Formula Drift Round 3 took us to an entirely new venue, Palm Beach International Raceway. Without any previous experience at this track, I had no idea what to expect and we did have some crazy moments but all in all, we had a great weekend!!

Thursday’s practice started off with a bang… literally. The competitors entry speeds were well above the 100 mph mark which is faster than ever before, that coupled with unfortunate barrier placement caused a lot of drivers to slam hard into the wall during practice. Fortunately, we started practice in the spotter’s booth so that we could scope out the course before we ran. Formula Drift quickly recognized that the track was a hazard to drivers as well as fans so they stopped practice and went to work on reconfiguring the course. Their new design was very simple but turned out to be very technical because any small mistake would be very evident to the judges.

Our Nissan 370Z felt great as we headed into Friday’s qualifying session. As usual, I focused on keeping my first qualifying pass smooth and somewhat conservative to ensure us a spot in Saturday’s competition. The judges must have really been focused on our control because they gave us 93.3 which turned out to be the highest qualifying score of the day! We were excited to score that #1 spot as well as the bonus points that come along with it!

In Top 32 we were paired up against my friend Michael Essa who has been driving well in his new Z4 but he spun on his chase run, giving us a clear win. In Top 16 we ran against two time champion Samuel Hubinette who had been plagued with mechanical failures in the first two rounds so he and his team were definitely pushing hard for a win. On his lead run, he dropped a tire in the dirt which slowed his car down. As he tried to regain control in the first clip, I was able to close in on him and move into the Top 8 to face up against Tyler McQuarrie. After our first run, my spotter said that Tyler had followed us closely throughout the course and that I would have to push it hard in order to win. On my chase lap, I remained door to door with him, moving us on to the semi-finals.

In the semis, I first ran against 2010 Champion Vaughn Gittin Jr. I ran a solid lead run however, Vaughn kicked up a little dirt on the inside of the first inner clipping point. On my follow run, as we went through that same section on the course, Vaughn swung a little wide, unfortunately, I swung out a little further. After reviewing footage from both runs, the judges decided to run us one more time. I had a great lead run on our second battle, and although the judges went on to say that it was the best run they had seen all night, I was unable to close the gap enough on our chase run to take the win. I still had one shot at the podium though and I was confident that I could beat Darren McNamara for 3rd but as it turns out, I may have been a little overzealous. Darren was likely to be close but with shallow angle so my strategy was to run deep angle in order to impress the judges but instead, I over rotated in the first corner and spun to a stop.

The disappointment of being so close to the podium (again) is a hard pill to swallow but at the end of the day, I feel very fortunate. The support we have received from our sponsors, has given our team the tools needed to build a competitive and consistent car. The points we earned by qualifying 1st and finishing 4th was enough to move us up two positions in the Championship standings putting us in 4th place overall!! We have the championship in sight and have been getting better and better each round as we develop our new 370Z. I’m loving running on Hankook rubber as I feel more grip and reliability in my tires than ever before.

Our next stop is Wall, NJ in just one week. I’m super pumped to get back to the northeast where we will have the entire Forsberg clan out there to root us on!

Road Atlanta is by far my favorite track of the circuit. The track not only brings out some amazing driving, it also lends a picturesque landscape as a backdrop for it all. We have had some of our best finishes there as we have landed on the podium 4 out of the last 8 years. As the weekend kicked off, we were joined by local NOS/Coca-Cola employees, many of whom have never seen drifting. They came out to meet our team and watch practice but even better, I was able to take a few of them for a ride in our competition 370Z, giving them a weekend I hope they will never forget! We finished up Thursday’s practice with some great runs and a near perfect setup to take us into Friday’s qualifying.

We had fantastic weather for qualifying on Friday and after we ran a few practice passes, we were ready to head into qualifying. Our first pass was solid; I focused on running a relatively safe and conservative run to ensure the team a spot in the Top 32. Our first pass yielded an 88.5 which, when all was said and done, placed us in the 8th position. Since we were now guaranteed a top 10 qualifying spot, on my second pass, I decided to try for a backwards entry which would be the only way to claim that top qualifying spot. Unfortunately, I made a small made a mistake and was unable to pull it off. So, my score of 88.5 stuck.

