Robbie Nishida

Former D1GP champion Daigo Saito was seen all around LVMS this past weekend. In fact, he was even spotting for Robbie Nishida who performed amazing this weekend in his Silvia. This photo with team owner Gary Gardella gives us hope that he can provide a ride for the D1GP champion a ride in 2012. He has been rumored and rumored to come stateside time and time again. We do know he has some spare chassis sitting around the shop back home in New Jersey so maybe he could field a ride for both of these guys in 2012?

Posted in D1GP, Formula D, Robbie Nishida, Rumors/Gossip | 18 Comments »

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.

Posted in Charles Ng, Chris Forsberg, Conrad Grunewald, Daijiro Yoshihara, Darren McNamara, Dean Kearney, Formula D, Jeff Jones, Justin Pawlak, Ken Gushi, Michael Essa, Patrick Mordaunt, Rhys Millen, Robbie Nishida, Tyler McQuarrie, Vaughn Gittin Jr. | 8 Comments »

The double round at Ebisu was a tough one on the drivers but Daigo Saito pulled off the second win of the weekend at Round 7. We couldn’t find much information on this round but we are sure Daigo Saito ran down the field. After watching him at Matsuri take that jump in his missile car over and over he is quite the crowd pleaser attacking this track. Here are some other photograph highlights of Round 7 bel0w:

Posted in D1GP, International, RESULTS, Robbie Nishida | 3 Comments »

It was a huge double D1GP weekend at the Ebisu Circuit South over the weekend. Round 6 took place on Saturday and Yoshinori Koguchi took home the win over Masato Kawabata in an insane tandem battle. Kawabata ended up making a huge error after the jump and straightened out resulting in the loss. Here are some other snaps from Round 6:

Posted in D1GP, International, RESULTS, Robbie Nishida | 1 Comment »

The 2009 D1GP champion put on a great performance in this SGC S15 and wound up qualifying first at Round 6 of the D1GP season. Formula Drift star Robbie Nishida ended up snagging 5th place according to his FB account for the event as well putting on a great showing for the Japanese crowd. Here are a few snaps from the qualifying round:

Posted in D1GP, International, RESULTS, Robbie Nishida | 7 Comments »

Daigo Saito’s old Toyota Soarer is now for sale through the guys at Powervehicles. The last owner of the car was D1GP champion Daigo Saito. The car was a World Drift Winner with Daigo Saito behind the wheel. It was also loaned out for a 2010 D1GP event where it was driven by Formula Drift star Robbie Nishida.

Here is Robbie Nishida prepping the Soarer at the 2010 D1GP Round 6 taking place at the famous Ebisu Circuit. He managed to finish 10th overall for the weekend in this loaner car. The Powervehicles Facebook Page currently lists the car for sale at 895,000 yen (which converts to just over $11,000 US). The car is making around 500ps @ 1.6 Bar on the current setup.

Buy It Now: http://www.powervehicles.com/driftlife/2011/05/daigo-saitos-soarer-for-sale-now/#more-1379

Posted in Buy This, D1GP, International, Japanese, Robbie Nishida | 2 Comments »

Here is the tentative 2011 Formula Drift drivers list for Long Beach exclusively found here at Wrecked Magazine. If you scroll all the way to the bottom you might find a Japanese star back on the roster for a new season. It is looking like a strong field and a super intense season. Just seven days from Media Day at Streets of Long Beach!

Aasbo, Fredric
Abbott, Jeff
Aono, Taka
Bachis, Odi
Brakohiapa, Tony
Essa, Michael
Feiock, Mike
Field, Matt
Forsberg, Chris
Gallagher, Roland
George, Danny
Gittin, Vaughn Jr.
Graven, Otto
Grunewald, Conrad
Guild, Josh
Gushi, Ken
Guthrie, Jim
Hettinger, Brad
Hubinette, Samuel
Jones, Jeff
Kado, Ryan
Kearney, Dean
Lee, Alex
Licup, Chris
Lonberger, Luke
Maeng, Joon
Martinez, Cyrus
McNamara, Darren
McQuarrie, Tyler
Mertzanis, Dennis
Millen, Rhys
Moen, Kenneth
Mohan, Kyle
Mordaunt, Patrick
Ng, Charles
Nishida, Robbie
Pawlak, Justin
Petty, Ross
Pfeiffer, Alex
Powers, Matt
Russakoff, John
Skudlarek, Mike
Tuerck, Ryan
Waldin, Matt
Wang, Forrest
Wilkerson, Walker
Yoshihara, Daijiro
Yoshioka, Toshiki

