Formula Drift - Round 1 - Long Beach
Saturday April, 12 - 2008

This is a season review of Formula DRIFT fifth season.
A near sell-out crowd for Round 1: Streets of Long Beach with Chris Forsberg and his NOS Energy / Maxxis Tires Nissan 350Z Roadster taking home the first victory of the season.

The Long Beach Grand Prix Street Course hosted the opening round and the teams came prepared to start the season off. Scion’s first entry into drifting had Ken Gushi and his RS*R Scion tC make the Top 16, Daijiro Yoshihara made incredible adjustments from a RHD Nissan Silvia into a LHD Pontiac GTO to finish in 5th place overall, and newcomers Justin Pawlak and Michihiro Takatori also advanced to the Top 16 competition. The highlight of the day came when Long Beach local Kyle Mohan battled through the competition to finish in 4th place overall, the highest finish of his career.


Grand Marshall for this event, Rob Dyrdek, made a special parade lap in his Rogue Status ’69 Camaro, having the car do donuts in front of the packed stands leaving a cloud of smoke that had the crowd screaming for more. Special guest, UFC Light Heavyweight Champion and star of the “Ultimate Fighter,” Quinton “Rampage” Jackson also came to check out the action and sign autographs. Even avid rally supporter Ken Block, founder of DC Shoes, came to check out the drifting action. This event also marked the introduction of Miss Formula DRIFT, Catherine Kluthe.