Formula Drift Round 6 – Las Vegas Motor Speedway
By Justin Banner
I keep saying it, but this season in the Formula Drift Pro Championship has been one to remember. The new judge, changes in the venues, weather, points, there are so many things you can look towards and there are talking points. With this being the second-to-last round in the Formula Drift Championship for 2012, there were a lot of things going down. Vegas Drift had their season ending round here and awarded their top drivers Formula Drift Pro Licenses, heat was causing issues for cars and drivers, a wild weather change just before Top 32, and more unexpected things that happened on track. It was a wild, Vegas weekend for everyone!
One of the two big hits of the weekend first occurred on Thursday with Aurimas Bakchis. A huge hit totalled the M7 Japan Nissan 240SX. So, at first he was going to use Garret Nikolich's M7 Drive Energy Drink Nissan 240SX, however, during open practice he could not get the 1JZGTE powered Nissan to his liking. |
So, instead he went back to an engine and chassis he was comfortable with, the V8 powered DMA Performance S14 of Tony Cisneros. The change worked as Odi was able to qualify 30th with little practice time in the car and on the track. |
However, that wasn't the only big crash of the weekend. In Vegas Drift ProAm, Jim Guthrie took this hard hit into the tire barriers just after the first front clipping point. The impact with the tire barrier caused his Boss 302 Mustang to flip over and land on its roof. |
The Mustang was set back onto its wheels in spectacular fashion as well. It took over 30 minutes to clean up as they also had to reset the wall. Jim got out of the car under his own power and was OK. |