Long Beach Grand Prix - Formula D Diaries

Sam Hubinette
Two time winner of Formula D, Sam lost the title in 2007 to Tanner Foust and is back in 2008 dead set on reclaiming his horned crown.

It felt great coming back to Long Beach in the Mopar BFGoodrich Dodge Viper. Because of our development of the new Mopar Dodge Challenger, we decided to use the Viper until the Challenger is ready to launch. With a Formula Drift championship in 2006 with the Viper, I felt very confident that we would have a good outcome. The fans were wild as always at Long Beach, and the track was tight and technical. This year the Formula Drift judges, Ken, Andy, and Alex were asking for more angle and not as much speed, like in the past. It was still important to have the speed up, but if you lost the angle they ended up giving big deductions. And to be able to hug the walls in Turn 9 was also very important.

I ended up qualifying First, and it had been awhile since I did that. So for me to be back in a competitive car is very exiting. Overall we finished Second with a one more time battle against Chris Forsberg. I learned something new over the opening race weekend, and now we will be prepared for the next event. Drift ya later!

Toxic Drift
www.toxicdrift.com

Mopar
www.mopar.com

BF Goodrich
www.bfgoodrich.com

By Carter Jung

Enjoyed this Post? Subscribe to our RSS Feed, or use your favorite social media to recommend us to friends and colleagues!