The Formula Drift Season is upon us. In 12 short days, top drifters and drifterettes will hit the streets of Long Beach to decide who is the best drifter in the new world.
After the fun of accurately predicting the results of the recent NOPI Drift event, we’ve decided to give our predictions for the Top 16 at Long Beach.
Now is also your chance to win a pair of tickets to the Long Beach event. Using the comments feature below, tell us why you agree or disagree with our predictions for Long Beach and you’ll be eligible to win a pair of swet seats for Long Beach! **Be sure to include your actual email address when posting comments. [[[The Winners have been chosen and Notified, but feel free to continue to contribute to the discussion.]]]
David’s Picks:**
- Tanner Foust
- Rhys Millen
- Vaugn Gittin Jr
- Kenji Yamanaka
- Samuel Hubinette
- Daijiro Yoshihara
- Jon Russakoff
- Haraguchi
- Chris Cook
- Chris Forsberg
- Nick Hogan
- Rich Rutherford
- Miki
- Ken
- Steven Sueppel
- Hiro Sumida
Geoff’s Picks:*
- Darren MacNamara
- Kenji
- Daijiro
- Rhys Millen
- Vaughn Gittin Jr
- Tanner Foust
- Chris Cook
- Samuel Hubinette
- Ryan Tuerk
Nick Hogan- Chris Forsberg
- Yukinobo Okubo
- Miki
- Hiro Sumida
- Ken Gushi
- Jon Russakoff
- Ross Petty
*If this was a test in school, you could consider my picks the teachers answer key.
**Many Bothans died to bring us this information.
Hahahaha, are these pics jokes….
Nick Hogan probably wont make top 32 let alone top 16….
Geoffs pics are the best minus nick hogan and add Haraguchi
Kenji- was good at long beach the previous year and has gotten use to the car
Daijiro- place third last year, more detimerned this year
Rhys Millen- got second but is in a new car…has a better factory backed car then sam though…more competable
Vaughn Gittin Jr - Same Car, did decent the year before. If he didnt face Sam in the first round of tandem and didnt break his tranny… he would made great 8,
Tanner Foust - Made great 8 last year… has more seat time, i wouldn’t be surprised if he gets better then 5th
Chris Cook - uhhhh yea i haven’t seen this dude in action yet, i heard hes decent…. good enough to get a D1 licence so…who knows…he might crash
Samuel Hubinette - from what i saw at irwindale in December… hes going to earn that 7th place position… he will make top 16 but will that car be able to defend some of the faster lighter cars in tandem?
Ryan Tuerk - Its f****ing Ryan!!!! Dude has improved so much in the past 2 years. He will finish top 10 at the end of the season for sure
Nick Hogan - hahahaha you guys must be joking, i predict that he will crash during practice or unseeded qualifying
Chris Forsberg - He will do better then what did last year. They got most of the kinks worked out and forsberg is older and smarter
Yukinobo Okubo - what is he driving, i didnt even see him on the drivers list
Miki - He will make top 16… but he hasn’t driven in a while. Can he cope with FD style of tandem?
Hiro Sumida - Did decent last year, but hes in a new car. A car thats difficult to set up. I predict him meeting alot of walls this weekend
Ken Gushi - He will do waaaay better then 14th place
Jon Rusakoff - another dude thats questionable making it to the top 16. You include him but not D mac…hmmm only 1 ae86 driver qualified top 32 long beach last year. Just as good as taka… but there is just too much talent in FD this year to put him in above others like D mac, and haruguchi
Ross Petty - Everyone said he was gonna be a big star after going one more time with Sam Atlanta… after that he has ran into car trouble and failed to make top 16 ever since…does he have what it takes to be a consistent driver in the series…?
**throws on flame suit**
I hope i get some tickets!!
***edit, please delete my first post I hit enter before i was done editing***
Drift Live Rocks!!!!!!!!!!
Comment by cam — March 27, 2007 #
First of all, WHERE IS MCNAMARA ON THE LIST!!!! Shame on you!
It sounds good that Tanner, Rhys, Vaughn, Kenji, Sam and Dai will be in top 6 spots but it always seems that one of them has to face the other in top 16 or top 8 and so like if it were a race then yeah that sounds like your top 6 right there but no no, not gonna happen.
I think Nick Hogan will either crash or just not make top 32 because theres just too many good entries this year.
Rich Rutherford…im not feelin that one.
Steven is a great driver but his car just isnt up to par with all the others that should make top 16.
Chris Cook? who knows, maybe…just maybe.
Russakoff is good and the machine is nice but the vids of him at top battle make me wonder a lil…just a lil. But GO RUSSAKOFF!
