Season Opener:
I am eagerly anticipating the opening of the 2007 Formula D season, and look forward to seeing all the new cars out on the Streets of Long Beach. It appears that there may be a bit less carnage at Long Beach this season, but I’m sure that the course will still be tight enough to keep the fans interested.
Despite off season talks of 4 billion new drift series here in the United States, it looks as if Formula D will be returning for a strong 2007 season. All the crowd favorites are gonna be back, with new cars, and new sponsors.
What we know so Far:
Last year, many teams held off on introducing their new paint schemes until after the Long Beach event, I hope that this year, they start the season off with their new cars.
I think we can expect to finally see Rhys in his Red Bull powered Solstice, and Samuel wrangling his Dodge Charger.
Vaughn Gittin Jr. will be back in his Falken Mustang, and Chris Forsberg’s Titan Powered Z has a new paint scheme.
Enjuku Racing out of Florida announced that Robby Unser will be driving for them this season along with Caio Campos. After taking a look at www.enjukuracing.com it looks like they will be bringing back both the red hatch 240, with a fresh buildup, and the silver coupe driven during the 2006 season by Rob Fleming and John Yim. They will also be adding a new Z33 car to their lineup.
Hubert Young has a new car in the works (or should I say a reborn old warrior) over at Milano Auto, along with a new 350Z for Chris Kregorian.
[update]
Huberts S14 (SR20 powered , blue car) now green. The plan was to run it this year, but Hubert has been driving Chris’s S14 (RB25 powered) car, and he likes the power and torque.
The plan is for the rest of the season, for Hubert to be in the RB25 powered car. Its going though some changes now, and after a fourth place finish at the Nopi Phoenix event, expect it to be back stronger,and handling better.
The SR powered car is together and running, but will be used as a backup.
Chris’s twin turbo 350Z made really good power on the dyno. Over 500 lb/ft of torque. It will undergo a few changes prior to the Formula D event.
Doug Van Den Brink, who placed first in the November 2006 Pro-Am licensing event has announced his intentions to drive his SN95 Mustang in the 2007 season. No word yet from Dan Pina with the Fox Chassis, or Tony Brakohiapa with the S195, but I would love to see more Mustangs out there.
Jon Rusakoff’s Toyota Corolla is sporting a new powerplant in the form of a S2000 Honda engine.
Tyler McQuarrie will be piloting the new Hankook Tires/JIC Magic USA 993 GT2 Porsche and Kenji Yamanaka will be back behind the wheel of the S15.
Irish driver, Darren McNamara, stated on his blog that he will be driving his SR powered AE86 Corolla in the 2007 Formula D series with Team Falken as a sponsor. Darren certainly turned a lot of heads last year with his tandem runs with Japanese driver Ken Nomura at the December D1GP event at Irwindale Speedway.
No word yet, on the Honda Element that was shown off at SEMA 2006.
Gary Lang and Ben Reyes of the NM Drift group will compete in the Formula D with the backing of new sponsor Maxxis Tires.
The New Faces for 2007:
Full License: Jon Rusakoff, Doug Van Den Brink, Tony Brakohiapa, Dan Pina, Quoc Ly, Tommy Suell, Steven Sueppel, Chris Milano, David Padron, Lance Feliciano, Justin Pawlak, Chris Mendoza.
Provisional License: Ben Reyes, Joon Maeng, Quoc Ly, Ryan Clemens, Nick Hogan, Gary Lang, Aaron Losey, Casey Quillen
Anyone else with some news about their rides for 2007, or the season in general, drop me a line and I will put them up here.
dMAC IS GONNA KICK SOME MAJOR BACK-SIDE! NOW I AM EXCITED!
Comment by HEATHER — March 12, 2007 #
IT’S KEN NOMURA….NOT NORUMA. RECOGNIZE MF! UNLESS THAT’S A JOKE…IN THAT CASE IT’S NOT FUNNY.
Comment by HEATHER — March 12, 2007 #
^ Yeah, sorry ’bout that. I pretty much spell his name wrong 1/2 of the time.
Comment by Geoffrey Chandler — March 12, 2007 #
RHYS AND SAM SHOULD FEAR THE DMAC!
Comment by HEATHER — March 13, 2007 #