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Posted
Nov 06 2009, 06:25 PM
by
Rod Chong
with 15 comment(s)
Those of you who are "friends" with me on Facebook will know that last week Speedhunter's editor Riley Vigier and I were crunching to finishing up two videos for the 2009 SEMA Show. You've already seen our tribute to the new Formula D champion Chris Forsberg, and here's our second year end video offering: Falkenhunting 2009. A new Speedhunters film which debuted at Falken's SEMA booth on Tuesday. It covers our season long collaboration with the Team Falken drift family....
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Posted
Oct 25 2009, 01:00 PM
by
Rod Chong
with 7 comment(s)
Yo Speedhunters! I’m Tyler McQuarrie, driver of the Falken Tire Nissan 350Z. I just wrapped up my first season with Team Falken and ended up getting my best finish in the Formula D Championship since I started drifting back in 2004. I’ve driven for many teams and tire manufactures but none of them come close to Team Falken. I am honored to call myself a Team Falken driver...
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Posted
Oct 23 2009, 02:15 PM
by
Rod Chong
with 7 comment(s)
Hello Everyone – my name is Darren McNamara and I drive the Falken Tire/Sears Auto Centre Saturn Sky in Formula Drift. I am one of those lucky people who gets to live out their dream job every month. I first raced a car when I was 11 years old, it was an 850cc Mini. It was actually a 12-16 year one make old oval racing class, but my dad got me in because of his previous racing reputation. I finished second on my first day out but it did take me a while to become successful. Once I won the appropriately named “Ministox” championship in 1999. I quickly moved up to the “Production saloons” a class for 1000cc Euro size hatchbacks....
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Posted
Oct 22 2009, 09:51 AM
by
Patrick McGrath
with 13 comment(s)
I have been lucky enough to be involved in Irish drifting from pretty much the beginning. This means that I have been even luckier to watch the rise of some of the best drifters to emerge from this green isle. For drivers month I'm going to be preparing two stories for you all to read. The first of which is the story of a man who surely needs little introduction; Darren McNamara ... Going back to 2004, I got to cover my first ever drift event. Armed with a Fuji 'point & shoot' camera...
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Posted
Oct 14 2009, 02:03 PM
by
Mike Garrett
with 3 comment(s)
After running on the streets of Long Beach and at Petit LeMans in Atlanta, Falken Tire's ALMS team headed up the California coast last weekend to finish off their season at Monterey Sports Car Championships. 2009 has been a shakedown year of sorts for Team Falken, and they headed to Laguna Seca looking to finish off the year with a strong showing before a full season of competition in 2010. Once again we used our behind the scenes access with the team to take an inside look at the final event of the year....
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Posted
Oct 13 2009, 03:06 PM
by
Rod Chong
with 5 comment(s)
When Jörg Söhner of International Drift Series got on the phone to me early Friday asking me to bring enough warm clothes, I already knew that my day covering the event would be not the most comfortable job in the world. We were headed to that famous racetrack, originally called Lausitzring, now the Eurospeedway Lausitz. Even though the track was built to extremely high safety standards, the history of the track is punctuated with mishaps that send a chill down the spine. The track has previously taken the life of the ex-F1 driver Michele Alboreto while testing an Audi R8 Le Mans Prototype and it's also the same place where the two time American CART series champion Alex Zanardi lost both his legs in a freak accident.
This did get some drivers shaken up a bit before the safety briefing, but as the day went on and the sun shined through, the drivers began pushing themselves on the subsection of the track that was used for judged drifting. The biggest hurdle was pushing the car more towards its limit on the round 800m long main stretch while at the same time keeping the speed reasonable. Drivers were warned during briefing not to go full pelt on the main straight, but despite that most cars had entry speeds of around 180-200 km/h.
Here is clip of the current championship leader and Falken driver Lars Verbraeken throwing his E30 around the track.
-Alok
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Posted
Oct 10 2009, 10:28 PM
by
Mike Garrett
with 13 comment(s)
After four hours of intense racing around Laguna Seca, the 2009 American LeMans season is in the books. I'm once again exhausted from a day of shooting and lugging my gear up and down the mountainous terrain, but I wanted to quickly post some of the day's results before I pass out here......
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Posted
Oct 09 2009, 07:35 PM
by
Mike Garrett
with 9 comment(s)
Just got back to to the hotel here in Monterey after spending the day at the final round of the 2009 American LeMans Series at Laguna Seca. My body is massively sore from hiking around Laguna Seca's scenic hills today, but before I collapse I wanted to post a few quick photos and highlights from the day's practice and qualifying sessions....
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Posted
Oct 03 2009, 12:20 PM
by
John Brooks
with 7 comment(s)
In a very short period of time the motor race known as Petit Le Mans has acquired “Classic” status. It is now regarded in the same league as its yahoo, elder cousin, the Sebring 12 Hours. Some of this status is because of the association with the Le Mans 24 Hours and some of the status is due to the challenging Road Atlanta track. It is popular with teams, drivers, fans, even photographers, all of whom enjoy the undulations and sheer flat out speed of the place. Generally a pretty good...
