,
Final Four
Pawlak went big on his entry – big enough that Saito had to make a big correction in order to catch back up to Pawlak, giving the Mustang driver a clear advantage. However, Pawlak tossed it all away by spinning behind Saito in the initiation zone, and Saito would advance to the finals. This was Pawlak’s first loss in the 2012 season.
Yoshihara made the battle of Formula Drift champions an easy decision for the judges when he made contact with Forsberg in the first initiation zone, handing the win to Forsberg. Forsberg put in a solid chase run of his own to advance to the Final.
Consolation
Falken Tire teammates Yoshihara and Pawlak met for the second time in the 2012 season and for the second time at Palm Beach. Pawlak's solid lead run was followed up by a huge mistake in his chase run, spinning at the final clip and handing the win to Yoshihara.
Final
This was a real clash of the titans. Chris Forsberg’s near-perfect lead run was matched move-for-move by Saito, who put in his best follow run of the day. Saito’s run was solid, but Forsberg – being super-aggressive on his entry – made light contact with Saito at the end of the initiation zone. The contact was enough to give the nod to Saito.
It took only three events for Saito to win his first Formula Drift event. Saito, who is also the current leader in D1GP championship, now sits second in the Formula D championship.
Justin Pawlak remains your championship points leader at 280 points to Saito’s 259.5. However, it is a massive jump back to third place Dai Yoshihara at 197 points – meaning that with only four of seven events left, this may already be a two-person championship battle.
