Finally talks of Champ Car becoming defunct and IRL being the open wheel racing series where all teams will shift from Champ Car into IRL. In Daytona last week I spoke to former open wheel team owner Chris Lencheski who said that he was one person of many who promised to return to open wheel racing with a team if their was a merger or just one organization left.

NASCAR has pulled away from open wheel racing by far since the mid 1990’s and open wheel racing has lost many drivers including the 1996 IRL champion Tony Stewart. Champ Car will be defunct so it looks like no more team demo’s unless IRL agrees to partner up with Formula D. Let’s hope this can happen in 2008 or soon!

“I just hope it happens,” said Chip Ganassi, who owns teams in IndyCar, NASCAR and Rolex Grand American Sports Car Racing. “There can’t be five people on the planet that don’t want it to happen, so let’s hope it happens.

“If they were to get back together, I think that’s only when the work would begin. It’s probably like the 1994 baseball strike. The work really begins once you get all of the problems behind you. It would be nice to get all of the issues in one place. Get all of the rulesmakers in one place. Get all of the promoters in one place. Get everybody at one table instead of two. It would certainly end a lot of confusion in the marketplace.”

Source: Yahoo Story

They are the latest Drag racing team to step into the Drifting market! The General Motors Drag Racing crew is building a Pontiac Solstice for Drifting. Jason Hunt and Brian Ballard has seen a ton of success in drag racing and I am sure they will look to do the same in 2008. Watch your back Gary Gardella!

The rumored driver for the team is the return of Ali Aljibouri. He drove in Formula D back in 2004 and 2005 in the Cartunes vehicle and then a Nissan 350z pictured below from Chicago 2005. We understand that Ali has been present in other racing series during his abensce from Formula D and also doing tire testing for Cooper Tires? That seems like it will be a shoe in for who is picking up the tire bill!

Big thanks to JTuned for the picture we found.

Here is an interview published by Everythingdrift.com we found interesting with Drift Alliance member Chris Forsberg. The season is getting closer and everyone is seeming to shift into high gear for 2008.

“From there, Forsberg decided to run as a privateer, picking up Maxxis tires as his lone major sponsor. Forsberg’s 2007 season was iconic for privateers, picking up 2 event wins, a top qualifier award, and 2nd place overall in the Formula D points. Going into 2008, Chris has signed a title sponsorship with NOS Energy drinks as well as renewing with Maxxis Tires, and looks to be one of the top guns entering 2008 as he returns in the same Titan V8-powered Roadster. We sat down with Chris to recap 2007 and talk about 2008.”

Check out the whole story and interview here.

Everythingdrift.com

We announced that Daijiro will be driving the old Pontiac GTO in a full Bridgestone Tires package but what about the rest of the Bridgestone team? The rumor mill is spinning that they could be downsizing in 2008 on total number of drivers while putting more funds and attention into the GTO team. We will keep you posted if we get news on other drivers new locations or if we can confirm that these Bridgestone Tires are still on the team for 2008.

This just came from a post by Bill Wood at SpeedTV. We will stay tuned to this story as it breaks and more information is available. Here is what Bill said about the story. The cliff notes are that Daijiro Yoshihara will be in a Pontiac GTO with the RMR umbrella with major backing by Bridgestone Tires. This should be a big position move for 2008 and putting Daijiro behind the solid technical/mechanical program of Rhys Millen Racing! Check out the story below……….

2005 Formula Drift champion Rhys Millen made headlines this week even under doctor ordered bed/couch rest and the discomfort associated with three fractured vertebrae in his neck and two compressed and broken vertebrae in his back.

Last Saturday night he completed a deal to bring his legendary Pontiac GTO out of mothballs to compete in a two car team with his Pontiac Solstice in the 2008 Formula Drift series. And the driver of that car? Daijiro Yoshihara, one of the fastest and most competent drifters in the world. It’s the first super team in drifting and, I believe, the first comprised of two drivers with Formula Drift event wins on their resumé. This could change the face of drifting.

“I needed to hire a driver who was equal to myself if not better,” Rhys told me this week as he recovered from a brutal pounding he took while practicing for a New Year’s Eve stunt that went wildly wrong Dec. 23.

