10/22/2007
Foust Propels AEM/Memphis Car Audio Drift Team to
2007 FormulaD Series Championship!
Foust Wins Finals, Series Championship and Sets New Entry Speed Record
October 15th, 2007, Irwindale CA— It was a perfect finish to a near perfect season for the AEM/Memphis Car Audio drift team at the season finale in the “House of Drift” at Irwindale Speedway, culminating in a series championship for the team on the heels of another first place victory from Tanner Foust in the 350Z! Stephan Papadakis continued to improve and make qualifying rounds in the AEM/MCA Honda S2000, while managing the team’s stressful run for the championship all season and especially during the finals. The outcome was not without its share of drama…
STEPH/S2000
Steph qualified 12th in the 16-car unseeded field on Friday in the AEM/MCA S2000 with an 84.33, but when Saturday rolled around he wasn’t pushing the car the way he was on Friday, leading him to bow out after the first elimination round. Like a true team player, Steph commented, “To be completely honest, my concern this weekend was making sure Tanner had everything he needed to take a shot at the championship and on Saturday after the crash in practice it became my only concern. When you have a teammate in position to win it all, their goals become yours. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to advance, I just had a lot of other things going on in my mind, for obvious reasons.” It’s little wonder why Stephan is regarded as an icon in our industry.
TANNER/350Z
Preparation for the Saturday’s main event began on Thursday for the team. Tanner owned the bank in practice but was inconsistent in the infield due to the added grip of the new Toyo R1-Rs. Noted Tanner, “The grip of the new tires was awesome! This was the first time we used them all season and they forced the suspension to work harder, so we needed to make adjustments going into practice on Friday.”
Friday began with a bang—right into the wall at close to 80 MPH! Tanner made a mistake and initiated too close to the wall. With the temperatures dropping at the track, the grip of the course changed, leading to the collision and some minor rear suspension damage that the team repaired that night.
On Saturday, Tanner hit the wall again in practice. It had rained all morning and although the track was dry the debris along the wall was wet and caused the car to lose grip. Thankfully there was no real damage to the car and he followed this incident with a #1 qualifying pass. “I just had to shake it off going into qualifying,” noted Tanner. “I wasn’t sure the car’s suspension was fully dialed going into qualifying since the crash on Friday cut practice short, so in the first qualifier I was a little aggressive but didn’t try to risk too much. I had a clean run which gave us the number one qualifier with a 96.83 and course speed of 77.9 MPH. I was still the #1 qualifier after the second round, so I lit the tires up for the fans as I spun off the bank!”
Tanner faced Tony Brakohiapa (Mustang) in the Sliding 16. “Tony’s lines were clean all week, so I was expecting a tough first tandem,” noted Tanner. However, Tony couldn’t match the Z’s speed when following and spun, giving Tanner the round.
Going into the Great 8 round, Tanner was beginning to feel the pressure as both Chris Forsberg and Dai Yoshihara (the #2 and #3 series drivers) advanced in their brackets. Tanner had to advance to take the Series Championship and that made for a pressure cooker situation. It’s also when things got interesting. “After all the incidents in practice, I erred on the side of caution going into my tandem with Ryuji Miki (Mazda). I was conservative during the round and the 2004 D1GP Champion was tough! We were waiting for the judges to tally the scores to see if we had a One More Time (OMT) and all I could think to myself was that I may have inadvertently given the championship away…I swore if we got the OMT there would be no more conservative driving. We weren’t going to go out like that.” And he didn’t, as Tanner got the OMT, stuck to Miki like glue and won a very close battle to move on to the Final Four.
If it wasn’t stressful enough to overcome Miki in the Great 8, going into the Final Four round Tanner discovered that Chris and Dai advanced in their brackets, meaning Tanner had to reach the podium to take the Series. Tanner faced Kenji Yamanaka (Nissan S15) and went as fast as he could when leading, and Kenji hit the wall coming off the bank. “The grip of the R1Rs and the suspension tweaks Steph and Shawn (Hillier) performed allowed me to brake later off the bank and that may have contributed to Kenji hitting the wall,” noted Tanner. “Unfortunately he could not continue, but it was exciting for us because we knew we had sealed the 2007 FD Series Championship.”
