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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 28 2009, 05:00 AM
by
Linhbergh Nguyen
with 50 comment(s)
Irwindale came, and Irwindale went. The tire smoke has settled and the modern gladiatorial spectacle known as Formula D has ended, but the ink is still drying from the tales written in the FD history books. However, there was one particular gladiator that stuck out from the rest. It was a story of "David and Goliath" proportions, retelling the classic children's book The Little Engine that Could. A student from San Diego California and the only privateer with zero sponsors, Matt Powers...
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Posted
Oct 26 2009, 04:42 PM
by
Rod Chong
with 10 comment(s)
What`s up everyone, my name is Robbie Nishida. I drive the Hankook Tire/Gruppe S 350Z in the Formula Drift series. Normally I am the manager of a garage on a military base called Yokota located in Tokyo, Japan. My father is half american and japanese, which makes me a quarter. I have been drifting for over 10 years. I never ever thought back then that I would be traveling every month to the states to drive professionally. It all first started by accidently going to a touge nearby where there were guys drifting. I'd seen drifting before on videos, but not in real life. It`s just like going to a concert or even a ball game. Seeing it live was really exciting. I knew right away that this was what I wanted to do....
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Posted
Oct 26 2009, 10:42 AM
by
Rod Chong
with 16 comment(s)
What’s up Speedhunters, my name is Justin Pawlak, or better known as “JTP”. I’m the Formula D driver of the Bergenholtz Racing/Nitto Tires Mazda RX8. I would say most people know me from my ever changing FC RX7. I got into drifting in late 2005 at the Drift Day Industry Drift 1. I had recently moved to California to work at AEM and had bought my FC in hopes of becoming a professional drifter. Surprisingly enough I had driven that same car until this past year when I stepped into the 2009 Mazda RX8....
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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 24 2009, 03:35 PM
by
Rod Chong
with 27 comment(s)
Hi. I’m Joon Maeng. I was born in Seoul, S. Korea in 1982 and immigrated to the US of A when I was nine years old. Ever since I can remember, I have had a fascination with cars. Not just any cars, of course, but import performance cars. After obtaining my driver’s license, somehow I came across drift competition clips from Japan and I got hooked. It felt like my calling, like I had an epiphany. I began physically experimenting with the concept of drifting shortly thereafter with my 85...
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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 23 2009, 10:42 AM
by
Rod Chong
with 11 comment(s)
What’s up everybody? My name is Ryan Tuerck, I'm a 25 year old who competes in the premiere drifting series in the US, Formula D. I have been in some form of racing for the better part of my life. I grew up racing Motocross with my two brothers. I raced for 10 years starting as a novice on someone’s old used equipment and finishing as a pro on a brand new bike. Motocross taught me a lot of useful skills that have carried their way into drifting, making the transition to cars very natural.
I drive the Gardella racing Mobil 1 Pontiac Solstice. I started with Gardella racing in 2008 with a mostly production based car. We finished the season with a career high 6th place in the Formula D championship. This year 2009, Gardella racing pulled out all the stops, leaving no bolt untouched and built a drift car with the hopes of winning the '09 Formula D championship. ...
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Posted
Oct 22 2009, 10:20 PM
by
Rod Chong
with 11 comment(s)
I suppose some people might call me a bit of a workaholic as I very rarely stop working. This past weekend though I had a little too much on my plate. I had two camera operators shooting 2 different drift films, was collaborating with our team of Speedhunters photographers, was helping to organize the Royal Purple video game contest and was also following five different drifters around for their Speedhunters guest blogs. Ack!... So the weekend was perhaps a bit pressurized for my own taste, but that’s...
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Posted
Oct 22 2009, 12:33 PM
by
Mike Garrett
with 8 comment(s)
Have you guys had enough Irwindale coverage yet? Hopefully not, because here's some more photos from last weekend's Formula D season finale. Up above we have Ross Petty's S15 looking as cool as ever while smoking up his Falkens through infield bank. By the way, we're trying to schedule a visit to Garage Boso as part of our Driver's Month features. Keep an eye out for it soon....
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Posted
Oct 21 2009, 11:12 PM
by
Mike Garrett
with 26 comment(s)
We're only a few days past the end of the '09 Formula Drift Season and already the offseason news is starting to flow in. Kenji Yamanaka, who's driven for Drift Emporium over the past couple seasons has a new ride for 2010 - sort of. He's actually going back behind the wheel of the old JIC Magic S15 that he drove from 2005-07. The car has been purchased by Bridgeway Motorsports in the SF Bay Area and is being outfitted with a GM LSx engine to match Kenji's driving style. You might...
