Motorsports: Formula Drift kicks off tenth season with capacity crowd in Long Beach

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The tenth season of Formula Drift kicked off this past weekend in front of a sell-out crowd in Long Beach, California. Celebrating a decade of smoke-spewing sideways racing is a solid testament to the popularity of the sport that delivers everything racing enthusiasts seek - high-horsepower vehicles running side-by-side with the expected mechanical carnage - in one racing series.

This weekend's event, or Round One, was won by Daijiro Yoshihara (Nissan 240SX / Discount Tire), the series champion in 2011. He was joined on the podium by Vaughn Gittin (Ford Mustang / Monster Energy) and Chris Forsberg (Nissan 370Z / NOS Energy), earning second and third place, respectively. Last year's winner, Justin Pawlak (Ford Mustang / Falken Tire) crashed heavily during his first qualifying run, and although his team managed to get the car back together for him to qualify on his second run, he was knocked out in the second round.

One noticeable absence in the field was series veteran Rhys Millen, who won the series driving a Hyundai Genesis Coupe in 2010. Hyundai pulled its motorsports programs in North America last year, leaving his team without a main sponsor. Nevertheless, Hyundai and Rhys Millen Racing will partner for Pikes Peak in a few months.

Round Two will be held at Road Atlanta over the weekend of May 10-11. Check out the Formula Drift schedule, as well as the press release below.

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Formula Drift kicks off tenth season with capacity crowd in Long Beach originally appeared on Autoblog on Wed, 17 Apr 2013 11:27:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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