Formula Drift: Irwindale Round 7 Results. Daigo Saito Takes The Final Win Of The Season & We Have A Champion

Going into the final round at Irwindale things were tense.  Fredric Aasbo was less than 20 points away from the incredibly consistent Chris Forsberg.  Both drivers needed to be as close to flawless as possible if they wanted to achieve their respective desired results.  However, “flawless” is highly illusive in a sport in which results are completely subjective.  Here’s how it was all laid out for each contender: Chris Forsberg needed to make sure he finished as far ahead of Aasbo at all cost to preserve his lead.  He needed to out qualify him and finish ahead of him by at least two spots.  For Aasbo, as just mentioned he needed to finish ahead of Forsberg by two or more spots.  However, the two drivers happened to fall on the same side of the top 32 bracket so that meant considering that each driver kept winning their battles they would eventually have to face each other.

This was not great for Forsberg as his past battles with Aasbo mostly ended with his defeat.  But, if Forsberg could beat him this time it would secure a championship.  In the final four the two drivers finally faced off.  Forsberg fought valiantly but ultimately the judges gave the win to Fredric Aasbo which sent him into to the final against Daigo Saito who defeated Forrest Wang to make it to the final.  At this point Fredric had to defeat Saito in order to win the championship but Daigo’s monster car was too much and Aasbo was unable to close the gap on his follow run which resulted in the event win for Daigo and the championship win for Chris Forsberg.

Officially a two-time champion (Chris’ first title was earned in 2009), Chris Forsberg’s 2014 season was a constant uphill battle.  With no title sponsor on board (NOS energy drink stepped down to an associate sponsor status) Chris soldiered on through the year on a incredibly thin budget yet still managed to get a win and podium 5 times out of 7 rounds.  Fredric Aasbo had a great season getting his first two wins this season at rounds 4 & 6 but it was ultimately Forsberg’s consistency which won out.

It was a crazy season with ups, downs, controversy, and glory.  There has been/will be a lot of shake ups in the drifting community in the coming weeks which could drastically shape how the 2015 Formula Drift season will play out.  I will do my best to keep up with the news!

For now I want to say congrats to Chris Forsberg for his championship, Fredric Aasbo for his best season to date, and