Fresh from winning at Pikes Peak, New Zealander Rhys Millen has continued his winning ways by taking the spoils at Formula D Las Vegas. Second place went to our very own Fredric Aasbø, who drove near perfectly for the entire day, and third went to the current points leader Vaughn Gittin Jr. Here are some quick highlights, as I will go into more detail later on in the week.
The conditions today started out absolutely terrible: it went from 107 degrees Fahrenheit (that’s 42 degrees Celsius) to extreme winds and pouring rain in what seemed like a matter of minutes. This really threw everyone off.
There were many epic battles over the weekend that will be become part of drifting history, one of them being the fight between Rhys Millen and Daigo Saito.
Daigo was gifted a win by Rhys when he spun at Round 1 in Long Beach, but this weekend Daigo returned the favor when he went in hot and got sucked into the wall.
Like a true champ he was in good spirits even as he was hauled off the track.
Fredric had quite a stacked ladder going all the way up to the finals, starting with 2009 Formula Drift Champion Chris Forsberg. Unfortunately Chris did not get his car issues sorted out, so he lost the drift on his follow run.
Slowly but surely Fredric worked his way up the ladder, knocking out his opponents one by one.
That is until he got to Vaughn Gittin Jr… Both drivers pushed their cars to the absolute limit.
Fredric was in constant contact with his spotter and crew chief Stephan Papadakis as a One More Time was called.
The Monster and the Hammer went at it once again, but Fredric was able to edge out Vaughn for the win and headed into the final.
Even though Fredric was guaranteed a podium spot he still wanted his first win really badly. Unfortunately he lost the car during his lead run and went into the wall.
His car was battered and bruised. The team called five minutes to fix the damage.
Rhys waited on the hot grid as the clock ticked down. Just as we thought Rhys would get the win by default, Fredric pulled up to the line.
The Norwegian Hammer had an excellent chase run – however, it was not enough to overcome the crash during his lead run.
Rhys congratulated the young driver for such a great battle; Fredric said he was honored to lose to the Godfather of drift.
He now moves up a few spots in the points standings to sixth place.
Rhys moves up from sixth to third place. He is now within striking distance of earning his second Formula Drift Championship.
Formula Drift rookie Daigo Saito is still in second place.
Vaughn has increased his lead in the standings to a little over 25 points. He has been on the podium for the past three rounds, so I would not be surprised if he snags his second championship this year.
Congratulations to Rhys, Fredric and Vaughn for putting on an awesome show.
-Larry
larry@dev.speedhunters.com
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The picture of forsbergs 370 is amazing. Normally people say the car spit flames, that looks more like afterburners to me.
@CarpeDeez That is definitely not normal. He was having bad luck all weekend.
Desktops from this weekend please!
Upload pics of Everyone ESP gushi
Guys, he said he'll be posting more stories during the week. Patience.
really want to know what happened to aasbo's car. congrats to rhys
according to aasbo himself on facebook, the car did not fail, but he did, as far as he was able to figure out.
@bradjh I will be posting them in "through my lens" Should go up on weds.
@MitchJBaier More coverage coming soon!
@bigmac69 I will touch on that in my next post during the week.
@OysteinTeigland He told me he took a gamble and he lost. No problem, still got second place!
Awesome event, good judging, great tension, was on the edge of my seat. Irwindale's gonna be some $#!+
Rhys with the help of his Hyundai win over the rest... but here on speedhunters i just only see two tuscanis.... why?
may sound like a stupid question but whats the point of having a spotter?
@Nikhil_P
The spotter is another pair of eyes that help the driver with hitting clipping points and such. During qualfiying the spotter lets the driver knows what they need to do if they need to get closer etc... or if they need to enter at a higher speed
They also relay information coming from the judges and safety to the driver like if there is oil on the track. Also during tandem the driver can not really see what is going on behind him so the spotter lets him know to push it or back off.
Now a days it is very common for spotter to keep notes all the other competitors, they also video their drivers runs as well as everyone else's runs so they can study them. It's very serious work and most of them cover their mouths when talking so other spotters can not eavesdrop on their conversation.
Photos look great Larry! Can't wait to see the rest, I was eagerly watching the final last night and really want to hear happened with Fredric when he ran into the wall. Everyone is really pushing their cars to the limit which is awesome to see! I'll check back during the week for more photos!
that pan of saito behind millen is the stuff photog's dreams are made off, terrific capture larry
I'd like to know what happened to Gushi's FR-S...
So good to see Fredric at the podium!! Congrats mate!
Wallpaper for the 6th photo please!! Dat backfire looks bad-ass.
@Larry Chen @Nikhil_P Serious Motorsporting.
Somewhat off topic, but is there still a way to view video of the event? My driftstream on mobile took a dump right before the top 8 and I missed it all, and have been unable to find a way to watch the footage?
i have to say, the monster mustang looks so mutch better than the regular falken livery, i think with its green ligths it's one of the most fotogenic cars on the grid!
@SamNalven the stream is still up on the fd website at the live part. the justin tv link or metacafe
@Larry Chen oh i seeeee! makes sense! thanks!
@MariusEngenSkinnes Thanks Mess!
Oh god ima sound like a hater but....C'MON!!!..Spotters? Tube framed V8's? am i alone in thinking this ish isn't "real" drifting...? ok here's an ides NO MORE TUBE FRAMES for starters Weight penalties for every cylinder above 4 roll cages and chassis strengthening is ok but not these all out purpose built fiberglass bodied "cars" ok rant over i apologize....it was just pissing me off..
I hope Daigo's car will be fully repaired before the next event. or maybe he can use his FD Asia car?
Dang, Aasbo making it that far. What a feat. Reading and watching his progress through Speedhunters is pretty amazing. It shouldn't be long until we see him with that championship trophy.