podium : start to 2008 Formula D season
Long Beach, CA-The Rockstar/AEM drift team continued their winning form from last season with Tanner taking the podium in third place overall for the event after several hard fought battles. Stephan had his best qualifying round ever at Long Beach and posted the fastest entry speed of the event, settling in 5th overall in the unseeded field heading into the 32 car elimination round.
|
The consolation round pitted Tanner against Kyle Mohan and his Mazda RX-7. Kyle was missing third gear, but Tanner wasn’t about to underestimate him or the car, knowing it was capable of winding up to 9,000 RPM in 2nd gear. Tanner outran him when leading and matched his 2nd gear pace when following to take third place overall in the event. Noted Tanner, “Wow, props to Kyle for keeping that car drifting in 2nd. That was impressive.”
Tanner continued, “Drifting is thriving! We had a capacity crowd and they had to turn people away, and I expect we’ll see that at all the tracks this year. I love Long Beach because you have grandstands on both sides, so you can REALLY hear the crowd when they get loud. It’s very cool!”
PAPADAKIS’ RESULTS
Steph qualified fifth overall in the 18-car unseeded field during Friday’s qualifying with an impressive 86 point run. The run looked very fluid and given Steph’s previous experiences at this track it was a major step forward toward the tandem elimination rounds. “I felt good but I knew I had to make some changes to get to tandems,” commented Steph. On Saturday, Steph continued to click off consistent passes during the 32-car elimination round and posted the fastest entry speed of the weekend at 64.9 MPH, but did not get the nod to advance to tandems.
Noted Steph, “Long Beach has always been intimidating for me because there is zero margin for error…there’s walls everywhere and tight, decreasing radius turns. This is my third year here, and I felt more comfortable on this track than I ever have thanks to off-season practice. I have high expectations for myself this season and plan to build on the momentum from this event.”