Welcome to the official GReddy USA blog. -Think of this as our online weekly "GReddy Times," a venue for us to report what's going on or what just happened at GReddy USA this week (new products, new projects, racing news, even online store specials.) On our blog you can see what we are up to in the GReddy Sales floor, R&D garage, on the road or even from our Headquarters in Japan.

Monday, August 27, 2012

Formula D Las Vegas Coverage



Formula Drift Las Vegas was HOT and the GReddy Performance X Scion Racing Drift FR-S was on Fire!  (literally)

After a lot of hard work from the GReddy Racing Team since our final four finish in Seattle, the team was excited to introduce new power upgrades to Ken Gushi's Drift FR-S, the end result after the event, an 8th place ranking in the 2012 Formula Drift Championship, with one event left to go...

The new power really showed with increased tire smoke and the FR-S looked fast in the practice sessions.  Being able to clock in the recorded speed zones, 10mph faster then the required qualifying speed minimum for Speed points.  However the first qualifying run was a bit shaky and the pressure was on Ken to get a high enough score to qualify for Saturday's Top32 tandems.  Ken succeed and scored a 81.5 placing him in the 13th spot.

After the FormulaD Qualifying livestream ended, there was an incident in late night Top32 practice, resulting in an at-the-track Intercooler repair. With the car repaired the Team was again confident to do well in Vegas.

In Top32, Gushi was matched up with M.Fields.  Ken had a great, fast lead run, and went into the following lap with a good advantage.  With an aggressive follow run, Ken ended up driving over a "clipping point" cone and damaging an oil line, causing a dramatic looking fire under the car.  The team worked hard and was able to get the Drift FR-S back up and running for the FDLV opening ceremonies and Top16 eliminations. 

Unfortunately, the earlier damage to the intercooler in Friday's practice cause a silicone hose to leak during Ken's 1st run in Top16.  The car was repaired with a 5 min call and the 2nd run by Ken was even with C.Gunewald, but not enough to move on any further.

In the end, the GReddy Team is proud to have overcome the engine fire in Las Vegas and look forward to a strong finish in the 2012 Championship Finale in the "House of Drift" Irwindale Speedway, Oct 12-13! 

Congratulations to FD Rd.6 Las Vegas Winners
1st - Rhys Millen    2nd - Fredric Aasbo     3rd - Vaugh Gittin


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