Even as I write this night practice is still going on under the lights at Irwindale Speedway, but we figured we should put post an update from the first day of the FD season finale. With one of the biggest driver entry lists of the year, qualifying was made all the more difficult as veterans, privateers, and newcomers alike fought for a spot in tomorrow's Top 32 competition.
It's hard to believe that it was pouring rain just a couple of days ago in Southern California. Temperatures were around 95 degrees during the driver's meeting this afternoon! That's more like Las Vegas in the summer than SoCal in the fall. Luckily it started to cool off a bit as the afternoon turned into evening.
Not only does Irwindale attract lots of drivers, it attracts lots of media people as well. The photo pits were packed full of photographers, and they should be even more crowded tomorrow.
Before moving on to the day's action, we have to post a photo of Sam Hubinette's new livery. The car has been fully redone as a tribute to NuFormz Racing owner Shaun Carlson, who sadly passed away earlier this month.
Dealing with a loss like this is never easy, but we were happy to see Sam and his team out there running as hard as ever.
The Speedhunters audience should be satisfied with the stance of Dean Kearney's S14. Regrettably Dean missed making the Top 32 by just two spots.
Alright, Dean's car might be low. But it's not quite Matt Powers low. The members of Matt's fan club should be happy to know that he qualified 20th with a 66.5 point run.
Fredric Aasbo performed remarkably well considering he's never drifted at Irwindale before. His 62.2-point run was more than enough to get him into the big show tomorrow.
Those who experienced bad luck today included Michihiro Takatori, who's freshly painted S13 suffered from an engine fire, and FD Sonoma winner Stephan Verdier also failed to qualify following a damaging crash during practice.
Samuel Hubinette would have made Shaun proud tonight, breaking into the Top 10 with a 80.1 qualifying run.
Season points leader Chris Forsberg turned in a 80.8-point run which earned him seventh overall. So far, so good for Team Forsberg.
And now for your top five qualifiers, starting with Kyle Mohan who turned an impressive 84.6 point run with his RX8.
Tommy Suell was driving like a maniac in his AE86 today, and I mean that in the best way possible. His 86.1-point run was good for fourth overall.
Tanner Foust was again the smoke king on his way to a third place run of 87.5 points.
Ryan Tuerck and the Gardella Racing team are looking to finish off an incredible season with a strong finish at Irwindale. A second place 88.5-point run could help them do just that.
Although there were some great runs today, nobody could come close to touching Justin Pawlak. JTP was absolutely on fire, taking the top spot with a mind-blowing 96.8-point run. It's been years since I've seen someone run like that at Irwindale.
Here's the complete Unofficial Top 32 results list from Formula Drift.
1 J. Pawlak 13 96.8 2 R. Tuerck 44 88.5 3 T. Foust 1 87.5 4 T. Suell 777 86.1 5 K. Mohan 99 84.6 6 D. Yoshihara 9 81.8 7 C. Forsberg 64 80.8 8 J. Maeng 51 80.6 9 S. Hubinette 77 80.1 10 R. Nishida 31 78.3 11 D. McNamara 8 77.6 12 V. Gittin 25 76.3 13 E. O’Sullivan 35 74.9 14 M. Essa 101 73.9 15 K. Gushi 5 73.7 16 T. McQuarrie 17 73.4 17 R. Millen 6 71.5 18 T. Aono 86 68.3 19 K. Hayashida 33 66.7 20 M. Powers 11 66.5 21 A. Pfeiffer 88 65.1 22 K. Yamanaka 7 64.2 23 K. Ueo 15 63.3 24 F. Aasbo 21 62.2 25 C. Parkhouse 562 60.1 26 D. VanDenBrink 19 59.6 27 R. Petty 808 59.1 28 J. LeJeune 333 57.6 29 Y. Kondo 52 57.3 30 T. Brakohiapa 18 55.4 31 M. Waldin 24 54.6 32 C. Wan 354
We'll be back soon with more from the House of Drift!
-Mike Garrett