Diaries

Rhys Millen Motors
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Ryuiji Miki
The former D1GP champ has been struggling, running in the left-hand world of Formula D drifting. Plagued with mishaps in his RX-7, not to mention a huge crash in Vegas that knocked him out during qualifying, Miki is in need of a change.

Going into Round 5 in Seattle, my RX-7 was highly modified from the previous round. It is the same car that we have been using all season, but my team converted it over to RHD, since I have been driving on the right for most of my drifting career. With the change, I spent a lot of time setting up the car during Thursday's practice: We switched the rear springs to a lower spring rate, changed the front wheels to 17-inch, and more. The Mazda was noticeably improved. Thank you Chuck, Keith, and Ron - I can't express how much better I like the new setup!

On Friday's practice, I concentrated on finding the best line for the car on Seattle's course. I wanted to go into Saturday's qualifying feeling confident and not damage the car like I had during the last round. On my first run, I scored a 94.08, and into the Eighth qualifying position. With a little more power, I think I would have been able to qualify higher; the main section of Seattle is a huge bank, and in order to drive on the top of the bank, near the wall, where all the points are hiding, a car needs lots of power.

My first tsuiso run was against Chris Forsberg, a powerful "enemy". Our first run was my lead, so I just drove like it was a solo run and was able to hit the outside line, alongside the bank, and continue with a very clean run. The result was an 8 to 5, the advantage in my favor. But in my chase run, I was not able to keep up with him going into the bank, and finished with fewer points than I needed to advance. We were told to go one more time. Chris kept a closer chase on the first run, and took a 9 to 8 advantage. On the second run, I concentrated on staying as close as possible to him down the straightaway, and across the bank, where he lost control and I was able to defeat him. It was an all-out, full throttle battle! Chris is a driver who does clean runs without any strange, petty tricks. Nice battle, Chris!

I was up against Samuel Hubinette in the Great 8... just in time for the rain. I'd never driven the RX-7 in the rain, so I did not know what to expect. Unfortunately, I spun on the bank during my first run, and again in the transition during my second. I was defeated too easily. I was glad to battle Sam, but thought I could've given him a better run for his points. Next time! Infineon is one of my favorite courses...

A'pexi
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Nitto
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Mazda
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Translated by: Masaki Nakayama

Tanner Foust
Leading the points chase for the 2008, Golden Boy Foust and his 350Z are on their way to adding a second Formula D title to Tanner's long list of accomplishments. All he needs to do now is maintain the lead.

Round Five of the Formula Drift championship fell directly after a hectic X Games week. I literally unpacked my champagne-soaked rally suite, threw in the drift suite, and headed off to the airport. Luckily, Mr. Papadakis had everything set to go when we arrived in Washington.

Practice went well on Thursday and Friday, with several changes made to our setup that would later prove useless, thanks to Mother Nature. When the clouds finally opened up, I watched a few drivers demonstrate how much, or how little grip, there was on the wet track. Our qualifying runs went well, as the Rockstar Z slid along the outer wall of the big bank, and into Second!