Other than that, im fine with the names but a lil iffy about the placements. Lets mix things up this year. I’m callin McNamara, Tuerk and Foust for podium!
Comment by er — March 27, 2007 #
C.B.Leslie’s Top Picks***
1. Han Solo
2. Boba Fett
3. Darth Vader
4. Jawas
5. Luke Skywalker
7. Lando Calrissian
8. IG-88 - http://www.starwars.com/databank/droid/ig88/index.html
9. Admiral Ackbar
10. Chewbacca
11. Jabba the Hutt
12. Yoda
13. Leektar The Ewok
14. Admiral Piett
15. Imperial gunners
*** The Rebels were the real enemies - http://www.theforce.net/swtc/holocaust.html
You know I’m f**ing right!
Comment by C.B.Leslie — March 27, 2007 #
HOW THE HELL DOES CAM KNOW IF MIKI HAS DRIVEN LATELY? DOES HE KICK IT IN JAPAN ALOT? WHAT A TURD! AND I BEG TO DIFFER.. FD TANDEM BLOWS HARD COMPARED TO D1 TANDEM..WHAT AN ASS KISSER EVERYONE IS IN DENIAL!
TOP 5
1. MIKI
2. DMAC
3. TANNER
4. DAI
5. GITTIN
I SPEAK THE TRUTH….KEEP YOUR TICKETS!
Comment by HEATHER — March 27, 2007 #
Heather shut your dumb ass up, i thought you were gonna leave and never come back to this website.
But Ima be real, I’m not too caught up in the whole J driver hype so I’m gonna break it down for you guys…. I know I’m gonna catch a lot of heat for saying this but i got the stats to prove it. But Miki isn’t as good as everyone has been portraying him as. The dude only had one good year… lets look at the time line.
Overall season points for miki.
2001- 4pts
2002- 6pts
2003- 20pts
2004- 110pts (he won that year)
2005- 1pt…
2006… I don’t know what happened, maybe he just wanted to focus on grip driving or top secret gave up on him after a crappy season in there new RB powered Z. But he just sat the whole 2006 series out… He only had one good year, and it seems like it was because all the other drivers lost there consistency, that was Taniguchi’s best year(points wise) and he miki still out scored him by 26 points!!! That was also a transitioning period for D1, they cut out small kart circuits like Bihoku and Nikko and ran longer road courses like Autopolis, and Tskuba… total diferent style of drifting came upon them. Dude comes from a grip background so…
I’m not saying he isn’t skilled, if he would have kept the same car in 05 he probably would have pulled off a decent season. But overall he only had one good year. Oh yea not too mention he has only gotten first place once… Its pretty crazy how he scored 110 points that year with only 1 first place finish though… kinda cool. I think its kinda ironic how the same thing happened to Imamura after he switched to the same Z33, went from 5 good seasons, scoring over 50 points in each one too 12 points in his 06 season. Imamura is still the highest scoring overall driver in D1 of all time.
But yea, he hasn’t been in competition in a long time and isn’t use to the Formula D style of tandem
Heather have you ever driven judge tandem?
Well I don’t know about you but I hate D1 tandem driving. “Oh lets run really shallow lines so we can pass and keep our selves from being passed, i must protect my crappy line and take over yours”
Thats stuff gets boring very fast. I like the idea of running the same line the whole day and having the other competitor try to match it. High speed, close to the wall, deep angle… thats the Sh*t.
Comment by cam — March 27, 2007 #
i can definately see tanner winning
Comment by Royce — March 27, 2007 #
You’ve got to be kidding me!
Hogan before Forsberg, and even in the top 16?
At least the first guy put him right after Forsberg!
I think this is going to be one of the most competitive and overall intersting events to date.
Look for me in the stands, I’ll be wearing the purple speedo (under my pants of course)
Comment by YouMustBeOnCrack — March 27, 2007 #
I would like to make a couple of notes about my picks.
First: I 100% forgot about the fighting Irish. I think that I am pulling Miki out and replacing him with Darren.
Second: Chris Forsberg is one of my favorite professional drifters to watch hands down. Since watching him take Irwindale in 2005 I always look forward to seeing him out on the course. With the car sorted out this season from day one, I’m expecting a strong season.
Third: Doing well in Formula D is not purely a skill competition. This is not a top ten list of my favorite drivers to watch, nor is it a breakdown of their skill. I have tried to take a whole number of external factors into consideration, many of which have nothing to do with driving.
Fourth: Remember when drifting was fun?
