This was just posted over at Wrecked Magazine, check it! Huge news for 2008.

“I just was mailed a document from one of my favorite sources before we left out of town and inside was a 10-15 page document laying out the plans for Scion to enter Drifting in 2008. Yes, that is right……Scion is stepping up in a HUGE way in 2008! They are converting a Scion tC into a RWD drifting machine under the flagship of well known RSR. Here is the cover of the Scion Drifting packet.

The current known sponsors of the project are Scion, RSR, Toyo Tires, Enkei Wheels, and Sparco. Here are some other vehicle renderings in the packet.

Now later in the packet they announce a driver, Ken Gushi formally of Ford Racing. Apparently Scion is making some big strides taking away Ken Gushi from Ford. What will this car have in store for 2008? It will be an interesting project to keep your eye on but I feel Scion will do the project justice. Scion has played a huge role in the growth of sport compact and I feel they will make sure their Drifting program goes well. Here is a confirmation on Ken Gushi from the packet.

Don’t miss this car in Formula D for 2008! Rumor has it this car will make the Impot Tuner cover so keep your eye out! I think they should trash Import Tuner and go with Wrecked! Who’s with me?”

So let’s continue with our SEMA fun. We spent more time at the Wynn that you would imagine. After the GM party we found out about this secret shuttle that took you to the Wynn. So we ran to the shuttle at 5pm and bypassed the taxi line and hit up a taxi at the Wynn with about 400 less people in line.

NOS Energy Drinks has stepped up their role in 2008 for Formula D. We are so excited to let you know that Chris gave his doors up for the next season to the NOS can. Mike Fine presented a great unveiling at the Maxxis Tires booth saying he hopes to help push Chris into the next level (Championship) as an independently funded team. Here is a snapshot of the new look on the Maxxis car.

The Formula D press conference dropped some huge bombs! Wrecked Magazine did a much better job laying all the news out but let me give you some cliff notes. Formula D will have a world finals to wrap up the year. Formula D will have a demo in Mexico and an event in Singapore. They also are adding an event to the regular season(so now and they also added Las Vegas to the tour this year. The 8th event is TBA. Here you can see Ryan Sage bringing us all the good news.

We did some great interviews with guys like Neil Tjin, Status Sean, and Jason Whitfield for a tuner segment from Mobil 1. They really stepped up this year with a big bottle at the main entrance, 2 billboards, and 150 taxi cab advertisements.  We had a blast filming with these guys…………

So we rolled into Las Vegas with full intentions to have the time of our life and help make this excellent video for Mobil 1! We accomplished both of course in record fashion! Our first place we crashed at was the Wyndam Grand Desert Resort right off East Harmon which is kinda behind Planet Hollywood.

So Monday night we showed up to the Wynn Hotel for the General Motors party that is always my favorite event and a great way to kick off the week! So after the big GM party we rolled into the exclusive VIP Afterparty and 50 cent unveiled his car ride to the 200 people in attendance. Will Castro from Unique Autosports presented the car, it was a great thing we were able to witness.

Also at the GM Party was my favorite car of the show. The Pontiac Solstice SD-290 Racer Concept in a custom candy apple red paint was gorgeous. The revamped Ecotech engine is making 290hp (hence the SD-290). I’ve been on a huge vintage kick lately as we all know and this modern car with the old school vintage kickback I just love. The redone grills and front make the car easy on the eyes.  I hope to see this thing appear some more in the future.

We had a blast in Los Angeles! My iphone took a crap this weekend so the photos are missing from this blog! I got into town pretty early on Tuesday and got some work done with some friends. It was a great weekend and the feedback from the ESPN showing in Hollywood was fantastic. Also, we did a soft launch of Wrecked Magazine and people were going nuts! It goes public soon so stay tuned. Gotta love Socal, we tore up King Taco and Jones Coffee this weekend.

Here is the top 16 rundown for the weekend:

1. Tanner Foust

2. Chris Forsberg

3. Rhys Millen

4. Sam Hubinette

5. Vaughn Gittin Jr.

6. Dai Yoshihara

7. Robbie Nishida

8. Ryan Tureck

9. Ryuji Miki

10. Bill Sherman

11. Casper Canul

12. Mitsuru Haraguchi

13. Kenji Yamanaka

14. Ken Gushi

15. John Ruskakoff

16. Tony Brakahopia

The best run of the night was the Daijiro Yoshihara Vs. Chris Forsberg runs that got called a one more time! It was the battle for second place in the series as Tanner Foust had already secured first place and these guys gave it their all! Congrats to AEM/Toyo Tires and Tanner Foust for securing a first place for the 2007 Season and finally winning his first round of the season at the House of Drift. ESPN2 coverage starts November 15th, keep track!

