2005 Formula D
■Formula D Round.1
Date : April 18th 2005
Venue : Wall stadium in New Jersey
□Honorable runner-up
Now, Drift Event becomes popular in the US. One of the most famous Drift Events “Formula D” was held in Wall stadium in New Jersey on April 18th.
There are 9500 spectators came to the event and let us know how it is popular again. Team RS★R participated in it with S2000 and driver is Alex.
He went through the final at 2nd place. At first run of the first round, the driver JR Vaughn Gitten driven S13 Silvia was spun by him and got the win.
The opponent of the second round was driver Hubert Young with S13 Silvia and third round was Casper Canul with S14 Silvia. Alex also got the win driving nice line and holding enough speed.
The opponent of the final was Rhys Millen with Pontiac GTO. If we won this race, we could be the first champions of the team from Japan. As a result of the fierce battle, we finished second in the tournament. However, we can expect next race.
Koji Ikeda who is the director of the team RS★R mentioned, “People in New Jersey was really wonderful. We were really satisfied with the result. We would be a champion if the team members and sponsors cooperate with.”
■Link
■Formula D Round.2
Date : May 6th and 7th.
Venue : Road Atlanta
□Formula D :Lost the first round.
Formula D round 2 was held in Road Atlanta on May 6th and 7th. There are 5000soectaters came to the circuit.
Driver Alex with S2000 who we support suffered from machine trouble of differential broken before the qualifying.
We quickly brought back to the pit and managed to repair the vehicle in a panic condition.
We were in time to join the qualifying and advanced to the final by placing the 4th.
The first competitor of the chased run was driver Yoshihara who had driven very fast in his qualifying.
There are 300m downhill from the start line made the tough game for our RS★R Supra.
We lost by a narrow margin in the first round but next race HOUSTON is going to win.
■Video Report
■Link
■Formula D Round.4
Date : July 8th and 9th,2005
Venue：Sonoma in CA
□Both luck and abillity
Forth round of the Formula Drift was held in Infineon raceway in Sonoma County where it is famous for the wine district coming 7850 people there.
Driver Alex who drives RS★R S2000 got some engine trouble while he was practicing.
He joined the qualifying without enough practice, but advanced to the final round in the 6th place.
Kenzi Yamada with Nissan S13 was the first competitor of the first run.
Alex got the win and went through Top 8. Next driver was Rhys Millen with Pontiac GTO who is a point leader in this season.
First run was close game, but second run that Alex lead, Rhys get inside of Alex at the first corner, however driver Rhys Millen went over corner bump without drifting and regarded as course off. Alex got the win.
Next was a high-level battle with driver Tarner with S13, however we lost at this race. We couldn’t win the 3rd place decision race and finished in 4th place.To be a champion of the Alex is just around the corner. Please look forward to the next race in Chicago on August 5th and 6th.
■Link
■Formula D Round.6
Date : August 27th 2005
Venue：Irwindale speedway in CA
□Final round...Crash!
D1 Grand Prix became more popular in Japan. Irwindale speedway is the first place to be held the D1. Final round of the Formula D was also held in this circuit.
It was very hot day for the spectators and drivers. RS★R S2000got some engine trouble on the practice day, so we changed the turbo charger in the morning of the qualifying day.
On the first run of the qualifying, his drifting was overwhelming compared with other drivers and made us sure that we could pass the qualifying.
On his second run, he started with good speed and nice angle at the clipping point, however after the corner of the clipping point, he crushed to the concrete barrier.
According to the judgment of the first run, we could go through the qualifying at 6th place. However, we took a long time to repair it and couldn’t avoid retiring. We finished 10th place for point ranking in 2005.
He was able to be a higher rank in this season and becoming a bigger driver. We can expect his dynamic and exciting drifting next season. We will take part in D1 US-Japan competition held in December, therefore please check the drift event in the US.