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| Matt Fields was looking strong until John Russakoff took him out in the top 16. |
Justin Pawlak and Ryan Tuerck had a very close tandem on Ryan’s Lead run. JTP would have his front tire from a foot to mere inches from Ryan’s door. A mistake by Ryan could have had JTP’s wheel in Tuerck’s lap. On JTP’s lead run, Tuerck hit Pawlak and nearly caused Pawlak to spin, but Pawlak kept control and continued his run! An amazing display of driving skill on JTP’s part! As Tuerck slowed to prevent more damage, JTP took advantage and created a huge gap that Tuerck was never able to reel in. With the mistake by Tuerck and the gap created, JTP went on to the Great 8!
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| Pat Mordant took Mike Essa out in the Top 32. Pat always seems to do well here. |
Matt Powers and Darren McNamaras’ tandem was very close as well! While Powers was leading, he straightened out going up hill to the horseshoe, giving McNamara an edge. As they began their run towards the finish, Darren closed the gap and had the run won. On McNamara’s lead run, Matt Powers hit the door of the Solstice, causing it to come loose and flop about. When the Judges’ decision came, the correction on Power’s lead run was too much to overcome and hitting the door didn’t help. McNamara was in the Great 8.
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| Even though he made a big mistake in his follow run against EOS, Chris Forsberg went on to advance to the great 8. |
The final run for the Top 16 was Pat Mordaunt and Ken Gushi. Just after the opening ceremonies, Gushi broke a rear end. All Pat had to do was drive around the course. As he began to drift turn 10a, an oil line broke and caused him to straighten out and fly off course at high speed. The oil then hit the turbo and caught Mordaunt’s car on fire. Upon coming to a stop, the emergency crews got to him and put out the fire. Pat got out of the car under his own power, but was obviously dejected. Pat was considered the winner of the round, despite the oil fire. If he couldn’t fix the car, it would be a bye-run for Yoshioka. With Top 16 done, it was time for the Great 8, with Yoshihara, Gittin, Mordaunt, Russakoff, Forsberg, McNamara, Yoshioka, and Pawlak making it in.
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| Fredric Aasbo ambushed the speedy Dai Yoshihara in the top 16 eliminations by suddenly being really fast. Dai was taken by surprise and the battle probably would have went to a one more time except that Aasbo put two wheels off in the dirt and lost a lot of points. |
Up first was the Corolla of Russakoff and the 370Z of Forsberg. Even though it was down on power compared to the V8 powered 370Z, Forsberg could not increase the gap between he and Russakoff. This little AE86 was showing the might of light weight and good driving. Switching places, Russakoff now lead Forsberg, John made his drift and Forsberg came in too hot! He was either trying to avoid a collision for the second time in a row in his chase run or the track was still slick from Pat’s oil down. Russakoff was on his proper line, Forsberg was also on his proper line, the spin was unavoidable. In doing so, it gave the win to Russakoff and potentially the first podium for Nexen tire!
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| Matt Powers was taken out by DMac in their top 16 battle. |
