As if it wasn’t tough enough for drivers and teams that the final round at Irwindale has always been a no holds barred pressure cooker (unforgiving concrete barriers and massive championship implications) this year’s points chase for the top spot came down to the last lap of a two one-more-time battle between “The Norwegian Hammer” Fredric Aasbo and “The Professional Fun Haver” Vaughn Gittin Jr. Continue reading
Las Vegas, NV – During SEMA the front lot of the Convention Center turns into a high octane alley of automotive shenanigans.
The ponies of the Formula DRIFT Mustang duo were turnin’ and burnin’ on the tandems as Vaughn Gittin Jr. and Chelsea DeNofa not only gave vicious rides but put in plenty of low speed tandem practice. Continue reading
Las Vegas, NV – They came from all corners of the U.S. sporting body panels of all shapes and sizes (some being powered by rotaries and others by pistons) to represent the RX-7 community in full force at the 2017 SEMA Show.
Whether built for show, drift, or street like the 1,100 HP twin-turbo LS FC of Will Tetro, the RX-7s came into SEMA like a wrecking ball. Continue reading
words Carlos Cano Estrella
photos eDRIFT staff photographers
Good evening drift fans, well, it’s very much out of Frederic Aasbo’s hands at this point. We would have had to see James Deane’s car in a similar situation to this (in other words broken) during qualifying. He currently sits 96 points ahead of Aasbo at 582. With a score of 94 in today’s qualifying session “The Machine” secures, not only a bye run for tomorrow’s main event, the 2017 Formula DRIFT championship!
Aasbo currently sits on 486 points and is fighting to stave off the hungry drivers who currently sit underneath him in the standings.
photos Paul Lopez @toxic_images /toxic.images
words Carlos Cano Estrella @ccedrift /ccedrift
Long Beach, CA – After the dust had settled at Long Beach there were a lot of things to discuss. Hopefully by now the interwebs should have ceased being a shrine to James Deane, who is a very strong driver and a gentleman (interview coming soon), but who showed up to Long Beach with plenty of data and setup notes as he had driven an S15 to a very solid showing back in 2010. And trust me, I was there helping my AE86 bros Keith Wong and John Russakoff and just based on that event I never forgot Deane or his aggressive driving style.
It was cool lemonade on a hot summer day refreshing to see other than usual faces on the podium. Deane came from Ireland with sledgehammers for chase runs. However, his lovetap of three-time champion Chris Forsberg went very unnoticed by our esteemed judges and commentators. With that out of the way; the Peruvian Alex Heilbrunn is coming onto his own and the continued relationship with Rick Lamber Jr. from RTS (my pick for crew member of the year, and not just because I sat next to him in qualifying) will only yield greater results in the near future (this was written before Super Drift).
photos Paul Lopez @toxic_images /toxic.images
words Carlos Cano Estrella @ccedrift /ccedrift
Long Beach, CA – The variable track surface forced drivers to evolve or evaporate as conditions switched from wet to dry throughout the weekend. This made for an amazing event as Chelsea DeNofa and his E46 surged to the top of the podium.