NAVIGATION
Archive for the ‘Drift’ Category
What will be of Formula D in 2013 – Rhys Millen
Rhys Millen had a slow start to the 2012 season but with experience, aggression and consistency in his corner mounted a late season comeback to take 3rd place in the overall points game. In addition Rhys also drove his same Formula D Hyundai Genesis to set a Pikes Peak hill climb record. However in what may have been some of the biggest Motorsports news this season was when Hyundai announced that they were pulling out from North America Motorsports leaving Rhys without a 2013 title sponsor for Formula D and Rally. After this news Rhys did put his 2 Rallycross cars up for sale, but not his FD Genesis. Now I’ve been doing my best to keep up with Rhys and see if there is any news on his 2013 season but all that has been said is the Grandfather of drift still feels he has some fight in him, which the 2012 season shows. Now Hyundai has announced they will return to Pikes Peak but no mention of Formula D at all. I personally thought that an OEM would reach out and try to pick up Rhys being such a big name and successful driver and with the new BRZ and Viper coming out I thought we may see one of them picking him up but no news in the least. The only thing I can think of is to see Red Bull making a larger push into FD and handling Rhys’ title sponsorship. The only sure thing is that in about 3 months we will see Rhys drifting one way or another.
Ryan Tuerck GoPro Burnout Response for this week
Ryan does these bi-weekly between the bi-weekly episodes of Tuerck’d, it helps fill in the two week spans and shows he is actually listening to fans
Matt Powers Ditching LS7 for 2013 Season
Matt Powers just posted a photo on Facebook of a naked engine bay in his S14 saying “This thing ripped and served me well, but was starting to get in the way of victory!”
He continued in the comments by confirming he is keeping the chassis and ditching the engine. So what next? SR20DET? Or are they going to go extreme like the BenSopra 380SX that was just shown at TAS? VQ38 S14 drifting would be an interesting thing to see. Looks like we all will have to wait and find out.
Update 1-18-2013 – Later in the night Matt posted in the comments that he is going to just put in another LS but “a more built one” so it looks like any interesting combos is out of the idea for his s14.
What will be of Formula D in 2013 – Vaughn Gittin Jr.
Entering the 2012 season many were unsure of what Vaughn Gittin would be able to do, after winning the 2010 Formula D championship his 2011 follow up season ended with a lackluster 11th place. His first race in 2012 Vaughn showed up with his new Falken Tires & Monster Energy 2013 Ford RTR Mustang with some stunning livery and he looked like he was ready to take another run at the title. He qualified 3rd at round 1 but then amazingly gifted Odi Bakchis a win in his first match and fell out in the top 32. Vaughn Gittin Fans were not quite sure what to expect when he had a similar performance at Road Atlanta and was knocked out in the top 16. Round 3 was slightly better qualifying first, but falling out in the top 8th. But then come round 4 and 5 it seemed like the old JR was back with a new hunger taking back to back wins and putting him in the running for the championship. Vaughn placed 3rd in Vegas and was in 1st place in overall points entering Irwindale. It seemed like Vaughn had worked everything out in his RTR and wanted that 2nd Formula D Championship badly. Then in the top 8 after a pretty conservative run he unexpectedly spun out while chasing Patrick Mordaunt. All Vaughn could do was sit back and watch where he stood when all the smoke settled. In the end of 2012 Gittin finished in a very respectful 2nd place in overall points.
Now looking forward to the 2013 season with word that ASD & Falken tires were going to be splitting ways it was no surprise, at least in my opinion, when Vaughn Gittin Jr announced that in 2013 he would be partnering with Nitto Tires. With this news, the fact that Ford is now an official partner and Vaughn growing his RTR brand with them there really isn’t much to wonder about how Vaughn looks going into the 2013 season, the only things we have to look forward to is an obvious new livery now that the famous Falken scallops will not be gracing the car and how the new Nitto tires will effect his performance. Will the Nittos be enough to give JR that little bit extra to take his 2nd Formula D championship? Looks like we’ll have to wait and see.