Comment by Geoffrey Chandler — March 27, 2007 #
so i heard fromt this guy who knows a guy whos the sister of this fella that knows some information about the race that takes place on april 7th
so from what im gatherin. theres alot of betting going on and i hear numbers with so many zeros you’d think it was some computer binomial stuff right there. you know what im sayin? its kinda like the pakistan coach that was strangled over some rigged cricket games. this is some serious stuff.
i wasnt gonna say nuffin but what i posted earlier is not a suggestion. its just gonna happen ya hear me?
mcnamara is gonna take it cus you know the irish have this thing on lockdown. remember that race at silverstone where he beat fukuda but not kazama? well one of mcnamara’s men told one of tsuchiyas men who then told tsuchiya that mcnamara means business and if he doesnt pay him some serious euro then mcnamara is gonna take this whole match. well as you all saw mcnamara may have lost the match but he sure got his euro. but the irish want formula d and nobody, and i mean NOBODY is gonna stop them this time.
as for ryan tuerk. he owns new hampshire. why do you think they call him “Hampsha” and so them along with the drift alliance have got some things up their sleeve. and i know this first hand.
lastly, foust…i told him to listen but i hear he aint taking no offers from the new zealanders or the swedish. so i call that hes gonna take third but i just dont know how hes gonna drive a car with no legs at round two.
as fer me, im filipino and we just dont have them kind of connections so bada-bing! bada-boom! i would kindly appreciate it if you give me them tickets and we can all walk outta here with our toes attached. ok ok, either way i aint gonna cut of no toes but ill still take those tickets off your hands.
Comment by er — March 27, 2007 #
what a joke…
No Casper, even though he finished tied for 5th last year? No McQuarrie who will probably be in the JIC S15 (kenji in his personal S14) ? No Taka Aono, although both of you have John Ruskakoff in the top 16? Remember, Long Beach is a very intimidating course, and some of these drivers have had 3 years of experience on it. Okubo isn’t even driving this year, yet you both had him high in your picks…
Also, there’s no way Hogan will make top 16. Even if he makes top 32, I don’t think he’ll make it through practice without crashing. Again, we’re talking about Long Beach here… very tight (even with the extra space this year), very technical, and most of all, very intimidating.
ps - if only there was a website where you could actually COMPETE against other fans to see who could predict the drifting season BETTER…. hmmm….. ;)
Comment by Ed — March 28, 2007 #
Nice stats Cam….But you still suck..I am your biggest fan Cam…If this was a bulls**t contest.Boo-yea!
Comment by HEATHER — March 28, 2007 #
Anyway Cam…we shall see whats up after Long Beach…If Miki wins you can eat my a**….If whoever you pick wins……………………………I’ll bite your balls off…..Come on you might like it….You know you ain’t getting any…Be honest.
Comment by HEATHER — March 28, 2007 #
David is going to win, if he doesn’t then I’m going to loose my baby’s milk money, and then tell him some insurgents done come up in the house and took it
Comment by Sly — March 28, 2007 #
^ Best response yet. You sir, are a winner.
Comment by David Padron — March 28, 2007 #
STEVEN SUEPPEL WILL WIN
Comment by cfrost — March 28, 2007 #
“STEVEN SUEPPEL WILL WIN”
Steven Sueppel still owes me 300 bucks. :P
Comment by C.B.Leslie — March 28, 2007 #
And you still owe me $300. :-P
Pay up, Sueppel!
And predictions… er…
Mcnamara wins it all, followed by rhys and Foust, Dai takes forth, hubinette is Elminated early due to a crash, Miki takes fifth behind him.
From there, it’s a tossup. Forsberg, Gittin and Tuerek are there, then Haraguchi, Imamura, and Taniguchi.*
My Prediction: An event chock full of surprises!
*all names misspelled on Purpose. Also, Those Japanese drivers at thwe end wont be there. Im just making that up.
Or am I? oooooooooooooooooo….
Comment by Justin — March 29, 2007 #
TYLER MCQUARRIE………HOW THE HELL CAN YOU LEAVE HIM OUT. HE’D BE TOP TEN IN HIS SLEEP.
Comment by D.L.GARCIA — March 29, 2007 #
DMC for the win. this guy has been drivin inches from the wall since he was 14yrs old. the irish are in town and we aint partyin til we leave with the gold….
Comment by fuzzy — March 29, 2007 #
Hubert Young and Chris Milano definitely got a good team this year desipte limited finance avialable. Onboard is Andrew Fernandez from SanDimasAuto.us and Sean Morris. Andrew is a SCCA champion with vast knowledge in suspension and engine tuning. Sean is a RB specialist who will be responsible to keep the RB25 S14 breathing healthily.
Comment by Sil80 — April 3, 2007 #