Formula Drift Round 4: Wall Speedway

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TOP 8 BATTLES:

Gushi loses drift halfway through the bank on his lead run and has a few more points deducted when he slips back onto the bank on the second outside zone. On Tuerck’s lead run, Gushi gives a love tap to Tuerck’s bumper transitioning out of the first switchback and again twice in the last outside zone sending Tuerck to the top 4 battles.

 

Wang and Kearney look good through Wang’s lead run but Wang taps Kearney on his chase run and is ruled to be at fault giving Kearney the win.

Denofa takes an uncharacteristically low line on the bank chasing the Norwegian Hammer but has to make multiple corrections to try to close proximity. Denofa’s lead run shows an aggressive angle and better line but Aasbo manages to get a little closer but never quite closes the gap.  In the end, Denofa’s mistakes on the first run give Aasbo the unanimous decision.

Yokoi and Bakchis battled in the Top 16 Orlando round ending with Bakchis spinning.  Bakchis drives a great lead run despite Yokoi striking Bakchis with his front bumper.  Yokoi’s lead run is pretty clean even as he towed his front bumper around the track.  The judges are split- one vote for each driver and one for OMT. Yokoi and Bakchis return almost identical runs with good proximity but Yokoi’s smoother style grants him the win.

 

TOP 4 BATTLES:

Because the track was now pretty drenched, both drivers were given a few minutes to test conditions and traction. The rain has reduced speeds to about half of the qualifying runs and the slipping and sliding looks more like ice skating than drifting.  On Aasbo’s lead run, both drivers make a small correction but their runs are clean.  Same on the second run but because Aasbo’s chase run maintained closer proximity, he advances to the finals to face…

Tuerck and Kearney’s first run looked like a game of leap frog with Tuerck developing a gap that Kearney would dive bomb to close, but it was Tuerck’s spin in the second run that gave Kearney the unanimous win to go up against Aasbo.

Once again, both drivers are allowed a practice run; it’s like drifting in slo-mo.  Aasbo and Kearney both return smooth runs but Aasbo is able to use up more space in the outside zones and slightly better proximity.  Aasbo becomes the winner of FD Round 4.

As Aasbo was declared the winner, the drift gods unleashed a thunderous applause from above and uncorked a giant bottle of prohibition style “champagne” from the heavens producing a stampede of fans running to their cars.  What a way to end it!

Below are the FD Round 4 results:

Repeat appearances on the podium are shaping up this year's FD race to be a close one! Standings after four rounds:

Scion is absolutely dominating the Manufacturers Championship with 644.0 points.  Nissan (331.0) and Ford (290.0) are trailing considerably.  Hankook is comfortably on top of the Tire Championship with 610.0 points, followed by Nitto (432.0) and Achilles (390.0).  

The next round takes place July 11-12 at Fuji Speedway in Fuji, Japan as part of the World Championship.  The unofficial drivers list currently shows a handful of US competitors entering (Charles Ng, Daigo Saito, Dean Kearney, Robbie Nishida, Masashi Yokoi, Matt Field, Fredric Aasbo, and Aurimas Bakchis) and is sure to be exciting.  Check out the FD Live webcasts for all the action.