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| “Bro-stangs before…” Yeah, not going to work as JTP wins against JR! |
Next up were the “Bro-stangs” of Justin Pawlak and Vaughn Gittin, Jr. in the Drift Alliance battle for Wall Speedway. JTP needed the win to keep his championship chances going while JR needed the win to keep moving up in the points for the Epic Comeback. Could it happen? Could JR keep his momentum up for 2011? After the first battle of the Falken Teammates, both Mustangs had begun to overheat as both of their dashes indicated an engine temperature problem. 5-minutes were called by both drivers and they drove around the track to get air to flow through the radiators in the rear of the cars, much to the surprise of the starting officials and many of the fans who didn’t know what was going on. Once both cars were ready, their second run began with JTP leading, but despite Vaughn’s best efforts, JTP earned the win! The Final Battle of the Great 8 was Dai Yoshihara in the Discount Tire 240SX against the NOS Energy Drink 370Z of Chris Forsberg. As Dai led, Forsberg attempted to drift the bank but got sucked into the wall! Despite the heavy damage, Forsberg called and was given 5 minutes to fix his car. Forsberg came back within the time limit and with a vengeance but it wouldn’t be enough and Dai got the win!
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| Lessons of Sonoma were well learned by Forsberg, but he couldn’t make up for the wreck as Dai stayed consistent! |
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| That was a very hard impact on the Red Bull Camaro! The wheel hub and spindle flew off! |
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| Look at the carnage! It ripped the bearings out of the hub assembly! What a grumpy old track. |
The first match of the Final Four was Conrad Grunewald and his Hankook Camaro going up against the Red Bull/Gardella Racing Camaro of Ryan Tuerck. However, the weekend was proving to be Grunewald’s as Ryan Tuerck hit the wall with enough damage that he could not continue! Conrad Grunewald and his Hankook Tires Camaro was going to be in the Finals! His second since the Formula Drift Houston event! Then, the battle for the 2011 Formula Drift Championship was the last Final Four battle with Falken Teammates Dai Yoshihara and his Discount Tires S13 and Justin Pawlak in his Falken Tires Mustang. The fate of the championship was directly in the hands of each driver, as whoever left with the win would possibly get the best chance for the 2011 Formula Drift championship.
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| The match that could determine the 2011 championship went to Justin “Universal White Guy” Pawlak. |
Dai was already in second place with D-Mac knocked out much earlier and JTP had a large lead going in, but with Dai doing his best to stay consistent, that lead was cut. Either way, third place was given since Ryan Tuerck would fail to show because of the damage received to his car after hitting the wall. With Dai leading first, JTP was able to keep the gap very narrow and held the advantage. With JTP now leading, his coolant light had come on just like Vaughn’s, but JTP stood with it and took on the Discount Tire car! Into the bank. Unknown to the crowd, Dai’s car’s engine was also failing, with a marginal head gasket cuaing the cooling system to fill with exhaust gas and overheat. JTP held a close line against the wall and put on a gap against Dai, but Dai was able to pull back a small amount by the inner oval. Going over the whoops, JTP greatly increased his lead and pulled further away and with that, the Judges awarded the win to Justin Pawlak, meaning Dai had third place locked up with a bye-run.
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| This image should show the sheer speed of the 410 Cubic Inch Roush-Yates engine. Dai’s car is not slow by any means, but it’s hard to beat 410 Cubic Inches of Aluminum Horsepower! |
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| However, with Ryan broke, Dai did secure the final podium thereby bringing him back into contention for the 2011 Championship. After the bye run, Dai’s wounded engine expired. |
