Last week I brought Formula DRIFT drivers Dai Yoshihara, Rhys Millen, and Chris Forsberg to Turn 10 Studios, the makers of Forza Motorsport, in Seattle. The next edition of the popular series will launch in October and we were able to get a behind the scenes tour on the making of the game. The tour started with a demo on the game play and graphics. The game features the ability to change everything from tire pressure to designing your own car graphics and has over 400 vehicles to use. But we brought both Import Tuner and CarDomain.com to cover the technical aspects of the game.

Here is my behind the scenes tour of Turn 10.

Rhys, Dai, and Chris at the Studio

The creative space complete with Foosball and Kegerator.

Where the magic happens.

For the rest of the Tour… Read the rest of this entry »

For Immediate Release

August 10, 2009

Formula DRIFT Round 5: Breaking Point Results;
Chris Forsberg Takes the Victory and Maintains the Championship Points Lead

Long Beach, Calif. – August 10, 2009 – Formula DRIFT returned to Evergreen Speedway for Round 5: Breaking Point in Monroe, WA. Chris Forsberg in the NOS Energy / Maxxis Tires Nissan 350Z takes the victory and maintains the lead in the Formula DRIFT Championship Points race. Forsberg also maintains the lead for the Tires.com Triple Crown bonus prize.

“What an unbelievable finish to a great weekend,” said Chris Forsberg, winner of Round 5: Breaking Point and Formula DRIFT Championship Points leader. “We were leading the points chase for the series and the Tires.com Triple Crown and just wanted a strong finish. We could not have asked for a better turnout this weekend.”

The 2-day weekend event treated the fans to both Formula DRIFT Championship action and a Pro Am competition. The drivers came prepared for any weather conditions at Evergreen Speedway as this venue hosted the first rain event in Formula DRIFT history last season, but the event remained dry all weekend with cool weather. With only 3 events remaining in the season the pressure was on for the drivers to make their mark and didn’t fail to disappoint the excited crowd.

Vaughn Gittin in the Falken Tires Ford Racing Mustang GT and Eric O’Sullivan in the Hankook / Rockstar Subaru WRX put on an exciting match, which had O’Sullivan moving on to the Finals, but would fail to run due to damage from the previous round giving Forsberg the victory. Tyler McQuarrie in the Falken Tires Nissan 350Z and Gittin fought for 3rd place and after an intense battle McQuarrie would come out on top of his Falken Tires teammate. Entering the event with the points lead, Chris Forsberg was a marked man and battled through the tough competition meeting McQuarrie in semi-finals and proved to be one of the most entertaining match-ups of the evening with both drivers putting it all on the line with their fast entry and great angle along the banking of the course. Forsberg got the best of McQuarrie in the battle of the 350Z and took home his second victory of the season, which also was the 2nd event of the Tires.com Triple Crown in which he also won the 1st event at Road Atlanta.

“It’s hard to describe the Seattle event in words. I can only say that with all the excitement and drama that unfolds on track its hard to imagine the story we are seeing could even come out of Hollywood,” said Ryan Sage, vice president of marketing and co-founder of Formula DRIFT. “The championship is on and there are more than a few drivers that can still take the championship going into Round 6: Locked and Loaded at Infineon Raceway.”

Formula DRIFT returns to Infineon Raceway for Round 6: Locked and Loaded later this month on August 21-22. This is a special event with Formula DRIFT joining the IndyCar weekend. The best drifters in the world will share the track with the best drivers in the world including Helio Castroneves, Danica Patrick, and Scott Dixon. Ticket packages are available now.

