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2016 marks the seventh year of the best Drift championship across the Caribbean area and Latin America, the Dominican Drift Series, which now has a new sponsor, Achilles Radial. Jose Sobrino and his S15 V8 Turbo qualified first and took the victory at Round 1 last March in a sold out event at the Autodromo Sunix (Also known as Autodromo Las Americas).

Eugenio Alfau, a veteran of the series, was back in action on board of the E36 2JZ from Arias Racing. He went on to qualify in 12th place and go all the way to Top 8.

Daniel Quiros from Costa Rica is now driving for DACD Drift and their new E46 M50 Turbo (Hulk 2.0) after 2 seasons running his personal Nissan S13 with a 2JZ engine.

After qualifying 8th, Quiros had a great Top 16 battle with Rafael Adames and his renewed 1JZ 240SX. He then met Jose Sobrino in Top 8 to end his weekend.

We saw a more focused Joselo Baez in his 1JZ S13 but after qualifying 10th he fell short to advance into the Top 8 after a OMT battle with Omar Castellanos.

Omar met 2012 champ and fellow BMW driver Juan Almonte who qualified 2nd, Almonte got the victory and went to top 4.

2015 Champion, Nathael Jimenez qualified 6th but had mechanical problems with his E46 and was out of competition in the Top 16.

Jhonnattan Castro is back for the 2016 season with his SR20 powered Nissan 240SX ! He qualified 5th but his car also had mechanical problems and could take part of the tandem battles.

Victor Madera and his Silvia V8 looked confident in practice but like Nathael and Jhonnattan his car had mechanical problems just before the qualifying.

It was really frustrating for them to sit back and watch from the sidelines but we know the trio will be back stronger from Round 2.

For us the driver of the day was Sasha Parra, he looked more aggressive and with a new “pedal to the metal” attitude that landed him in 3rd place of qualifying.

Parra went to battle with Luis Guerrero for the last spot of the podium, after a great battle Luis ended 3rd overall.

The final battle was between Jose Sobrino and Juan Almonte and after a OMT battle Sobrino went home with the win of Round 1 of the 2016 Dominican Drift Series Championship.

Round 2 of the Dominican Drift Series is on July 3 which promises to be even better with more confirmed drivers and awesome battles.

Efrain
Boostiao.com
Photos credits: Gustavo Arbona/Diego Jimenez/Efrain Arias

Clic here for more drifting news from the Caribbean (spanish)

Posted in International, Jhonnattan Castro, RESULTS | 2 Comments »

A look into the Texas drift scene with a video on Lone Star Drift Round 2! A 12 minute mini film packing in all the action of the big drift weekend in Texas.

Posted in Formula D Pro Am, Grassroots, Video | No Comments »

Here is some great coverage of Formula Drift done by our photographer Andrew Jennings! A collection just short of 300 images showing all the great moments that went down at Road Atlanta. His coverage includes Pro 2 and Pro battles from practice, the grid, and the main event. Sit back and enjoy some great images from Round 2 at Road Altanta!

Check out the Gallery: http://www.wreckedmagazine.com/gallery/thumbnails.php?album=469

Posted in Chris Forsberg, Formula D, Gallery, Kyle Mohan, Odi Bakchis, Tanner Foust, Tyler McQuarrie | 1 Comment »

10. Is Dai Yoshihara Finally Back?
Watching Dai Yoshihara in qualifying I felt he was looking really good and finally putting some runs together. I looked over at Chelsea DeNofa’s spotter in fact (and told him that Dai Yoshihara would win the event during practice). Sadly, Vaughn Gittin Jr. spoiled my prediction but Dai Yoshihara is starting to look back to his old self. He has been a driver looking really short on confidence so perhaps the return to the podium will help him remember what winning feels like. This was his first podium since Long Beach in 2013. His car has looked far behind the other 86/BRZ chassis in the sport but maybe this was the start of his comeback tour!

