Formula D Las Vegas, 2009

I've been to every round of Formula D Las Vegas. Its an excuse to make a quick trip out of California and enjoy a nice weekend in sweltering heat, expensive strippers, and $4 steak dinners. This year was sans the expensive strippers, but it was certainly full of other exciting happenings.

First and foremost is the news that my friend Alex Pfeiffer is now driving for Tanaka racing in their insane Chevrolet Corvette. Alex tried out for them about a week ago and they immediately offered him the drive. I like many other people have been dying to see him get back in the driver's seat instead of forcing me to drink beer and watch Condorman every weekend. I think I may get a break because this bastard will be setting up the suspension on the car for the upcoming round. Anyhow, for his first time out in the car, he managed to qualify for the second day and even put up a good fight against Sam Hubinette in the Viper. All in all, not a bad first showing.


Another one of my friends who was driving this weekend was Joon, the great Korean hope. Since John Yim is retired and since I'm nowhere near being a professional (anything) Joon single handily carries the flag for all Korean drifters. This particular weekend was semi sweet for him. He qualified well, and even advanced to the round of best 16, where he eventually had to do battle with Tanner Foust. In the head of battle, Joon crashed on entry but after seeing his car in the pits afterwards, the damage didn't look too bad. I hope he can get it right in time for Washington!


Taka didn't have the best weekend either. On Friday practice, he broke an oil cooler and was forced to find a replacement on short notice (who the hell breaks an oil cooler?) but eventually made it back out. He ran quite well, and qualified somewhere around 16th or 17th. He met Ryan Turek in the first round of tandem, and unfortunately fell victim to the increasingly threatening Mobil 1 Solstice. Regardless, the fans still love him and were we see a girl getting Taka to sign her TRD shirt, where she also has Tommy Suell's signature.


Seeing Orido at a Formula D event was quite a surprise. He's one of the D1 celebrities whom I love to see even if he's not driving. The rumor was, he attended the event with the president of Japan's "other" drift series, MSC. If you're not familiar with MSC, I'd recommend going to youtube immediately and watching what they have to offer. I can only guess that their presence there means a possibility of an MSC/Formula D event in the near future. One can really only hope for such awesomeness.

The other cool part about Orido coming for this round, is that he played spotter for Ryuji Miki. It comes as no surprise then, that Ryuji Miki advanced to the finals and ended up finishing second overall that night. It goes to show you that with the right motivation and right coaching, chances of victory are far greater. Having somebody like Orido in your corner helps immensely. Surround yourself with winners and you'll start seeing results.

I also am happy that the man loves Bud Light.


While talking to Pfeiffer I also met this cute girl who has a similar taste in fashion as me!

Another year, another FD vegas trip. I didn't get to do the regular Vegas stuff this time around, so I guess I'll just have to wait till SEMA for debachery.

All photos courtesy of Wes Hamachi!
hamachiboysracing@yahoo.com