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Justin Pawlak in the Falken Tires Ford Mustang then faced the Enjuku Racing Nissan 240SX of Pat Goodin. If facing the very fast Mustang of Pawlak wasn’t enough, Pat put the nail in his own coffin by going off course on his follow run. It was really too bad as his lead run looked really good.
“Finally, finally, finally!” fans of Daijiro Yoshihara cried out as he went up against Kenny Moen. Dai looked like he was on a roll and with Kenny getting two strikes in the Lutz Performance Nissan 350Z and Dai pulling off a stunning run in the Discount Tire/Falken Tire Nissan 240SX, Daijiro Yoshihara makes it past Top 32, finally.
The final battle of the Top 32 was one that should not have been missed as the Fatlace Nissan 240SX of Matt Powers and the Achilles Radial Lexus SC430 of Daigo Saito faced off. Normally, everyone would expect this to be a cake walk for Daigo. His performances prior to Texas would certainly have suggested that anyways. However, something was very off for the 2012 Formula Drift Champion and Rookie of the Year as he struggled in qualifying and then made a huge correction in the sweeper following Matt.
Daigo’s lead run was not enough to get past Matt despite the huge gap between the two. Everyone sat patiently, waiting for the judges to rule. The verdict came in and it was a unanimous decision for Matt Powers. Matt just took out the 2012 champion and possibly eliminated the chances of a repeat champion for 2013! Irwindale is still to come and with the points still close, it’s a mathematical possibility that Daigo can still take it but his chances have taken a hit.
Top 16 17
No, ladies and gentlemen, you aren’t reading that wrong. During the Top 16 introduction, it was decided that both Odi and Robbie would face each other just prior to running the actual Top 16. Both Odi and Robbie were introduced in the “Top 17” driver introductions and when they were finished, Robbie and Odi would run to see who would actually move forward. Their battle would see Robbie moving forward with authority following an aggressive chase run and an overly aggressive run by Odi in his. This gave Robbie the obvious advantage and he moved on to the Top 16, officially.
