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Vaughn “It’s a Raptor, Not a Mustang” Gittin, Jr. in the Monster Energy/Nitto Tire Ford Mustang would bring a better drifting game to his battle against Ryan Kado in the DNA Motoring/Nexen Tire Nissan 350Z. Vaughn wouldn’t need to do much after Ryan put two tires off and would move on to the Top 16. |
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This one could be looked at as another controversial ending after two One More Time results. In their initial runs, Conrad hit Darren to cause him to spin, giving Darren the advantage. However, in Darren's lead run before that, it was deemed that Darren had hit one of the off course cones. Second run, both drivers were judged as having equal runs.
Third time was the charm, though. Darren MacNamara in the Falken Tires Nissan Silvia looked to have an edge against the Hankook Tires/Megan Racing Chevrolet Camaro of Conrad Gruenwald in the final OMT. Darren had the gap and held close proximity against Gruenwald which the judges seemed to favor, but they didn’t like the shallow angle that Darren used to get it. With that being the thing to nick the Pro Drift Champion, Darren would be eliminated and Conrad moves on to the Top 16.
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If Pat Goodin in the Enjuku Racing Nissan 240SX could just make his runs a bit cleaner, we may have another giant killer, ala Matt Field. However, much like how J-Lo couldn’t find it, Daigo Saito’s Achilles Radial Lexus SC430 would dodge every arrow and spear Goodin could launch. Daigo is in the Top 16, but not without another driver to take notice of.
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Mr. Style, Forrest Wang in the Get Nuts Lab/Achilles Radial Nissan 240SX would look to get past the functional Sikky Nissan 240SX of Miro Ovcharik. Typically, Forrest take the flair of his drifting over the speed, but this round he seems to have found that speed against Miro. However, it wasn’t enough and they had to go One More Time. That would be all Miro could handle as he would end up straightening out twice and Wang would put Ovcharik behind him.
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Danny George with his Wreckhouse V8 Mazda Miata looked to try and end his streak of Top 32 exits against Daijiro Yoshihara in the Discount Tire/Falken Tire Nissan 240SX. Danny would also prove again that his Miata is not lacking speed as he was able to keep up with Dai and even make contact. The hit was bad enough for Danny to call for a Competition Time Out to fix his car. While he was able to once again show the drive of the fan funded Miata, the hit against Dai wasn’t enough to get past. Daijiro Yoshihara was back in the Top 16!
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The final battle of the Top 32 was supposed to be Matt Field in the CX Racing Nissan 240SX and Brandon Wicknick in his Nissan 240SX. However, as I mentioned earlier in the story, Brandon had made severe contact with the wall and his car was not able to be repaired enough to make Top 32. With the Top 16 set, Mike Kojima was wondering what on Earth just went wrong with his team. Darren in the finals last round, Top 32 exit this round. Dai with a Top 32 exit in Round 2 but he was now in Top 16. Fans were wondering what on Earth was going on with such strange calls in Top 32, especially with the Maeng/Angelo result. Could this even get any crazier?
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