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Great 8 time and what a Great 8 we have! With Kenny Moen, Ken Gushi, and Daigo Saito keeping the Fanboi's V8 hate at bay for now, the guys they would face are stiff competition! Kenny Moen would face the Nitto Tire equipped Matt Powers first, then JTP in the Falken Tire Ford Mustang would face Chris Forsberg in his NOS 350Z for a Drift Alliance Battle! Daigo Saito in his Achilles Radial SC430 would take on GoPro driver and friend of MotoIQ, Tyler McQuarrie. Finally, Ken Gushi in the new GReddy FR-S would take on the 2011 Champ, Daijiro Yoshihara.
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| No, the judges don't have a new vantage point! These are some fans who decided to get creative and come up with their own scoring system. Formula Drift fans have always created some way to show their approval or disapproval at an event with different signs. |
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| Matt Powers has been on a tear in Formula Drift and Long Beach seems like one of his better tracks. Kenny Moen has shown some drastic improvement. I know Matt's improvements have come from well sorted chassis from Costa, but I'm not sure what has lit the fire under Kenny. |
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| Both drivers showed their skills here, with Kenny pushing Matt into a One More Time battle! |
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| This would be all the improvements that Kenny would show this weekend as he pushed harder, but made more mistakes. While Moen has shown how capable a driver he is, he will need to continue that streak if he is to have any chance in a far better performance in 2012! Matt, however, is working his way closer to another Long Beach Podium. |
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| If there is one thing you have to say about the Drift Alliance guys, they pull no punches when facing each other. If they aren't trying to pull speed challenges against each other, they are pushing one another to go deeper, further, or faster. Justin Pawlak in his Falken Mustang takes the challenge Chis Forsberg puts up in his NOS 370Z. |
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| But JTP challenges back and is able to not only hang with Forsberg, but also pull off a closer gap than Chris did while he was leading! That gives the win to JTP and means that the only Long Beach repeat will be with JTP if he can make it to the Battle for First Place! |
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| On Tyler's lead run against Daigo Saito, it looked as if Tyler was going for some extreme angle into Turn 10 a, but Daigo wasn't prepared for that and ran into him as Tyler seemed to stall out. Since the incident was deemed to be Tyler's fault, Daigo was allowed more time than 5 minutes to repair his car. Tyler also went back for some repairs, but would have to be done within the 5 minute time limit. Once both cars were repaired, they went back out for Daigo's lead run. |
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| Daigo vented his frustration with the incident with high tire speeds and tons of smoke and gap! Because of the wreck being judged in Daigo's favor and possibly even a car that wasn't 100%, Tyler McQuarrie would lose this round to Saito. The Formula Drift Rookie now had a chance at Podium or Fourth Place! Of course, Daigo will not be content with even Third if the brass ring of a win is within his grasp! |
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| While the debut of the new GReddy FR-S was nothing short of impressive, you still have to consider that Ken Gushi is human. While following Daijiro Yoshihara, Ken tried to take a wider line to get closer to the wall than Dai did. He went too wide and made some hard contact with the wall in Turn 10 a-b's rear clipping zone. Not one to just give up, Gushi and crew called for a five minute rule and made repairs to the car. His only chance would be for Dai to spin or make hard contact on his follow run. |
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| Daijiro, though, would not make that mistake and would do exactly what he needed to keep himself going for Podium! Despite the wreck, it was a very sucessful debut for the GReddy FR-S! To make it this far, into the Great 8 on a chassis that hasn't ever seen a street, let alone a race track as a consumer model, shows a lot for the chassis and the Ken Gushi/GReddy team! |
