Check out our Offset Kings car show coverage from round 1 at Long Beach, CA.
Prior to last weekend, the only Formula Drift event that I had attended was at Evergreen Speedway in Washington. Sitting behind a computer screen watching the live stream of all of the other rounds, it has been impossible for me to get a feel for any of the other tracks. I wasn’t aware until I showed up in California that large portions of Long Beach are transformed into the Toyota Grand Prix racetrack with concrete barriers and chain link fences. Formula Drift uses a small section of the Grand Prix track for round 1 of their championship series.
Photos and video by TK Akiyama. Text by Matt Haugness.
Watch TK Akiyama’s Long Beach video on YouTube.
Working with Chris Jeanneret on the Made to Drift series, I learned how important Long Beach is to every professional drifter. It’s the first round in the series so it’s the one that they all use to debut a new chassis or show off significant upgrades to an existing one. This usually means that it’s a mad scramble for many of the smaller teams to get their cars ready in time.
Carl Rydquist looked great for most of the weekend in his Road Race Engineering 350Z. He qualified in the top 32 but made a mistake on his first follow run and was knocked out by Forrest Wang.
One of the most unique drift cars at Long Beach was Hateley’s widebody BMW E30. The kit completely changed the lines of the car and was one of the cleanest older drift cars that I saw at the event.
Local favorite Rob Primo had some bad luck during qualifying and wasn’t able to advance into the top 32. Rumor has it that he had a change of plans and will be attending Atlanta next month.
Jarod Deanda continued to say that Tony Angelo had a new livery but it was hard for me to tell what was different from last year. The only part of his livery that appears to be different is the door section. Angelo made it into the top 32 but was knocked out by Tyle McQuarrie.
Charles Ng unveiled his Maximum Attack G37 at Long Beach. After seeing his car in a promotional video leading up to the event, I was pretty excited to see it compete. He nearly qualified into the top 32 but local driver Jeremy Richter inched past him into the 32nd spot.
Ken Gushi looked good in his new 2JZ Scion FR-S but the car didn’t seem to be at its full potential. I have a feeling that Gushi will do well this season with the significant increase in horsepower and more practice.
Seeing photos of Danny George’s car on Instagram getting vinyl wrapped the night before showed just how down to the wire some of the offseason builds ended up being. Danny had a minor accident during practice, missed his first qualifying run, and broke an axle on his second qualifying run. After more testing with the car, I’m confident that he will put on a great show in Atlanta.
Michael Essa destroyed the track Friday and Saturday. On his first qualifying run he threw down a 96 securing his spot in the #1 position. He made it all the way to the final four but was ultimately taken out by Kenny Moen. Essa automatically placed third based on having a higher qualifying score than Justin Pawlak.
Ryan Tuerck had a fairly severe accident during media day when Odi Bakchis lost his power steering and took out the rear of Tuerck’s car. It was impressive to see how quickly they fixed the car. Other than a small difference on the livery, the car looked nearly new.
Daigo Saito had a rough weekend. From what I hear, Long Beach isn’t his strongest track and it showed on both days. Daigo placed 23rd in qualifying and was knocked out by Pat Goodin in his turbocharged LS 240SX during their top 32 battle.
Warning: NSFW due to language. Video by Wrecked Magazine.
The biggest accident of the weekend was Joon Maeng during his first qualifying run. The car hit the front and then spun around taking out the rear. Thankfully, Joon was able to walk away without injury. It looked like a complete loss of the chassis but I’m hoping to see him return in future rounds.
The second worst accident was Kyle Mohan in his Mazda RX-8 during his top 32 battle with Robbie Nishida. The entire rear of the car was destroyed but his crew was able to put it back together to get him onto his top 16 battle with Kenny Moen.
Kenny Moen looked solid all weekend. Being one of the few drivers to perform well with a completely new chassis, it was clear that he was ready to compete. The car was so dialed that Kenny made it all the way to the final battle with Chris Forsberg.
Going into round 1, Chris wasn’t shy about the fact that he added nitrous and that his engine was making over 1,000 horsepower. The amount of experience that Chris has with the Z34 chassis was evident by the fluid movements in every run he made. Chris Forsberg ended up beating Kenny Moen without a One More Time battle.
| Round 1: Streets of Long Beach Event Results | ||
| 1. Forsberg, Chris | Hankook Tire Nissan 370Z | Winner |
| 2. Moen, Kenneth | Bridges Racing Nissan 240SX | 2nd Place |
| 3. Essa, Michael | Essa Autosport / Yokohama BMW M3 | 3rd Place |
[Source: Formula Drift]