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Chelsea DeNofa in the Nitto Tires/BC Racing BMW 325 and Kenny Moen in the Achilles Radial Nissan 240SX were next. Kenny would take out Daijiro Yoshihara in Top 32 after Dai had problems while it was a mercy kill by DeNofa against Eric Hohnadell, as Eric’s Enjuku Racing 240SX was only on 6 of his eight cylinders. Moen would defeat DeNofa after Chelsea would drive too aggressive in his follow run and gift a Great 8 appearance to Kenny Moen.
This could have been exciting, it could have been the run that rivaled the Mustang battles of Gittin and Pawlak, it would have been if Daigo Saito hadn’t broken before his run against Fredric Aasbo. Aasbo was in the final four with a Bye-Run.
Odi Bakchis would face off against Chris Forsberg and both of these guys are known for great car control. However, Odi is running without power adders and that makes his control that much more amazing. He, much like Aasbo, is able to keep up with cars with as much as 200 to 300 more horsepower. Forsberg has been able to do this as well, but the addition of nitrous has seemed to only help him further. By using the laughing gas where he needed it, Chris was able to gap Odi and get himself into the Final Four.
Robbie Nishida and Ken Gushi had a great fight for the Great 8, but Gushi would push too hard in his follow run. While Nishida put a tire off into initiation, Gushi would put two off going into turn 10A. This severe disadvantage would give Nishida the nod into the Final Four. However, this is still a great result for Ken Gushi as the change to 2JZ power for the FR-S has seemed to be a gigantic improvement for the team so far.
The final Battle of the Great 8 was Vaughn Gittin, Jr. and Kenny Moen. Kenny has had a far more successful year in 2014 and reaching the Great 8 is another amazing step for this year. However, the Great 8 would be all he could get for round 2 as Vaughn Gittin, Jr and his Nitto Tires would surpass Kenny Moen and his Achilles Tires.
Anyone who has followed drifting for some time knows how good both of these guys are and knows that any time you see Fredric Aasbo up against Chris Forsberg, it’s going to be a battle. This first round of the Final Four started off with one of the greatest passes in Formula Drift history. In an uncharacteristic move by Chris Forsberg, he went wide on his lead run into 10A. This opened the door for Aasbo who passed Forsberg without changing his line or losing drift. Aasbo then ran another perfect lead run against Forsberg to drive himself into the Finals!
