Vaughn Gittin Jr. is now the first and second American driver to defeat the J drivers on our home turf. The D1 Vs. USA (or World now) has two marks for American victories. Our congrats is issued out to the whole Drift Alliance crew and JR for producing once again for America! USA USA USA!

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It was freezing and cold and did I mention freezing at Nashville Motor Speedway but a huge crowd showed up to battle it out for a NOPI License! It was a short track that found most drivers between 2nd and 3rd gear. A large group of Drifters came from Memphis and the Nashville crew came out in full force! The top 4 drivers were all awarded a NOPI license! Congrats guys.

 Licensed Drivers

1-Jeremey Lowe

2-Ron Ewerth*

3-Adam “Struka” Szczuka

4-Gabe Austurias

*Drivers with asterisk received double payout from Maxxis Tire contingency.

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Looking into Friday for practice Paul Vlasblom’s BMW we were all excited to see is still stuck in customs in Los Angeles. Rumor has it they will atempt to get it out tomorrow very early but we’ll see if that comes to pass. Slide America reported on their blog about Paul’s arrival as excitement was heightened with another BMW driver tearing it up on American soil! Good luck on customs tomorrow Paul, we don’t want to see you not driving because of a stupid problem like that.

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A shocking announcement was announced days before the Thanksgiving D1GP event. Moto Miwa (formerly of Drift Day) and Mike Mucklin have left D1GP. Hopefully the coordinators at D1 can get everything together for the long weekend at Irwindale. Here is the mass e-mail Mike sent out informing people of his resignation.

Dear Industry Friends, Supporters and Colleagues,

It is with great disappointment and a heavy heart that both myself and Mr.
Moto Miwa must announce our resignation from our association with the D1
Grand Prix USA corporation. On a request originally from the executive
branch in Japan, we devoted the last 6 months working non-stop to put D1
back in the cross-hairs of the domestic U.S. tuner industry and marketplace,
as well as outside of that to the non auto-endemic consumer market. We had
little time to make this happen and while we made great strides, it was not
enough in the end.

As you may know, myself and Moto, two industry veterans and staunch
supporters of the sport of drifting, were recruited by D1GP as a  consulting
team to bring the U.S. arm of the D1GP business out of a state of
irrelevance and back on track to properly adapt it to the U.S. market so it
could thrive as the top series in the sport, as well as on a global level.

Unfortunately we have reached an impasse with the executive branch in Japan
on the overall global and domestic business plan and on the process to put
D1 back where it belongs. Therefore we find ourselves unable to devote any
more time or resources to this attempt to turn the business around from its
previous state.

On a personal level, please understand this is genuinely devastating for
both Moto and myself because we know that at the end of the day, the
content, driving skill and overall entertainment level that is prevalent in
the D1 series is beyond anything in the world and we find this to be a
horribly underutilized resource. Even though there are other successful
drifting properties in this market, D1 should, under ideal circumstances, be
the ambassador of the sport to the world. All the drivers and teams in
Japan, the founding nation and culture of this amazing and dynamic sport,
that have made D1 what it is and have set the standard for the sport, are to
be commended for their unrelenting commitment to continuously raising the
bar.

That being said, the Japan based parent company of D1 Grand Prix seems to
want to continue on the same path that they’ve been on for years past, one
that has neither worked well in the past, nor is likely to work now in our
view. As such, Moto and myself see no reason to carry on with promoting the
agenda we created and developed in the best interest of the sport on a
whole, as well as the business of D1GP USA.

Neither of us can even begin to express our disappointment in this situation
and we are both very thankful to those who gave us their time, believed in
our plan, and supported our efforts.

For media or exhibitor inquiries regarding the November event, please
contact Ai Takamura at takamura@d1gp.com

For all other inquiries, please contact Chiaki Goto at goto@d1gp.com

Moto and I want to sincerely apologize to everyone for any misunderstandings
we may have created in this process. Rest assured that our intentions were
sincere and we really thought we could make a difference and we threw every
resource and contact we had at making things work.

