Formula Drift Round 7 - Irwindale Speedway

Justin Banner posted on October 15, 2012 21:13

Speaking of fast cars, the Falken Tire Ford Mustang of Justin "JTP" Pawlak showed everyone in qualifying why you can't eliminate him just yet from the championship! He took second place with authority.

However, it would be Rhys Millen qualifying in First Place and proving that the "Old Man" has more fight in him. The Garrett Turbo powered Hyundai Genesis driver was well on his way to getting the 2012 Championship and something to prove to Hyundai USA after their remarkable decision to cut all motorsports marketing in the USA in favor of, get this, College Football and Golf. Turns out it's Hyundai Korea that is funding the WRC effort. If the guys at Hyundai Korea are smart, they'll not lose Rhys considering he's brought them a record on Pikes Peak and was in the hunt for the 2012 Formula Drift Championship.

Zoltan Hajdu, Jr. brought his 2012 Formula Drift season to a grinding halt with this crash in qualifying. He would be alright, even high fiving a safety worker after getting out of the car. His season hasn't exactly been one for the scrapbook.

Yeah, about that great run Alex had up until his second qualifying run. Well, didn't exactly end as well as his entry and wall rub had hoped for. The damage was minor and getting into the marbles put him into a half spin, however his first effort was good enough for 15th, placing him against Tony Angelo who had a great night going and qualified in 18th position.

Now, you're probably looking at the picture on the left and thinking, "That's an awesome shot of the Forged Performance Nissan 350Z that Ryan Kado is drifting in." Well, the part you don't see is the wall hit he had on the first bank and only after he finished his qualifying run did anyone realize he broke a wheel and de-beaded the tire! His second run was good enough for 27th place.

Daigo Saito in the Achilles Radial Lexus SC430 had an OK run to 13th qualifying position. Well, OK until you are informed that he had an ignition box problem that didn't allow him to do many full runs at Irwindale. Even more impressive was the fact that he and Robbie Nishida in the Achilles Radial Lexus SC400 were swapping ignition boxes between each others qualifying runs to keep them both going!

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