Formula Drift Finals - Event Coverage

The hottest round of the 2005 Formula Drift series couldn't have happened on a more fitting day. Cast in the standard arena of competition at the Irwindale Speedway, the season finale fell on one of August's hottest days in recent memory. But the heat, although quite draining, wouldn't stop our country's top drivers from duking it out one last time, resolving who would finish as the Top 3 drivers. With Rhys Millen ahead strongly in the points standing and Sam Hubinette and Ken Gushi closely behind, some even hoped that Fourth Place contender Daijiro Yoshihara might even finish out the year with a Third Place victory if only he could finesse his way through a challenging Top 16. It was a mixed bag, really, and anything could (and did) happen.

After Friday's qualifying session to see which of the non-seeded drivers would gain the opportunity to face off against those who were already guaranteed a Top 32 slot, there was more to worry about than high speed drifts and losing your nerves. With the track configuration that the Formula D staff had set up, a few drivers had trouble crossing over after the first clipping point, which sent those unfortunate few into the wall-and hard. Not even seasoned vets like RS*R's Alex Pfeiffer or Taka Aono could avoid impact, but none could pull it off as well or get the crowd into a frenzy quite like they could. During the first round of eliminations, Sam Hubinette quickly took out Ken Gushi with his Mopar-sponsored Viper, thus ending Ken's chances of adding to his season points total. Dai Yoshihara, who had been struggling with the Pac Rim S13 most of Friday and early Saturday had to switch to his backup S13 hatchback, but just couldn't hang on against Bubba Drift and killed his chances of finishing in the Top 3 for the year. JR Gittin also had to rely on an alternate car, the Niztech S13, after his Mustang blew its hydraulic throwout bearing, an essential part needed to disengage the clutch. Even this S13 was running iffy, but JR managed to squeak by and advanced to Round 2 after Alex Pfeiffer couldn't make it to the starting grid due to the damage caused by hitting the wall early on.

The Second round saw the likes of drifting's underdogs giving drifting's champions a run for their money. Bubba Drift, known to the DMV as Mike Peters and driving an '86 GM Caballero, surprised the American drift world this year by making consistent passes but just could not keep up with the power and speed produced by Rhys Millen's GTO. There was a close match-up between Signal Auto's Yukinobu "Boney" Okubo in his Sileighty against "Big Smoke" Ben Schwartz in the Peak Performance/Falken S14, who was just barely beaten by the precision of the Japanese drift master. JR, who was just trying to keep his borrowed S13 together for a decent pass, controlled the misfiring coupe while Sam Hubinette surprisingly could not hold it together, spinning out twice during his tandem runs with JR.