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Posted
Sep 14 2009, 04:16 AM
by
Ross Ianson
with 22 comment(s)
Anyone who has been to a round of the JDM Allstars championship this year could not help to notice the sister Falken V8 E30s of Remmo Niezen and Lars Verbraeken, providing a welcome break to the endless list of Japanese machinery the Dutch pair have provided the bass to the screaming external waste gates of the championship.. Lars' E30 is the more subtle of the pair looking not that far removed from an E30 evolution.. ..the dash retains the shape BMW intended but recreated in carbon fiber, the...
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Posted
Aug 25 2009, 01:05 PM
by
Mike Garrett
with 19 comment(s)
Before the two Falken rigs could even cool off from their Seattle trip, they were reloaded and sent back up the road to Infineon Raceway for the second FD event in as many weeks. With a new car debut and drivers in the hunt for the championship, Sonoma would be an important event for Team Falken.
As usual, we used our media partnership with the team to take a behind the scenes look over the weekend....
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Posted
Aug 21 2009, 09:10 AM
by
Rod Chong
with 23 comment(s)
Ever wonder what it would be like to ride along with Vaughn Gittin JR in his 2010 Falken Tire Mustang, during Formula D practice? Or better yet... what would it be like to drive his car in a tandem battle against Darren McNamara, at Road Atlanta? With this Speedhunters extended remix of the JR Need for Speed Driver's Experience film we've dumped the cinematic art montages and have gone for a pure visceral experience. It's the opposite effect to the kind of video we've made for the...
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Posted
Aug 12 2009, 01:15 PM
by
Mike Garrett
with 16 comment(s)
The long weekend in Seattle for Formula Drift Rd. 5 turned out to be a mixed bag for the Falken drift team. Over the course of the two days, the team experienced everything from blown engines and destroyed drift cars to a podium finish. Such ups and downs are what make auto racing exciting, and it was quite an experience observing the team over the course of the drama-filledweekend....
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Posted
Aug 08 2009, 10:21 PM
by
Mike Garrett
with 6 comment(s)
When you smell like of strange mix of sweat, rubber particles, and champagne you know you've spent the day at a Formula Drift Event.
After another exciting round of compeition, it was Chris Forsberg in the NOS Energy Drink 350Z who emerged as the day's victor. This was Forsberg's second win of the year, and he should be getting a nice boost to his lead in the FD points standings....
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Posted
Jul 16 2009, 07:54 AM
by
Rod Chong
with 7 comment(s)
Here's Falken's own video from Las Vegas Formula D... tx for all the Speedhunters logo-love guys!
:R
More Formula D Las Vegas Coverage on Speedhunters
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Posted
Jun 07 2009, 09:35 AM
by
Linhbergh Nguyen
with 28 comment(s)
It became a historic day for Formula D at the Wall Speedway in New Jersey. Team Falken went home with a one, two, and three finish! Darren McNamara drove the wheels off his Saturn Sky battle after battle to take the win for the day. McNamara beat out Vaughn Gittin Jr., leaving JR second place. Tyler McQuarrie took third after a long and ferce battle with Ken Gushi. We don't know what possessed Darren McNamara, but he drove like a demon. Pressuring all his opponents with some very close door to...
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Posted
May 13 2009, 12:02 PM
by
Mike Garrett
with 1 comment(s)
Now for your high resolution viewing pleasure - Calvin Wan putting the back tires of his Falken S15 into the dirt during qualifying at Formula Drift Atlanta last Friday. Widescreen and standard versions are available now in the Speedhunters Desktops section.
-Mike Garrett...
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Posted
May 12 2009, 04:39 PM
by
Mike Garrett
with 9 comment(s)
Less than a month after the 2009 Formula Drift season kicked off in Long Beach, Team Falken headed to the green hills of Georgia last weekend for the second round of FD action at Road Atlanta. The unforgiving Long Beach course presented some challenges to the new and improved Falken drift team, but now that the drivers had some seat time and the crews had a chance to adjust the cars, everyone was looking to step things up in Atlanta. Late in the week, the two Falken transporters (one from California and one from nearby North Carolina) arrived at Road Atlanta to unload and prepare for a long weekend of drifting action....
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Posted
Apr 28 2009, 02:45 PM
by
Mike Garrett
with 34 comment(s)
No doubt you've already seen plenty of photos of Vaughn Gittin Jr.'s 2010 Ford Mustang competition drift car, but I thought could add a bit American flavor to our drifting features this month with a closer look at this unique beast. After being teased by videos earlier in the year, I couldn't wait to finally see this car in person during the Formula D Long Beach event earlier this month. The first exposure I got with the car was when JR took it out for practice on Friday morning. While drifting, the car moves more like an AE86 or Silvia than a V8-powered muscle car....
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Posted
Apr 21 2009, 04:39 PM
by
Mike Garrett
with 19 comment(s)
The green and blue Falken Tire livery may have become synonymous with drift cars in recent times, but for years Falken has also been active in "traditional" auto racing around the world. I'm sure you can recall the Falken Skyline GT-R endurance racer or perhaps the Ford GT that was campaigned in the American Le Mans Series last year. For 2009, Falken is back in ALMS with a new GT2 class Porsche 911 GT3 RSR, and this weekend's Long Beach race marked the competition debut for the new entry....
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