As Formula D came to an end at the House of Drift in Irwindale last summer, nearly every participant and follower of our homegrown drift series agreed: changes were imminent for '06. With a revolving team of automotive journalists and guest drivers from Japan responsible for the judging, decisions were often controversial and questioned by many of the drivers, most of which had years of underground practice in comparison to the judges, who had little or none.
So it was no surprise when, at SEMA, the Formula D staff announced that a new judging panel would be implemented, tightening the group down to three. Only one-Ken Takahashi-would stay on from last year's group and it would be up to the drivers to nominate who would represent them. The drivers had long wanted a voice to speak loudly on their behalf and as the time came, that voice would turn out to be the loudest of them all: Alex Pfeiffer, supported by Andy Yen, JIC's former driver. With new judges and additional rule changes in place, Formula D had, for the time being,become exactly the kind of drift series the US drivers wanted. Its test would be opening day on the Streets of Long Beach this past April.
While the Long Beach event was supposed to serve as the debut for many of the drivers' new cars, most came with last year's cars with new paint schemes or body repairs from the last D1 events. Tyler McQuarrie took over Pfeiffer's spot in the RS*R S2000, which will soon be replaced with Version 2.0 after Design Craft's Gary Castillo finishes the build. Kazu Hayashida, a former D1 driver, joined Tyler as a teammate with an S15 Silvia. Signal Auto also made the switch from D1 and entered its infamous R34 Skyline GT-R, driven by Yukinobu Okubo, and one of the Sileighty twins, which was driven by newcomer Shiro Deura. Sam Hubinette, who recently formed an alliance with BFGoodrich, did not come with the Mopar/Nuformz SRT-8 Charger, but qualified sixth with his old Viper SRT-10. Rhys Millen was supposed to have a Solstice ready for Long Beach, but instead competed in the battle-proven GTO with new sponsors in Bridgestone and Red Bull. Millen's team also lent a hand to Rich Rutherford, a veteran race car driver who helped with stunt driving in the upcoming Fast and Furious 3 movie, by converting his Evo IX from all-wheel to rear-wheel drive.
Joining Steph Papadakis on the new AEM drift team was Tanner Foust, formerly McKinney Motorsports' ace, who is now driving a twin-turbocharged yellow 350Z. Jerry Tsai's Pacific Rim team, with new backing by Rockstar Energy Drink, and driven previously by only Dai Yoshihara, welcomed "Big Smoke" Ben Schwartz. Last year Ben drove the Peak Performance S14 (which has been taken over by Robbie Nishida) and now he's driving what used to be Steph, then RJ DeVera's old drift car. Ben didn't manage to make the Top 16, but once the chassis is dialed in, we can expect big things from the big guy once again. Ken Gushi returned with the Gushi Auto Mustang and a new graphic scheme depicting a samurai warrior atop a horse, but he plans to debut his new Mustang in Atlanta, a car that was completely prepped by Ford Racing specifically for '06.
By Carter Jung
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