Thursday Night DRIFT at Irwindale Speedway on September 18, 2014

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September 18th

The 4th Irwindale Thursday Night Drift sessions will be tomorrow on September 18, 2014 will be open to the general public.  Admission to the track’s grandstands will start at $10.00 including free parking.   Gates will open at 2:00 PM.  Drifting will start at 5:00 PM – 9:00 PM.

PRO Drivers that will be attending tomorrow will be:

Carl Rydquist
Hiro Sumida
Kyle Mohan
Dennis Mertzanis
Yosiki Yoshioka
Ken Gushi

Formula D Thursday Night Drift Schedule:
September 18
November 13
December 18

Ticket Prices:
$10.00 To Watch Drifting
$15.00 To Watch Drifting & Drag Racing
$100.00 To Drift

Schedule of Events:

2:00 PM – 10:00 PM – Venue Open
2:00 PM – 9:00 PM – TECH: All vehicles must pass tech before running
4:00 PM – 4:30 PM – MANDATORY: Drivers Meeting
5:00 PM – 9:00 PM – OPEN PRACTICE – Groups C,B,A
10:00 PM                   – CLEAR GRID (NOISE ORDINANCE; NO REVVING ENGINES)

Continue reading Thursday Night DRIFT at Irwindale Speedway on September 18, 2014

[ARTICLE] Thursday Night Drift @ Irwindale Event Center by AMDRIFT.COM

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If you live in Southern California and are into motorsports, you know that safe and legal facilities to drive your car to it’s limits have become scarce over the past 10-15 years. Thursday Night Drift at the Irwindale Event Center is kind of a big deal to us. For all the young readers, let me explain why.

 

DKAR-8051Many years ago, Southern California had plenty of legal places to race. A few of those places were Los Angeles County Raceway in Palmdale, Lions Drag Strip in Wilmington, Carlsbad Raceway in Carlsbad, Brotherhood Raceway on Terminal Island, and even a really cool track most of us never had a chance to see, Riverside Raceway. Some of you might even remember Ascot in Gardena, but that memory is almost reserved exclusively for old timers, lol. Many of these were closed and gone before drifting became popular, but we the people who live the drift life have suffered our own losses over the past 10 years. “It used to be a racers paradise here”, says Mike Kojima during one of our discussions of Southern California motorsport venue history.Auto Club Speedway in Fontana terminated the privilege to hold drift events in the parking lot, unless you are some huge corporation with gobs of money, then its ok. Heck, even drag racing itself has been off and on at AutoClub Speedway. Drifting died at Orange Show Speedway, aka National Orange Show Speedway, drift activities have come to a halt at the former Marine Corps Air Station in El Toro, etc. There are just too many motorsport venues to name that we’ve lost with urban growth and ignorance to blame.

 

IRW_DriftNight-15Due of the lack of available local motorsport venues, street drifting has become as popular as street racing was back when the first Fast and the Furious movie was released. As cool as it may seem in the media, street drifting isn’t considered an acceptable form of seat time on the professional and amateur level, but the availability of industrial backroads in the LA area have drivers who have never been to an organized event, looking like experienced ProAm drivers.

 

DKAR-8820To gain seat time and experience going sideways, one has to drive far out of the LA area to attend a Just Drift event at Willow Springs Raceway in Rosamond, right outside Lancaster, CA. For those looking to get more, Vegas Drift holds regular events at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. The cost and time of traveling to and from, sometimes isn’t an option for most looking to get seat time. Sometimes a driver would like to get off work for the day, and go drifting. Traveling just doesn’t make sense to the average guy.

 

DKAR-8273We are excited that Formula Drift has teamed up with Irwindale Event Center to bring the LA area a great opportunity to drift at The House of Drift. On select Thursday evenings, the oval that FD Round 7 runs every October, plays host to Thursday Night Drift. Everybody is invited to drive, from first time drifters, to pros looking to hone their skills on the FD layout. It is definitely worth noting that FD staff who come out to run this event, are doing so because they love drifting.

 

DKAR-8205At $100 to drive, Formula Drift will tech your car, give you a chance to show your skill by running a simple layout, put you in a run group, and let you drift all night. You get to interact with Formula Drift staff in a relaxed environment, learn more about your car and what professional drift organizations are looking for in terms of build, safety, and driving, and most importantly, hang out and have a good time. The best thing about all of the above, is that you don’t have to drive hundreds or thousands of miles to do it.

 

DKAR-9121Spectators pay $10, which gets you a seat in the grandstands, and an opportunity to enjoy a California sunset while watching some drifting. For an additional $5, you can make your way over to the drag strip and enjoy some straight line racing too. Such a great opportunity for a night of motorsport fun.

 

DKAR-9111Our friend Justin Banner is the voice of Thursday Night Drift. Justin has been announcing for Top Drift and Vegas ProAm this year, so its awesome that he was able to land the announcing job for these events. We are all about the growth of everybody involved in drifting, and Justin is absolutely enthusiastic about the sport.

  Continue reading [ARTICLE] Thursday Night Drift @ Irwindale Event Center by AMDRIFT.COM

Thursday Night DRIFT at Irwindale Speedway on September 18, 2014

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Posted on

September 18th

THURSDAY NIGHT DRIFT

Gates Open at 2:00pm Drifting: 5:00pm to 9:00pm

What to expect at the track:

  1. Entry: When you enter the track, you’ll receive a tech card after paying your entry/participation fee. Entry will be limited to 40 vehicles, first come first serve.
  2. Tech: After receiving your tech card, you’ll drive your vehicle to Tech, where a simple safety inspection will be performed on your car.
  3. Staging lanes: Once you have passed Tech, drive to the rear of the staging lane with your Group A, B, or C and get ready to drift.
  4. Drifting: When it’s time for you to enter the course, an official will motion to you to pull up and then allow you go on course. At the end of your run, slow down and exit the track properly.
  5. Return to the staging lanes and get ready for your next run. We will alternate between groups throughout the evening.

