Formula Drift Seattle 2015 – Drifting & Main Competition Summary

What a wild round of Formula Drift last weekend! Unpredictable weather and mechanical failures led to some interesting upsets during the main event of the Pro competition. Going into the top 32 on Saturday the point leaders in the championship were Ryan Tuerck, Fredric Aasbo, and Aurimas ‘Odi’ Bakchis. All qualified well and were paired off against worthy competitors.

Photos by Ryan Kam, Randy Montgomery, and Kenny B. Text by Matt Haugness.

What I felt was the most surprising was that Ryan Tuerck was knocked out of the top 32 by Geoff Stoneback. Nothing against Geoff, it was just that Ryan was performing amazing all weekend so I didn’t expect it. Ryan made contact with the wall during the first run and instead of calling a competition timeout to check things over, he decided to run the second part of the battle. This proved to be his demise. The last turn of the course the differential gave out and he spun.
Another one of the better battles of the weekend was between Yokoi and Goodin. Yokoi was by far the most aggressive chase driver when it came to proximity on the bank. Unfortunately he made slight contact with Goodin coming off the 5/8. This sealed his fate and moved Goodin with his twin turbo V8 240SX into the top 16.

One of my favorite battles on Saturday was between Mad Mike Whiddett and Forrest Wang. The amount of grip that Mike’s RADBUL 4 rotor MX-5 has is obvious. Also it appeared he had a significant power advantage over Forrest’s 2JZ S15. Although Mike’s first chase run wasn’t perfect, Forrest’s lack of proximity led to a zeri because of an inactive chase.  After two One More Time battles, Forrest spun allowing Mike to advance to the top 16.

Even though Forrest would have liked a better weekend, his Get Nuts Lab teammate, Alec Hohnadell was a giant-killer. He first took out Chris Forsberg and then Daigo Saito – both past champions. Alec has been progressing all season and it’s exciting to see someone that is only 2 years into his pro career doing so well. Alec placed second overall in Round 5.

I was really expecting to see Ken Gushi perform better at Seattle. He looked great in qualifying but got knocked out in the top 16 by Tyler McQuarrie. I’d like to see him place in the top 3 for the season and there is still a chance if he does well in Texas and Irwindale.

Right around the end of the Great 8 the rain started to come down pretty hard at the track. Fredric Aasbo is one of the most composed drivers in the rain and he proved his abilities by beating both Goodin and Hohnadell because of errors on their part.

Congratulations to Fredric Aasbo and the whole Papadakis Racing team! Unless Aasbo has some serious issues at either of the next two rounds it’s likely he will be the 2015 champion.

Offset Kings car show coverage here.

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