Vegas Drift kicked off its series this weekend at Las Vegas Motor Speedway with a huge turnout of drivers and fans. Formula Drift drivers Odi Bakchis and Tommy Suell were both judges for the Pro Am drift weekend. Round 1 Breaking Point is in the books with former Formula Drift driver Andrew Hateley taking home a victory. Here is how the top four finished.
1- Andrew Hateley
2- Garret Nikolich
3- Shawn Smith
4- Daniel Kuo
Daigo Saito who is now Formula Drift America bound in 2012 took home another win in the Formula D Asia series. They were battling in Malaysia and he wound up battling D1GP star Manabu Orido in the RSR Toyota Supra over the weekend. Orido spun out and gave Daigo Saito an easy win in the finals. Here is how the top three finished:
1. Daigo Saito
2. Manabu Orido
3. Kiki Sak Nana
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!
Vegas Drift threw Vegas Drift 022 which took place at Las Vegas Motor Speedway the day after the 2011 SEMA Show featuring tons of local and western United States talent. The event was part of the North American Festival of Speed and was a great time for drivers all around. Thanks to Nick from Vegas Drift who always runs great events and even let us keep our LS3 powered S13.4 at the event for storage until we could come retrieve it. Here is how the podium ended up for the event:
1st: Brandon Wicknick – Purple 1jz S13 Coupe
2nd: Buckey Laing – Red 13b-t RX-7 FC
3rd: Gary Ganotisi – Rootbeer SR’d S13 Hatch
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
The Pro Am finals at Irwindale Speedway were an insane one that took place before the big show Final Fight. Several Am guys looked amazing through the weekend like Dave Briggs who ended up spinning in competition. Another ASD Mob driver Brian Peter who ran in the Midwest Drift Union all year took home first place. This is the results:
1. Brian Peter (Midwest Drift Union)
2. Julian Jacobs (Thunder Drift)
3. Pat Goodin (Street Wise Drift)
Photo Credit: Nick Quigley
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
The southeastern United States just finished up the regional drift series Street-Wise for the 2011 season. The Formula Drift Pro Am series had the last round over the weekend which had Doug Van Den Brink win and Patrick Goodin finish second at VIR. Here is the top three guys to finish up the season:
1. Patrick Goodin
2. Doug Van Den Brink
3. Jeremy Lowe
4. Chris Ward
Round 7 at Circuit ICAR in Montreal, Canada put this full season to a close. It has been a great seven event this series this year which was invaded by Americans and dominated by some familiar faces. Our gallery from Jeremy Glover is coming very soon. Here is how the podium stacked up:
1. Pat Cyr
2. Marc Landerville
3. Dave Briggs
