By Antonio Alvendia

Antonio Alvendia

The latest round of the Formula Drift Championship took place this past weekend in Las Vegas, Nevada. It was sooooo incredibly hot in Las Vegas this past weekend; the Formula D teams had to work hard to make sure the drivers remained hydrated enough to perform at peak levels (last year, I remember seeing one of the drivers pass out because of the intense heat inside the car).

As a member of the media with a trackside photo pass, I remember being extremely uncomfortable because of Formula D safety rules requiring us to wear long pants instead of shorts at the track. However, just think about what the drivers must be feeling like – wearing full fire suits and Nomex underwear and HELMETS, sitting inside hot cars without air conditioning; with hot metal roofs working like a broiler due to the lack of headliners and insulation in a professional drift car.

Nevertheless, the crowd at Formula D remained upbeat and excited, due to the level of driving prowess they were treated to. Vegas drift fans are hardcore! Regardless of the heat, these fans were down to sit outside in the stands, sweating and cheering as their favorite professional drifters slid past them, dousing the grandstands in a bath of tire dust.

Continue reading how Formula D Brings Heat to Vegas

CLICK HERE for more MotorMavens Coverage of Formula D Las Vegas (Stories, photos, and videos)

By John Naderi

StreetFire.net

The fourth round of the 2009 Formula Drift Championship is in the books and what a scorcher it was. I think I’m supposed to write some sort of witty quip about the triple digit temps here, but truth be told my brain is still somewhat melty. And not from the heat, but rather the stunning points shakeup that went down in Vegas. Coming into Sin City Darren McNamara was leading in points but a mechanical with his Falken Tire Sears Auto Center Sky finished his weekend before it even started. Another shocking DNQ was that of 2005 champion, Rhys Millen. Just when we thought the points chase couldn’t be flipped any more Tanner Foust goes in it to win it after a rare DNQ at round three. Hit the video to see it all. And no matter what Tanner and Stephan may say, I am not a pussy, their NASCAR V-8 just happens to scare me a little bit, that’s all.

By John Naderi

StreetFire.net

Formula Drift Las Vegas is in the books. And here are a few random observations:

Las Vegas drift fans never seem to wait for the final results. Maybe because the event doesn’t end until midnight.

The fans may not care who won but there were more of them this year than last.

I’ve been a reporting on drifting in one form or another steadily since 2001 beginning in Japan and I still don’t understand the judging parameters.

It seems a V8 is the key ingredient to increasing entry speeds and tire smoke (duh!).

Chris Forsberg beat out Tyler McQuarrie for Third place and Tanner Foust beat Ryuji Miki in the finals.

We’ll have a complete video on StreetFire.net next week.