Tanner faced Chris Forsberg in the finals and in his words, “Chris was awesome all week!” Tanner led first and put the hammer down, braking later in the bank and besting the course record entry speed by 6 MPH for a new record of 86 MPH! Chris also made a slight mistake on the bank giving Tanner the advantage after the first pass, but after narrowly escaping Miki in the Great 8, he stuck to his promise and drove the wheels off the Z, sticking to Chris’s bumper the whole course for a great final run. At the end, the Irwindale results matched the Series Championship results with Tanner, Chris and Dai on the podium in first through third, respectively.
Exclaimed Tanner, “I can’t even begin to thank Steph enough for all the hats he wears managing this team. He always gets it done!! I also want to thank Shawn Hillier for having the car ready every round of every race, and especially for having it ready given all the carnage this weekend. Our sponsors are the best in the business…I said it last year and I’ll say it again, AEM has the best engine management out there as noted by the consistent performance of the car under changing conditions and tunes. The hard parts we use from AEM and DC Sports—many of them off the shelf—are so reliable you install them and practically forget them. Memphis Car Audio not only makes heart pounding audio components that I use with pride in my daily driver, but you just couldn’t ask for a better strategically and group of people to work with. They are a true performance audio company—they even have carbon fiber speakers! The Motegi Touge’s gave us what we wanted in a good looking, durable wheel and our Toyos never failed. Our Tokico shocks are off the shelf and that says a ton about the quality and durability of their products, as are our SPC suspension components, Garrett turbos and ACT clutch. And C-West came on this season to give the car a sweet new look. We work with our sponsors not only because they are the best companies in the business, but they make the best parts, too. I think that is reflected in our Championship.”
Tanner Foust is the 2007 FormulaD Series Champion. Stephan finished the season 27th overall in a field of 48, improving his position five spots from 2006. Tanner qualified first in all but one event this season, had one win (Irwindale), three seconds (Long Beach, Summit Point, Wall), a third (Atlanta) and two fifth place finishes (Evergreen and Infineon).
The AEM / Memphis Car Audio Drift S2000 and 350Z are sponsored by Toyo Tires, Motegi Racing, Tokico Gas Shocks, Advanced Clutch Technology (ACT), Specialty Products Company (SPC), ChargeSpeed, C-West and DC Sports.
2007 FormulaD Series Championship!
Foust Wins Finals, Series Championship and Sets New Entry Speed Record
October 15th, 2007, Irwindale CA— It was a perfect finish to a near perfect season for the AEM/Memphis Car Audio drift team at the season finale in the “House of Drift” at Irwindale Speedway, culminating in a series championship for the team on the heels of another first place victory from Tanner Foust in the 350Z! Stephan Papadakis continued to improve and make qualifying rounds in the AEM/MCA Honda S2000, while managing the team’s stressful run for the championship all season and especially during the finals. The outcome was not without its share of drama…
STEPH/S2000
Steph qualified 12th in the 16-car unseeded field on Friday in the AEM/MCA S2000 with an 84.33, but when Saturday rolled around he wasn’t pushing the car the way he was on Friday, leading him to bow out after the first elimination round. Like a true team player, Steph commented, “To be completely honest, my concern this weekend was making sure Tanner had everything he needed to take a shot at the championship and on Saturday after the crash in practice it became my only concern. When you have a teammate in position to win it all, their goals become yours. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to advance, I just had a lot of other things going on in my mind, for obvious reasons.” It’s little wonder why Stephan is regarded as an icon in our industry.
TANNER/350Z
Preparation for the Saturday’s main event began on Thursday for the team. Tanner owned the bank in practice but was inconsistent in the infield due to the added grip of the new Toyo R1-Rs. Noted Tanner, “The grip of the new tires was awesome! This was the first time we used them all season and they forced the suspension to work harder, so we needed to make adjustments going into practice on Friday.”
Friday began with a bang—right into the wall at close to 80 MPH! Tanner made a mistake and initiated too close to the wall. With the temperatures dropping at the track, the grip of the course changed, leading to the collision and some minor rear suspension damage that the team repaired that night.
