Tonight seems to be social night at the official Red Bull event hotel: The Westin Long Beach. There are many people floating about the lobby, restaurant and bar talking shop so to speak and our resident photographic guru seems to be having a great time chatting with all the drift crews and showing today’s Speedhunters photos…

I’ve just pulled myself away from the festivities in order to complete this blog post.

The day started out with the arrival of the two British cars to the paddock after being stuck in customs since last Thursday. The teams and the EDC crew have been stressing, let me tell you. Fantastic news that they managed to sort out the paperwork. At one point in time they had to get a Congressman involved… yikes.

Unfortunately we didn’t have a chance to properly cover the Pro Am event. It was happening this morning at the same time as the Media meeting, so we ended up missing most of it.

I’m not even sure who won it. I do know that Matt Powers was in the final but he ended up crashing out. Here is a snap of the damage…

The next item of business was the driver signing…

You know, I haven’t seen Ken Gushi do a single run yet. His car is properly blown up, but judging by the look on his face you wouldn’t know it.

Eri, one of the Falken Girls…

The 2008 Drift Australia Champion, Leighton Fine. I kinda feel bad that he wasn’t able to bring his proper competition car out. I’m sure he’d be doing quite well with it.

A snap from today’s drivers meeting: British Drifter, Tim Marshall, and to his right is Robbie Bolger.

After the meeting I checked in with the British Driftworks crew… they were busy replacing the car’s steering pump. They did find time to represent Speedhunters though. Thanks guys!

I quite like Eric O’Sullivan’s AE86 in spite of it’s Honda heart transplant. It has the right look about it.

Like the special flags that the event organizers have created? They are flying above all the team pits and trailers.

There was a pretty sizable crowd at the event today. Pretty decent considering it was a only a qualifying day.

Cool shirt!

A tale of two initiations. There is a pretty wide range of entry speeds into the first corner here with Dai already well into his drift, while Kiwi drifter Garry Whitier has literally just pulled his handbrake.

This is a photo of Ben Broke-Smith’s first ever run on the drift course. He is really on his back foot now as the car doesn’t seem to be handling very well and he has lost a whole day of practice compared to his rivals.

None the less, I’m quite happy to see this car running on US soil.

Qualifying Results:

Let’s run down the final qualifying order-

In 32nd place we have Ken Gushi who failed to complete a single run due to mechanical problems.

In 31st we have Ryuji Miki whose transmission broke on both qualifying runs. In this photo he’s ground to a halt here in the infield… His entry speed was 98 mph FWIW.

Mad Mike Whiddett ended up in 30th after having problems all morning with his water pump and failing to put together a complete run. His speed was 98.4.

Next up is Justin Pawlak, who had the biggest wreck of the day and failed to score a complete run. He’s waving to the crowd from the flatbed truck in this shot. His speed was 99 mph.

In 28th we have the 2008 European Drift Champion: Ben Broke-Smith. He scored low with a 72.42 at 96.7 mph. Apparently the team just changed to new shocks and the car isn’t handling like Ben is used to.

2007 Drift Austalia Champion Bolger managed 27th spot in his borrowed 350Z with a score of 76.5 at 88.8 mph. He is really struggling with this car at the moment.

Canada’s Marco Santo is next. He doesn’t seem able to run against the walls to any effect and unfortunately and suffered another accident in practice. His score was 77.25 at 88.6 mph.

With a low score of 77.83 at 98.9 mph, Robbie Nishida doesn’t seem to be having the best event.

Taking 24th spot we have Remmo Niezen in his crazy M5-powered E30 with a score of 79.58 at a speed of 96 mph. It will be interesting to see how Tanner deals with the slow drift speed of the BMW when they face off tomorrow.

Qualifying in 23rd was 2008 Drift Australia Champ Leighton Fine with a score of 80.58 and an entry speed of 93.8. He just doesn’t look like he’s found a rhythm with this borrowed car.