Posted in Alex Pfeiffer, Chris Forsberg, Daijiro Yoshihara, Darren McNamara, Dean Kearney, Formula D, Forrest Wang, Fredric Aasbo, Joon Maeng, Justin Pawlak, Ken Gushi, Kyle Mohan, Matt Powers, Matt Waldin, Michael Essa, Patrick Mordaunt, Rhys Millen, Robbie Nishida, Roland Gallagher, Sam Hubinette, Tanner Foust, Tyler McQuarrie, Vaughn Gittin Jr. | 21 Comments »

So the full 2011 Formula Drift schedule isn’t quite out yet as Formula Drift shuffles around some of the dates/venues but while we wait for this newly crafted schedule we can report on one event’s date due to the proximity of the Long Beach Grand Prix. Road Atlanta is always the weekend before Mother’s Day so we can confirm that to you as well. This is more than 25% of the schedule already for you and allows you to start planning the start of the Formula Drift year! So at least you can circle the dates in your calendar. We keep hearing more of a buzz and closer to a confirmation that the east coast will be picking up an event for the 2011 season so just stand by and enjoy the Round 1 and 2 information.

Round 1 – Streets of Long Beach – April 8th-9th, 2011
Round 2 – Road Atlanta – May 6th-7th, 2011

UPDATED:Here is the FULL seven event 2010 Formula Drift Schedule:
http://www.wreckedmagazine.com/blog/2011/01/05/2011-formula-drift-schedule-full-7-events/

Posted in Formula D, Robbie Nishida, Schedule | 8 Comments »

Falken took home another top qualifying spot this year with Darren McNamara. He looked pretty solid in the Saturn Sky this weekend taking home maximum points from the qualifying session. Here are the results:

1 D. McNamara
2 C. Forsberg 
3 D. Yoshihara 
4 R. Tuerck 
5 T. Foust 
6 V. Gittin 
7 S. Hubinette 
8 R. Millen 
9 M. Whiddett 
10 J. Maeng 
11 F. Aasbo 
12 C. Grunewald 
13 J. Pawlak 
14 K. Mohan 
15 M. Waldin 
16 T. McQuarrie 
17 R. Nishida 
18 M. Takatori 
19 M. Powers 
20 K. Gushi 
21 S. Verdier 
22 T. Aono 
23 J. Deane 
24 Y. Kondo 
25 E. O’Sullivan 
26 I. Fornier 
27 N. Konstantinov 
28 J. LeJeune
29 R. Miki 
30 M. Field 
31 B. Sherman
32. A. Pfeiffer

Posted in Alex Pfeiffer, Conrad Grunewald, Daijiro Yoshihara, Darren McNamara, Eric O'Sullivan, Formula D, James Deane, Joon Maeng, Justin Pawlak, Ken Gushi, Kyle Mohan, Mad Mike Whiddett, Rhys Millen, Robbie Nishida, Ryan Tuerck, Ryuji Miki, Sam Hubinette, Stephan Verdier, Tanner Foust, Tyler McQuarrie, Vaughn Gittin Jr. | 9 Comments »

Over the last few weeks several team owners and other drivers in the series have mentioned to me that they have been looking at picking up Robbie Nishida for the 2011 season. He did remain in the United States we were told to speak with other teams possibly for getting on board for the 2011 season. Right now it seems like just a small buzz going around the pits but many team owners expressed interest in picking him up to me. One even told me he is a top five driver with a different program behind him.

Posted in Formula D, Robbie Nishida, Rumors/Gossip | 10 Comments »