Formula Drift: Yas Marina hosts its first ever jam packed drift event as Aasbo takes home the win

Abu Dhabi, Feb 25th – In a packed out crowd of over 3000 spectators, (complete with mexican wave) it was possibly the largest gathering since Formula 1. The Yas Marina event and marketing team had pulled off an outstanding event, supported by off track activities such as static car shows and radio controlled drift cars, followed by a live performance of the exclusive Formula Drift song, Urban Skills, produced by Brvjnes performed by singer Hisham.

The new Yas Formula Drift Champ,  is 25 year old Norwegian driver and 2010 Formula Drift ‘Rookie of the Year’, Fredric Aasbo who took the Formula Drift invitational competition with ease in his custom built Team Need for Speed Toyota Scion tC ; defeating the 2009 Formula Drift Champion Chris Forsberg who came 2nd and 2010 series runner up Tanner Foust came in 3rd.

“I am very happy with my performance today, and I hope we have put on a great show for Abu Dhabi and the UAE. Yas Marina Circuit is the best course I have ever drifted at. This field and the fans are just unreal.” commented Aasbo

Four lucky UAE drivers also took their cars on track for a 15-minute show to open the event for all eight international drivers. The UAE drivers were chosen from 10 UAE Nationals who had been given the drifting chance of a lifetime when they attended the Yas Formula Drift Academy to learn from the overseas drift drivers who couched them the previous weekend.

“It was a fantastic night,” said Hamad Al Ameri, one of the four UAE drivers. “This is the first time I’ve drifted in front of a big crowd like that. I just would like to thank Yas Marina Circuit for giving us the opportunity to develop our motorsport skills for the future.”

The Formula Drift series is recognized as the North American professional drifting championship, the season kicks off this year in Long Beach, California on April 9th followed by tracks such as Road Atlanta and Las Vegas Speedway, with the finals on Oct 8th at Irwindale Speedway.

Eight top competition cars, crews, events team, judges and film crew flew over especially to the Yas Marina circuit for the invitational shootout as a pre-season warm-up to the start of the new 2011 US season.

The lowdown on the rules of Drift….

In the main qualifiers on each run is judged on four criteria: Speed, Line, Angle, and Overall Impression. The Speed is a combination of the entry speed on the first corner as well as the amount of speed the driver is able to carry consistently through the entire course, maximum points are awarded for this part. The ‘Line’ is the ideal path through the course and is pre-marked by ‘Clipping Points’, and Transition Zones, basically these are reference points on the course for the drivers to aim where the vehicle’s front bumper should come as close as possible to the reference point. The ‘Transition Zones’ are points on track where the direction of the line changes and vehicles must change the direction of their drift, the transition speeds can be over 100kmp and initiated by use of the specially adapted fly-off handbrake or a clutch kick sequence. Scoring is based on the execution of the transition and on judges decision.

Now put that all together, with two cars, thats Tandem Drifting.

Tandem or Twin Drift is a non- contact Head-to-Head format, with drivers paired up based on seeding position,  the lead car runs the course without error while being pressured by the following car. The following at the rear has to try and “out drive” the lead car. Driver consistency during a tandem battle is critical.

As a grand finale the crowd were entertained by the Five car drift, just for fun.

Yas Formula Drift Results –
Qualifying results: Ryan Tuerck (P1), Chris Forsberg 9P2), Tanner Foust (P3), Mike Whiddett (P4), Michael Essa (P5), Ken Gushi (P6), Tony Brakohiapa (P7), Fredric Aasbo (P8).

Results from top 8 eliminations – Fredric Aasbo defeated Ryan Tuerck, Mike Whiddett defeated Michael Essa, Chris Forsberg defeated Tony Brakohiapa, Tanner Foust defeated Ken Gushi.

Results from semi-final – Fredric Aasbo defeated Mike Whiddett, Chris Forsberg defeated Tanner Foust.

Consolation Round – (battle for third place) – Tanner Foust defeated Mike Whiddett

Final Podium – Fredric Aasbo (1st), Chris Forsberg (2nd) and Tanner Foust (3rd)