Formula Drift: The Road to the Championship – Round 2 Road Atlanta

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 Formula Drift: The Road to the Championship- Round 2 Road Atlanta
Kenneth Moen is another Formula D newcomer.  If the 350Z looks familiar, it’s because it’s the same car Tanner used to drive.  Kenneth was taken out of the top 32 with engine problems.

The next battle started with a surprising and controversial run with Nexen Tires Mazda RX-8 driver Kyle Mohan, and Gardella Racing Pontiac Solstice driver, Eric O’Sullivan.  On the first run, Mohan’s leading RX-8 popped a radiator hose and coolant began to spew out on the entry into turn 10a, causing EOS to collide Mohan because he had no control of his car due to the fluid put down by Mohan. This pushed both of them into the sand pit, with EOS’ car broken baldly enough to have to be flatbedded to the Gardella racing pits.  The impact was hard enough to bend Mohan’s roll cage.

 Formula Drift: The Road to the Championship- Round 2 Road Atlanta
Aurimas “Odi” Bakchis is another one of the new faces that have appeared this year.  His V8 powered S14 shows a lot of promise.

Normally, when the following car loses control and hits the lead car, this would give the win to Leader, who was Mohan. Mohan, who was able to drive out of the pit, thought that this was the case as well, but upon review, it was judged that Mohan was technically at fault because his car began to water down the track, causing O’Sullivan to hit Mohan. This also allowed EOS more time to fix his car, because of the at-fault accident rule that was instituted after Chris Forsberg’s incident against Calvin Wan at Infinion in 2009.

 Formula Drift: The Road to the Championship- Round 2 Road Atlanta
Jim Guthrie’s Mazda RX-7 looks awesome but is irregular and failed to qualify yet again after a poor showing at Long Beach.

If you don’t remember, Chris was forced to make a dangerous and controversial 5 minute repair to his car, as it broke the upper control arm and the only way to get the car to the line was to hold the broken pieces together with ratchet straps. This made the passenger side front wheel flop around and could have potentially ripped off of the car and fling into Wan or even the fans.  For some reason FD officials allowed the car to continue to compete.  The rule was created later, probably due to the negative publicity the decision created.

 Formula Drift: The Road to the Championship- Round 2 Road Atlanta
Jeff Jones S13 powered by a 2JZ made the top 32 before getting eliminated by Dai Yoshihara.  During night practice his car trailed sparks instead of tire smoke as his tires were worn to the steel belts run after run.

Back to the action, after the incident was ruled in O’Sullivan’s favor and he was allowed to repair the car, the second part of the battle with O’Sullivan leading Mohan was run. Needing to overcome the deduction of causing the incident, Mohan required a strong run to move on. Try as he might, though, Mohan just didn’t have enough and O’Sullivan pulled away from him from the entry to the horseshoe onwards. O’Sullivan was now in the Top 16.

 Formula Drift: The Road to the Championship- Round 2 Road Atlanta
Toshiki Yoshioka was fast in his supercharged LS powered S13.  He made is way all the way to the final 4 without hardly driving at all due to a series of unusual events.

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