On Saturday, Tanner hit the wall again in practice. It had rained all morning and although the track was dry the debris along the wall was wet and caused the car to lose grip. Thankfully there was no real damage to the car and he followed this incident with a #1 qualifying pass. “I just had to shake it off going into qualifying,” noted Tanner. “I wasn’t sure the car’s suspension was fully dialed going into qualifying since the crash on Friday cut practice short, so in the first qualifier I was a little aggressive but didn’t try to risk too much. I had a clean run which gave us the number one qualifier with a 96.83 and course speed of 77.9 MPH. I was still the #1 qualifier after the second round, so I lit the tires up for the fans as I spun off the bank!”
Tanner faced Tony Brakohiapa (Mustang) in the Sliding 16. “Tony’s lines were clean all week, so I was expecting a tough first tandem,” noted Tanner. However, Tony couldn’t match the Z’s speed when following and spun, giving Tanner the round.
Going into the Great 8 round, Tanner was beginning to feel the pressure as both Chris Forsberg and Dai Yoshihara (the #2 and #3 series drivers) advanced in their brackets. Tanner had to advance to take the Series Championship and that made for a pressure cooker situation. It’s also when things got interesting. “After all the incidents in practice, I erred on the side of caution going into my tandem with Ryuji Miki (Mazda). I was conservative during the round and the 2004 D1GP Champion was tough! We were waiting for the judges to tally the scores to see if we had a One More Time (OMT) and all I could think to myself was that I may have inadvertently given the championship away…I swore if we got the OMT there would be no more conservative driving. We weren’t going to go out like that.” And he didn’t, as Tanner got the OMT, stuck to Miki like glue and won a very close battle to move on to the Final Four.
If it wasn’t stressful enough to overcome Miki in the Great 8, going into the Final Four round Tanner discovered that Chris and Dai advanced in their brackets, meaning Tanner had to reach the podium to take the Series. Tanner faced Kenji Yamanaka (Nissan S15) and went as fast as he could when leading, and Kenji hit the wall coming off the bank. “The grip of the R1Rs and the suspension tweaks Steph and Shawn (Hillier) performed allowed me to brake later off the bank and that may have contributed to Kenji hitting the wall,” noted Tanner. “Unfortunately he could not continue, but it was exciting for us because we knew we had sealed the 2007 FD Series Championship.”
Tanner faced Chris Forsberg in the finals and in his words, “Chris was awesome all week!” Tanner led first and put the hammer down, braking later in the bank and besting the course record entry speed by 6 MPH for a new record of 86 MPH! Chris also made a slight mistake on the bank giving Tanner the advantage after the first pass, but after narrowly escaping Miki in the Great 8, he stuck to his promise and drove the wheels off the Z, sticking to Chris’s bumper the whole course for a great final run. At the end, the Irwindale results matched the Series Championship results with Tanner, Chris and Dai on the podium in first through third, respectively.
Exclaimed Tanner, “I can’t even begin to thank Steph enough for all the hats he wears managing this team. He always gets it done!! I also want to thank Shawn Hillier for having the car ready every round of every race, and especially for having it ready given all the carnage this weekend. Our sponsors are the best in the business…I said it last year and I’ll say it again, AEM has the best engine management out there as noted by the consistent performance of the car under changing conditions and tunes. The hard parts we use from AEM and DC Sports—many of them off the shelf—are so reliable you install them and practically forget them. Memphis Car Audio not only makes heart pounding audio components that I use with pride in my daily driver, but you just couldn’t ask for a better strategically and group of people to work with. They are a true performance audio company—they even have carbon fiber speakers! The Motegi Touge’s gave us what we wanted in a good looking, durable wheel and our Toyos never failed. Our Tokico shocks are off the shelf and that says a ton about the quality and durability of their products, as are our SPC suspension components, Garrett turbos and ACT clutch. And C-West came on this season to give the car a sweet new look. We work with our sponsors not only because they are the best companies in the business, but they make the best parts, too. I think that is reflected in our Championship.”
Tanner Foust is the 2007 FormulaD Series Champion. Stephan finished the season 27th overall in a field of 48, improving his position five spots from 2006. Tanner qualified first in all but one event this season, had one win (Irwindale), three seconds (Long Beach, Summit Point, Wall), a third (Atlanta) and two fifth place finishes (Evergreen and Infineon).
The AEM / Memphis Car Audio Drift S2000 and 350Z are sponsored by Toyo Tires, Motegi Racing, Tokico Gas Shocks, Advanced Clutch Technology (ACT), Specialty Products Company (SPC), ChargeSpeed, C-West and DC Sports.
