Drifters do funny things sometimes.  This behavior can sometimes be a result of consuming copius amounts of alcohol but most of the time its just a complete bloody mystery.  To witness such an occurance simply scroll down below to watch the social display/mating ritual known as the “Hoonigan Harlem Shake”

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[Source: OMGDrift.com]

Over the weekend Formula Drift returned once again to Wall Speedway AKA “Irwindale Jr.” for the fourth round of the 2012 season AKA “The Gauntlet”.  They call it “The Gauntlet” because Wall Speedway is a tiny terror of rough banked to flat transitions, unforgiving guardrails, and rough track surfaces.  While it does not eat as many cars as say Long Beach does, Wall has its share of yearly casualties.  However, the talk of The Gauntlet this year was a few controversial decisions by the judges when it came to instances of contact between two drivers during a tandem battle.

The first (and most talked about) incident was during the “Top 16″ when Tyler McQuarrie went up against Chelsea DeNofa.  In the run where Tyler was leading, he hit the guard barrier, HARD.  Chelsea was following Tyler so closely that when Tyler hit Chelsea had no where to go and ran into Tyler’s car (which had already crashed).  Despite the appearance of Tyler making an error and crashing first, Chelsea was faulted for his contact and Tyler moved on.  This call got drift purists so riled up that there is already a meme about it floating around on the interwebs.

The next incident came when Dai Yoshihara faced Rhys Millen, also in the Top 16.  The two drivers made contact which resulted in damage to both cars.  Some felt that the contact was Dai’s fault but the judges disagreed and gave the win to the 2011 champ.

The last incident was during the consolation round when Chris Forsberg went up against Daigo Saito.  As Daigo led he lifted off the throttle during a transition.  When this happened, Forsberg made contact with Daigo and spun.  Daigo did not ‘brake check” per-say but he did slow his car by lifting the throttle.  Some would say that is fair game and it was Forsberg’s fault for the contact as he did not adjust accordingly to what Saito did.  However, the judges did not like Daigo’s throttle-play and placed the blame for the contact on him, thus handing third place to Chris Forsberg who earned his first New Jersey podium finish in his career.  This decision also marked the first time Daigo Saito has failed to make the podium this season.

This left the final battle to Dai Yoshihara and Vaughn Gittin Jr.  These teammates have battled each other many times in the past as they fought for the championship in 2010 so they know each other well which made for a really great match up.  However in the end Vaughn Gittin’s Ford Mustang just had too much for Dai to handle on this track and he earned the win.  Vaughn’s win in New Jersey marks his first win since 2010, ending a drought and putting the driver just barely insight the points battle for the 2o12 championship.

There are now three rounds left (Washington, Las Vegas, and Irwindale Speedway) and JTP continues to lead the points with Daigo in second place and Dai Yoshihara in third.  Can JTP hold on to the lead? Will Daigo be the first driver to win a championship in their “rookie” year? Or will Dai fight through and repeat as champion?  We have three more stops to find out!

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For the last year videographer/director duo Will Roegge and Joshua Herron have been traveling the country in an effort to document the national movement by grassroots enthusiasts every where to “KEEP DRIFTING FUN“.  Well during the Formula Drift Atlanta weekend the pair not only debut their movie to a full house they also announced that instead of forking over cash for a DVD the complete short-form documentary would be available online, for FREE!  So far it has hit Vimeo but we are hoping it will also show up on YouTube (so we can watch on TV via Xbox) and iTunes in the near future.  For now you can scroll down and watch the whole thing for yourself!

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In the weeks before Formula Drift Long Beach you probably heard a lot of talk about a dude named Daigo Saito.  If you don’t know who he is then you were probably puzzled over why this guy is such a big deal.  Well, let me tell you why.  This guy is one of the best Japanese drifters since N.O.B. Taniguchi (maybe better), he is a D1 champion, and he does stuff like this.   This year hes come across the ocean to compete in Formula Drift and despite getting into a new car, driving for a new team, on new tracks hes ever even seen before, this guy made the podium in his very first outing!

The team from Keep Drifting Fun, Will Roegge and Josh Herron turned their highly expensive cameras on Saito-san during the weekend of Formula Drift Long Beach in an effort to capture his awesome-ness on film.  If you really want to know who Daigo Saito is, this flick is a good introduction so scroll down below and watch children!

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Daigo Saito FD Long Beach from Will Roegge on Vimeo.

A year ago Will Roegge and Joshua Herron AKA “The Neptunes” of video set fourth on a cross country journey to find and document groups and individuals who still enjoy drifting for what it is at its heart;  People who are not concerned with getting competiton licenses or finding a sponsor but those who drift just because its fun.  Their documentry, titled “Keep Drifting Fun” is on the verge of its debut but it is not quite ready yet, although the duo wanted to show us what they had in store so they released the official trailer which you can see below in glorious HD.  For more info on “Keep Drifting Fun” find them on facebook at facebook.com/KeepDriftingFun.

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Keep Drifting Fun – Official Teaser from Will Roegge on Vimeo.