In this edition of Tech House & Speed Bill Woodtalks with Falken ace Tyler McQuarrie about possible ventures into other motorsports like the Rolex 24 hour race and rally racing.  It seems like McQ has some big things in the plan for 2010 but so far is being pretty tight lipped about it all.  I guess we’ll have to stay tuned to see what hes up to! 

Here is another hype vid from Bill Wood.  This time he sits down with Chris Forsberg about his take over of the Formula D championship points lead, new talent coming up in Pro-Am, and what it means to be just a regular kid from the streets taking it to drivers who have professional racing backgrounds.  Thanks Bill!

Its been a while since I cruised over to Pacific Rim Clothing so I decided to check it out today and it was just in time to catch their limited drop of their Dai Yoshihara shirt.  The “Yoshihara Make you Holla” Tee only had a limited run of 100 pieces so grab one now before they’re all snatched up.

So over the weekend was the much awaited return of the D1 Grand Prix series to the US.  This is an event that many drift fans have been anticipating for a long time and there were plenty of rumors, and speculation as to how this event would go down. 

There is a whole new organization behind the US arm of D1 now and the pressure was on them to produce an event that was on caliber with what drift fans are used to these days.  Frankly, Formula D has set the bar quite high.  The question was could D1 reach those same expectations?

Well, it was touch and go for the most part.  There were some areas where D1 excelled and some where they could have used some improvement.  All in all for their first event things weren’t the disaster that many were expecting.  It was great to see some of the top Japanese drivers back on American soil and they provided a stage for many privateer and armature drifters to show their skills.  The car show section was also huge and had a variety of cars.  Another nice touch was the fact that D1 was a stop for the Gumball 3000 rally so some the spectators got an up close look at the high dollar exotics taking on the rally this year.

So bottom line, was D1 horrible as some predicted? Not at all.  Did D1 deliever on all that was expected? Not quite.  There is definitely room for improvement but they have 3 more events on the 2009 schedule so lets see how the rest of the year pans out for D1.  We will certainly stay tuned.

Check out some of the car show and Gumball pics below.  For action shots of the drifting click over to UrbanRacer.com.

Tomorrow marks the official return of the D1GP to the states.  If you haven’t already got your tickets click over to D1GP.com and pick ‘em up!  It’s all going down tomorrow at Angel Stadium in Anaheim, CA.  A lot of the top guys from D1GP Japan will be there so don’t sleep on this one if you’re a drift fan.  Check out the official driver list below.

Driver List:

1. Kelvin Arreola USA
2. Mark Bergeon USA
3. David Blunt USA
4. James Bondurant USA
5. Mike Burns USA
6. Caper Canul USA
7. Tyler Cox USA
8. Chelsea DeNofa USA
9. Joe Dycus USA
10. Michael Essa USA
11. Ron Freitas USA
12. Chase Goodman USA
13. Andrew Hately USA
14. Joe Haven USA
15. Harri Hokkinen Finland
16. Yoichi Imamura Japan
17. Daijaro Inada Japan
18. Ed Johnson USA
19. Jeff Jones USA
20. Chris Kregorian USA
21. Nobushige Kumakubo Japan
22. Janne Leinonen Finland
23. Aaron Losey USA
24. Quoc Ly USA
25. Cyrus Martinez USA
26. Omeed Moinee USA
27. Patrick Mordaunt USA
28. Ken Nomura Japan
29. Cody Parkhouse USA
30. Ross Petty USA
31. Juha Rintanen Finland
32. Tom Roberts USA
33. James Robinson USA
34. Austin Robison USA
35. Bryan Rogers USA
36. Daigo Saito Japan
37. Cody Sarem USA
38. Ben Schwartz USA
39. Bill Sherman USA
40. Joshua Steel USA
41. Kazuhiro Tanaka Japan
42. Harri Tervola USA
43. Takahiro Ueno Japan
44. Russell Walker USA
45. Forrest Wang USA

Just got some more news through the D1GP USA wire of what we can expect before and during the first event May 2nd in Anaheim CA.  For me the biggest news is that they’ve announced Brian Norris as a judge for the series.  Many of you may not know his name but if you’ve followed drifting for a while you’ll remember that Brian Norris was one of the few American competitors when D1GP first came to the states.  He had a reputation for being one of the most passionate guys out there.  Its good to see him back in the mix again.

More updates in the press release below!

