Team Mopar®’s Hübinette Exits in Top 16 at Road Atlanta
Braselton, Ga. (May 9, 2009) – Mopar® NuFormz Dodge Viper SRT10® Formula Drift (FD) driver Samuel Hübinette suffered an earlier-than-desired exit today in the Round Two: Proving Ground FD event at Road Atlanta in Braselton, Ga. Hübinette earned one round win before losing to eventual event winner Chris Forsberg in the Top 16 round of tandem eliminations.
Hübinette qualified his Mopar-powered Dodge Viper No. 5 on Friday, then dispatched of rookie Jeff Jones in the first round of eliminations on Saturday. The “Crazy Swede’s” second-round battle with Forsberg was a fierce one. The judges saw things even after the first two runs, calling for a One More Time (OMT) battle. Hübinette was on fire in the first OMT, closely shadowing Forsberg and posting one of the highest entry speeds (87.8 mph) of the event.
However, the judges once again deemed the match to close to call, asking for a second and final OMT. During the second OMT Hübinette remained glued to Forsberg’s tail and made contact. The judges advanced Forsberg, handing Hübinette a rare Top 16 loss.
“It was overall a great weekend,” summed up Hübinette, who competes on BFGoodrich Tires. “We ran into several one more times with Forsberg. We felt we really came out strong there and we thought we had him, but the judges called for another One More Time.
“The Mopar Dodge Viper has been running solid. We have had no problems whatsoever, which says a lot about our Mopar-powered engine. We had the right set up to get good usage out of our BFGoodrich KDWs, and we did. We had one of the fastest initiation speeds of anybody this weekend. We’re just going to move on and prepare for New Jersey and regroup. I believe in the NuFormz Racing team and I believe in myself as a driver, and I’m very, very proud to represent sponsors like Mopar and BFG.”
Next up is the Round Three: The Gauntlet event at Wall Speedway in Wall, N.J., June 5–6. For more info on the Formula Drift Series, visit www.formulad.com.