FORMULA D ROUND.5 // SEATTLE

Saturday was an eventful day at Evergreen Speedway, as the Formula D crew came into town to run the fifth round of their drifting championship. We had reported live from practice on Thursday night, a night when a few local guys were invited to run the 5/8ths mile with the Formula D pros. With Saturday being our first (official) drift event, we were very much impressed with not only the driver ability, car control, setup and fan support, but the event as a whole. Somewhat reminiscent of '60's era Formula One, with drivers wandering the pits, sharing golf karts, chatting about their last practice runs or strategies for qualifying. The fans, die hard, mingling with the pit crews, shaking hands with drivers, a dynamic often absent at many motorsport events. The teams were well funded (sometimes), well organized and quite professional. As we watched practice and then qualifying, drivers coming within inches of the wall, the anticipation was building for the main event. Then the rain came (like we should have expected anything else), and with it, a lot less tire smoke and a lot more car control. Drivers like Tanner Foust and Rhys Millen, familiar with unforgiving terrain, executed their runs well, leaving the remainder of the field to play catch up. Jim Liaw, President and Co-founder of Formula D, had this to say about the wet conditions: “The rain made for one of the most exciting events in the history of Formula D. The fans from Pacific Northwest are some of the most dedicated fans and despite the wet weather they stayed glued to their seats for the entire event. These conditions definitely showcased the skillfulness of Formula D's pro drivers.” Despite being in somewhat unpleasant conditions, we were throughly impressed with what we saw, and look forward to future drift events.

Full results are as follows:

Formula D Round 5 - Seattle

1. Millen // Red Bull Pontiac Solstice - 101 Points
2. Hubinette // Nuformz Racing / Mopar Dodge Viper SRT10 - 96 Points
3. Nishida // Hankook / Dynamic Autosport Nissan 350Z - 83 Points

Castrol SYNTEC Power Cup 2008 Point Standings

1. Hubinette // Nuformz Racing / Mopar Dodge Viper SRT10 - 409 Points
2. Foust // Rockstar / AEM Nissan 350Z - 397 Points
3. Yoshihara // Bridgestone / RMR Pontiac GTO - 366 Points
4. Millen // Red Bull Pontiac Solstice - 355 Points
5. Forsberg // NOS Energy Drink Nissan 350Z - 338 Points
6. Takatori // Super Autobacs Nissan Skyline R34 - 326 Points
7. Tuerck // Gardella Racing / Mobil1 Pontiac Solstice - 317 Points
8. McNamara // Falken / Sears Auto Center Saturn Sky - 237Points
9. Grunewald // Nitto / Tanaka Racing Chevrolet Corvette - 229.25 Points
10. Nishida // Hankook / Dynamic Autosport Nissan 350Z - 200.25 Points
11. Miki // APEXi / Nitto Mazda RX7 - 183.50 Points
12. Gittin, Jr. // Falken / Ford Racing Mustang - 182.50 Points
13. Verdier // Cooper / Crawford Performance Subaru STI - 169.50 Points
14. Gushi // RS*R Scion tC - 166.50 Points
15. Mohan // Kyle Mohan Racing / Cooper / Mazdatrix RX-7 - 125.50 Points
16. Hayashida // Signal / Maziora Nissan Skyline GT-R34 - 123 Points

Look for the Formula D crew at Infineon on September 13th for the sixth round of the championship. Head over to our Photo Gallery for pictures from this weekends event, and stay tuned to ColdTrackDays, as we will keep you up to date on this years Formula D championship // 08.11.2008