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DeNofa was on his game as he chased Bakchis during the first run. Bakchis’s lead run was nearly flawless, however, but he couldn’t keep the pressure up on his chase run and DeNofa advanced to the Great Eight.
A battle of international drivers started with a super-close run with McNamara leading with Saito following closely, as we’ve come to expect from him. On McNamara’s chase run, he got aggressive on the entry, nearly passing Saito before hitting him in the first initiation zone. The big mistake meant Saito advanced.
A pair of very close runs between Gushi and Moen led to a One More Time. Looking for an advantage, Gushi was super-aggressive on the initiation – taking out several cones and hitting Moen along the initiation zone. Moen didn’t maintain very close proximity on the ensuing chase run, but Gushi’s lead run wasn’t enough to overcome his mistake of hitting Moen, and Moen was given the win.
The third matchup of the season between these two drivers would lead to Forsberg getting his second victory over the Japanese driver. Forsberg had a strong lead run with Yoshioka keeping close proximity, but you couldn’t fit a piece of paper between Yoshioka’s car and Forsberg’s car when Forsberg gave chase, and he was awarded the unanimous win.
Yoshihara was inch perfect, while Nishida’s new Lexus didn’t look as well sorted as the championship-winning S13. Nishida’s lead run, while strong, didn’t measure up to Yoshihara’s lead run and Yoshihara’s chase run was much stronger than Nishida’s, putting him into the next round.
A pair of extremely close runs by both Millen and Tuerck would lead to a split decision, in favor of Tuerck advancing to the next round. It was a difficult and controversial decision for the judges, who spent a long time reviewing the replays before Tuerck was awarded the win.