10/10/2007
7/23/2007
Foust, AEM/Memphis Car Audio 350Z Qualifies #1
At FD Seattle, Maintains 30-Point Lead in Series!
July 17, 2007, Round 4 Formula Drift, Evergreen Speedway, WA— Evergreen Speedway sparkled under sunny skies for Round 4 of Formula D competition as fans witnessed 70-80 MPH entry speeds off of the banked oval and terminal velocities going into the transitions that left twisted metal carnage on the track several times throughout the weekend. True to their word, Formula D has stepped up the course difficulty at virtually every venue this season and Round 4 was no exception, with plenty of tire shredding action throughout the weekend.
TANNER/350Z
Tanner Foust continued his impressive tear throughout qualifying, piloting the AEM/Memphis Car Audio 350Z to the #1 qualifier spot with a 97.33 score. Tanner faced Hiro Sumida and the Discount Tire Lexus IS in the first tandem elimination round and controlled the tempo during both passes to advance to the Great 8 round against Dai Yoshihara’s Rockstar S15. Tanner held the advantage after the first pass against Dai, but during the second pass the Z blew a tire at mid-bank, propelling the rear of the car into the wall which caused the front to rotate around, leaving a large quarter-panel souvenir on the tarmac. “I was running a lower tire pressure than normal and it worked great, but the low pressure caused the tire to unseat during the second pass,” commented Tanner. “It was a gamble and we knew that going in. Our Toyo T1-Rs haven’t failed us all season, and what’s really great is that Toyo has an even more aggressive street tire that we will be testing this month and debut at the Sonoma event. Given the success we’ve had with the T1-Rs, we can’t wait to see what our partners at Toyo have for us!”
STEPH/S2000
The team arrived on Thursday for testing and Stephan Papadakis wasted no time getting the AEM/Memphis Car Audio S2000 sideways on the high-banked wall. After a rough outing at Evergreen in 06 Steph felt the extra time would pay off, and it did with a # 5 qualifying spot going into eliminations. It looked like Steph was going to advance easily during his first pass in the 32-car elimination field until a spin on the final hairpin. Steph took a more conservative approach during the second pass and executed a clean run but did not gain enough points to advance to eliminations. “I made a lame mistake on the hairpin,” commented Steph. “There isn’t really much else to say! Overall this was a great weekend given all the chaos on the track. Personally, I am much more comfortable with Evergreen now and am very excited that Tanner continued his string of #1 qualifiers. We’ll be looking forward to visiting Monroe again next season!”
Tanner currently leads the Series in points with 346. Stephan Papadakis is 2.75 points out of the Top 20 with 56. A list of the top 10 is below.
Formula D Top 10:
346 - T. Foust
316 - D. Yoshihara
305 - C. Forsberg
277 - R. Millen
254 - K. Yamanaka
235.25 - S. Hubinette
221.25 - V. Gittin Jr.
209.25 - D. McNamara
201.25 - T. McQuarrie
188.25 - B. Sherman
(20.) 58.75 – Ryuji Miki
(24) 56.00 – Steph Papadakis
The AEM / Memphis Car Audio Drift S2000 and 350Z are sponsored by Toyo Tires, Motegi Racing, Tokico Gas Shocks, Advanced Clutch Technology (ACT), Specialty Products Company (SPC), ChargeSpeed, C-West and DC Sports.
At FD Seattle, Maintains 30-Point Lead in Series!
July 17, 2007, Round 4 Formula Drift, Evergreen Speedway, WA— Evergreen Speedway sparkled under sunny skies for Round 4 of Formula D competition as fans witnessed 70-80 MPH entry speeds off of the banked oval and terminal velocities going into the transitions that left twisted metal carnage on the track several times throughout the weekend. True to their word, Formula D has stepped up the course difficulty at virtually every venue this season and Round 4 was no exception, with plenty of tire shredding action throughout the weekend.