If there are concerns or issues with the current state of D1 Grand Prix USA,
please consult with the current management as we are now unable to resolve
any matters regarding this project. Also, our d1gp.com E-mail addresses will
be deactivated shortly so if you wish to contact either of us, please use
the addresses below.

Warmest regards,

Michael Mucklin
mike@supergtusa.com

Moto Miwa
moto@club4ag.com

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D1GP kicks off next week at Irwindale Speedway in California. It starts the day after Black Friday and two days after the Thanksgiving holiday. Will this effect attendance and how will they be able to continue as the 2008 event is scheduled on the same weekend. Last year the World All Star event saw rain which was a huge deterrent’s for the weekend.

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Sam Hubinette will be in a new Dodge product. The all new Dodge Challenger which is a two door version of the Dodge Charger Sam Hubinette is currently driving. Rumor has it Chris Cook will be given an identical Dodge Challenger for a two car team with mirror image vehicles. As we get more information on the Dodge Challenger we will be posting it!

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These thoughts don’t reflect anyone at Wrecked Magazine. Our prayers go out to Nick and John’s family and we hope everything can come back full swing to normalcy. This post was put up by jalopnik which we deem a reliable source for information. It appears Nick Hogan will not be at the Formula D Pro Am this weekend and perhaps his 08 driving season is in question.

 ”The strange panties-dropping saga of Nick Hogan continues. We’ve just learned the son of Hulk was arrested today in Clearwater, Florida on “felony charges of reckless driving involving serious bodily injury.” Clearwater police claim the crash the young Hogan (also known as Bollea) was involved in back in late August that left his passenger, John Graziano, critically injured was caused by — wait for it — street racing. Yup, Hogan was supposedly racing a silver Dodge Viper when he lost control of his yellow 1998 Toyota Supra. The urine-colored car then struck a curb and spun 180 degrees across two lanes of traffic, slamming rear-end first into a palm tree. We’ll keep you up-to-date on what happens next, as well as how many panties drop at the mere mention of Hogan’s super Supra. In case you’ve forgotten what the Supra looked like post-crash, we’ve re-included our gallery below. You know, for purposes of posterity.”

Credit- jalopnik.com

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Mike Fine made a huge announcement at the Maxxis booth during SEMA 2007. Chris Forsberg in his Nissan 350z Vert. grabbed a ton of attention this season by finishing second overall. NOS Energy Drink has stepped up it’s sponsorship and now taken over the doors with a can for sponsorship. Chris Forsberg and the Drift Alliance plan to take Formula D by storm next year. This photo was taken right after NOS unveiled the new logos for 2008! We cannot wait to see Chris with a better funded team!!!!! Here comes a championship in 2008.

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Two big new Drifting cars were unveiled this year at SEMA. Calvin Wan in his Nissan 350z vert. and Robby Unser in his Enjuku Racing Nissan 350z vert. Also, Dan Willie did a big revamp. on his Batlground 240sx which was found in the Konig booth.

Calvin Wan’s Infiniti G35 has been beat up since that Chicago 2006 run with Ken Gushi. I think many people including Mickey over at Falken Tires finally saw that the car was a tired chassis and wanted to give Calvin Wan a new gift. In Sonoma 2007 Calvin really put the nail in the coffin on the G35 and we were eager to see if Falken would unveil a new car for him this week. Well they delivered with a gorgeous looking 350z convertible we cannot wait to see next season.

Robby Unser from Enjuku Racing also brought out a Nissan 350z convertible with a JGTC inspiration. Robby Unser did very well for a rookie season and helped bring elements to Bill Sherman’s driving game!  With this revamped car that Robby was able to build with the Enjuku team to his spec. I really feel this will step his game up in 2008 for a top 10 finish in Formula D! I know this is a bold statement but I think this car was built to perfection. Everyone in the Drifting game trusts Enjuku’s expertise on car building and control and I feel they hit the nail on the head. Not to mention, this 350z which was in the Nissan booth is just GORGEOUS.

Then if you went downstairs to visit the Konig Wheel booth Dan Willie redid his Nissan 240sx. With a new candy paint and solid one color look the car looks completely different. Dan finished very well in the NOPI Drift series and is rumored to run more Formula D in 2008.

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