9.Alec Hohnadell Will Win An Event This Year
Alec Hohnadell has grown and developed faster than almost any drifter I have seen. The kid is world class and knows how to win things. His progression in Formula Drift is clear and I think he got a bad call in his Final Four battle with Dai Yoshihara (and actually won). Watching the battle more and more, it really seems like Alec Hohnadell should of been in the finals. I don’t think he should lose sleep over this at all however. Sometimes calls will go your way and sometimes they won’t go in your favor. I do think across these next six rounds he will score his first event victory. He currently sits 10th in the championship after his fourth place finish this weekend.

8. Road Atlanta Highlights Pro 2 Behind the Curve
Pro 2 was ugly and borderline unwatchable this weekend. Drifters couldn’t enter right, couldn’t stop spinning, and also couldn’t manage to tandem. I almost want to pretend the new Pro 2 season didn’t start this weekend. Jeff Jones, Marc Landerville, and Ryan Litteral all had solid performances but that is about where it stopped for me. The event was slow and especially hard to watch as a fan. Perhaps, the need for a perfect line to run Road Atlanta well was just too much for these younger drifters. My vote is to remove Road Atlanta from the 2017 Pro 2 calendar and pretend this event never happened. I am hoping for vast improvements at Orlando Speed World.

Read More…

Posted in Alec Hohnadell, Chelsea DeNofa, Chris Forsberg, Daijiro Yoshihara, Darren McNamara, Formula D, Formula Drift Pro 2, Kenneth Moen, Patrick Mordaunt, Ryan Tuerck, Vaughn Gittin Jr. | 35 Comments »

Nexen Tire continues to lead the Tire Manufacturer Championship after Atlanta after receiving strong performances from Alec Hohnadell and Tanner Foust. Nexen has now had four different drivers contribute to their points total on the season. Falken tire improved to second in the standings, while Nitto Tire jumped from fifth after Long Beach to third. All six tire manufacturers are within striking distance of the championship.

Here’s a look at the Tire Manufacturer standings after 2 of 8 rounds:

1. Nexen Tire – 262 Points
2. Falken Tire – 247 Points
3. Nitto Tire – 212 Points
4. Hankook Tire – 199 Points
5. GT Radial – 153 Points
6. Achilles Radial – 149 Points

Posted in Alec Hohnadell, Formula D, Standings, Tire Manufacturer Championship | No Comments »

A top 8 appearance from Michael Essa helped BMW maintain the lead in the OEM championship, while Ford moved up from third to second thanks to the win from Vaughn Gittin Jr. Scion dropped to third after all four Scion cars lost in the round of 32. We now have 10 manufacturers competing for the OEM championship after Toyota earned the first points of the season behind Andy Gray.

Here are the standings in the OEM Manufacturer championship after 2 of 8 rounds:

1. BMW  – 202 points
2. Ford – 191 points
3. Scion – 185 points
4. Nissan – 151 points
5. Mazda–101 points
6. Chevy – 83 points
7. Dodge – 51 points
8. Infiniti – 49 points
9. Lexus – 34 points
10. Toyota – 18 points

Posted in Formula D, Michael Essa, OEM Manufacturers Championship, Standings, Vaughn Gittin Jr. | 4 Comments »

After recording the second “perfect weekend” of his career, Vaughn Gittin Jr. used the Top Qualifier / Event Win combination to vault himself into first place for the 2016 Formula Drift standings. All three podium finishers from Long Beach lost in the top 32 round in Atlanta, which really shook up the points. As the only driver to place in the top 8 at the first two events, Gittin Jr. holds a fairly substantial 36 point lead over Long Beach winner Chelsea Denofa. However, with an additional round this year compared to previous years, there’s plenty of time to make up those points.

