Watch as the final round of Irwindale Speedway goes down in this massive 2,000 photo gallery (56K WARNING) which produces some fantastic images on the track, off the track, and a big championship celebration from Chris Forsberg as he won his second championship.
Check out the Gallery: http://www.wreckedmagazine.com/gallery/thumbnails.php?album=439
Ryan Tuerck kicks off his summer with drifting driver Steve Angerman up in New Hamphsire with tons of riding and lake jumping. Chris Forsberg then comes over for missile prep and then the guys head down to Englishtown for a fun weekend at East Coast Bash. Part 2 of the Tuerck summer is coming soon!
Formula Drift Australia wrapped up during the World Time Attack event over the weekend which only saw one international superstar/Formula Drift driver manage to land on the podium. It was Fredric Aasbo who was looking unbeatable all weekend until his car suffered a mechanical failure locking him into third place. You can go back and watch the whole event via Livestream.com here or you can just glance below at the results:
1st- Levi Clarke
2nd- Nick Coulson
3rd- Fredric Aasbo
Kyle Mohan spins on Horse Thief Mile during a tandem train and the drift car with the camera mounted on it barrels right into Mohan’s FC putting some serious damage on it and his car. You will probably end up watching the contact a few times over and over again. That poor FC Mazda that just got a fresh paint/wrap.
10. The Best Formula Drift Event in History
This is the first time in Formula Drift history the championship came down to the last battle. A sold out Irwindale Speedway cheered and screamed as tandem battles wound up in crashes, door banging, and dramatic endings. Fredric Aasbo even beat Chris Forsberg in the Final Four but just fell short of his first championship by losing to Daigo Saito.
9. A Championship Based on Qualifying
I will be one of the first people to admit or complain about how boring qualifying is when you look at the big picture of the sport. It drags on, has a slow pace, and generally doesn’t entertain like tandem competition. However, Fredric Aasbo lost the championship based on him qualifying consistently worse than Chris Forsberg this season making it quite impactful overall. Fredric even won more tandem battles through the season and successfully beat Chris Forsberg on several occasions to show he could of earned it but qualifying seems to be his glaring mistake for the season.
8. Dean Kearney Keeps Making this Dodge Viper Work
Dean is one of the drivers who just kept improving throughout the 2014 season and he continued to impress me at Irwindale. He banged up the car a few times and after talking to him at Irwindale, he shared with me that his tandem battle versus Dai Yoshihara was done without front brake rotors (basically no front brakes) which resulted in his tandem follow error. It is pretty amazing how he makes this big boat work around the Formula Drift courses in the modern era.
7. Pro 2 Had Some Positives and Negatives
Some of the Pro 2 battles this weekend delivered top billing and a huge crowd reaction for some battles while one tandem battle in particular was the worst professional drift tandem sequence I had seen in my life. In six laps due to two One More Times we had four spins and three inactive chase runs. All and all I would consider Pro 2 a success and will be interested to see how it grows for 2015, especially with the new influx of drivers who couldn’t make the 32 cut.
It’s early in the morning right now in Australia! Check out Mad Mike Whiddett’s insane build along with many others internationals competing at the World Time Attack weekend in Australia. Follow the link below and you can get a full dose of drifting post Irwindale.
Vaughn Gittin Jr. owns and has built about 400 Ford Mustang’s at this point in his life. The thought of building another one might just put him to sleep at this point. The car was put together with some assistance from KibbeTech who formulated a custom suspension for the new F150. How long do we have to wait until we can see a drift video with this thing?
“I love trucks, and to build one that has daily on- and off-road capabilities, as well as drifting and jumping capabilities is something I have always wanted to do,” said Vaughn. “I am really pumped to get crazy in this F-150 at SEMA this year.”
Here is a Vaughn Gittin Jr. lap around the new layout for Irwindale Speedway. He puts in a ton of wheel work on his Ford Mustang RTR to skirt around the course in practice. It is interesting to watch this run and the run of Forrest Wang from the same day and see the work rate difference in the drivers.
Rookie of the Year started out as a great race for glory in 2014. As the events ticked by it kind of turned into a one horse race with Geoff Stoneback throwing down some all out domination on the field. Geoff finished the season in 24th place with 137 points while second place was Alec Hohnadell only sitting on 71.50 points for 2014.
This award is given to the driver with the most head to head tandem victories over a season. Fredric Aasbo took home the most in 2014 winning 25 of his 30 matches across 2014. It must be a bitter sweet victory to think you won more tandem battles than the champion but fell just short even after beating him so many times in one season.
