DriftUK Round 6 ‘07: Results
An absolutely fantastic day with a fair amount of new faces entering and putting on a great show. In the end it came down to Pete Barber, Paul Smith and James Russel. I wouldn’t have liked to judge, the battles were so close each one went to a “one more time”. The most entertaining driver prize went to Baba (unclear what his full name is) for driving like a man possessed all the way to the semi finals where he killed his clutch on his first run.
Top 3 were:
1 - Pete Barber
2 - Paul Smith
3 - James Russel
Formula D Sonoma 2007: Final Results
1st - Chris Forsberg
2nd - Vaughn Gitten Jr
3rd - Ken Gushi
4th - Conrad Grunewald
Final Scores:
- Chris Forsberg - 100 + 7 = 107
- Vaughn Gitten Jr - 88 + 2 = 90
- Ken Gushi - 78 + 6 = 84
- Conrad Grunewald - 69 + 4 = 73
- Tanner Foust - 61 + 8 = 69
- Sam Hubinette - 61 + 5 = 66
- Rhys Millen - 61 + 3 = 64
- Tony Angelo - 61 + 2 = 63
- Bill Sherman - 54 + 4 = 58
- Ryuji Miki - 54 + 3 = 57
- Kenji Yamanaka - 54 + 2 = 56
- Daijiro Yoshihara - 54 + 2 = 56
- Seigo Yamamoto - 54 + 1 = 55
- Darren McNamara- 54 + 1 = 55
- Stephan Verdier - 54 + 1 = 55
- Tommy Suell - 54 + 1 = 55
Tandem Ladder:
Final:
- V. Gittin Jr. vs. C. Forsberg
Consolation
- C. Grunewald vs. K. Gushi
Top 4:
- V. Gittin Jr. Vs. C. Grunewald
- C. Forsberg vs. K. Gushi
Top 8::
- T. Foust vs. V. Gittin Jr.
- S. Hubinette vs. C. Grunewald
- C. Forsberg vs. R. Millen
- K. Gushi vs. T. Angelo
Top 16:
- T. Foust vs. T. Suell
- R. Miki vs. V. Gittin Jr.
- S. Hubinette vs. S. Yamamoto
- C. Grunewald vs. D. Yoshihara
- C. Forsberg vs. S. Verdier
- R. Millen vs. K. Yamanaka
- K. Gushi vs. D. MacNamara
- B. Sherman vs. T. Angelo
Photo Gallery:
Alison Merion’s Gallery
Larry Chen’s Gallery
Formula D Sonoma 2007: Top 16
Winner:
- Chris Forsberg
Final:
- V. Gittin vs. C. Forsberg
Consolation
- C. Grunewald vs. K. Gushi
Top 4:
- V. Gittin Jr. Vs. C. Grunewald
- C. Forsberg vs. K. Gushi
Top 8::
- T. Foust vs. V. Gittin Jr
- S. Hubinette vs. C. Grunewald
- C. Forsberg vs. R. Millen
- K. Gushi vs. T. Angelo
Top 16:
- T. Foust vs. T. Suell
- R. Miki vs. V. Gittin Jr
- S. Hubinette vs. S. Yamamoto
- C. Grunewald vs. D. Yoshihara
- C. Forsberg vs. S. Verdier
- R. Millen vs. K. Yamanaka
- K. Gushi vs. D. MacNamara
- B. Sherman vs. T. Angelo
Qualifying:
- Tanner Foust - 100pts
- Chris Forsberg - 96pts
- Ken Gushi - 94.33pts
- Samuel Hubinette - 94.17pts
- Conrad Grunewald - 93.33
- Bill Sherman - 91.67
- Rhys Millen - 91.67
- Ryuji Miki - 91.50
- Vaughn Gittin Jr - 91.33
- Kenji Yamanaka - 90
- Tony Angelo - 89.17
- Daijiro Yoshihara - 88.83
- Seigo Yamamoto - 88.67
- Darren McNamara - 88.5
- Stephan Verdier - 88.33
- Tommy Suell - 88.17
Formula D Sonoma 2007: Unseeded Qualifiers
- Ben Schwartz
- Ryujii Miki
- Tommy Suell
- Conrad Grunewald
- Joon Maeng
- Tony Brakohiapa
- Kyle Mohan
- Calvin Wan
- Stephan Verdier
- Tony Angelo
- Taka Aono
- Stephan Papadakis
- Seigo Yamamoto
- Chris Cook
- Andrew Hateley
- Hiro Sumida
European Drift Championship Round 3: Results
1st - Mark Johnson (Weston Performance PS13)
2nd - Mark Buckle - (DCY R32)
3rd - James Grimsey (GBH PS13)
Prodrift Irish Series Round 3
High drama, high stakes and high-profile battles marked the Prodrift Irish Series’ first trip north of the border to the compact Nutts Corner oval outside Belfast. Dublin’s Eric O’Sullivan further strengthened his championship lead with his second convincing win of the season, but that was only one of the talking points on what proved to be one of the most eventful days of drifting in recent memory.