After qualifying was over, I went to start the car and realized that the ignition wheel broke! It is a pretty uncommon part to break and has never broken in the 4 years we have been using this particular wheel. We quickly realized that with all the work that went into readying the 370Z for the trip back east, we had left the spare back at our shop in California. Kevin was able to weld the piece back together and although we were relatively certain this would hold through Saturday’s competition, we decided not to take any chances. It was only 6pm back home, plenty of time to book a flight and have the part brought out to us in time for Saturday’s 2pm practice. There was actually a small chain of people that executed the plan out in California as well as some friends from the Atlanta area who arranged use of the machining equipment we would need to modify the part to fit. It was pretty nuts but I can definitely tell you, I am blessed with amazing friends and family! Thanks to them and the crew, everything went off without a hitch and we ready to go!

Now that the car was back together and running perfect, we hit the track for Saturday morning practice! After we ran tandem with a few cars and I had a good feel for how our car would react behind the other drivers, we headed into the Top 32 competition where we were matched up against Cyrus Martinez. Cyrus made an error on the entry and we were able to keep close to him and earn the win. In Top 16 we were lined up with Eric O’Sullivan who was getting comfortable in his new ride. On our first set of runs, Eric and I both made errors causing the judges to call for a one more time. On our second set of runs, I avoided making the same error and followed him closely enough to earn us the win, moving us into the Great 8!

Moving on to the Top 8, I was paired up against John Russakoff who was having the best event of his career so far. I laid down a solid lead run but John was close throughout the course. Talking to my spotter, I realized I would need to put down an exceptional following run in order to move on to the semi-finals but I got a little too close. As I initiated into the first corner, I had to quickly jump on the brakes so that I could avoid hitting him. Unfortunately there was still a considerable amount of kitty litter on the track from one of the cars on previous battle having blown an engine and I spun out behind John. The same track conditions caused John to understeer as he exited the same corner and although this would send him slightly off track, it was not enough to warrant a one more time. We lost the round but because of our excellent qualifying position, we still finished the night in 5th place! Although I am really proud of how the team performed, I must admit, I was bummed to be so close, only to have that podium finish elude us, once again.

We’ll give it another shot at Round 3 in Florida! It is a brand new track that none of us have ever run on before so it’ll be a clean slate and I’m excited to see how it will all play out! I’ll let you all know how it goes and don’t forget, if you would like to see what we are up to in between rounds, feel free to come back here or you can check out my Twitter account @ForsbergDrift or www.facebook.com/chrisforsbergracing.

We are currently passing through New Mexico en route to Round 2 of Formula Drift! The trip is 2300 miles through basically every state on the southern border of the US. There has been very severe weather and literally hundreds of tornadoes in the southeast in the past few weeks so we are constantly watching the radar to make sure we do not get ourselves into any trouble. I have to say that I am really looking forward to this event, our new Nissan 370Z is performing excellent, taking us to a 4th place finish at the first event. Road Atlanta is definitely my favorite stop of the Formula Drift circuit, most of our success over the years has taken place on that track. I am happy that we will get to bring an entirely new machine out for the fans of Georgia, and for everyone from NOS and Coca-Cola as their headquarters is located right in Atlanta.

We updated the paint on the car to give it a cleaner, more finished look. We continued the stripes around the front end, gave the same flow to the hood, as well as continued the orange stripe around the sideskirts to flow the orange lips all the way around.

Here is a video that Formula Drift made to get everyone excited!

Formula Drift Long Beach brought out a record breaking 16,000 people! Let’s see if Road Atlanta can beat it!

I recently received a package from James Banuelos at Us Versus Them with some new clothes from their 2011 line. James also helped put together our CFR / SE Bikes PK Ripper seen here, we will be giving away a replica bike later this season. Us Versus Them is a California based company that uses very unique artwork for their clothing line, I am really into this Riot Squad 3/4 Tee. Check them out at http://news.usversusthem.com! Thanks to James for the gear!

