Formula D Diaries - Mopar Viper - Import Tuner Magazine

My next run in the ladder was against Daijiro; a fast and very consistent driver. I had to follow first, so my main concern was to try and keep up with him on the straightaway. We passed the pace cone and I was ahead by almost a car length. Dai stayed on the throttle and his car pulled ahead. By the time we hit the next corner, he was two car lengths ahead of me. I threw it in as fast as I could, trying to keep up with him and as we approached the first outside clip, I closed right in on him and gained within a foot or two of his car. We tore down the hill and as we wrapped around the main clip, I had my front end up to his door. I gave him just enough space to transfer back, and I jumped on the throttle and drove back in to his opposite side for the right-hander. The run felt great. As they read the score off, it was 9 to 6, advantage Daijiro. Apparently I wavered on the bank enough to lose the run.

We lined back up and the only thing I could do was hit the course as hard as I could and see if Dai would make a mistake. As I ran through the course, I was looking back for Dai and saw a decent gap between us and thought we had a chance for a One More Time. The run felt amazing and my spotter told me it was probably the best run he's seen yet. When the score came back it was an 8-to-8 tie. We lost the round. Frustrated and annoyed, I pulled around to our pit and got out of the car. There wasn't anything else for us to do but to watch the rest of the event and see how it would turn out. As the day came to an end, we were pushed from First Place to Third, with only a handful of points separating the three of us. Las Vegas and a new track layout are next; the biggest competition will be the heat. Temperatures of 110 degrees are average for this time of year and it will be interesting to see how the cars hold up to the abuse.

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Sam Hubinette
The mighty Sam mis-shifted his V-10 Viper in Atlanta, landing himself in the other half of the tie for First with Chris Forsberg. The two-time Formula D champ is back and with more resolve to add a third drift season notch to his Swedish belt.

We came into Round Three First in points, tied with Forsberg. Englishtown was an entirely new track for us and, between learning how to attack it and getting back into the drifting groove after four weeks of stunt driving for the upcoming Fast and the Furious 4 flick, we were very thankful that Formula D had Thursday open for testing. The track actually turned out to be more technical than expected. The entry was very fast and led into a long left-hander, which put us right in the middle of Third and Fourth gears. After some traction and final drive adjustments from the NuFormz crew we were on our way, but then came another problem: A decreasing corner over a hill that required slower speed and maximum angle-not the kind of corner for tall gears and lots of traction! I knew this would be the challenge for us to overcome.