Much of the practice runs had been marred by a torrential downpour of rain, and although the skies eventually brightened up, brief showers continued to be a factor for much of the day, making conditions highly unpredictable for the drivers. Making an appearance in qualifying was Miguel Marini, who had just taken delivery of an impressive new Mazda RX-7. The car was looking spectacular, but having only arrived in the country that week was not yet fully set up for drifting, so the qualifying runs served as something of shakedown run for the Carlow man, who would not feature in the top 16. Absent once again was Damien Mulvey, whose RB26 engine conversion had not gone to plan and left him unable to compete.
The top 16 battles were the scene of several of the day’s most dramatic incidents. Dennis Healy had been looking strong all morning and was on a roll, having recently secured high-profile sponsorship from Hunky Dorys for his SR20-powered Corolla. Carrying a 6-4 advantage from the first run and with a massive lead over opponent Conor Lenihan, Healy looked to have it in the bag but made a fatal error just after the transition point and smashed straight in to the barriers, destroying the front of his car. There was more action in the battle between Glenn Maher and Adrian Walshe as the latter’s car developed an oil leak which quickly led to a dramatic fire. After being brought to an abrupt halt by the marshals, Walshe was unable to repair the damage, so Maher and his Corolla were through. Mike Deane was another driver whose day was brought to an end by mechanical woes, his Silvia’s gearbox giving up the ghost after two runs against Declan Munnelly, who went through to the top eight by default.
Alan Lenihan bounced back from failing to qualify last time out in Rosegreen and saw off the challenge of Mike Murphy with two strong runs. Stephen Shine made his first top 16 appearance of the 2007 season and it seemed he was determined to make the most of it as he pushed Jonathan Murphy to an incredible two rematches before they could be separated, with the judges finally naming Murphy as the victor. Martin Ffrench and James Deane staged a re-run of their round 2 final in Rosegreen, but it was Frenchy who triumphed this time around after a second pair of runs to separate them. Elsewhere in the top 16 battles, Eric O’Sullivan had a straightforward win over Dean Kearney and Johnny Power progressed to the next stage after he was tipped into a spin by an overeager Shane Healy.
It was a clash of the titans in the top eight, with Martin Ffrench and Johnny Power going head to head in their 180SXs. Both drivers were on the absolute limit on their first run, but Ffrench’s brief straightening through turn one second time around saw him lose vital momentum, allowing Power to pull out a gap and guarantee his place in the semi-finals. The Lenihan brothers Alan and Conor also faced off, with the elder Alan putting his sibling in his place with two very strong runs. Eric O’Sullivan was pushed hard enough by Jonathan Murphy on their first pair of runs for the judges to ask for a rematch. O’Sullivan was much stronger second time around and took the win with ease. Declan Munnelly and Glen Maher had a very close contest to decide the other semi-final place. After two rematches, Maher went though by the narrowest of margins, 5.5-4.5.
Alan Lenihan seemed unstoppable all day but he became one of the many drivers to be sidelined by mechanical issues when his car suddenly slowed during his second semi-final run against Johnny Power. Lenihan was bitterly disappointed as he had matched Power 5-5 in their first run and seemed headed for a place in the final until that point. The other semi-final was an all-Corolla affair with Glen Maher’s turbo’d SR20 example going up against Eric O’Sullivan’s VTEC-powered monster. It proved an excellent showcase of the two different tuning philosophies and how closely matched they were. Bigger angles saw O’Sullivan secure a 7-3 advantage after the first run. He then stayed very close to Maher the second time around to secure his second final appearance this season.
Not surprisingly, it took two sets of runs before the judges could separate O’Sullivan and Power in the final. The 180SX and the VTEC Corolla were drifted to within an inch of their lives around the track. No mistakes were made by either driver during the first pair of runs or in the first re-run. The decisive moment came at the end of the fourth run when O’Sullivan finally managed to pull out something of a gap over Power. The margin was close, but the victory was his.
“The car was just sweet all day,� said O’Sullivan afterwards, who found the gearing of his Corolla ideally suited to the tight track. “Any day you beat Johnny P is a good day,� he summed up. Power was not overly disappointed with his second place. “I’m actually delighted,� he said. “I came here this weekend to get a good result and that’s what happened.� O’Sullivan still leads Power in the championship as the series heads to Punchestown and it looks like the 2007 season could become a two-horse race between the Dubliner and the Waterford man.
RESULTS:
1st Eric O’Sullivan / Corolla AE86
2nd Johnny Power / Â 180SX
3rd Glen Maher / Corolla AE86
Top 16:
Eric O’Sullivan (AE86 Corolla) beat Dean Kearney (S13 Silvia)
Jonathan Murphy (S14 Silvia) beat Stephen Shine (180SX)
Declan Munnelly (Mark II Escort) beat Mike Deane (S14 Silvia) *
Glen Maher (AE86 Corolla) beat Adrian Walshe (180SX) *
Alan Lenihan (S13 Silvia) beat Mike Murphy (180SX)
Conor Lenihan (S13 Silvia) beat Dennis Healy (AE86 Corolla)
Martin Ffrench (180SX) beat James Deane (S14 Silvia)
Johnny Power (180SX) beat Shane Healy (S15 Silvia)
* Winner went through by default after mechanical problems for the other driver
Top eight:
O’Sullivan beat Murphy
Maher beat Munnelly
A. Lenihan beat C. Lenihan
Power beat Ffrench
Top four:
O’Sullivan beat Maher
Power beat A. Lenihan
Final:
O’Sullivan beat Power
