Even with the rain in Seattle last weekend the event kept going through the top 16. Check out our 2 minute recap video from Evergreen Speedway. Congrats to Rhys Millen for taking home another win in his Redbull/Bridgestone Pontiac Solstice.

2008 Formula D Seattle Review

Fresh  off the rumor mill it appears tons of people have been asking the right questions to RMR since the General Motors news broke this week. According to our sources at RMR they will NOT be driving the Hyundai in Formula D in the 2009 season. Apparently the rendering that was pulled off of Hyundai’s Media site is intended to be a time attack vehicle for Rhys Millen Racing.

Rhys Millen has been stealing headlines it seems this week between winning Seattle, the GM fold, and the Hyundai merger.  We have heard that Hyundai will still be campaigning a vehicle with some team for the 2009 season. Many rumors around the pits have gone as far to say it will be with a Hankook (another Korean company) partnership.

They say that all good things must come to an end and it looks like General Motors factory support in Drifting will be done after Irwindale Speedway this year. With 1 championship under Rhys Millen in the RMR Pontiac GTO General Motors has seen some success in Drifting and made quite an impact on the youth culture that indulges the sport.

Looking at the points standings GM has 5 cars in the top 10 beating out all other manufactures by a long shot. This doesn’t come to the Drifting community as much of a shock since GM just reported a $15.5 billion dollar loss for second quarter earnings this month. We will have more on this story in Issue 6 soon so stay tuned.

A new king is back on top after Tanner Foust failed to rank higher than Sam Hubinette who only trailed by 6 points going into the Seattle weekend.
1.Sam Hubinette (Mopar Dodge Viper SRT10) - 409 points (+1)
2. Tanner Foust (Rockstar/AEM Nissan 350z) - 397 points (-1)
3.Daijiro Yoshihara (Bridgestone Tires Pontiac GTO) - 366 points (0)
4.Rhys Millen (Red Bull Pontiac Solstice) - 355 points (+2)
5.Chris Forsberg (NOS Energy Drink Nissan 350z) - 338 points (-1)
6.Michihiro Takatori (Super Autobacs Nissan Skyline) - 326 points (-1)
7.Ryan Tureck (Mobil 1 Pontaic Solstice) - 317 points (-1)
8.Darren McNamara (Sears Auto Center Saturn Sky) - 237 points (+2)
9.Conrad Gruenwald (Nitto Tires Chevrolet Corvette) - 229.25 points (0)
10. Robbie Nashida (Hankook Nissan 350z) - 200.25 points (+3)

After failing to qualify this weekend Vaughn Gittin Jr. remained at the same point range allowing him to fall the most out of any ranked driver over the weekend from 8th position to 12th.

**12th.Vaughn Gittin Jr. (Falken Tires Ford Mustang) - 182.50 points (-4)

Formula D Las Vegas saw some mind blowing wrecks mostly focused at turn 2. Catch Rhys Millen smash into the wall while battling Yoshioka! Sam Hubinette and Chris Forsberg both overdrive the turn and put the rear end into the wall hard over the weekend as well. Don’t miss all the action from the event in the City of Sin!

Formula D Las Vegas Crash Reel - City of Sin Edition

Formula D Round 5 will shake up the Championship Points big time with this podium finish!

1st- Rhys Millen (Red Bull/RMR Pontiac Solstice)
2nd- Samuel Hubinette (Mopar Parts Dodge Viper)
3rd- Robbie Nashida (Hankook Nissan 350z)

Seattle was insane and it brought the rain. The city that has sunshine like 16 days a year opened the skies and let the rain come down for Formula Drift. Check out the gallery by Clicking Here

Don’t miss Formula D Round 5 now on Wrecked Magazine!

Formula D got a little crazy in Monroe, Washington as the rain came pouring down during the second runs of qualifying. Vaughn Gittin Jr. felt the affects of the rain after making an error on his first run and then spun out in the rain for his second resulting in not making the top 16.

1. Sam Hubinette (Mopar Parts Dodge Viper) 96.75
2. Tanner Foust (AEM/Rockstar Energy Drink Nissan 350z) 96.58
3. Kazu Hayashida (R34 Nissan Signal Skyline) 96.08
4. Robbie Nashida (Hankook Tires Nissan 350z) 94.75
5. Daijiro Yoshihara (Bridgestone Tires Pontiac GTO) 94.33
6. Michihio Takatori (Super Autobacs Nissan Skyline) 94.25
7. Darren McNamara (Falken Tires Saturn Sky) 94.25
8. Ryuji Miki (APEXi Mazda Rx-7) 94.08
9. Chris Forsberg (NOS Energy Drink Nissan 350z) 94.08
10. Conrad Grunewald (Nitto Tires Chevrolet Corvette) 93.17
11. Tony Angelo (Maxxis Tires Mazda Rx-8) 92.83
12. Ryan Tureck (Mobil 1 Pontiac Solstice) 92.42
13. Justin Pawlak (National Wave Mazda Rx-7) 92.42
14. Rhys Millen (Redbull Pontiac Solstice) 92.08
15. Kyle Mohan (Mazda Rx-7) 91.58
16. Ken Gushi (RSR/Mobil1/Rogue Status Scion tC) 91.33

Speedhunters dropped one of the best posts ever today. Top 10 Drift Cars of all time. Right now Mike Garrett has unleashed #10-06 on us and we cannot wait for #1-5! Yoshinora Koguchi’s RPS13 180sx was picked as #10. Click the Speedhunters link below for more.

Speedhunters.com Link to Top Drift Cars #10-06

Jon Sibal produced a Lexus rendering that was aired all over the Internet back in April 2008. As he pointed out on his blog the front bumper design of the Hyundai has been copied by whoever did the render of this car for RMR and Hyundai. The news has spiraled onto sites as big as Autoblog and no one has seemed to get any answers. Jon Sibal said this on his blog, accusing only the artist who made the render and not Rhys Millen Racing and Hyundai. 

 Whoever created this image for RMR or Hyundai is where the problem lies. Hyundai and RMR most likely isn’t aware of what this person did here. The issue is how this person who took my design which I spent a lot of time designing, and he spent a few seconds to copy and pasted it on the Hyundai Genesis RMR car then showed it them without disclosing that the front bumper is a blatant copy of my design. 

You be the judge?