OFFICIAL NOTICE: Formula Drift Post-Race Technical Inspection Report

During the routine post-race technical inspection, which first began during Round 4 at Evergreen Speedway, on September 8, 2007 at Round 6 of the Formula Drift Championship event at Wall Speedway, it was determined that the #2 car, driven by Rhys Millen was not in compliance with the 2007 Formula Drift Rules & Regulations.

Upon inspection by the Formula Drift Technical Manager, it was determined that the #2 car did not have functioning brake lights as required in Section 8.5 of the series rules, which read:

Section 8.5 Electrical Systems
… Brake lights, tail lights (rain lights), reverse lights, and hazard lights must function normally.

During the course of the investigation, Formula Drift Officials were able to determine that the brake lights were operable during Pre-Event technical inspection on the morning of Friday September 7, 2007 and that they were working earlier in the day of Saturday September 8, 2007, prior to the Qualifying round as witnessed by a Formula Drift Official. Team RMR was immediately notified following the post-race technical inspection by Formula Drift Chief Steward of the initial findings and was told a penalty would be assessed upon further detail review.

Formula Drift attempted to determine if there were any extenuating circumstances such as an impact or other incident that would have rendered the brake lights inoperable. Upon review of the footage of every scored run made by the #2 car including all qualifying runs, it was determined that the brake lights were never operable during Top-16 Tandem/Head-to-Head competition. In addition, Formula Drift rulebook Section 6.3 states:

Section 6.3 Damage
…It is the responsibility of the team to notify the TECHNICAL MANAGER of any or all damage.

As a result of a detailed review and the team’s appeal, the #2 car will be assessed a 17 point penalty and a fine for a rulebook infraction of Section 8.5; Electrical System. __________________

As Quoted By Rhys
“So today I received a letter from Randy the technical steward at “Formula D”. It stated that I was being assessed a points penalty of 17 points and a fine of $500.00 for my brake lights failing to pass post race inspection at round six, New Jersey. It started out to be 34 points ( all competition points for the event ) but was dropped after I gave them my piece of mind. In my eyes this is a huge pile of $#!% for the following reasons :

Randy and his technical staff did not notice an issue until after the race nor did the judges or competitors say anything about the brake lights not working during the rounds. But for some reason after the race they were able to notice and recall that they were working in qualifying.

There is nothing written in the rule book that is based on a vehicle failing to pass “A Post Race Technical inspection” stating that points or fines will be assessed and deducted.

My brake lights were deemed to be working prior to Ross Petty hitting on the very first lap ( half a lap ) of the top sixteen.

In the past if an issue has come to the attention of the technical staff such as “deemed illegal tires” or “vehicle swapping during rounds”, a technical bulletin has been handed out to all competitors along with a statement of how the infraction will be handled and that it will be enforced at the next round with no points or fines being applied to those parties involved”

As you can see in the image it appears that Ross hit him in the rear tire section? You be the judge…….We haven’t seen an official response/reply from Formula D yet. We will keep you posted.

I know we have been hyping the Formula D New Jersey event for a minute but it was well worth it! The event was an awesome throw down which ended in the energy drink battle between Rockstar and Redbull. Daijiro Yoshihara ended up taking top honors as Rhys Millen connected with him on the bank while following in the final run! Tyler Mcquarrie did excellent the Porsche GT2 all weekend but faced radiator issues and was unable to run for the third place race. This gave Tanner Foust the go ahead for 3rd and a comfortable lead going into Irwindale.

I had to show off this one photo of Gary Lang from New Mexico Drift. He went way gangster on the wall a couple of times and who cannot get excited about that?

I want to talk about two very memorable moments that went down out on the east coast right near Asbury Park (hence the beast from the east) a nice cult reference to the now defunct ECW and the man Bam Bam Bigealow. It’s all about HeatWave 98!) In case your totally lost pay a visit to google and look it up, Taz Vs. Bam Bam Bigelow Heat Wave 98. But moving on to more important topics such as Formula D……I wanna talk about two events. First off, Chris Cook (Mopar Viper) and Sam Hubinette (Mopar Charger) drew each other in Round 1 of the Top 16 ladder and it was a throw down! After a 15 minute debate or so Chris Cook was given top honors and advanced into the top 8. The student is becoming the teacher perhaps?

