Well I'm dead tired and covered in rubber bits, so that must mean that another season of Formula Drift has started.
Today was practice and qualifying in Long Beach, and I figured I'd make a quick post highlighting some of the action before tomorrow's main event.
With over 50 cars battling for a spot, qualifying would be a long, though process – with nobody guaranteed a pass to the Top 32.
So how did qualifying go?
Taking the top spot was Rhys Millen, who seems ready to put his Genesis Coupe into contention this year. Rhys' 89-point run would be the day's best.
And finishing just behind Rhys is a string of ASD-built Falken machines, starting with Tyler McQuarrie who rocked faces with an 88.3-point run.
It's been a good event so far for Vaughn Gittin Jr. and his new Monster Mustang. JR took third with an 84.7-point run.
Next up was Darren McNamara, driving his Saturn Sky to fourth place with an 83.9.
Tanner Foust seems to be right back on the path to success in 2010. He put down an 83.8, good for fifth overall.
Last year's Long Beach winner, Ryan Tuerck took sixth with his 81.2-point run.
Fredric Aasbo smoked his way to 7th place with an 80.9. Very impressive considering he'd never ran at Long Beach prior to today.
Sam Hubinette already seems quite comfy with his new wheels. He drove the big Challenger to eighth with an 80.7.
Speaking of new wheels, Justin Pawlak battled back from some mechanical issues with his Brostang to take 9th place with a 79.3.
And rounding out the top ten qualifiers is Chris Forsberg, who began his title defense with a 79.1-point run.
As for Team NFS, Matt Powers got into the big show taking 25th position.
While Mad Mike on the other hand just missed, qualifying 33rd. Bummer.
It wasn't the best debut for Michael Essa's BMW. He hit the wall hard during practice, got the car running again, but was unable to turn in a passing qualifying run.
Jeff Abbott managed to get his little NB Roadster on the grid for tomorrow, taking 27th spot. Nice one!
Tommy Roberts had some awesome runs during practice, but was unable to repeat in qualifying. Still one of the coolest looking cars out there.
Ian Fournier didn't quite make the cut either, but damn his R32 sedan looked mean out there.
Conrad Grunewald's Camaro has got to be one of my favorite new cars this year. Conrad qualified 18th, putting him in a good spot for tomorrow's tandem action.
I'll leave you with this shot of Ross Petty, who qualified 22nd.
And the complete results from Formula Drift -
Driver: Car #: Score: Speed 1: Speed 2:
1 R. Millen 6 89 61.8 50.6
2 T. McQuarrie 17 88.3 58.9 51
3 V. Gittin 25 84.7 58.4 43
4 D. McNamara 8 83.9 56.4 50
5 T. Foust 34 83.8 57.4 48
6 R. Tuerck 44 81.2 58.8 50
7 F. Aasbo 151 80.9 57.3 48.5
8 S. Hubinette 77 80.7 56.9 48
9 J. Pawlak 13 79.3 56.8 50
10 C. Forsberg 64 79.1 55.9 50
11 R. Miki 26 78.2 58.8 51
12 D. Yoshihara 9 78 58.6 49
13 K. Gushi 33 77.5 56.5 50
14 T. Aono 86 76.3 57.7 47
15 P. Mordaunt 90 75.3 54 49
16 A. Pfeiffer 88 74.5 59.9 48.9
17 S. Verdier 12 74.1 57.3 49
18 C. Grunewald 79 73.6 58.2 49
19 T. Brakohiapa 18 72.1 57.5 47
20 J. Deane 16 71.9 56.3 48.7
21 J. Russakoff 87 71.2 56.2 51
22 R. Petty 808 70.6 58.9 49
23 K. Mohan 99 70.4 54.6 47
24 F. Wang 30 69.3 54.6 49.7
25 M. Powers 665 68.8 56.5 47.7
26 D. Kearney 43 66.9 57.2 47
27 J. Abbott 518 66.8 53.4 51
28 J. Maeng 51 64 55.1 50
29 C. Ng 84 63.9 56.4 48.7
30 D. Mertzanis 323 63.5 57.2 50
31 M. Takatori 5 63.2 54.4 50
32 J. LeJeune 333 60.3 55.7 49.7
OK time for a shower and some dinner. Much, much much more to come from the streets of Long Beach.
-Mike Garrett