The NOS Energy Drink Drift Team was out at the world famous Road Atlanta Raceway this past weekend for the second round of the 2010 Formula Drift Championship. The team was coming off a 10th place finish in round one and a 1st place finish in the Formula D Team Drift Challenge both in Long Beach, CA last month.
With temperatures in the mid 90’s and off the chart humidity, the Mishimoto cooling system was working at full capacity keeping the NOS Energy Drink Nissan 350Z running flawlessly. Team owner and driver Chris Forsberg put the Nissan in 8th place after qualifying on Friday.
“Even though I was melting while I was suited up in the car,” said Forsberg, “the Mishimoto radiator kept the engine cool allowing me to get the job done.”
Fortunately, the temperatures cooled on Saturday for the main event making for a perfect day for the thousands of fans that came out to see the best of the best. Forsberg slid past Cyrus Martinez in the Top 32 bracket to be paired with two time Formula Drift champion Samuel Hubinette. Hubinette and Forsberg were so close to each other during their tandem runs they had to run the course twice to allow the judges to make their decision. Ultimately, Forsberg defeated Hubinette moving him to the Great 8 round of tandem competition where he faced off with Ken Gushi. A critical error by Gushi caused contact between the two cars. Forsberg would earn the win, but his steering was now damaged. The Chris Forsberg Racing crew grabbed their Genius Tools and was able to get the car in near perfect condition to continue the final rounds of competition.
In the final four, Forsberg faced drift veteran Daijiro “Dai” Yoshihara. Dai was on the top of his game the entire day clocking some of the fastest entry speeds in the field. Forsberg piloted his injured NOS Energy Drink Nissan 350Z through the course keeping up through the main corners, but today was Dai’s day and the judges gave him the tandem win. Dai went on to defeat Vaughn Gittin for the overall win.
Forsberg was next paired against Michael Essa to decide 3rd place. Essa was running his personal best event, but Forsberg’s consistency and skill proved too much for Essa and he finished his personal best of 4th place overall.
“We’re very excited to have a solid finish at Road Atlanta,” said Forsberg. “We didn’t get the result we wanted in Long Beach, but this will give us some momentum going into New Jersey and put us back in contention for the Championship.”
The podium finish puts the NOS Energy Drink Drift Team in 5th place in the points standings heading into the 3rd event of the year at Wall Township Speedway in Wall, NJ on June 4th & 5th.