I got some good news for one very lucky fan! SE Bikes has given me two P.K. Rippers recently, one is for myself to use in the pits and to ride around town, and the other is a mirrored copy that will be given away at the final round in Irwindale! The P.K. Ripper bike is a radical beefed up single speed road bike that is strong enough to handle some lite offroad but still be comfortable on the street. Which is exactly what I wanted since I already have a bmx bike but I dont want a super fragile bike that can’t handle jumping off a curb. I am customizing both of the bikes to match our teams colorway. Details of the contest will be released soon, stay tuned and I will post them on my blog when they are available. To find out more information about SE Bikes check out there website at www.sebikes.com!

Here is the first stage of the bike build!

Two brand new P.K. Rippers arrived from SE Racing!

Opening up the box…

Unpacking everything…

P.K. Ripper!

These bikes are buff! They have integrated headsets, oval tubing, and reinforcement bracing to strengthen up the frame.

For the first stage of “the build” I had a bunch of the parts powdercoated orange.

Assembling the forks…

Getting the cranks and the chainwheel going.

All together! I replaced all the silver logos with a orange, white, and black combo! Like I said, it is not complete, I have a few more things I will be adding to the bike that I will share later, but I really wanted to get this thing together and on the road!

Well Formula D Long Beach has come and gone and I am very proud of how the CFR team performed. It was a crazy offseason that always seems to get shorter and shorter. Not only did we compete in two special international events but we actually built two new cars from the chassis up which is no easy task. We first completed the Infiniti M56 which is the ultimate demo/ride-along vehicle, capable of giving rides to 3 guests at once, I’m hoping to put together some programs very soon that will get this car into action. The main focus this off season was of course the brand new NOS Energy/Hankook Tire Nissan 370Z. My crew chief Kevin Wells and Sergio Ramirez worked tirelessly to bring together one of the highest quality cars in the series, while still maintaining many factory components, keeping us in line with new chassis rules implemented by Formula Drift for the 2011 season. No expense was spared on this new car build and now that the car has driven in competition, I can tell you we are absolutely thrilled with the result.

The event started Friday morning with rain. With only a few dry laps of practice before qualifying, I ran two solid yet mildly conservative qualifying passes so that I we could get our car safely into Friday night’s practice and continue testing setups for Saturday’s main competition.

Saturday, in the Top 32 round of competition, we faced off against Michael Essa, an up and coming driver whose new car seemed to be working well. After a set of solid runs, the judges awarded us with the win. I was then paired against the number one qualifier, Conrad Grunewald, who had really gotten his car dialed in over the offseason. We both had awesome chase laps against each other so the judges called for a one more time. On my second chase run, I pushed as hard as possible to stay close behind him and on my lead run, I was able to maintain a good wide line, giving us the victory and moving us into the Top 8!

In Top 8, we faced Frederic Aasbo, who is also piloting a brand new ride for the season. I tried to follow him closely, and after he made a critical mistake, I was awarded the win and was now in the semi-finals! My next battle was against Matt Powers who was having a breakout weekend. We ran through the course and I was pushing hard for the win however, Powers came back and hit my back rim on his chase lap which got everyone’s attention. The judges seemed to love it and called for a one more time. Back at the line, I waited for Powers who had to change his rim since it had cracked and blew his tire. After another pair of close tandem runs, the judges awarded Powers with the win and we would now have to face off against Daijiro Yoshihara for third. On the first pass I struggled to keep up with his car on the straightaway and although I had closed the gap by the final turn, I knew it was not enough to gain the advantage. On my lead lap, Daijiro knocked my rear bumper off as we came out of the first corner and despite the hard jolt, I stayed on throttle and was able to maintain my line. Unfortunately, it was not enough to take that third podium spot but overall, I could not have been more proud of what our team has accomplished so far! We are looking forward to Atlanta!!!

Hey everybody, check out my new website layout! It is a work in progress but it is a little easier to navigate and also has my new videos page that works great! Thanks to Michael Groh for building it for me!

