Earlier, we looked at the battle for the Top 32. Now, we'll focus on the Top 16 battles all the way to the finals. Here's how the big show unfolded with the sun down and the lights on at Las Vegas Motorspeedway.
The first battle of the top 16 pitted the two Team Need for Speed drivers, Fredric Aasbo and Matt Powers, against each other. During Fredric's lead run, he fell out of drift, with Powers tapping him. Powers moved on to the top 8.
The second battle of the top 16 was with Conrad Grunewald and Ken Gushi. Conrad came in with a huge angle on the first corner but ended up coming out very shallow. Conrad also passed Ken during Ken's lead run which is a no-no in the judges book since this is not D1GP. The judges awarded Gushi with the win.
A battle of the titans for the Top 16's third battle. Chris Forsberg and Ryan Tuerck both put in solid first runs…
…but during Forsberg's follow run with Tuerck, he ran offline. That mistake gave Ryan Tuerck the win.
Vaughn Gittin vs Darren McNamara. Darren stayed on Vaughn's door and when the roles reversed, Vaughn returned the favor. Unfortunately, JR lost his drift, giving the win to Darren.
Rhys Millen vs Patrick Mordaunt – Millen was unstoppable and moved on.
The battle between Kyle Mohan vs Michael Essa was too close for the judges to call so a One-More-Time was required.
While Mohan and Essa pulled off the start line to change tires, the show moved onto the battle with Justin Pawlak against Odi Bakchis. Odi put in two solid runs where JTP wavered slightly. Odi progressed.
With JTP knocked out, the show went back to the OMT battle between Mohan and Michael Essa. During Mohan's lead run, a brake failure caused him to slam hard into the wall at 103 MPH. It was one of the hardest crashes that Formula Drift in a long time. Luckily, he was able to walk away.
Daijiro Yoshihara vs Toshiki Yoshioka. The two Japanese drivers couldn't be separated, so the judges called for a OMT.
In the OMT battle the judges saw that Yoshioka was the stronger of the two. Yoshioka took out the current championship points leader.
The first battle of the Top 8 pitted Matt Powers with Ken Gushi.
Both Matt and Ken drove aggressively, and both lightly tapped the wall when they threw into the first corner. But in the end, Matt Powers drove a bit more aggressively than Ken. To the Top 4 he went!
Next up was Ryan Tuerck and Darren McNamara. These two drove the pants off the cars. It was such a close call that the judges had to go for a One More Time.
As Darren and Ryan changed their tires, the show once again moved on to the next battle. Rhy Millen and Michael Essa. Millen drove that Hyundai Genesis just as smoothly as he did in Seattle. And the judges went with Rhys.
Back to Darren and Ryan for their OMT battle. Darren hurtled into the first corner at more than 100 MPH on his lead run. But Ryan also put in two solid runs. You guessed it: OMT.
On Darren and Ryan's second OMT battle, the two drivers once again locked in two solid runs. But Darren's performance was slightly better than Ryan's. He moved on to the Top 4.
The last battle of the Top 8 was a battle of the V8 S-Chassis: Toshiki Yoshioka vs Odi Bakchis. Yoshioka tapped the wall a bit too hard on the entry and lost drift. That mistake gave Odi the win.
The battle of the Top 4 began with Matt Powers and Darren McNamara. Matt once again showed his aggressive entries. But when he was following Darren, he put the pressure on a bit too much, tapped Darren and spun. Powers lost the battle with Darren and would go into the battle for third place.
Rhys Millen and Odi Bakchis for the second Top 4 battle. Odi has to a great lead run, but Rhys put on the pressure hard on to Odi.
The judges awarded Rhys with the win. Rhys and Darren moved on to the finals and Matt and Odi moved on to the battle for 3rd place.
In the battle for 3rd, Odi and Powers put in two solid runs. The judges couldn't decide and called for a OMT.
In the OMT battle, Matt Powers was able to inch away from Odi which resulted him in taking home 3rd place at Las Vegas. This is Matt's second podium of the season.
The final battle with Rhys and Darren was a straight forward affair.
Both drivers put in two extremely solid runs, but after the two runs, a winner was decided…
…and the judges chose Rhys Millen as the overall winner of the 6th round of Formula D at Las Vegas Motorspeedway!
With one more round to go, the championship is still very much in the air.
Daijiro Yoshihara is first in standings for the championship with 470 points, JTP sits second with 451.25 points, Darren McNamarra is third with 435.5 points, Chris Forsberg in forth with 429 points, and sitting fifth is Team Need for Speed's own Matt Powers with 418.5 points.
So, who's going to take the crown? We'll find out in a month's time.
-Linhbergh
OFFICIAL SPEEDHUNTERS SUPPLIERS
well done darren doing the irish proud! looking forward to seeing ya in mondello
Matt Powers is a BEAST. I hung out with him at FD Jersey and hes a real calm dude when not in the spotlight. Congrats to Millen and Darren as well. I had to stay up until the next morning to watch the full round but it was well worth it.
Go mattycakes!!
Unless Darren is on the track team, he did not "hurdle" through the course. He hurtled* through it. The first means jumping over obstacles while running, the second means going extraordinarily fast.
it was a good round of FD, not too many calls i didn't understand.
Wow, 14 of the same photos. Good work photogs!