While the judges were debating the victory Ross Petty in the Falken S13 and Rhys Millen in his Bridgestone Solstice  were staged. In one of the funniest displays I have seen in a LONG time Ross Petty was constantly revving and doing burnouts while swinging the car towards Rhys the whole time trying to pull some intimidation tactics. Haha, we cannot blame Ross for trying! He was amped and ready to throw down and as they entered the third turn Ross pit maneuvered Rhys causing a 9-0 point award to Millen who ended up moving on. But not after a great laugh and some excellent runs.

The crowd favorites Drift Alliance definitely threw down  with an army of people that came out in support. Chris Forsberg was the only DA member to make tandem for the team but Ryan Tureck suffered tuning problems and Tony Angelo was looking solid all weekend. The Drift Alliance Army also managed to hijack the main sign to the track which was quite hilarious.

That pretty much closes the weekend, I am going to make our trip to NYC another post being that it’s 9/11 and stuff! It’s been 6 whole years, crazy world we live in! Our prayers still go out to all the families who experienced loss of life and thanks to the Emergency workers on that day.

Check out this video I snagged off Jrod’s Blog! A little video to get you excited about next weekend in New Jersey! This shows some of the great tandem that went down a few weeks ago at Sears Point and ALSO shows the insane crash of Taka Aono in the Falken AE86 on turn one at Sonoma! The crowd in Jersey is always crazy and we are gearing up for a great weekend!

Come to Wall, New Jersey on September 8th to see Formula D live in action in Wall, New Jersey! Not a far drive from Philadelphia or New York City! Get off your couch, drag your lame girlfriend and show up to the track! Also stop by the Slide America booth!!!!!!

For Discounted Tickets enter Ticket Code: slide

Tanner Foust is in first place currently but last year Rhys Millen sat pretty for a back/back championship and broke in top 16! Sam Hubinette went on to win the event and at Irwindale sealed the fate for his second championship! Wall should be the turning point of the season!

Here is a drivers list from Formula D! Don’t miss America’s top series drivers tearing it up in Wall, New Jersey!
Rank Car No. Driver
1 36 Tanner Foust Seeded
2 64 Chris Forsberg Seeded
3 9 Daijiro Yoshihara Seeded
4 2 Rhys Millen Seeded
5 25 Vaughn Gittin Jr. Seeded
6 11 Kenji Yamanaka Seeded
7 1 Samuel Hubinette Seeded
8 8 Darren McNamara Seeded
9 22 Bill Sherman Seeded
10 21 Ken Gushi Seeded
11 16 Tyler McQuarrie Seeded
12 33 Kazu Hayashida Seeded
13 47 Ryan Tuerck Seeded
14 7 Casper Canul Seeded
15 69 Mitsuru Haruguchi Seeded
16 96 Tony Angelo Seeded
17 808 Ross Petty
18 26 Ryuji Miki
19 86 Taka Aono
20 48 Tommy Suell
21 10 Hiro Sumida
22 31 Robbie Nishida
22 4 Stephan Papadakis
24 76 Chris Cook
25 15 Robby Unser
26 12 Stephan Verdier
27 619 Seigo Yamamoto
28 3 Calvin Wan
29 19 Doug VanDenBrink
30 5 Joon Maeng
31 27 Ben Schwartz
32 99 Kyle Mohan
33 68 Gary Lang
34 36 Hiromi Kajikuma
35 24 Gary Simmons
36 18 Tony Brakohiapa
37 38 Barry Wong
38 40 Ben Reyes

Well let’s start with the basics…….the temperature in Atlanta when we left was about 102 degrees (not including humidity). The temperature upon landing at SFO was like 58 degrees. The weather pretty much kicked my ass and now I am sick :(. The weekend was a blast though. We landed and headed to downtown to swing by Mark’s store on Post called Fatlace.

After leaving Fatlace we headed up to Sonoma. The fog on the 101 was insane, here is us crossing the Golden Gate Bridge.

Formula D was pretty wild. The Drift Alliance ended up taking home first and second place which was just crazy! The best image of the weekend has to be Calvin Wan’s Infiniti G35. Calvin was looking good till this accident in qualifying, I am sure it was extra frustrating for him being that this was his home track.

Me on the sidelines……hard at work or hardly working?

Somehow I lived to wake up another day after eating this………Go animal style or go home!

Overall Sonoma was a great time, cannot wait to go crazy in Toronto at Drift Mania this weekend! Time to get wasted off more root beer with Mark from PAS Magazine.