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

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

Here are the Top 32 pairings for todays big event. Right now if your eye is on the championship you will care about Tyler McQuarrie Justin Pawlak and Dai Yoshihara photographed above. They are on the same side of the bracket and scheduled to meet in the Final Four if they can win their respective tandem battles for the weekend. Sadly Tyler McQuarrie and Justin Pawlak are on opposite sides of the ladder so they would not meet until the finals for a battle that would be huge after the controversy of the weekend.

Matt Powers Vs. Jeff Jones
Matt Field Vs. Fredric Aasbo
Conrad Grunewald Vs. Matt Walden
Ken Gushi vs. Tyler McQuarrie
Chris Forsberg Vs. Alex Lee
Ryan Tureck Vs. Charles Ng
Vaughn Gittin Jr. Vs. Cyrus Martinez
Darren McNamara Vs. Kyle Pollard
Rhys Millen Vs. Sam Hubinette
Dean Kearney Vs. Patrick Mordaunt
Kyle Mohan Vs. Dennis Mertzanis
Michael Essa Vs. Armando “Dio”
Robbie Nishida Vs. Justin Pawlak
Otto Graven Vs. Odi Bakchis
Daijiro Yoshihara Vs. Ross Petty
Ryan Kado Vs. Toshiki Yoshioka

UPDATE at 6:41pm: Formula D changed the Top 32 due to points not given to Ryan Tuerck. No update of rankings as of Top 32 has been posted or provided as of the event going on live in progress. We apologize for the errors in this post.

So Patrick Mordaunt has been having one of his worst seasons to date including some serious engines issues in his Nissan 350z and his Nissan 240sx S14. This led him to sit out the last round at Wall Speedway in New Jersey to fine tune his cars. I spoke with him after this accident (pictured above) and he told me that the engine is all sorted out and ran great but now he just needs to get back on the same page with it. This hit came just before qualifying started so he didn’t even get to make one attempt to get in the big show. Sadly the subframe received some damage and put him out for the weekend. He will be back in Las Vegas we hope for Round 6 and bring Lady Luck with him so he can make a run all the way to the podium.

Here you can see Joon Maeng staged and ready for run at Texas Motor Speedway tomorrow. The IRL race that Formula Drift will be doing the demo at comes on VERSUS tomorrow at 4:30pm PST. Drivers such as Fredric Aasbo, Kyle Mohan, and Patrick Mordaunt are in attendance to perform. Sadly Patrick Mordaunt has suffered some transmission problems so we are not sure if he will still be in attendance for the demo. Here is a snapshot we received from Formula Drift showing off the number plaque from this event at Texas Motor Speedway.

Buy Tickets: http://www.ticketmaster.com/

Yesterday we announced Patrick Mordaunt would be swapped cars in Texas at the IRL demo. Sadly during the testing today Patrick Mordaunt suffered gearbox issues with his S14. His Nissan 350z (pictured above) had engine troubles at Road Atlanta and then blew up at PBIR this past weekend. Patrick Mordaunt took to his twitter account and announced that he will be sitting out Round 4 at Wall Speedway due to all these car issues. Such a tough break for a privateer like Patrick this season but we are sure he will return for the final west leg of the Formula Drift series this year.

Patrick Mordaunt’s S14 was loaded up with some other cars for the IRL Texas demo coming up this weekend. Rumor has it with all the engine troubles in his Nissan 350z he is in the process of towing out his Nissan 350z to IRL and swapping cars with his S14 after the IRL demo. Basically he would send his Nissan 350z back to California and then get the S14 to New Jersey quickly so he can qualify. It sounds like a logistical nightmare but doing anything to get a solid working car seems to make the most sense.

Justin Pawlak now has a demanding lead in the championship race as we pack up and head north to New Jersey in 14 days. He has a 36 point lead on his ASD teammate Darren McNamara. Daijiro Yoshihara took a huge hit in the standings and is now barely holding on to 3rd place. Here is how the Top 20 stand.

1. Justin Pawlak – 272 points
2. Darren McNamara – 236 points
3. Dai Yoshihara – 220 points
4. Chris Forsberg – 215 points
5. Matt Powers – 212.25 points
6. Ryan Tuerck – 182 points
7. Tyler McQuarrie – 179 points
8. Conrad Grunewald – 166 points
9. Toshiki Yoshioka – 159.25 points
10. Vaughn Gittin Jr. – 157 points
11. Kyle Mohan – 149.50 points
12. Fredric Aasbo – 144.50 points
13. Walker Wilkerson – 135.75 points
14. Matt Waldin – 130 points
15. Rhys Millen – 130 points
16. John Russakoff – 119.50 points
17. Ken Gushi – 108.50 points
18. Ross Petty – 104 points
19. Taka Aono – 103.50 points
20. Charles Ng – 103.25 points

Patrick Mordaunt cant seem to catch a break with his 350z. He announced on twitter that he will be sitting this round out which would hurt. During night practice at Round 3 Palm Beach, Pat blew his engine for the second time this season. By the looks of it he’ll be sitting out for the remander of the event. Hopefully he can sort out the engine before Round 4 in New Jersey which takes place in about two weeks.  This is exactly what Patrick Mordaunt blasted out to his twitter followers, “BOOM goes the sound of my motor. Again. Looks like I’m sitting this one out. :[“