The guys over at Contour just sent me this package to kick things off for the 2011 season! I am very excited to try out these new Contour GPS cameras! Contour has revolutionized point of view cameras with this new app for your phone! You can connect to your GPS camera via bluetooth and use the screen of your phone as a viewfinder, as well as adjust settings on the cameras without having to plug them into a computer!

Check out all this gear!

The all new Contour HD GPS camera. This camera can track your position and record your speed and g-forces.

Some headband mounts and also these new super slim sticky mounts, these will be perfect for my helmet.

Some extra cases for the new cameras, and even a waterproof case… cuz you never know when you will need one.

We recently had the awesome opportunity to go back to the Middle East and hold another Formula Drift round just a few weeks ago. Abu Dhabi was an amazing experience with Yas Marina and Ferrari World, however Qatar did not disappoint. They took us all around their country showing us everything from their racetrack, downtown, the beach, and even the dunes. Their hospitality was great and I would love to go back again!

Arriving in Qatar.

Grabbing breakfast before we hit the road… Jarod prefers to eat alone.

Unaware that we were heading into a sandstorm, Andy and I quickly prepare with what little supplies we had.

Time to hit the dunes! We rode around in these SUV’s for a while which was way more fun than I thought it would be.

Then they let us run around on their 4 wheelers and Razors, not everyday you get to blast a 4 wheeler along the Persian Gulf!

They also took us to their local market. I bought some spices as well as a rug and some scarves to bring back home.

The architecture in Qatar was amazing, very similar to Abu Dhabi.

Unfortunately my engine broke in practice and I was unable to compete in the competition. So to make the best of it, I went up to the tower and worked with Formula Drift and Live Stream to add a driver’s perspective to the event. I shared insight on drivers runs as well as the judges calls with Jarod who was commentating the event.

I was also constantly responding to any and all questions on the Live Stream chat to help the fans feel more involved with the event as it was happening on the other side of the world.

The event went awesome and I had a great time helping Formula Drift make their event more interactive than others. The next day we went to…

We saw some sailboats and catamarans on the beach and decided that today was the day that we took a catamaran into the ocean. Mike Essa gave us the reassurance we needed saying that he knew how to sail. Blair was a little hesitant at first, but we got him on the boat too. It was one of those once in a lifetime moments for sure.

Afterwards we had another amazing meal right by the beach, watched the sun set, then headed off to the airport. Goodbye Qatar.

Two weeks ago, we got back from one of the best trips we have ever taken… A large group of Formula Drift drivers, teams, and crew all went out to Abu Dhabi to compete in a competition at Yas Marina Circuit. This event marked the first time that drifting had ever been allowed on this F1 track and we were very happy to be a part of it. The laughs started as soon as we got to the airport…

When we landed in Abu Dhabi, the first thing I noticed was the insane architecture.

Everyone on the bus… Hi Hobo!

Yas Marina Circuit was a 1.4 Billion dollar build. Thats one thousand and four hundred MILLION dollars.

The Yas Marina Driving School.

The Yas Marina Hotel at night.

The track did lots of promotion for the event. We found this in one of the malls.

They even took us to Ferrari World. That building has the largest roof structure in the world.

We got to ride on the worlds fastest roller coaster. 150+mph in under 4 seconds! The acceleration was intense to say the least. It even had water sprayers for the wheels and brakes to cool it down.

On our way out we noticed that the souvineer stand had our Drift Alliance Bad as Hell DVD for sale! All the way out in the UAE!

Game time.

The event went awesome and the car ran great. We qualified 2nd and finished 2nd overall! We had a couple great battles and went One More Time with Tanner in the semi-finals before meeting up with Aasbo. Our axle broke in the last corner of the 2nd run and we lost drift and lost the round… We were still very happy with our results!

In Dubai we got up to a friends penthouse and we were able to see part of palm island.

Then we went quadding! I have always wanted to blast around in the desert, so why not do it in Dubai. Tuerck and Tanner ready to go.

Hobo!

Finish it off with the worlds tallest building.