Want to see coverage of the car show and pits? Check out part one of our FD coverage.
For the second year in a row, the main competition of Formula Drift in Seattle, WA was a sold out event. Drifting fans from all over the northwest made the trip to watch their favorite professional drifters compete at Evergreen Speedway.
Photos by Ryan Cutuli. Video by TK Akiyama.
Friday and Saturday were both filled with surprises and upsets. Multiple high ranking drivers barely made it into the top 32 because of accidents or problems with their cars.
Leading up to round 5, Daigo Saito was the overall points leader in the series. Many expected him to perform well and likely place in one of the top 3 spots. Daigo was unsuccessful and ended up getting knocked out of the competition during his top 32 battle by Toshiki Yoshioka.
Ken Gushi performed well all weekend but ended up being taken out by Darren McNamara during his top 16 battle.
One of the biggest upsets of the day was the battle between Vaughn Gittin Jr. and Odi Bakchis. After a close first match, the judges called for One More Time. Odi was able to defeat what some consider one of the fiercest competitors in the series.
Some of the battles in the great 8 were intense but Forsberg, Essa, Aasbo, and Bakchis advanced to the final 4. Odi Bakchis was looking great all day Saturday but after his battle with Gittin he started to have problems with his wheel and tire setup. This problem carried over into his final battles which eventually meant that he wasn’t able to compete against Fredric Aasbo for 3rd place.
In the end it came down to Chris Forsberg and Michael Essa competing for first place. It was difficult to determine who won but the judges decided that Forsberg performed better.
This round alone changed the overall points leader to Chris Forsberg with a spread of less than 3 points separating the top 3.
Round 6 will be held at Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth, Texas. For more info be sure to check out Formula Drift’s website.
Want to see coverage of the car show and pits? Check out part one of our FD coverage.
| Round 5: Throwdown Event Results | ||
| 1. Forsberg, Chris | NOS Energy Drink / Hankook Nissan 370Z | First Place |
| 2. Essa, Michael | GSR Autosport / Yokohama BMW M3 | Second Place |
| 3. Aasbo, Fredric | Hankook Tire Scion Racing tC | Third Place |
| Formula DRIFT Professional Championship 2013 Current Standings | ||
| 1. Forsberg, Chris | NOS Energy Drink / Hankook Nissan 370Z | 388 Points |
| 2. Essa, Michael | GSR Autosport / Yokohama BMW M3 | 386.50 Points |
| 3. Saito, Daigo | Achilles Tire / Bridges Racing Lexus SC430 | 385.25 Points |
| 4. Gittin Jr., Vaughn | Monster Energy / Nitto Tire Ford Mustang RTR | 367 Points |
| 5. Aasbo, Fredric | Hankook Tire Scion Racing tC | 354.50 Points |
| 6. Pawlak, Justin | Falken Tire Ford Mustang | 345.50 Points |
| 7. McNamara, Darren | Falken Tire Nissan S14 | 332.50 Points |
| 8. Bakchis, Aurimas | Nexen Tire Nissan S14 | 294 Points |
| 9. Field, Matt | CX Racing / Blacktrax Nissan 240SX | 261 Points |
| 10. Nishida, Robbie | Bridges Racing / Achilles Tire Lexus SC300 | 253 Points |
| 11. Yoshihara, Daijiro | Discount Tire / Falken Tire Nissan S13 | 244.25 Points |
| 12. Moen, Kenneth | Lutz Performance / Nexen Tire Nissan 240SX | 234.50 Points |
| 13. Grunewald, Conrad | Hankook Tire / Megan Racing Chevrolet Camaro SS | 230.50 Points |
| 14. Tuerck, Ryan | Team Retaks / Maxxis Scion Racing FR-S | 229.50 Points |
| 15. DeNofa, Chelsea | BC Racing BMW 3 Series | 210.50 Points |
| 16. Powers, Matt | Fatlace / Nitto Tire Nissan 240SX | 201.50 Points |
[Source: Formula Drift]
1 Comment
Crazy how quickly things can change… I remember them mentioning that Daigo had a pretty substantial lead with his 1st place standing before this round, with 2nd-5th all pretty close, then after not doing so hot the whole rankings made a huge change