Formula Drift: Irwindale – Final Fight Coverage 2014
The 2014 Formula D season came down to the final round this past weekend, and it provided a thrilling end to the season.
This season the drivers seemed to be a lot rougher on the cars, giving the sense that the drivers
were pushing 100% to win each round, and making each a run a fight till the end.
The banks of Irwindale eat up competitors and spit them out, accenting the runs of the drivers that make it through unscathed.
The long straights, allowing competitors to hit the banks around the top of 4th gear, brings out the roar of the V8’s, 2J’s, and other engine swaps in the series.
Coming into this round, the top spot was up for grabs between Fredric Aasbo and Chris Forsberg.
With Aasbo getting knocked out, Forsberg would take home the season win. With a first place finish, Aasbo would come in 1st.
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Even in practice, the drivers couldn’t escape the walls of Irwindale.
Dan Savage’s Sikky RX8, Matt Coffman’s S13, and Dean Kearney’s Viper all bit the wall in practice.
Coming into the round of 32, the top three qualifiers included Forrest Wang, Daijiro Yoshihara, and Ryan Tuerck.
As the sun fell in the sky, the smoke started taking on the highlights and really started to hint at the spectacle that was to come when the lights flipped on for the night.
The round of 32 witnessed Coffman, Moen, McNamara and McQuarrie all fall victim to the banks, while Maeng caught fire and Hamilton spun out.
During halftime (before the round of 16), the sky put on a show of its own over the venue before Jason Britton and Team No Limits’ stunt show took the speedway.
The round of 16 saw Forsberg and Aasbo winning close matches against Vaughn Gittin, jr. and Mats Baribeau respectively.
Forrest Wang put up his best against Grunewald and advanced to the final four where he’d meet Daigo Saito.
Wang’s momentum would run out in the next round, however, where Saito’s 1200 HP Lexus SC430 would prove to be too much on the straights for Wang’s 2J S14.
Wang would end up in 3rd for the night.
On the other side of the bracket, Aasbo defeated Yoshihara and Forsberg would defeat Matt Field to face each other in the final four.
The importance came not only from the night’s win, but also for the overall season win.
Aasbo ended up moving on after a close (and much-contested) matchup with Forsberg, and found himself facing Saito for the Round 7 and Season championship wins.
Again, Saito’s powerful setup was just too much to handle on this nearly perfect-for-Saito course and led to his third-in-a-row win at Irwindale over Aasbo.
The night’s results (Saito in first, Aasbo in second, and Wang in third) left Forsberg as the season championship winner.
