As we head into the final event of 2006 at Irwindale Speedway on October 14th Samuel Hubinette (544) leads Rhys Millen (508) by 36 points, following in 3rd and 4th are Tanner Foust (464) and Vaughn Gittin, Jr. (398).
Hubinette, Foust and Millen have all taken home a win, Gittin has a best of 4th place, but mechanical problems did nothing to help JR at both New Jersey and Long Beach. Sam has the most consistent record, never placing worse then 7th and taking home 3 event wins, he also has more Formula D event wins then any other driver.
Let’s take a look at the top 5 drivers performance so far this season:
| Tanner | Rhys | Samuel | Vaughn | Canul | |
| LBC | 7 | 2 | 1 | 10 | 13 |
| ATL | 1 | 4 | 2 | 5 | 8 |
| Chicago | 5 | 2 | 1 | 4 | 10 |
| Sonoma | 10 | 1 | 4 | 13 | 2 |
| Seattle | 6 | 3 | 7 | 4 | 5 |
| Jersey | 2 | 9 | 1 | 4 | 11 |
The scores breaks down such that in order for Rhys to take the championship away from Hubinette, he will need to take 1st and have Sam place no better then 4th place.
Tanner still holds an outside chance at beating Sam and Rhys in points by taking first, but it would require Sam to fail to make the Top 16 (Sam has never failed to make Top 16) and Rhys to place no better then Top 16 (In New Jersey, Hiro eliminated Rhys in the round of 16).
It is not possible for Gittin to move into first or second, but if he outperforms Foust by a significant margin, he could move into 3rd place, the same holds true for Casper, who trails Gittin by just 13 points.
All said this years championship match at Irwindale is shaping up to look a lot like last years match with the major difference being that Tanner is in third place and Casper is in 5th, vs 2005 which had Gushi in 3rd and Daijiro in 5th.
best website evar, keep it up, the fans appreciate it.
Comment by driftwood — September 10, 2006 #
If you are going to write about an event, why not write what happened - Hiro didn’t eliminate me, we broke a brand new axle and he advanced…….. sometimes you’re better to be lucky and good !
Comment by rhys — September 10, 2006 #
yeah, rhys is right. i was struggling
all weekend trying to find the right
setup for the wall track. i barely made
the top 16. my runs finally began getting
better during the tandem runs, but it was
nothing but bad luck for rhys when he broke
his axle on the 1st pass.
looking forward to irwindale !!! (^ ^)//
Comment by hiro — September 11, 2006 #
In reading my comment, I want no one to think that Hiro was lucky, he drove fantastic in the battle rounds and was good….. we were the ones that were unlucky :) It takes a lot of drive and devotion in any form of sport to do well, regardless of if you are a factory or private team. I guess this weekend show’s that even taking every precaution in pre-event preperation you can still get caught out.
Comment by rhys — September 11, 2006 #
I didn’t mean to imply that you had failed in any way as a driver; I was simply breaking down the points to give readers an impression of possible scenarios for the Irwindale event.
Of course this is all speculation; remember last years event Chris Forsberg took the cup despite not being a point’s contender, but one could argue that mechanical issues played a role as well at that event.
Best of luck to all you guys at Irwindale, I am sure it will be an exciting event.
Comment by DriftLive.com — September 11, 2006 #
Rhys, you’re such an arse! haha
Congrats to Hiro and Tanner for podium finishes.
Sam was on fire all weekend. NuFormz put it all together. Go Team Mopar!
Comment by BJ — September 11, 2006 #
Yup there are definitely times when lady luck is on your side. This round, Signal experienced a bit of bad luck– a broken sequential transmission, which left them with only gears 1 and 2 for the event. It’s amazing they got so far with only two gears and that they were able to get the car out after last rounds accident! Okubo’s still in it!
Comment by Michael — September 11, 2006 #
Oh man, this event is going to be awesome. Just the thought of who will be the victor gets the motors running.
Good luck to everyone, in hopes that you will put on what will become fantastic show!
Comment by C.B.Leslie — September 11, 2006 #
Correction:
Samuel Hubinette sent us an email with a bit more information. Since 2004 Sam and the Mopar team have won 8 events, 3 of them this season. I had neglected to count his win at New Jersey this year at the time that I wrote this article and have since made the correction.
Comment by DriftLive.com — September 11, 2006 #
Next round should be a lot of fun! Overall points battle is very close for the 3rd and 4th positions, so it’s anyone’s guess who’ll take it. Can’t wait!
Comment by Michael — September 11, 2006 #
Congratulations Sam, Tanner, and Hiro!!! With all the good or bad luck I’m just glad to see all teams, drivers, and cars emerge to see another day of racing.
Comment by Casper Canul — September 13, 2006 #
Congrats to all, win lose or draw, everyone left safe and healthy. That means all who attended were winners. Let’s all be greatful for the simple things. I saw all levels of sponsorship, driving skills and an audience that was very well entertained all day long. Keep up the awesome work I was very impressed with the event and how it was run.
Comment by Bob B — September 14, 2006 #
NJ was my first Formula D event and I loved it. I flew from NC to see it and it was well worth it. The one qualm I have with the Formula D and im not complaining, just stating, is that the subjective type of scoring can be a bit discouraging. I understand this is a subjective sport but it would be great if the judges let the fans know point by point why one advanced over the other. What i saw was that one person had this number advantage over the other and i didn’t really understand the break down of where the advantage came from. Such as, why the score of how this guy’s angle was better than the other etc. I love this sport and I think all of you involved are doing a great job. I am just looking for some information and maybe adding a few of my thoughts from a fan’s perspective. Thanks to all of you.
-Cameron
Comment by PassionDriven — September 14, 2006 #
I must also add that all of you did great in NJ, but i must give my vote to Tanner. I walked up behind him as he was speaking to someone and he seemed very down to earth and cool. Not to mention, in my opinion you had my vote for the best overall performance of the day. You were very consistent and in today’s lingo your performance was just nasty (and that’s in a great way) Kepp up the good work, im rootin for you at Irwindale Tanner.
-Cameron
Comment by PassionDriven — September 14, 2006 #
Congrats to Sam, Tanner, and Hiro for podium finishes. All the drivers out there were very entertaining to watch. I’m amazed to see the level of skill out there. Good luck to all of you at Irwindale, I’m sure it’ll be a great event.
Comment by Nevin — September 15, 2006 #
Our first formula D drift event, Whats with the judges it seemed to me they had their favorites. The announcer was an idiot and he made it quite clear who he liked and didn’t like. I saw some great drifting from not just the big money teams. There were good drivers out there but they were sweep under the rug by the judges. How can you say these judges were imparshal. Formula D wants to think there the only game in town, open your eyes its not just about politics.
Comment by Dean — October 16, 2006 #