LIVE: FD Irwindale!!

[EverythingDrift]

First of all, the qualified drivers for Saturday:

12 - Erik Jacobs - Toyo Tires blue 240
11 - Yukinobu Okubo - Signal Auto Sil80
10 - Ryan Hampton - Falken 69 Camaro
9 - DR. Brendan Walker - Champaign colored Falken 240
8 - Chris Kregorian - Green Milano Auto Sil32
7 - Benson Hsu - Pink Tein 240
6 - Barry Wong - Black KAAZ 240
5 - Derrick Rogers - Cooper Tires Firebird
4 - Stephan Papadakis - AEM S2000
3 - Papa Gushi - Green Gushi Auto 240
2 - Ross Petty - Red Rotary Power RX7

*drum roll*

1 - Ben "Big Smoke" Schwartz - Peak Performance

see all you rowdy fans tomorrow!!!

We will have pictures up on our site later tonite...

[VDMTom]

hmm..benson is driving the pink tein 240..but he was practicing at drift buffet in the yellow 240 coupe..ehh lol

[EverythingDrift]

hmm..benson is driving the pink tein 240..but he was practicing at drift buffet in the yellow 240 coupe..ehh lol

Yellow 240 is kaput.. Blew the motor.

[ReDc0aT]

ya... congrats to all


none of the other cooper tires cars from east coast made it on time, cars showed up hour after qualifying ended. bastard trailer driver.

[VDMTom]

oh bummer...

[SpeedMachine]

Late addition...Robbie Nishida is in too...there was aparently an error with the voting PDA's the judges have and his score was not accurate so he advances. I understand it will be top 16 out of 33 drivers now.

[EverythingDrift]

Late addition...Robbie Nishida is in too...there was aparently an error with the voting PDA's the judges have and his score was not accurate so he advances. I understand it will be top 16 out of 33 drivers now.

Look for slight changes.. the voting was off on a few more.. Well see I guess, last I heard they were looking into it and will see in the morning with the judges since some had left for the day when the error was discovered. Anyhow, dont know more then that.

[Slapshotnerd]

hey, more is a good thing! robbie and a few other drivers looked to be on top of their game. Glad FD decided to just make the field bigger instead of cutting others...

This is going to be an exciting weekend!!!

[Tapethejunkie]

wheres rhys

[Bullitt4110]

Did anyone happen to get any pics of the cobra? James Bondurant was driving it. I know he didn't qualify but the car has no e-brake and has road race suspenion.

[Jim @ FD]

hey, more is a good thing! robbie and a few other drivers looked to be on top of their game. Glad FD decided to just make the field bigger instead of cutting others...

This is going to be an exciting weekend!!!

We know we are not perfect. If we mess up we'll tell all of you. For a period of time during the non-seeded drivers pre-qualifying the PDAs went out. We went back to judging by pen and paper. Afterwards we entered the scores. After the announcement of the 12 that would move on to today, some individuals addressed concerns at many issues (this is happens every event; can't make everyone happy right) but this time we noticed some issues too and thus we began to examine more. At about 10pm last night, we did find that Robbie would of clearly been at the top of the pack if the points were processed correctly. Our decision was
1. begin to calculate the remaining drivers that were judged via pen & paper
2. any change it the pre-Q ranking would not mean that we bump anyone that was announce as part of the original 12
3. due to the recalculation if anyone else, in addition to Robbie, would of place in the top 12 then they would be added

In addition, when the judges return in the morning we will review today's pre-Q more in-depth. Their may be more additions, their might not.

Sorry Robbie for the emotional roller coaster ride today.

Ok... 6 hours still final setup begins, 10hours till gates open, 11.5 hours till qualifying, 16.5 hours till the first tandem battle.

Who will be '05 FD Champ? I getting anxiety. See all of you guys at Irwindale tomorrow!!

[EverythingDrift]

Thanx for all the info Jim.. we will see you there..

[Al]

We know we are not perfect. If we mess up we'll tell all of you. For a period of time during the non-seeded drivers pre-qualifying the PDAs went out. We went back to judging by pen and paper. Afterwards we entered the scores. After the announcement of the 12 that would move on to today, some individuals addressed concerns at many issues (this is happens every event; can't make everyone happy right) but this time we noticed some issues too and thus we began to examine more. At about 10pm last night, we did find that Robbie would of clearly been at the top of the pack if the points were processed correctly. Our decision was
1. begin to calculate the remaining drivers that were judged via pen & paper
2. any change it the pre-Q ranking would not mean that we bump anyone that was announce as part of the original 12
3. due to the recalculation if anyone else, in addition to Robbie, would of place in the top 12 then they would be added

In addition, when the judges return in the morning we will review today's pre-Q more in-depth. Their may be more additions, their might not.

Sorry Robbie for the emotional roller coaster ride today.

Ok... 6 hours still final setup begins, 10hours till gates open, 11.5 hours till qualifying, 16.5 hours till the first tandem battle.

Who will be '05 FD Champ? I getting anxiety. See all of you guys at Irwindale tomorrow!!

Thank you Jim for listening to all of us drivers. Im still questioning about my run and I hope we can get it all squared out by the morning.

-Al

[dreamdrivedrift]

Ooh, Papa gushi, seems like there will be a rivalry next season between papa gushi and rod millen

[EverythingDrift]

We got some shots of bondurants cobra, we will have the shots up after the event.

We are live at the event now, and will have updates all day