Press Release:

THE STAGE IS SET FOR THE 2009 D1 GRAND PRIX USA
CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS SERIES ROUND 1

- World’s Number One Drift Series Gears Up for Anaheim Opener -

ANAHEIM, Calif. (April 20, 2009) - Excitement is mounting as D1 Grand Prix (www.d1gp.com), the motorsports industry’s premier drifting series, enters the final stages of preparation for its return to competition in the U.S. The premier event, round 1 of four scheduled events in the Championship Points Series, is set to take place on Saturday, May 2 at Angel Stadium in Anaheim, Calif. As the event nears and the final pieces are being put in place, D1GP USA released its schedule for the event weekend.

Industry & Fan Appreciation Night
On Thursday April 30th the D1 drivers will be at K1 Speed in Anaheim for an autograph signing from 5:30pm - 7pm in the parking lot. Afterwards, attendees are invited inside the facility to witness industry executives, members of the media and fans doing battle on the track against the D1 drivers.

Official Pre and Post Parties
On Friday May 1st D1GP USA, in association with the Gumball 3000, will be holding its official launch party at the Santa Monica Pier beginning at 5pm. The pier will be shut down for special live performances, a showcase of Gumball Rally cars, celebrity drivers and more. The event is open to the public and admission is free.

On Saturday May 2, D1GP USA will host its official after party at the Sutra Nightclub in Costa Mesa, with a live DJ and performance by the Speaker Junkies.

D1GP USA
On Saturday May 2, D1GP USA Round #1 at Angel Stadium in Anaheim will feature the largest build-out of a drift track in history. Some of the highlights on and off the track will include:

Track Build
• Largest build-out for a drifting event in history
• 1,000 foot long entry allows competitors to reach 3rd gear and high speeds before entering the 500 foot by 500 foot drift course.
• Newly developed half-circle truss clipping point markers within the course.

Off-Track Entertainment
• Extreme AutoFest car show competition featuring more than 250 highly modified exotic and tuner vehicles.
• Stunt bike, shifter kart and skate demos.
• HPI Racing RC drift track.
• Celebrity drivers and cars from the Gumball 3000.
• Live performances by the reunited members of Sublime, Speaker Junkies and more.

Event and Championship Prize Purse
• Event registration fees go directly into the prize purse, with 50 percent going into the event payout and 50 percent being added to the “pot” for the series championship.
• D1GP USA’s Progressive Prize Payout system ensures that the prize purse will be no less than $7,500 per event and $30,000 for the championship, although the amounts could be much higher depending on the number of drivers registering and any contingency money thrown into the pot.

Competition Format
• Practice and qualifying rounds will take place on Friday, May 1.
• The top 16 qualifiers will compete in the “SUPER16″ main event on Saturday, May 2.
• Features tournament style bracket and head-to-head battles (1 vs. 16, 2 vs. 15, etc.).
• Championship series points will be awarded to all 16 positions - from 25 points for the first place finisher to 1 point for sixteenth place.

Judging Format
• The D1GP USA Pro1 system introduces advanced computerized scoring into the world of drifting competition, allowing 75 percent of the total score to be calculated from unbiased data measurements.
• Remaining 25 percent will be based on style points and averaged out between the three judges.

Event Head Judge
• The head judge for the Anaheim D1 event will be Hisashi Kamimoto, who also serves as a judge for D1GP Japan.

Associate Judges
• Recently announced series judge Brian Norris, Southern California native and one of the earliest adopters of the sport of drifting in the United States.
• Adam Andretti, professional race car driver and member of one of the most legendary families in all of motorsports.

Competition Director
• Terence Jenkins - Jenkins founded Lateral G Racing and along with his driver Samuel Hubinette, the team went on to become crowned the first ever championship winning American drift team. Jenkins went on to form the WDC and since 2005 he has provided drift exhibitions, promoting the sport of drifting at major Indy Racing League events. Additionally, Terence ran Octane TV, a cable TV On Demand, broadband and mobile network focusing on automotive programming.

Technical Director
• Chiaki Goto - Goto’s racing career includes championship wins in the N1 Endurance Race in Japan for three consecutive years, from 1995 to 1998. He also served as the director and mechanic of the JIC Magic drifting team in 2003. From 2004 to 2007, Goto served as Race Operations Director for D1GP USA.

Director of Track Operations
• Naoki Kobayashi - Kobayashi hosted the first ever drift clinic in North America, called Drift Day. Soon after, he formed the Drift Association and started working with D1GP to host its first Ikaten competition. He also helped bring the first D1GP competition to the United States, co-organizing the 2003 event at Irwindale Speedway. Since 2002, Kobayashi has hosted well over 250 events nationwide. His most recent projects include the Pro Am Drift series and Drift 101.

