Category: FD News

Aurimas Odi Bakchis Awarded Formula DRIFT Pro License at VegasProAm in Las Vegas, Nevada

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25 August 2010, for immediate release: Aurimas “Odi” Bakchis, 27, was awarded a Formula Drift professional driver’s license at Las Vegas Motor Speedway after being named champion of the 2010 Vegas Pro Am series on Saturday, 21 August 2010. The final Vegas Pro Am round took place on the same course utilized by the Formula Drift Pro Championship only minutes after the Pro Am finished. Bakchis was awarded the license on the Formula Drift podium after only one season of drifting competitively in amateur events.

A southern California local and seasoned rally driver, Bakchis placed first in two of the four 2010 Vegas Pro Am events and placed third on the 21 August 2010 event. Bakchis began drifting at Adam’s Motorsports Park in Riverside, California in February 2009 after purchasing a 1989 Nissan 240 SX and began competitively drifting after approximately eight months of practice. Bakchis also drove his “underpowered” Nissan to a second place finish at Round 2 of the Top Drift series at Willow Springs International Raceway and to an exciting win at the 2010 XDC Round 2 event in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Sponsors including 702 Graphics, Clutch Masters, Dstroyr, Godspeed Project, R Rated Motorsports, and Turboimport.com have represented Bakchis throughout the 2010 drift season. A promising driver, Bakchis intends to aggressively compete in the 2011 Formula Drift Pro Championship series.

DriftStream2010.com Continues Steady Growth with over 200,000 Unique Viewers for Round 3: The Gauntlet

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Long Beach, Calif. – June 25, 2010 – Formula DRIFT continued the new DriftStream with YoParts.com at Round 3: The Gauntlet registering over 200,000 unique viewers watching the event live for the second event in a row.

Formula DRIFT and YoParts.com partnered with Justin.tv to distribute the LiveStream of Round 3: The Gauntlet at Wall Stadium in New Jersey. Over 128 countries tuned in to watch the over 1,000,000 minutes of action streamed in a 24-hour period, the largest of any of the events to date. This event featured multiple camera angles including an exclusive “starting line” camera and enhanced scoring displays. The coverage also included footage live from the Drivers’ meeting and exclusive coverage from the “Throttle Thursday” event.

“Round 3 was definitely our best broadcast yet! We were able to produce the best stream quality out of our first three events and made for an enjoyable viewing experience. Our DriftStream2010 chat audience were instrumental in helping us fine tune the stream each day,” said Tom Masiero, co-founder of YoParts.com. “This event we had multiple camera angles for Round 3: The Gauntlet as well as a LIVE start line cam that caught some great close up action. This event would not have been possible without our sponsors Mishimoto, Need for Speed and Belle-1 Communications. We are looking forward to Round 3: Throwdown Monroe Wa, with even more great new features for the Formula Drift Fan base. We would also like to thank out media partners motoiq.com, speedhunters.com, pasmag.com, motormavens.com, drifting.com, streetimportonline.com, gtchannel.com, livesockets.com for hosting and promoting DriftStream2010.”

The Drift Stream will continue at Round 4: Throwdown on July 9-10 in Monroe, WA when Formula DRIFT returns to Evergreen Speedway.

EA Turns Up the Heat with Need For Speed Hot Pursuit

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Cops and Racers + Hot Cars + Your Friends = Endless Competition

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA – June 14, 2010 – Criterion reinvents Need for Speed™ Hot Pursuit for the connected generation. Criterion Games, a studio of Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ: ERTS) announced today that the award-winning development team is making the latest installment in the renowned Need for Speed franchise. Inspired by the classic game of the same name, Criterion will reveal Need for Speed Hot Pursuit for the very first time today at the Electronic Entertainment Expo in Los Angeles. Launching in November 2010, Need for Speed Hot Pursuit brings the franchise back to its roots with intense cops vs. racer chases. Criterion also ups the ante with the introduction of an all-new online network called Need for Speed Autolog where players compare racing stats and automatically get personalized gameplay recommendations from their friends– a feature that is poised to transform online racing for the connected generation.

Need for Speed Hot Pursuit players will experience the thrill of the chase and the rush of the escape as they play through full careers as both a cop and a racer – solo or connected. The high speed busts and heart-stopping getaways are all connected via Need for Speed Autolog. This network not only connects friends for epic head-to head pursuits and races, but also enables players to compare performances and stats, thereby setting the stage for the ultimate in social competition.

Craig Sullivan, Creative Director of the game said, “At Criterion, we’ve been playing Need for Speed since it was first introduced on 3DO. We are honored and excited by the opportunity to reinvent the franchise for today’s connected audience. Our goal has been to create cops vs. racers pursuits that are so fun, fast and exciting it really brings to life the adrenaline and intensity of the high speed cop pursuit experience with your friends”.

Developed by Criterion Games, Need for Speed Hot Pursuit will be available on November 16, 2010 in North America and on November 18 and 19, 2010 in Europe on the Xbox 360® videogame and entertainment system, PlayStation®3 computer entertainment system and PC. Need for Speed Hot Pursuit will also be available on the Wii™ and is being developed by Exient.

For more information on Need for Speed, please visit http://www.needforspeed.com. Or become a fan on Facebook at www.facebook.com/needforspeed and follow us on Twitter www.twitter.com/needforspeed.

Formula DRIFT Releases Codes and Applications for This Weekend’s Live Stream

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1. Live on the Formula DRIFT Website home page and on the landing page
www.driftstream2010.com or www.formulad.com/live

2. Facebook
Application
– Watch inside facebook and chat with your friends

3. iPhone App
(channel
name “driftstream”)

4. DriftStream embed code: Justin.tv
Embed

Any webmasters that are interested in the Direct Iframe Embed and custom sizing for their particular website can contact Grab it
HERE

Coverage commences on Friday, May 4th at 12pm EST for the first session of qualifying during Round 3: Wall NJ on June 4th and 5th on www.formulad.com/live

DriftStream2010.com Launches Hub for Formula DRIFT Fans

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Drift Stream 2010

Long Beach, Calif. – May 26, 2010 – Formula DRIFT launches DriftStream2010.com as a hub for all content of the Live Stream.

“Driftstream2010.com is the next step of development for our live stream partnership,” said Ryan Sage, co-founder of Formula DRIFT. “This will be the central place where all things pertaining to the live stream will be centrally located. Our approach is to make the viewing experience of the live stream as easy, seamless, and fun as possible.

The new DriftSteam2010.com site has been created to specifically house both Live Coverage and On-Demand footage of the 2010 Formula DRIFT Schedule as well as the following elements:

* Live Interactive Hub for all DriftStream 2010 action
* On-Demand section with all DriftStream 2010 coverage
* Integrated Toolbar Section
* Flickr Gallery
* YouTube Gallery
* LiveFeed Beacon
* Twitter Integration
* Facebook Integration
* Formula DRIFT Blog Timeline
* DriftStream 2010 Schedule
* Built-in Chat Feature
* Language Translation Feature
* iPhone App link

The new site features a user-friendly interface, while providing new and archived content pertaining to Formula DRIFT. The dynamic features of the site will engage fans to interact with one another and become socially active.

“The main goal for the development of this site was to create an easy to navigate experience while still providing all relevant streams of content for the FD fanbase,” said Tom Masiero, co-founder of YoParts.com.

The Drift Stream will continue at Round 3: The Gauntlet on June 4-5 in Wall, NJ when Formula DRIFT returns to Wall Speedway.