Source:Rhys Millen Retools - By Bill Wood - SpeedTV

We have a six minute video from the Formula D Laughlin Am event up now. Extended coverage from our Issue 2 story on the Laughlin Am with more crashes we found buried in the archives! Catch some great drifting from drivers in attendance like:

Tyler Cox
Daniel Willie
Forest Wang
Colin Frost
Ameen Rizvi
Tracy Shayhorn
Quoc Ly
Charles Litterst
Patrick Mordaunt
Ryan Clemens
Justin Pawlak
Dan Pina

We have at least two new crash features for you and a great slow motion of one displayed in the magazine. Don’t miss it. Also, a bonus feature included is the 12×12 at 12am In N’ Out Challenge between Chris Orsini (Drift Brothers) and Brady Stribling (Wrecked Magazine Photographer)!

iTunes Keyword: Wrecked Magazine

The two new Drifting cars we spotted in Los Angeles are Ross Petty’s car over at Garage BOSO which looks like it will be sick!

Ross Petty’s 2008 Ride.

We spotted Patrick Mordaunt with his new S14. Well it’s his purple car just freshened up and painted by the famous LJ Garcia. In fact……Pat’s car is the same color as the legendary Feels Civic EK Hatchback done by LJ Garcia himself. Will this car become a new legend?

24 year old female drifter Deborah Lopez (Drift Angel) recently collected the prestigious Red Bull Young Star trophy at the international Racing Show Liege, Belgium.

Following a successful 2007 which saw Deborah compete in numerous countries at high profile events and demonstrations, the Red Bull Young Star trophy was awarded to Spanish Drift Angel because of her dedication to drifting in the past and her commitment to improvement in the future. Furthermore, the commitment of Red Bull to top level motorsport adds credibility and stature to this award; a prize that no other Prodrift competitor has ever received.

Also on display at Liege was the first look at the new Xtreme Racing Parts Nissan that Deborah will once again compete in for 2008. With a new colour scheme, some cosmetic modifications and a very special engine en route from the USA, Deborah’s 2008 machine will be a completely different setup to what she has competed in previously.

Speaking about her new award Deborah said :

“I’m really happy to receive this trophy as a RedBull young star. The past 2 years where very rough and getting a trophy like this is a great feeling and great reward for all the hard work.
RedBull is so respected in Xtreme sports and Drifting that I have to say this really is the best start that I can have for the 2008 season. With my new car being built like I want it, I will try and really battle hard this year. I’ll be pushing 110% for a high finish to the 2008 season, for my team Xtreme Racing Parts and also for all the female drivers and supporters“.

Deborah remains as Europes only female competitor in Prodrift and will be competing as part of the 2008 Prodrift European Series. With just two months to go before the season kicks off, drift fans can follow all of Drift Angels progress right here or

Links/Sources:
Pro Drift Series
Drift Angel’s Official Site

This was just posted by Glen Woods at NOPI Drift around 24 hours ago. He links to a new page on the NOPI website talking about licensing. You can now buy a NOPI Drift license and avoid qualifying events.

Provide NOPI DRIFT with photos of Driver and Car.
Provide NOPI DRIFT with a Drivers Resume.
Provide NOPI DRIFT with video of Driver and car Drifting.
Provide NOPI DRIFT with Organization or Pro Driver’s recommendations.

Cost is $750.00 for 2 race Provisional

With the Provisional, driver must qualify in top 16 to be eligible to run Tandem rounds and compete on Sunday to be granted NOPI DRIFT Professional License.

Allow Two Business weeks for processing.

Contact:
Glenn Woods
NOPI DRIFT Race Director
404-366-4700 x 241
glennw@nopi.com

Link: NOPI.com Reference Link

I know this topic has been drug out and I have to say kinda like “who cares” at this point but I know from a drivers stand point a ton of legitimization of a series is focused on judges so bear with us here. Basically the report is that this deal will be signed in ink tomorrow but the three drivers are spot on from what our rumor mill has been reporting.

1. Mike Peters

2. Rob Fleming

3. Matt Petty