After a good weekend at Infineon Raceway I’m still in 4th place for the finale at Irwindale Speedway, October 15-16th.
Drivers 2-5 is in a range of 18 points so Irwindale is going to be a really interesting final.

Here are some pictures from Sonoma!

This is the Championship Point Standing with 1 event to go, the season finale “House of Drift” at Toyota Speedway at Irwindale on October 15-16 for Round 7: Judgment Day
It’s going to be a tight battle for the Championship Points!

1. Forsberg, Chris NOS Energy Drink / Maxxis Nissan 350Z 470 Points
2. Tuerck, Ryan Gardella Racing / Mobil 1Pontiac Solstice 414 Points
3. Gittin, Vaughn Falken Tire Ford Racing Mustang GT 401.50 Points
4. Hubinette, Samuel NuFormz Dodge Viper 399.25 Points
5. McQuarrie, Tyler Falken Nissan 350Z 396 Points
6. Foust, Tanner Rockstar / Hankook Scion Racing tC 373 Points
7. McNamara, Darren Falken / Sears Auto Center Saturn Sky 370.50 Points
8. Verdier, Stephan Cooper Tire / Crawford Performance Subaru STI 364 Points
9. Nishida, Robbie Hankook Tires / Dynamic Autosports Nissan 350Z 362.25 Points
10. Pawlak, Justin Bergenholtz Racing / Nitto Mazda RX-8 354 Points
11. Miki, Ryuji APEXi / Hankook Mazda RX-7 341.75 Points
12. Gushi, Ken RS*R Scion Racing TC 333.50 Points
13. Brakohiapa, Tony Cooper Tire Ford Mustang 331 Points
14. Petty, Ross Garage Boso / Falken Nissan S15 329 Points
15. Aono, Taka Technosquare Toyota AE86 Corolla 321.25 Points
16. Mordaunt, Patrick PM Racing Nissan S13 317.25 Points

This was one of thoose weekends when things did not work out great but in the end it turned out pretty good.
After having issues with the front wheels touching the control arm I qualified 26. So that was not a great start for the weekend. But it turned out to be a good thing because I got to run against Ryan Tuerck 2nd in points and managed to move on. So that gave me a boost to be able to catch up for the 2nd and 3rd spot for the final.
I went up against Kondo in Top 16 and after a “one more time” I moved on to Top 8.
In Top 8 I had to battle Ruji Miki. Great driver and his car was so much quicker on this course and he ran good the whole weekend. We had a good battle, but Ruji moved on. There is still a chance to bring home the championship but that’s a long stretch.
I had great support from all of the fans and also the Northern California Viper club. They came out with a bunch of sick vipers so that was cool.
We are still fourth in the over all standings and look forward to Irwindale!

Samuel

Today has been a great day! After yesterdays qualifying at 26th place I felt like it was a “Do or Die” situation. I was matched up against Ryan Tuerck, a very talented driver. Both of us still in chase for the Championship.
After 2 great runs we manage to move on to Top 16. Car ran great and the team did an awesome job and now we are ready for tomorrow!!
Drift Ya Later!!

Now we are up at Infineon Raceway in Sonoma for Formula Drift round 6. Practice went well today in the Nuformz/BFGoodrich Viper. But we had some problem with uneven tire wear. So we did some changes for that before Qualification. Due to tempature difference of the track and the change of settings, the car became very tuff to handle. My first qualifaction run the Viper had to much rear traction from the BFG’s so it was fighting the drift. On the second run my front wheels touched the control arm and looked the front wheels so I spun.
I qualified 26th, my worst qualification ever. But Hey it happens.
Top 32 is tomorrow and we are matched up against Ryan Tuerck. He is a good guy so it should be a good battle!

I was on fire this weekend. The Nuformz/BFGoodrich Viper ran flawless and I had a lot of fun. Evergreen Speedway is definitely one of my favorite track on the FormulaD circuits.
I qualified 3rd on Friday and that put me up against my Team mate for this event, Pat Mourdant. Pat is a great young driver and he has his future before him.
I took of a little bit when leading him and I was close when following him. I moved on to Top 16. Props to Pat though for running so hard with that car!
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Today was a good day in the Nuformz/BFGoodrich Viper. I had a good practice in the morning and we did some changes to the Viper. After 2 good runs I qualified 3rd overall and i feel ready for the competition tomorrow!
Drift Ya Later!

1. Ryan Tuerck 80.3
2. Ross Petty 79.3
3. Sam Hubinette 77.7
4. Justin Pawlak 77.3
5. Daijiro Yoshihara 74.6
6. Tyler McQuarrie 74.6
7. Chris Forsberg 73
8. Tanner Foust 73
9. Vaughn Gittin Jr. 71.4
10. Darren McNamara 70.8
11. Taka Aono 70.8
12. Tony Brakohiapa 69
13. Eric O’Sullivan 68.1
14. Ken Gushi 67.9
15. Stephan Verdier 67.4
16. Robbie Nishida 67.1
17. Joon Maeng 66.8
18. Michihiro Takatori 63.6
19. Rhys Millen 63.5
20. Kenji Yaminaka 59.4
21. Kyle Mohan 58.7
22. Yasuomi Kondo 57.4
23. Michael Essa 55.6
24. Alex Pfeiffer 53.5
25. Tommy Suell 50.9
26. Calvin Wan 50.6
27. Ron Ewerth 43
28. Ryuji Miki 42
29. Jodin LeJeune 34
30. Patrick Mordaunt 20