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Posted
Oct 21 2009, 10:10 PM
by
Rod Chong
with 23 comment(s)
Conventional wisdom says that time starts to slow down as you get older, but for me I'd say the opposite is true. Each year seems to be more action packed and high paced than the last. Exactly one week ago I was getting ready to fly from Vancouver to Los Angeles to attend the Formula D finals at Irwindale Speedway... but tonight I'm already getting set to fly to Houston, Texas tomorrow for two days of shooting the state's finest slammed cars. But before I get too far ahead of myself,...
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Posted
Oct 19 2009, 12:42 PM
by
Mike Garrett
with 29 comment(s)
The 2009 Formula Drift season is officially over.
After an intense weekend of competition in front of a packed house at Irwindale Speedway, we have a new FD champion - Chris Forsberg and his NOS Energy Drink 350Z. We have a number of special stories from Irwindale coming up, including blogs from several FD drivers, but I'll start with some random scenes from the weekend, both on and off the track....
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Posted
Oct 18 2009, 12:46 AM
by
Rod Chong
with 13 comment(s)
Ryan Tuerck may have taken the top honours at Formula D Irwindale this evening, but it was Chris Forsberg who was crowned the new 2009 Champion. Congrats to him and his team from Speedhunters! More stories from Irwindale to follow... :Rod Chong
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Posted
Oct 16 2009, 09:27 PM
by
Mike Garrett
with 32 comment(s)
Even as I write this night practice is still going on under the lights at Irwindale Speedway, but we figured we should put post an update from the first day of the FD season finale. With one of the biggest driver entry lists of the year, qualifying was made all the more difficult as veterans, privateers, and newcomers alike fought for a spot in tomorrow's Top 32 competition....
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Posted
Oct 15 2009, 10:24 AM
by
Mike Garrett
with 15 comment(s)
As part of the festivities leading up to the Formula D finale at Irwindale, the FD guys got together with K1 Speed indoor karting to host a Formula D karting event last night at the K1 Anaheim location. Linhbergh and I headed out there for a couple hours to have a look, and maybe get in a few laps with the rest of the Formula D family....
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Posted
Oct 13 2009, 04:29 PM
by
Mike Garrett
with 21 comment(s)
It's only Tuesday, but preparation for the weekend's Formula Drift finale at Irwindale Speedway is already in full swing. It's been nearly two months since the last FD event in Sonoma, and the drivers are fired up to finish the season on a high note. There are a number of storylines heading into the event, and we thought we'd take a look at at some of them in this quick preview....
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Posted
Oct 13 2009, 10:15 AM
by
Rod Chong
with 28 comment(s)
This past June we set up a pre-release version of Need for Speed SHIFT at the hotel the Formula D teams were using, while competing in New Jersey. We invited most of the drifters and teams to try out the game and provide some feedback on the physics and the in-game driving experience. It was pretty fun, especially as some of the Formula D drivers are pretty handy gamers. Top of the class was Darren McNamara... ... who set some blistering times in the Maseratti MC12 around the Nurburgring Nordeschleife...
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Posted
Sep 24 2009, 09:55 AM
by
Mike Garrett
with 11 comment(s)
If you've noticed my lack of activity over the past couple days, that's because I've been busy relocating to my new place in beautiful Southern California. Now that I've got my office sort of set up, it's time to catch up on a few days of Speedhunting. One of the big stories this week has been the news that Conrad Grunewald will be returning to Formula D next season in a 2010 Chevy Camaro. The car is being built for a SEMA debut and Conrad will start testing soon after. The new Camaro is a big, heavy car so Conrad will be doing everything he can to trim the pounds off. Under the hood will be a variant of the LSA engine found in the new Caddy CTS V. It was only a matter of time until someone turned the Camaro into a drift car, and we can't wait to see this thing going head to head with the Falken Mustang next year in a battle of the pony cars!
For more, you can check out the detailed build story on LSXTV.com, or Conrad's official site.
-Mike Garrett
...
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Posted
Sep 19 2009, 11:00 AM
by
Patrick McGrath
with 4 comment(s)
Dean “Karnage” Kearney, the 2009 Prodrift Super Series champion, has confirmed he'll be competing in Formula D next month. The final round of the 2009 American drifting championship will be staged at the Toyota Speedway -more popularly known as the “House of Drift”- in Irwindale, California on October 16h & 17th. Dean's ambition to compete in the USA came after witnessing the REDBULL Drifting World Championships in 2008 at the port of Long Beach and he wanted to...
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