Live: Formula Drift Atlanta

[DropTopDrifter]

sooooooo....

How is it possible that someone who was un-seeded, qualified with 0 points (spun on BOTH qualifying runs) manages to make the top 16?? I just dont get how that works.

Also, someone needs to get in touch with Modified Magazine and welcome them to 2007, their program was a joke.....not a near correct listing of cars and drivers.

[my 1 88 u]

sooooooo....

How is it possible that someone who was un-seeded, qualified with 0 points (spun on BOTH qualifying runs) manages to make the top 16?? I just dont get how that works.

Also, someone needs to get in touch with Modified Magazine and welcome them to 2007, their program was a joke.....not a near correct listing of cars and drivers.

G4tv SMH...........!

[Slapshotnerd]

How is it possible that someone who was un-seeded, qualified with 0 points (spun on BOTH qualifying runs) manages to make the top 16?? I just dont get how that works.

Who qualified with 0 points?!

[Tracy]

I had such an amazing time. It was great to be out there. I was so nervous until I did my first run. Once I got the first run out of the way, it seemed a lot smaller than it had before. All of the drivers I spoke to were so nice and helpful. I really expected a little bit of haterism. Glad i was disappointed. I have so much respect for everyone out there. I wish I had a few more practice runs (shoulda could woulda ). That entry is a tricky one for a first timer. Either way, I'm proud of what I did out there. The first or second car out there went into the kitty litter. Dan turned to me and said "don't do that" LOL. I'm glad I didn't. BIG congrats to Chris! He was amazing all day!

I'd especially like to thank Formula D for having us

[DropTopDrifter]

Who qualified with 0 points?!

Im not going to say what car i saw that was not a seeded driver from LB, and who spun on both qualifying runs and still made it into the Top 16 on Sat. Im just wondering if anyone else saw this/knows who im talking about......

[Rhoad Racing]

You sure it was qualifying and not practice? I was paying fairly close attention during qualifying and didn't see anything of the sort.

[BenR]

Im not going to say what car i saw that was not a seeded driver from LB, and who spun on both qualifying runs and still made it into the Top 16 on Sat. Im just wondering if anyone else saw this/knows who im talking about......

Don't beat around the bush, if you got something to say, say it.

I don't remember seeing anyone that qualified top 16 spin in both qualifying runs.

[DropTopDrifter]

Ok, from my understandign of the schedule, qualifying for non-seeded drivers was from 6pm to 8pm on friday. In that time i saw one driver make 2 single runs and spin on both of them. That driver was not near a top 16 driver/car from the LB event. You tell me what i saw before i specifically point out a driver. To me, someone who wasnt in the top 16 at LB wouldnt be a seeded driver (maybe im not understanding what seeded really is) and seeing that the drivers were making single runs means they were qualifying.

If i have it wrong, someone tell me.

[BenR]

If I remember right 6-8pm was top 32 practice.

[Tracy]

Let me thnk. We practiced from 4:30-5:50. We qualified directly after that. Then we had a drivers meeting at about 8 to announce those who qualified. I remember since we thought the drivers meeting was at 8:15 so we almost missed the announcements. So I do belive 6-8 was qualifying. Now who was it?

[Slapshotnerd]

Ok, from my understandign of the schedule, qualifying for non-seeded drivers was from 6pm to 8pm on friday. In that time i saw one driver make 2 single runs and spin on both of them. That driver was not near a top 16 driver/car from the LB event. You tell me what i saw before i specifically point out a driver. To me, someone who wasnt in the top 16 at LB wouldnt be a seeded driver (maybe im not understanding what seeded really is) and seeing that the drivers were making single runs means they were qualifying.

If i have it wrong, someone tell me.

ok, so you saw a driver make 2 runs on friday night and spin both times. Was that driver one of these 18:

18 - Robby Unser
17 - Darren McNamara
16 - Hiromi Kajikuma
15 - Steph Papadakis
14 - Calvin Wan
13 - Doug Van Den Brink
12 - Steph Verdier
11 - Rob Fleming
10 - Chris Kregorian
9 - Kyle Mohan
8 - Todd Ho
7 - Ryuji Miki
6 - Tommy Suell
5 - Joon Mang
4 - Tony Angelo
3 - Taka Aono
2 - Bill Sherman
1 - Ken Gushi

[DropTopDrifter]

Yes.