Here’s a look at the top 22 drivers in the points standings so far:

Photo Credit: Formula Drift

Posted in Chelsea DeNofa, Formula D, Standings, Vaughn Gittin Jr. | No Comments »

An exhausting long day put Vaughn Gittin Jr. back in the record books with a victory in his new S550 Mustang. This photograph from amazing local photographer Andrew Mesa shows you just how crazy his new setup is. The last time a driver qualified first and won the event was back in 2014 in Seattle. Darren McNamara did the double in his S14 while beating Irish compatriot Dean Kearney in the finals. Another interesting fact is this the exact same podium as Wall Speedway back in 2012. What a throwback? Alec Hohnadell just missed his first podium with a fourth place finish. With the added eight round and the top three in championship points going home in Top 32 – the championship is looking the most wide open in Formula Drift history! Here is how they finished –

1. Vaughn Gittin Jr.
2. Dai Yoshihara
3. Chris Forsberg
4. Alec Hohnadell

Posted in Chris Forsberg, Daijiro Yoshihara, Formula D, RESULTS, Vaughn Gittin Jr. | 6 Comments »

Vaughn Gittin Jr. laid down a fantastic qualifying run, earning the top spot on Friday in Atlanta. Due to only 31 drivers earning a score in qualifying, Gittin Jr. will have a bye in the first round of tandem. Andy Gray and Tanner Foust made their season debuts in Atlanta, while Robbie Nishida and ShengJun Zhang missed the round. Charles Ng drove in practice, but had electrical issues on both qualifying runs and did not earn a score.

Here’s a look at how qualifying finished up at Road Atlanta:

1. Vaughn Gittin Jr.
2. Fredric Aasbo
3. Matt Field
4. Chris Forsberg
5. Odi Backhis
6. Dai Yoshihara
7. Tanner Foust
8. Justin Pawlak
9. Tyler McQuarrie
10. Chelsea DeNofa
11. Mad Mike Whiddett
12. Forrest Wang
13. Dean Kearney
14. Michael Essa
15. Ryan Tuerck
16. Geoff Stoneback
17. Matt Coffman
18.  Alec Hohnadell
19. Ken Gushi
20. Pat Mordaunt
21. Jhonnattan Castro
22. Alex Heilbrunn
23. Kenneth Moen
24. Kristaps Bluss
25. Juha Rintanen
26. Kyle Mohan
27. Pat Goodin
28. Cameron Moore
29. Andy Gray
30. Faruk Kugay
31. Jeff Jones

Here’s the tandem ladder, for those following at home:

Vaughn Gittin Jr (bye)
Geoff Stoneback vs Matt Coffman
Justin Pawlak vs Juha Rintanen
Tyler McQuarrie vs Kristaps Bluss

Chris Forsberg vs Andy Gray
Dean Kearney vs Pat Mordaunt
Odi Bakchis vs Cameron Moore
Forrest Wang vs Jhonnattan Castro

Fredric Aasbo vs Jeff Jones
Ryan Tuerck vs Alec Hohnadell
Tanner Foust vs Kyle Mohan
Chelsea Denofa vs Kenneth Moen

Matt Field vs Faruk Kugay
Michael Essa vs Ken Gushi
Dai Yoshihara vs Pat Goodin
Mad Mike Whiddett vs Alex Heilbrunn

Posted in Chris Forsberg, Formula D, Fredric Aasbo, Matt Field, Odi Bakchis, RESULTS, Vaughn Gittin Jr. | 3 Comments »

Pro 2 was a mix of really bad battles, worse battles, more spinning battles, and a couple really good battles to start off the 2016 season. In my predictions, I would of imagined more drivers being stuck in the pea gravel so at least their wasn’t a ton of that going on. The Formula Drift Twitter feed caught some of the best runs you can watch on the feed. Jeff Jones ended up with a win and we saw a solid performance from other drifters such as Marc Landerville and Ryan Litteral who rounded out the podium. Too many spins and plenty of car to car contact closed out the night. Here is how they finished –

1. Jeff Jones
2. Marc Landerville
3. Ryan Litteral

Posted in Formula Drift Pro 2, RESULTS | 6 Comments »