6th which was quite a shock in the Nexen Tire AE86. Check out how all the results stacked up below:

32. Alex Pfeiffer

31. Brian Wilkerson

30. Kyle Mohan

29. Stephan Verdier

28 Eric O’Sullivan

27. Charles Ng

26. Dean Kearney

25. Forrest Wang

24. Mad MIke Whiddett

23. Ross Petty

22. Nikolay Konstantinov

21. Robbie Nishida

20. Matt Powers

19. Michael Essa

18. Cody Parkhouse

17. Patrick Mordaunt

16. Fredric Aasbo

15. Ken Gushi

14. Joon Maeng

13. Rhys Millen

12. Dai Yoshihara

11. Conrad Gruenwald

10. Michihiro Takatori

9. Sam Hubinette

8. Tanner Foust

7. Tyler McQuarie

6. Taka Aono

5. Chris Forsberg

4. Darren McNamra

3. Ryan Tureck

2. Justin Pawlak

1. Vaughn Gittin

Willow Springs was invaded Fourth of July weekend by Ziptied All-Star Bash X. We sent Ricky Cervantes to cover the action. This is always one of the most noted grasroots drifting events of the year in drifting and tons of Formula D stars came out. We have pictures of Charles Ng, Justin Pawlak, Matt Powers, and Michael Essa. These guys were mixed with plenty of local grassroots guys from Southern California to make a great event.

Check out the Photos: http://www.wreckedmagazine.com/gallery/thumbnails.php?album=182