Well I'm dead tired and covered in rubber bits, so that must mean that another season of Formula Drift has started.

Today was practice and qualifying in Long Beach, and I figured I'd make a quick post highlighting some of the action before tomorrow's main event.

With over 50 cars battling for a spot, qualifying would be a long, though process – with nobody guaranteed a pass to the Top 32.

So how did qualifying go?

Taking the top spot was Rhys Millen, who seems ready to put his Genesis Coupe into contention this year. Rhys' 89-point run would be the day's best.

And finishing just behind Rhys is a string of ASD-built Falken machines, starting with Tyler McQuarrie who rocked faces with an 88.3-point run. 

It's been a good event so far for Vaughn Gittin Jr. and his new Monster Mustang. JR took third with an 84.7-point run.

Next up was Darren McNamara, driving his Saturn Sky to fourth place with an 83.9.

Tanner Foust seems to be right back on the path to success in 2010. He put down an 83.8, good for fifth overall.

Last year's Long Beach winner, Ryan Tuerck took sixth with his 81.2-point run.

Fredric Aasbo smoked his way to 7th place with an 80.9. Very impressive considering he'd never ran at Long Beach prior to today.

Sam Hubinette already seems quite comfy with his new wheels. He drove the big Challenger to eighth with an 80.7.

Speaking of new wheels, Justin Pawlak battled back from some mechanical issues with his Brostang to take 9th place with a 79.3.

And rounding out the top ten qualifiers is Chris Forsberg, who began his title defense with a 79.1-point run.

As for Team NFS, Matt Powers got into the big show taking 25th position.

While Mad Mike on the other hand just missed, qualifying 33rd. Bummer.

It wasn't the best debut for Michael Essa's BMW. He hit the wall hard during practice, got the car running again, but was unable to turn in a passing qualifying run.

Jeff Abbott managed to get his little NB Roadster on the grid for tomorrow, taking 27th spot. Nice one!

Tommy Roberts had some awesome runs during practice, but was unable to repeat in qualifying. Still one of the coolest looking cars out there.

Ian Fournier didn't quite make the cut either, but damn his R32 sedan looked mean out there.

Conrad Grunewald's Camaro has got to be one of my favorite new cars this year. Conrad qualified 18th, putting him in a good spot for tomorrow's tandem action.

I'll leave you with this shot of Ross Petty, who qualified 22nd.

And the complete results from Formula Drift -

Driver:                  Car #:         Score:      Speed 1:     Speed 2:
1 R. Millen             6                   89             61.8            50.6
2 T. McQuarrie     17                 88.3          58.9           51
3 V. Gittin              25                84.7           58.4          43
4 D. McNamara    8                  83.9           56.4          50
5 T. Foust              34                 83.8           57.4          48
6 R. Tuerck           44                 81.2           58.8          50
7 F. Aasbo             151                80.9          57.3           48.5
8 S. Hubinette      77                 80.7          56.9           48
9 J. Pawlak            13                 79.3          56.8           50
10 C. Forsberg      64                79.1           55.9           50
11 R. Miki              26                78.2          58.8           51
12 D. Yoshihara     9                 78             58.6           49
13 K. Gushi           33                77.5          56.5            50
14 T. Aono            86                76.3          57.7            47
15 P. Mordaunt   90                75.3          54               49
16 A. Pfeiffer       88                74.5          59.9           48.9
17 S. Verdier        12                74.1           57.3            49
18 C. Grunewald 79                73.6          58.2            49
19 T. Brakohiapa 18               72.1           57.5             47
20 J. Deane          16               71.9           56.3            48.7
21 J. Russakoff    87               71.2           56.2             51
22 R. Petty          808             70.6           58.9            49
23 K. Mohan       99               70.4           54.6            47
24 F. Wang          30              69.3           54.6            49.7
25 M. Powers     665             68.8           56.5            47.7
26 D. Kearney     43              66.9           57.2             47
27 J. Abbott        518             66.8           53.4             51
28 J. Maeng         51              64               55.1             50
29 C. Ng               84              63.9           56.4           48.7
30 D. Mertzanis 323            63.5           57.2             50
31 M. Takatori      5              63.2           54.4             50
32 J. LeJeune     333           60.3           55.7             49.7

OK time for a shower and some dinner. Much, much much more to come from the streets of Long Beach.

-Mike Garrett