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First up to Top 16 were Team Need for Speed teammates Matt Powers and Fredric Aasbo. With Powers leading first, he was able to gain the advantage of better lines and closer zones and clipping points over Fredric. When Fredric led, he came in aggressive and slowed down, which forced Matt to slow to keep from hitting Aasbo. The mistakes in his follow run were enough to give enough advantage to Matt, who was now in the Great 8!
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| Need for Speed Battle, Matt Powers wins over Fredric Aasbo |
Next was Conrad Grunewald and Ken Gushi for their battle to move on to the Great 8. The horsepower of the Hankook Tire Camaro showed itself as Conrad was able to pull a gap against Gushi, but the tC’s light weight allowed him to keep up on the clipping points. On Gushi’s lead run, Conrad had started to and finally did pass Gushi while drifting, but the win was given to Gushi because even though Gushi was very slow, Conrad had a wheel off in an area where if you went off there on a normal track, you’d be going into a wall.
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| A great battle with a dissapointing end, Conrad Grunewald defeated by Ken Gushi! |
Chris Forsberg faced up against his Drift Alliance brother Ryan Tuerck. Both cars put on a great first lead/follow run with Forsberg leading, but on the second run Forsberg had to straighten out to avoid a slower, but incredible angle of Tuerck and gave him the win. Next was Falken Tire teammates of Vaughn Gittin, Jr. and Darren McNamara. Vaughn had a great second clipping zone, nearly touching the wall and coming through the Front Clipping points with great lines. However, on his second run in which he was following, it appeared that he missed a shift and shut down at the second front clipping point. This costly mistake gave D-Mac the win!
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| You need to not defeat yourself, as Vaughn demonstrated how to lose a battle by making a huge mistake! |
Next was Pat Mordaunt facing the incredibly strong Rhys Millen for entry into the Great 8. While both drivers were able to mimic each other, the lead Millen was able to pull on Mordaunt during his lead run and the fact he stayed right on Pat’s bumper on his follow run gave him the advantage. Pat still made a good show and still shows great potential as well. The big hit of the night came with the One More Time Run of Kyle Mohan and Mike Essa. With their first runs not going one way or the other, they had to go one more time and Mohan felt like he had to push! Push he did with the fastest entry speed going at 103 MPH! Then, it happened, the car continued to push into the wall slammed into the tire barrier sending the car up on two wheels. When it did stop and after a minute of intensity, Kyle Mohan raised his hand out the car window and showed the crowd that he was OK. Later, Mohan went on with Jarod Deanda and said that he had a brake failure, which is why the car never really slowed like he needed. The unfortunate crash allowed Mike Essa to move on to the Great 8.
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| Kyle Mohan was cleared by a local hospital after this huge impact with the wall! |
Odi Bakchis and Justin Pawlak went on to face each other, with Rookie of the Year points on the line for Odi and Championship points on the line for JTP. However, being in the “Rental Car” proved to be his undoing and JTP was defeated by Odi. Next was the battle of Daijiro Yoshihara and Toshiki Yoshioka, where if Dai could move on, it would mean that he would come out with a huge points lead since JTP was knocked out in the Top 16 round. However, in order to do that, he would need to take out Yoshioka right away. That didn’t happen as both drivers were judged too close to call and forced a One More Time. Dai pushed too hard on his follow run and had gotten a tire off course which resulted in Yoshioka getting the win and placed into the Great 8.
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| Yoshioka surpasses Yoshihara in the Top 16! |