Formula DRIFT Professional Championship 2009 Point Standings

1. Forsberg, Chris NOS Energy Drink / Maxxis Nissan 350Z 410 Points
2. Tuerck, Ryan Gardella Racing / Mobil 1Pontiac Solstice 363 Points
3. McQuarrie, Tyler Falken Nissan 350Z 347 Points
4. Hubinette, Samuel NuFormz Dodge Viper 338 Points
5. Gittin, Vaughn Falken Tire Ford Racing Mustang GT 336.50 Points
6. McNamara, Darren Falken / Sears Auto Center Saturn Sky 316 Points
7. Nishida, Robbie Hankook Tires / Dynamic Autosports Nissan 350Z 314 Points
8. Foust, Tanner Rockstar / Hankook Scion Racing tC 303.50 Points
9. Pawlak, Justin Bergenholtz Racing / Nitto Mazda RX-8 298 Points
10. Brakohiapa, Tony Cooper Tire Ford Mustang 282 Points
11. Petty, Ross Garage Boso / Falken Nissan S15 280.75 Points
12. Maeng, Joon Maxxis / LS Auto Nissan S13.5 275.75 Points
13. Aono, Taka Technosquare Toyota AE86 Corolla 273 Points
14. Mordaunt, Patrick PM Racing Nissan S13 268.25 Points
15. Verdier, Stephan Cooper Tire / Crawford Performance Subaru STI 263 Points
16. Yoshihara, Daijiro Falken Tire / Discount Tire Lexus IS350 260 Points

Round 5: Breaking Point Event Results
1. Forsberg, Chris NOS Energy Drink / Maxxis Nissan 350Z
2. Eric O’Sullivan Hankook / Rockstar Subaru WRX
3. Tyler McQuarrie Falken Tires Nissan 350Z

Tires.com Triple Crown Point Standings after 2 of 3 events
1. Forsberg, Chris NOS Energy Drink / Maxxis Nissan 350Z 205 Points
2. McNamara, Darren Falken / Sears Auto Center Saturn Sky 150 Points
3. Tuerck, Ryan Gardella Racing / Mobil 1 Pontiac Solstice 149 Points

Next Stop Infineon Raceway for Round 6: Locked and Loaded in Sonoma, CA! Be sure to check back for more info on the Formula D x Fatlace Event 2.

I’m here at Evergreen Speedway for Formula DRIFT Round 5: Breaking Point. Today the is mostly practice for the drivers and set-up for the weekend’s event. Here’s a couple really short videos I took while watching the drivers practice (not up to par as some of the recent videos from Josh Herron, Will Roegge, and DC Chavez, but hey I’m just having some fun).

Someone got a new paint job

UFC president Dana White held a press conference today and made a few announcements including the return of “Huntington Beach Bad Boy” Tito Ortiz, who many though the bad blood between White and Ortiz could not be settled, but I guess it is all good now. This raises some interesting matches that could be in the future as Tito came close to beating Rashad Evans and “almost” submitted Machida giving him a great fight. According to the press release we probably won’t see him in the ring until November or December and maybe against UFC veteran Mark Coleman.

More news comes with the change in the headlining fight of UFC 103 with Rich Franklin and Vitor Belfort. The match orginally had Franklin vs. Dan Henderson, but with Henderson’s domination over Michael Bisping another title shot with Anderson Silva could be in his future. Belfort is a great fighter and has wins over Wanderlei Silva and Randy Couture.

But the biggest news is that with the cancellation of Affliction’s league after Josh Barnett tested positive (again) for steroids and the main event of Barnett vs. Fedor Emelianenko being cancelled, which pretty closed down shop for the organization. Rumors had Fedor coming to the UFC to fight Brock Lesnar, which would be the largest UFC match ever and probably the highest rated pay-per-view of all time for them. Things get tricky as Fedor’s management want to co-promote and ride what the UFC has built over the last 10 years. I would love to see this fight happen and I’m sure most would as this could catapult MMA into the limelight even further.

Next weekend is the boy lightweight champion BJ “the Prodigy” Penn vs. Kenny Florian at UFC 101 and with BJ’s new training program at the RVCA gym he is looking to be in great shape. I hope that BJ wins in a big way and puts all doubts aside after his loss to GSP. The other main event fight is with middleweight champion Anderson Silva stepping up a weight class to fight former light weight champion Forest Griffin. I really think this will be a good match, but Anderson will get the win in the end.

Despite Economy, Businesses Still Spending in Motorsports
by Dan Frio (thanks Dan!)