Announcer
• Will Mattox takes over as the voice of D1GP USA. He is currently the voice of Rally America and has played as host for the rally portion of X Games 14 and 15. Lisa Uchida, the voice of D1GP Japan, will also be calling the play by play in both English and Japanese.

Line Production
• Dennis Condon & Associates -The Dennis Condon and Associates team represents the pinnacle of event production, with a resume that includes the Olympic Games, MTV Music Awards, Disney events, and Supercross. They will be responsible for all on-track entertainment as well as the opening and closing ceremonies.

Option Video
• D1’s Option video will be filming with legendary host Manabu Suzuki - the voice of D1 in Japan

Ticket Prices
• Bleacher & General Admission tickets are available at www.d1gp.com and at the event box office.

For more information about D1GP USA and the Anaheim event, please visit www.d1gp.com.

Today I got a message via the ol’ interweb from my buddies at D1GP USA announcing that GENIUS Tools will be the presenting sponsor for the 2009 season!  Good stuff!  Does this mean that every pit mechanic using Genius Tools has superhuman IQs?  I prefer to think…yes…yes they do..

Press Release:

Genius Tools Announced as Presenting Sponsor for 2009 D1GP USA Season

D1 Grand Prix, America’s leading drift racing series, announced today Genius Tools will be the Presenting Sponsor for the 2009 season. Additional sponsors for this season include the United States Air Force, GReddy, VITI Water, ampm and Universal Technical Institute. FOX television has also been announced as the official broadcast partner of D1GP USA. This deal is the largest in drifting history with FOX owned and operated stations in more than 20 markets, including the top 10 markets in America, broadcasting D1GP USA events via FREE television in 47 million homes. On top of this deal, D1GP USA will race into an additional 45 million homes via cable carriers Comcast and Cox Fox Sports Net and an additional 120 million homes via Fox Sports International, which spans 65 countries. D1GP USA will also be featured on the weekly television show Steel Dreams in 70 million homes.

D1GP USA Announces Additional Driver Entries for 2009

The 2009 D1 Grand Prix season is shaping up to be an international affair as D1GP USA today announced that competing in the entire series this season will be the top three drivers from Finland: No. 1 ranked Janne Leinonen, no. 2 ranked Harri Hokkanen and no. 3 ranked Juha Rintanen. All three will be competing alongside the many international and domestic drivers registered thus far.

D1 Underground Reaches Unbelievable Heights

With the program just a month and a half old, D1 Underground has had more than 350 driver registrations and 60 event registrations making it the largest networked group of grassroots drifting events in the world. This program has quickly become the standard for amateur drifting in the United States.

For more information about D1GP USA or to purchase tickets, visit www.d1gp.com.

I know conspiracy theorists will be all over this story like white on rice but despite superficial appearances Red Bull sponsored driver Rhys Millen won the Red Bull World Drifting Championship on skill and one heck of a crew.  This event saw drivers from 12 countries battling it out for the title of the world champion.

One by one each drifter took on the specialy designed high speed course as the brackets got widdled down more and more until there was only one! (highlander reference…check).  Despite the best efforts from the international drivers no one was able to take Rhys off his game who set the fastest entry speed of day at 103.7 mph!

The whole thing was an awesome sight to behold.  Stay tuned for a small picture gallery!

Photo courtesy of Formula Drift

Sometimes when you watch people do something really fun you want to join in but simply joining in isn’t always so simple.  This is especially true when it comes to something like Drifting.  If you try to join in without knowing what you’re doing you could get hurt or seriously jack up your car.  Luckily the Drift Day Association offers two levels of drifting classes.  Drift 101 will teach you the basics and get you used to the feeling of a car sliding around as well as a few initiation techniques.  Drift 102 will go over more initiation techniques like clutch kicking.

One of the best features of these classes is that you dont have to use your own car.  There are seveal drift ready cars that Drift Day Association built for students to rent and use for the day.  All you really need to do is show up and bring a helmet!  And if you don’t have one they have pretty good deals on those too!

I know any product with the name “drifting” in it may speak of complete “bandwagon-ism” but when the said product is made by Momo Italy I feel compelled to make an exception.  Momo’s drifting steering wheel was given a 90mm thickness and a double center stripe as they believe that this will improve grip and control when you’re sideways-aiming your car towards a clipping point.  Not sure if their theory works but at the very least I know that if they made it, it will have quality construction.  Maybe we can have Dai Yoshihara test it out for us…?