TANNER/350Z
Tanner Foust continued his impressive tear throughout qualifying, piloting the AEM/Memphis Car Audio 350Z to the #1 qualifier spot with a 97.33 score. Tanner faced Hiro Sumida and the Discount Tire Lexus IS in the first tandem elimination round and controlled the tempo during both passes to advance to the Great 8 round against Dai Yoshihara’s Rockstar S15. Tanner held the advantage after the first pass against Dai, but during the second pass the Z blew a tire at mid-bank, propelling the rear of the car into the wall which caused the front to rotate around, leaving a large quarter-panel souvenir on the tarmac. “I was running a lower tire pressure than normal and it worked great, but the low pressure caused the tire to unseat during the second pass,” commented Tanner. “It was a gamble and we knew that going in. Our Toyo T1-Rs haven’t failed us all season, and what’s really great is that Toyo has an even more aggressive street tire that we will be testing this month and debut at the Sonoma event. Given the success we’ve had with the T1-Rs, we can’t wait to see what our partners at Toyo have for us!”
STEPH/S2000
The team arrived on Thursday for testing and Stephan Papadakis wasted no time getting the AEM/Memphis Car Audio S2000 sideways on the high-banked wall. After a rough outing at Evergreen in 06 Steph felt the extra time would pay off, and it did with a # 5 qualifying spot going into eliminations. It looked like Steph was going to advance easily during his first pass in the 32-car elimination field until a spin on the final hairpin. Steph took a more conservative approach during the second pass and executed a clean run but did not gain enough points to advance to eliminations. “I made a lame mistake on the hairpin,” commented Steph. “There isn’t really much else to say! Overall this was a great weekend given all the chaos on the track. Personally, I am much more comfortable with Evergreen now and am very excited that Tanner continued his string of #1 qualifiers. We’ll be looking forward to visiting Monroe again next season!”
Tanner currently leads the Series in points with 346. Stephan Papadakis is 2.75 points out of the Top 20 with 56. A list of the top 10 is below.
Formula D Top 10:
346 - T. Foust
316 - D. Yoshihara
305 - C. Forsberg
277 - R. Millen
254 - K. Yamanaka
235.25 - S. Hubinette
221.25 - V. Gittin Jr.
209.25 - D. McNamara
201.25 - T. McQuarrie
188.25 - B. Sherman
(20.) 58.75 – Ryuji Miki
(24) 56.00 – Steph Papadakis
The AEM / Memphis Car Audio Drift S2000 and 350Z are sponsored by Toyo Tires, Motegi Racing, Tokico Gas Shocks, Advanced Clutch Technology (ACT), Specialty Products Company (SPC), ChargeSpeed, C-West and DC Sports.
7/16/2007
6/18/2007
Atco, NJ – Jeremy Lookofsky & the DVS Shoe Company/Dragcartel Drag Civic at the
NHRA SPORT COMPACT NATIONALS were out in full force at event #4 of 8 with there factory backed HFP supported K series motor program machined & assembled by ERL Performance Inc.
Lookofsky was excited as well extremely anxious to get some more seat time and event round wins under his belt. Coming off a 4 week break from English Town with a National Record there were big expectations from the Team. By the end of the Saturday qualifying Lookofsky was sitting in the #1 position extremely stoked and excited for Sundays Eliminations.
As the #1 seeded car in the opening round, Lookofsky had a low qualifier as an opponent. Giving him an easy race into the Semi Finals.
As for the Semi Finals Lookofsky new he had to go all out for the win to move into the finals. Competitor Saul Salceda and his Clutch Masters Backed Integra. As the Light went down Lookofsky and his big HP (Horse Power) never looked back setting a new track ET record of 9.466 Seconds @ 140.74 MPH.
Final round in the (Honda Tuning All Motor) class a huge staging duel ensues.
Lookofsky VS. Prayoonto over 1 minute of delay before both races finally bumped into the staging lights. Lookofsky won the duel and race giving him his second win of the season and was able to keep his #1 position in the year long championship chase.
Hillier the Crew Chief of the Race Car stated that it was a huge weekend and win for the Team. Very excited to be coming into the Vegas race with the points lead.
Next Event: July 13-14 Las Vegas, NV.
Thanks to all that made this weekend possible…
The DVS/DragCartel Civic Is Sponsored by: DVS Shoe Company, Matix Clothing, ERL Performance, Torco Racing Oils, Mac Tools, American Honda, HFP, Advanced Clutch Technology, JE Pistons, Ferrea Valves, Crane Cams, TWM Induction, Port Flow Designs, Auto Tech Driveline, Red Zone Race Fabrication, Spin Imaging, Alpinestars, & RookeCustoms.com.