It may be the worst economy seen in several generations, but companies are still spending money marketing their brands in motorsports. It’s an idea that might give most CEOs insomnia. Slashing marketing budgets in downturns is custom. But to then spend those fewer dollars in motorsports sponsorships, never a cheap arena to begin with?

Foolhardy.

Not so, say some marketers. For companies that can stomach the risk, downturns provide an opportunity to capture market share at the expense of cautious rivals.

“Motorsports is a very important avenue for us,” says Nick Fousekis, Falken Tire Senior Manager Consumer Marketing. “It’s another opportunity to get in front of people that already know, or may not know, our brand. They can see that we’re not just a tire manufacturer peddling black, round objects. We’re out there. We’re active.”

As 2009 opened, the motorsports headlines were not encouraging.

To read the rest of the article
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Another long weekend is in the books from Agenda to US Open to the Fatlace party and that was just til Friday. Mark and crew should be posting pics from the party soon and from what I remember it was an amazing time.

Saturday was spent helping a friend move and then it was late night drinks to celebrate my friend’s 30th b-day. Sunday evening to continue the celebration we headed out to Culver City to Gyenari Korean BBQ restaurant to both have a b-day and also to watch Food Network’s “Next Food Network Star” with contestant Debbie Lee. Unfortunately, Debbie didn’t make it to the Finals, but her food is really good and we were able to sample some of her “Seoul to Soul” recipes.

Steve and Debbie

The layout of Gyenari is great and I really dug the decor. Great use of backlighting, urban design mixed with some modern influence.

Yesterday Mark, Emily, and I checked out the Agenda tradeshow in Huntington Beach and the US Open of Surf. I’ll let them show the good stuff off, but I would rather showcase the bad side.

Let’s start with what not to wear in OC (or anywhere for that matter)…unless you’re a sponsored athlete then you pretty much have to.

After a nice dinner at Habana in Costa Mesa. Mark and I hit up Waterfront for the LIRA clothing x Agenda party as we wanted to keep it mellow for the evening and save our energy and our livers for tonight’s Fatlace party at iLounge (if you plan on attending please arrive “hella” early).

How not to dance…

Here is the first video of Lebron James getting dunked by Xavier College’s 20 year old Jordan Crawford. This happened 2 weeks ago during the Lebron James Skills Academy camp during an after camp pick-up game. This is the first video to be leaked. Nike tried to confiscate all the videos that were taken during the game, but of course someone with a camera got smart and was able to sell to the highest bidder. Later tonight TMZ.com will be releasing another version from a better angle and I will be sure to follow-up to this post with that as well.

Damn how do you get dunked on at your own camp by a college dude that’s only 20?

LINK TO VIDEO ON EBAUMNATION.COM (use until I can figure out how to embed this video)

TMZ VIDEO LINK

After a long Formula DRIFT weekend I headed back to Las Vegas for the 2nd weekend in a row. This time it was for some relaxation (somewhat) and a wedding. Luckily, my friend let me stay at his condo on the strip, which made it easier to escape the madness of all the tourists and casino section.

Maserati Gran Turismo

One night was spent at club PURE at Caesar’s Palace as I had a few friends spinning there. This definitely had it’s perks as we were able to stay away from the crowds and also have free bottle service in the DJ booth. Good hanging out with all the DJ’s from DJ Reflex, DJ Hollywood, DJ Ikon, and even Eric D-Lux.

it was a little packed

Perks of bottle service

Only in Vegas…”you’re my boy Blue”

The boys post vodka shots

Reflex before

Reflex after…and more of Reflex at the Fatlace / Agenda party this Friday stay tuned

The wedding was short and sweet and it was off to the reception. Good times and great meeting new people. Vegas can be amazing, but I need to stop gambling so much especially at New York New York and Monte Carlo…I’m gonna stick to the Wynn / Encore and Hard Rock from now on. Lesson learned.

With all the buzz surrounding the X-Games coming up at the end of the month here is a short video that highlights the NOS Energy Drink / Team ACP driver, Andrew “ACP” Comrie-Picard and co-driver Jen Horsey. You may remember them as the car that flipped on it’s roof during last year’s X-Games rally.