Congratulations Dai Yoshihara and Team Falken!
A MotoIQ Staff Report, photos courtesy of Falken Tire
Most of our readers know that editor Mike Kojima moonlights with Team Falken as Dai Yoshihara’s chassis engineer and many MotoIQ fans are also Dai’s fans as well. We the staff of MotoIQ would like to congratulate Dai, Discount Tire and Team Falken for his win at the Atlanta second round of the 2010 Formula D season.
Dai fought to first place after a challenging trip up the ladder. Perhaps his hardest battles were against fellow Falken teammates Darren McNamara and Vaughn Gitten Jr. both highly capable drivers driving potent high horsepower machines. Darren McNamara’s powerful Saturn Sky had superior speed but Dai’s spectacular high angle driving style and near backwards 90 plus mph entries into the challenging Road Atlanta course pleased the judges and the elimination round went to a sudden death one more time.
In the one more time battle, McNamara’s sky collided with the rear of Dai’s S13 destroying the rear bodywork. After calling for a 5 minute repair session (by Formula D rules you have 5 minutes for emergency repairs to return your car to the starting line) Scott Dodgion, Dai’s Crew Chief and KW suspension’s Chris Marion cut the dragging rear sheetmetal off with a sawzall to return the car to the battle in a dramatic struggle to the last few seconds of the 5 minutes. Fortunately the SPD built Discount Tire/Falken S13 was designed to sustain major damage and due to its modular construction and be quickly repairable in the event of a crash like this. Due to the collision, the Judges ruled in Dai’s favor and he advanced to the finals to meet Vaughn Gitten Jr.
