,
Everyone was also asking if experience between the two drivers in their European careers would come into play. Both Dean and Darren come from the Irish Pro Drift Championships and have faced each other there. Then there were the starts that Dean Kearney was performing all day. He was being very aggressive on his entry as lead car after the chicane, nearly hitting many of his opponents all the way to the Final Four, including Aasbo and Pawlak where he held advantages over both. When Darren made his start for the final run, where he was in the follow position, nobody was quite expecting what happened next.
Dean had a great follow run against Darren and it was simply amazing. Then it happened, that aggressive entry finally bit Dean Kearney as Darren did not move down to avoid Dean. No one can say why Darren didn’t move, but many are saying it shouldn’t have happened. From it being avoidable to Dean being too aggressive to Darren not seeing Dean move over; there hasn’t been an agreement as to why. Formula Drift really didn’t have much of a solution in place at the time so it was decided that the run wouldn’t count. They gave both drivers time to repair their cars and run it again.
This time, there was no contact and there was a full run for both drivers. While Dean would once again pull off a very aggressive start, Darren would fall behind enough to make sure contact didn’t happen again. Then Darren, showing the brute power of his Twin Garrett Turbo V8, closed the door up on Dean in a show of absolute force and stayed with Dean until the end. It was enough and the judges gave the event win to Darren McNamara! Dean Kearney would get his first ever Formula Drift podium and Chris Forsberg would get his 5th podium out of 5 events. It’s looking like this will be Forsberg’s championship to lose, but Darren brings home a win for Falken Tires.
Formula DRIFT Professional Championship Current Standings
1. Forsberg, Chris – 421.50 Points
2. Aasbo, Fredric – 362.50 Points
3. Gittin Jr., Vaughn – 308.50 Points
4. Moen, Kenneth – 275.50 Points
5. McNamara, Darren – 263.00 Points
Manufacturers Championship Current Standings
1. Scion – 569.50 Points
2. Ford – 534.50 Points
3. Nissan – 529.50 Points
4. Chevy – 330.00 Points
5. BMW – 299.00 Points
Tire Championship Current Standings
1. Hankook – 784.00 Points
2. Nitto – 613.00 Points
3. Achilles – 574.00 Points
4. Falken – 508.00 Points
5. Maxxis – 246.50 Points
