The former champion Sam Hubinette is going to sit out another round of Formula Drift we have confirmed to go race off-road trucks again while Kenneth Moen is at the helm of the Dodge Challenger. He looked amazing in that big boat for Wall but was eliminated somewhat early. We hope he can hang on for a big performance at Evergreen Speedway and maybe just stay behind the wheel of this Dodge machine forever? Regardless, we love Kenneth Moen and how he smashes around WOT with smoke everywhere in the Discount Tire/Dodge Challenger and we want more of it! Formula Drift Round 5 is going to be a great round like always with big crashes and shocking podium finishes.

Samuel Hubinettes old Charger has been re-listed on eBay. The New price tag is $55,000 with the reserve not met. A lot more than the previous price tag of $39,000 which no one decided was cheap enough to purchase. How did they determine a $16,000 price increase is beyond us.

This was the last car Sam Hubinette stood on top of the podium with back at Summit Point in 2007. The car vanished after that season and resurfaced once in 2008 for the Mexico Demo where it finished second behind Justin Pawlak. After the passing of team owner Sean Carlson the car sat in front of the NHRA Museum in Ponoma, California for some time.

If you have the cash you could own this great piece of drifting history. It has a Hot Wheels replica of it which is for sale in the Wrecked Magazine store if you think it’s not quite worth $50k+ and want it for less than $5.00. Less than ten vehicles have won Formula Drift events in the series history and you can own one of them with a one click eBay bid.

Buy It Now: eBay.com

We rolled out two wallpapers from Wall Stadium that both feature Sam Hubinette Racing cars. The first wallpaper comes from Top 32 when Ryan Tuerck was battle Dean Kearney in an American muscle car battle. Dean Kearney put the Dodge Viper into the wall at the end of the bank and our photographer Dan Jenkins grabbed the picture above. The wallpaper is available in 1024×768, 1140×900, 1250×800, 1680×1050, and 1920×1200.

The second wallpaper features new Sam Hubinette Racing driver Kenneth Moen following Matt Field in his busted up Fatlace S14. Matt Field suffered some damage earlier in the race by contacting Vaughn Gittin Jr. and the wall earlier in this tandem run. The size of the Dodge Motorsports/Discount Tire Dodge Challenger looks huge just behind the S14. The wallpaper is available in 1024×768, 1140×900, 1250×800, 1680×1050, and 1920×1200.

Download these Wallpapers Here: http://www.wreckedmagazine.com/wallpaper.php

Ryan Tuerck has moved on to the Top 16 already since only 31 drivers could produced a score  and moved on into the main event. Here is the Top 31 looks for this weekend. I am pretty sure Jim Guthrie broke a Formula Drift world record with the lowest qualifying score in history with a 27.9.

1. Ryan Tuerck – 91.2
2. Vaughn Gittin Jr. – 89.2
3. Daijiro Yoshihara – 89
4. Conrad Grunewald – 86.3
5. Tyler McQuarrie – 85.9
6. Chris Forsberg – 84.2
7. Justin Pawlak – 83.9
8. John Russakoff – 81.5
9. Ryan Kado – 81.4 (Takes 9th due to higher speed)
10. Ken Gushi – 81.4
11. Ross Petty – 79.2
12. Joon Maeng – 78.2
13. Otto Graven – 76.7
14. Kyle Mohan – 75.7
15. Darren McNamara – 74.6
16. Matt Field – 72.7
17. Kenneth Moen – 72.6
18. Fredric Aasbo – 72.4
19. Michael Essa -71.3
20. Matt Waldin – 69
21. Odi Bakchis – 68.9
22. Charles Ng – 68.6
23. Eric O’Sullivan – 67.6
24. Toshiki Yoshioka – 65.2
25. Matt Powers – 64.7
26. Luke Lonberger – 61.7
27. Walker Wilkerson – 61.7
28. Dennis Mertzanis – 60.9
29. Taka Aono – 55.6
30. Dean Kearney – 53.2
31. Jim Guthrie – 27.9

This was the last car Sam Hubinette stood on top of the podium with back at Summit Point in 2007. The car vanished after that season and resurfaced once in 2008 for the Mexico Demo where it finished second behind Justin Pawlak. After the passing of team owner Sean Carlson the car sat in front of the NHRA Museum in Ponoma, California for some time.