 2014FD_Irwindale_ThursdayNights_GroupA_v2
2014FD_Irwindale_ThursdayNights_GroupB_v3

2014FD_Irwindale_ThursdayNights_GroupC_v3

Continue reading Thursday Night DRIFT at Irwindale Speedway on September 18, 2014

Formula DRIFT Round 6: Showdown Results

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Formula DRIFT Round 6: Showdown Results;
Fredric Aasbo is Victorious at Texas Motor Speedway

FD-RD6-2014-Podium-600w

Long Beach, Calif. – September 14, 2014 – Formula DRIFT for the second consecutive year returned to Texas Motor Speedway for Round 6: Showdown. Fredric Aasbo in the Hankook Tire / Scion Racing tC takes his second victory of the season.

Round 6: Showdown held at Texas Motor Speedway brought professional drifting to Texas for the second consecutive year. The event featured the Round 2 of the PRO 2 series, Offset Kings car show, and action from the Pro Championship. The weather held up on the main event day providing clear skies and cool temperatures.

“The dramatic finish to this event has set-up a close battle between Fredric Aasbo and Chris Forsberg for the championship as we head into Round 7 at Irwindale Speedway,” says Jim Liaw, President of Formula DRIFT. “The finale has always been an action packed event with drivers leaving it all on the line and we are excited to see how the championship chase unfolds.”

The final four pitted number one qualifier, Forrest Wang in the Get Nuts Lab / Hankook / STR Racing Nissan S14 against Odi Bakchis in the Feal Suspension / Nitto Tire Nissan 240SX. After a One More Time battle, Wang out drove Bakchis to secure his second career podium to finish in third place. Point leader, Chris Forsberg in the Hankook Tire Nissan 370Z faced Hankook Tire teammate, Fredric Aasbo. Forsberg contacted Aasbo on his chase run to give Aasbo the advantage and ultimately the win moving him into the Finals. The Finals pitted Aasbo and Bakchis. In the second run, Bakchis spun out giving Aasbo the event victory. Aasbo closed the point gap heading into the final event of the season with 26 points separating him from Forsberg as they head into the final event of the 2014 season.

“This victory is for my team, for Scion, and for Hankook. This might feel like the weirdest victory ever as people took themselves out, but I’ll take it and will see everyone in Irwindale,” said Fredric Aasbo, winner of Round 6: Showdown. “My Hankook Tire teammate, Chris Forsberg and I have been battling it out all year and we are right where we want to be. We are right behind him and he has all the pressure on him. Irwindale is going to be a killer event.”

The 2014 Formula DRIFT Championship season continues to Round 7: Final Fight at Irwindale Speedway on October 10-11. For more information visit: www.formuladrift.com and find Formula DRIFT on Instagram @formulad, Facebook www.facebook.com/formuladrift and Twitter @FormulaDrift.

Formula DRIFT Professional Championship Presented by GoPro 2014 Standings After Six Rounds

1. Forsberg, Chris Hankook Tire Nissan 370Z 493.00 Points
2. Aasbo, Fredric Hankook Tire Scion Racing tC 467.00 Points
3. Gittin Jr., Vaughn Monster Energy / Nitto Tire Ford Mustang RTR 359.50 Points
4. Bakchis, Aurimas “Odi” Feal Suspension / Nitto Tire Nissan 240SX 328.00 Points
5. Moen, Kenneth Bridges Racing Nissan 240SX 293.00 Points
6. McNamara, Darren Falken Tire Nissan S14 280.50 Points
7. Pawlak, Justin Falken Tire Ford Mustang 259.50 Points
8. Wang, Forrest Get Nuts Lab / Hankook Tire / STR Racing Nissan S14 257.50 Points
9. Kearney, Dean Oracle Lighting Dodge Viper SRT 252.00 Points
10. Tuerck, Ryan Retaks Maxxis Tires Air Force PSI Scion FR-S 213.00 Points
11. Grunewald, Conrad Megan Racing / Top 1 Oil / BRE Chevrolet Camaro 211.50 Points
12. Nishida, Robbie Achilles Radial / Bridges Racing Lexus SC300 208.50 Points
13. Gushi, Ken GReddy Performance / Scion Racing Drift FR-S 192.50 Points
14. McQuarrie, Tyler GoPro / Mobil 1 Chevrolet Camaro 188.50 Points
15. Essa, Michael Essa Autosport / Yokohama BMW M3 183.50 Points
16. DeNofa, Chelsea BC Racing / Nitto Tire BMW 3-Series 172.50 Points

Round 6: Showdown Event Results

1. Aasbo, Fredric Hankook Tire Scion Racing tC Winner
2. Bakchis, Aurimas “Odi” Feal Suspension / Nitto Tire Nissan 240SX 2nd Place
3. Wang, Forrest Get Nuts Lab / Hankook Tire / STR Racing Nissan S14 3rd Place

Manufacturers Championship Standings After Six Rounds

1. Scion 725.00 Points
2. Nissan 636.00 Points
3. Ford 619.00 Points
4. Chevy 400.00 Points
5. BMW 356.00 Points

Tire Championship Standings After Six Rounds

1. Hankook 962.50 Points
2. Nitto 748.50 Points
3. Achilles 647.00 Points
4. Falken 592.50 Points
5. Maxxis 347.00 Points