It was also explained to me that the seeded drivers were chosen from last years points standing. Thats the key fact that i didn't know. I was thinking it was starting from the first event this year. But, i also saw the overall finishers from last year and their rankings in the back of the Modified Mag. that was being handed out and that driver wasn't even in the rankings, it might have been wrong.

So my misunderstanding may have cause me to think differently about how the seeded thing works. But in that case, were seeded drivers allowed to use that qualifying time as practice??

I dont want to point/say names unless i am completely sure i understand how it all works. In all reality, i have simply watched the FD events for my entertainment and never really kept up with how qualifying and the seeded driver rules work.

[Slapshotnerd]

I'm completely lost on what you're saying.

there were 16 "seeded" drivers at this event. Those 16 drivers were the top 16 from Long Beach... however, 2 of those 16 drivers didn't make it to Atlanta, so there were actually only 14 drivers who were "seeded" and didn't have to qualify on Friday. They WERE allowed to practice though. They were given a 30 minute practice session around 3.

There were 38 "unseeded" drivers vying for 18 spots in Unseeded qualifying (which happened Friday night). They practiced from around 3:30 - 5 or so (i forgot when they switched to qualifying), and they each got 2 judged solo runs for qualifying at that point. After these 18 drivers were announced around 8pm, then they joined the 14 seeded drivers for a practice session from 8pm - 9:30pm Friday Night, which did NOT count for anything other than seat time.

The 18 highest-scoring drivers on Friday and the 14 "seeded" drivers started Saturday with a clean slate. No previous results mattered in Saturday's qualifying session, only their 2 judged runs. Of those runs, half of the field was eliminated and the top 16 drivers were paired up for the tandem battles.

This is the way FD has run their program for at least the last 2 years, I think things might have been different at the very first event at Atlanta since it was, in fact, the first event.

Does that make sense?

[DropTopDrifter]

I'm completely lost on what you're saying.

there were 16 "seeded" drivers at this event. Those 16 drivers were the top 16 from Long Beach... however, 2 of those 16 drivers didn't make it to Atlanta, so there were actually only 14 drivers who were "seeded" and didn't have to qualify on Friday. They WERE allowed to practice though. They were given a 30 minute practice session around 3.

There were 38 "unseeded" drivers vying for 18 spots in Unseeded qualifying (which happened Friday night). They practiced from around 3:30 - 5 or so (i forgot when they switched to qualifying), and they each got 2 judged solo runs for qualifying at that point. After these 18 drivers were announced around 8pm, then they joined the 14 seeded drivers for a practice session from 8pm - 9:30pm Friday Night, which did NOT count for anything other than seat time.

The 18 highest-scoring drivers on Friday and the 14 "seeded" drivers started Saturday with a clean slate. No previous results mattered in Saturday's qualifying session, only their 2 judged runs. Of those runs, half of the field was eliminated and the top 16 drivers were paired up for the tandem battles.

This is the way FD has run their program for at least the last 2 years, I think things might have been different at the very first event at Atlanta since it was, in fact, the first event.

Does that make sense?

Yes, that makes perfect sense. Thats really what/how i was thinking it all worked to begin with. But then someone told me that the seeded spots were based on last years finishing points (obviously wrong).

In that case, the driver i saw who spun was Stephan Papadakis. I dont think im crazy because i looked at my friends and said "wow, he just spun on both of his solo runs". At that point, i thought he was unseeded and qualifying for saturdays event. And looking at the formula d website, he was listed last when just the LB results were posted.

[BenR]

Yes, that makes perfect sense. Thats really what/how i was thinking it all worked to begin with. But then someone told me that the seeded spots were based on last years finishing points (obviously wrong).

Seeding for the first event of the year (Long Beach) is based off of last years points since there isn't any ranking for the current season.