Bill Sherman took the 22nd qualifying position with some rather ragged looking runs. His score was 82.50 with a recorded top speed of 98.9 mph.

New Zealand D1NZ champion Garry Whitier is next up with a score of 82.92 at 98.1 mph. He needs to get closer to the walls!

Luke Fink took the 20th qualifying spot with a score of 83.42 and a top speed of 99.4 mph. That’s pretty fast for an SR20 powered car! He has an aggressive, crowd pleasing drifting style.

Top bloke Tim Marshall nabbed the 19th qualifying position with his Chevy powered R33 Skyline. This is quite the feat considering he had only driven the course for the first time a few hours previously. His score was 83.67 with a recorded speed of 90.5 MPH. He is going to change his set up a bit tomorrow to improve his performance.

Stephan Verdier ended up 18th. His score was an 83.92 with a speed of 90 mph.

Our visiting royalty, Tengku Djan, ended up in the 17th slot with a score of 86.5 and a speed of 96.9.

Teenage sensation James Deane took the next qualifying position. His score was 86.67 at 92.5 mph.

Eric O’Sullivan upheld the honour of Hachi enthusiasts around the world with a score of 87.93 and a top speed of 89.8 mph.

Fredric Aasbo seemed to be on much better form today and took the 14th qualifying slot. His score was 90.33 with a speed of 91.mph.

Carl Ruiterman managed to take 13th with a score of 90.33 and an entry speed of 95.8 mph.

I thought Forsberg was going to produce a stronger qualifying performance. He ended up in 12th position with a 92.08 score with a 94.2 reading on the radar gun.

Takatori took the 11th place grid slot. His score was 92.25 along with a very fast entry speed of 101.7 mph. Great shot huh?

Kyle Mohan seemed to be well pleased with his 10th place qualifying position. Considering his privateer status, this is quite the achievement.

Tanner Foust’s car is looking pretty mean with it’s all black front facade. He must be a little disappointed with a 9th place qualifying position. His tally was 93.5 points at 98.7 mph.

Conrad Grunewald has been on good form all weekend and I think he has a good chance of a strong result on Sunday. His score was 93.83 at 102.3 mph.

Check out how Jr’s inside front wheel is off the ground after running over the base of the clipping point pylon. He seems to be pleased with seventh place and a score of 94.5. His entry speed was a crazy 102.4 mph.

One of the masters of crazy angle this weekend was Daijiro Yoshihara. His entries were fearsome! This balls-out commitment was reflected in his score of 94.67 at 100.9 mph.

Hats off to Darren McNamara for locking down the 5th qualifying slot. He looks very fast with an amazing entry speed of 103 mph. His efforts were enough to be rewarded a 95.75 points tally.

Ueo was wowing the crowd with his aggressive corner entries and perfect wall riding technique. It just goes to show that talent still has the possibility to outshine equipment in top level drifting. His qualifying score of 98.08 at 97mph was good enough to lock down the 4th place grid slot.

This photo clearly illustrates why Paul Vlasblom qualified in third place. Look how far out his rear tires our from the rubbered in drifting line. Very few people ventured out that far. Interestingly, he has a slow entry speed: 88.8 mph which the slowest of the runs, but the precision and execution of his run highly impressed both the crowd and the judges. His final score was 98.63.

Samuel Hubinette was certainly on form this afternoon. He recorded an amazing trap speed of 103.1 and ended up with a points score of 97.

And the top qualifier goes to mister Mad Skills himself: Rhys Millen. On his main qualifying run he set the fastest entry speed of all: 103.2 mph. That’s pretty crazy you have to admit! His final score was a strong 98.2 points.

I’m sure that Red Bull will be pleased with this.

BTW the setting at the track looked like armagedon today. There was a thick black cloud of smoke above the event coming from the nearby fires and at one stage a layer of ash started to fall from the sky. It was a little spooky…

Anyways, time for some sleep.

:Rod