The Hankook Tire / JIC USA drift team made their 3^rd stop on the Formula D series at Summit Point raceway in West Virginia. This new high speed course was a new one to many drivers and this made the playing field extremely even. The points race is also wide open to anyone to get to the championships. On Friday, the first day of practice, the two drivers, Kenji Yamanaka (driving the Nissan Silvia S15) and Tyler McQuarrie (driving the Nissan Silvia S14) were showing great amounts of speed, angle, and of course, thick tire smoke from the Hankook Tires. The judges pointed out that both Kenji and Tyler were demonstrating the right amounts of speed and racing line that will give them the advantage for qualifiers.

                For top 32 qualifying, both Kenji Yamanaka and Tyler McQuarrie completely dazzled the judges as they both came in at top speeds (of 75mph) and displayed the correct drifting line. At one of the runs, Kenji came in at 81mph, highest of the day. This allowed both drivers to qualify at 3^rd (Tyler) and 4^th (Kenji). This set the stage to allow both drivers to dominate the top 16 tandem rounds.

                For the first time around for Top 16 battles, Kenji was pared up with Rhys Millen (13^th qualifier) in the Red Bull / Pontiac Solstice. The S15 that Kenji was piloting could not allow him to perform at his best and his day ended there. Tyler was up next and he went up against Vaughn Gettin Jr. in a Nissan Silvia S13. Tyler first led the pair and did what he did all day, performing to the judges’ expectations. The second run was with Gettin in the lead as Tyler followed. The two went down the track but then Gettin lost control hitting the wall and Tyler narrowly missed rear-ending Gettin. Tyler moved onto the Great 8.

                In the great 8, Tyler was paired up with Falken Tire driver, Darren McNamara in a Toyota Corolla. Both of them took off with him up front and Darren in the chase. Both of them came in at high speed but Darren put some tires in the dirt and that caused some point deductions. Tyler was given the advantage going into the second run. Tyler kept his distance knowing that he had the advantage over Darren. This proved to work as he went on into the Top 4 semi-finals.

                The semi-final rounds paired Tyler up against Tanner Foust in the AEM 350Z. In the first round of runs, both drivers made mistakes on each of their laps. This gave them a tied score which forced them into a sudden death round. Determined, Tyler took off and did two additional runs with Tanner. They both scored similar runs but Tanner edged Tyler by a mere 2 points. This put Tyler in contention for 3^rd place.

Tyler was now paired up with Rhys Millen in the 3^rd place round and Tyler put up a fight. Although to many people on other teams though Tyler should have been given the podium win, the judges did not agree. Tyler walked away with a strong 4^th place finish. Kenji now sits at 7^th place overall and Tyler sits 11^th overall in the Formula Drift Championship race. JIC USA could have not accomplished this event without the help of our sponsors and supporters: Hankook Tire USA (http://www.hankooktireusa.com), Works Bell, A SPEC, ECKO UNLTD, Exedy Clutches, Stoptech Brakes, Enkei Wheels, Tomei Powered, Instyle Graphics, Cobra Seats, Vertex T&E, Seibon, APR Performance, Sparco USA, Turbo By Garrett, and Meguiar’s.