The car is currently listed up on eBay and has a $39,000 price tag on it with reserve not met. If you have the cash you could own this great piece of drifting history. It even has a Hot Wheels replica of it which is for sale in the Wrecked Magazine store.

Buy It Now: eBay.com

Rhys Millen hasn’t had a great season or a great event for some time in the Formula Drift series. Weather and transmission problems faltered his sub 10 minute quest at Pikes Peak. Apparently the former Formula Drift champion wants to focus on making his Pikes Peak quest a victory this season. The Global Rallycross Last Round is this weekend at Pikes Peak as well which we guess he will be driving the Hyundai Veloster at that over the weekend and then hang out at in Colorado all week. That means two Formula Drift champions who hold three championships collectively will be absent this weekend from the series.

This could open the door to some top performance from rookies this weekend at Wall Speedway. Something tells me the absence  of Sam Hubinette and Rhys Millen are a preview of the 2012 season. Will you miss these drivers next year and will you replace them if they are one of your favorites with some new talent?

SHR finally sent out a press release today that looked more like a personal e-mail written up by Sam Hubinette. What is interesting to me is that he doesn’t mention he will be missing Evergreen Speedway next month in his pursuit for the championship just yet… we highlighted his exit with more information in the rumor mill post we made over the weekend.  Here is what Sam had to say,

“Kenneth will be driving at NJ so that I may participate in the TORC off-road race in Crandon, Wisconson. My back to back wins in the Ram/Mopar/BF Goodrich truck during the last race weekend mean that I am leading the PRO Light division, so I wish to make every effort to win the Championship.”

Next weekend the Dodge Challenger won’t be fielded by two time Formula Drift champion Samuel Hubinette. After having his worst season in series history he is going to step out for next weeks Round 4 and pursue the Traxxas TORC Off-Road series. Formula Drift rookie Kenneth Moen will be stepping into the Dodge Challenger for at least Wall Speedway next week. They will be doing some testing at Englishtown before the event.

If you look at the Traxxas TORC schedule it also conflicts directly with Round 5 in Seattle. Fans looking to see Sam Hubinette will be disappointed for the next two rounds as he spends time trying to win a TORC championship in a Dodge Ram. This could be a huge opportunity for rookie Kenneth Moen to extend his Formula Drift career. My real question is will Sam Hubinette return for 2012 and I file that under highly unlikely.

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

The event is right around the corner so we put together the Top 32 pairings for you from the weekend. Some snoozers mixed with some really get pairings of tandem to fight our way into the Top 16 today at PBIR. The fast entry is going to be a focus point of tandem we feel like and the high speed ending by that wall could result in some serious damage by the end of the day.

1 Chris Forsberg vs 32 Michael Essa
16 Samuel Hubinette vs 17 Ross Petty
8 Tyler Mcquarrie vs 25 Jeff Jones
9 Joon Maeng vs 24 Charles Ng
4 Vaughn Gittin JR vs 29 John Ruskakoff
13 Otto Graven vs 20 Matt Waldin
5 Rhys Millen vs 28 Odi Bakchis
12 Dai Yoshihara vs 21 Kyle Mohan
2 Darren McNamara vs 31 Mike Feiock
15 Taka Aono vs 18 Alex Pfeiffer
7 Conrad Grunewald vs 26 Eric O’Sullivan
10 Toshiki Yoshioka vs 23 Pat Cyr
3 Justin Pawlak vs 30 Luke Lonberger
14 Ryan Tuerck vs 19 Walker Wilkerson
6 Fredric Aasbo vs 27 Matt Powers
11 Ken Gushi vs 22 Ryan Kado