Looking at the championship points it is quite clear that Tanner Foust with his Top 16 elimination against Sam Hubinette and Ryan Tuerck with his Top 16 elimination against Vaughn Gittin Jr. were the biggest losers of Las Vegas. They have both fallen significantly behind in the championship points race with two rounds left. Here is how the Top 16 looks.

1. Vaughn Gittin Jr. – 439 points
2. Dai Yoshihara – 417 points
3. Tanner Foust – 386 points
4. Ryan Tuerck – 361 points
5. Darren McNamara – 342 points
6. Sam Hubinette – 304 points
7. Chris Forsberg – 296 points
8. Rhys Millen – 291.75 points
9. Tyler McQuarrie – 275.50 points
10. Justin Pawlak – 267.50 points
11. Michihiro Takatori – 239.50 points
12. Charles Ng – 228.50 points
13. Conrad Grunewald – 213 points
14. Ken Gushi – 203.50 points
15. Joon Maeng – 190.25 points
16. Ross Petty – 186 points

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

So the Superrally race ended a lap early or maybe it didn’t but that just adds to the general confusion of X-Games 16 rally events. Regardless of any fudged outcomes three Formula Drift drivers made it into the finals of the Superally. Stephan Verdier held second place in the finals for quite some time and it looks like Sam Hubinette had some car troubles in the Evo X. In the elimination round we saw Ken Block DQ and Sam Hubinette win by spinning out ACP who hopped on the brakes to avoid Ken Block. That was the best run of the night by far! Anyways, in the finals Tanner Foust smashed into Brian Deegan to take position in turn one and took home his second gold medal of the night. This could be his year because he isn’t that far out of the Formula Drift championship chase on top of all these gold medals.

Here is a snapshot of Tanner Foust and Sam Hubinette from X-Games rally practice. Tanner Foust is in the top photo with his Rockstar Energy Drink/Etnies Ford Fiesta coming back into the LA Coliseum. The second photo shows Sam Hubinette in the SPARCO Evo X actually doing some practice. The third photo shows Stephan Verdier in his Formula Drift car re-wrapped for X-Games. If you take a look at the X-Games 16 schedule they have some rally racing slated in the 2pm to 6pm time and then in the 7pm to 11pm time slot. We will keep you posted on how all the Formula Drift drivers do today in rally at X-Games 16.

Photo Source: http://www.worldrallysport.com/node/6597

Here is the incident I was speaking about from the BFGoodrich test day earlier this week for X-Games 16. Sam was able to get the car back on all four wheels without any body damage but he did reek some havoc on the suspension. The guys over at GT Channel caught this on video which we took these screen grabs from. You can follow the link below to watch the full video of this mishap. In addition they interviewed Sam Hubinette on his readiness to take on Tanner Foust and others this weekend at X-Games 16.

Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yyGMhL6Q9kE

Apparently after the BFGoodrich Media Day earlier this week they went ahead and wrapped the Mitsubishi Evo X with Sparco branding. He still is on BFGoodrich for the weekend and his partner Andrew Comrie Picard is still in the Evo IX with the NOS Energy Drink wrap. Gear up to see them this weekend on ESPN’s X-Games 16.

X-Games 16 Notes:
Sam Hubinette Almost Flips Evo X in Practice
Formula Drift Driver Autograph Signings

Sam Hubinette was nice enough to upload this photograph to his Facebook so we have a current look at how the NOS Energy Drink Mitsubishi Evo X looks for Super Rally this weekend. During the testing I attended today Sam Hubinette hit a berm and threw the Evo X up on two wheels nearly flipping it over. The car did land back on all four wheels but he snapped a tie rod along with a few other parts.

I just missed the accident but Sam Hubinette found someone that shot a fantastic video of it and played it back for me. The car didn’t really suffer any damage other than a few suspension parts but it kept him from testing for the rest of the day. We know Tanner Foust has some seat time in his Ford Fiesta over in Europe at Rally Cross so a short practice cannot be good for his competitive edge. Check out Sam Hubinette, Andrew Comrie-Picard, Stephan Verdier, and Tanner Foust battle it out this weekend.

We attended X-Games rally testing thanks to BFGoodrich where we got to see ACP in his Evo IV and Sam Hubinette in the Evo X. The wrap just above is not current/accurate for the Super Rally this weeknd but this is physically the car. Clearly Sam Hubinette will be running BFGoodrich tires and both ACP/Sam are running NOS Energy Drink wrapped X-Games cars.

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