{"id":2750,"date":"2013-10-15T10:08:44","date_gmt":"2013-10-15T14:08:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tcobcur.com\/ver4\/?p=2750"},"modified":"2013-10-15T10:08:44","modified_gmt":"2013-10-15T14:08:44","slug":"final-fight-at-irwindale-speedway-results","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tcobcur.com\/ver5\/final-fight-at-irwindale-speedway-results\/","title":{"rendered":"Final Fight at Irwindale Speedway Results"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"formulad2133272\"\r\nDaigo Saito Takes the Event Victory and Michael Essa is Crowned Champion \r\n\r\n Long Beach, Calif. \u2013 October 13, 2013 \u2013 Formula DRIFT presented by GoPro returned\r\nto Irwindale Speedway for the final event of the 2013 season. Daigo Saito in the\r\nAchilles Tire \/ Bridges Racing Lexus SC430 takes the event victory. Michael Essa in\r\nthe GSR Autosport \/ Yokohama BMW M3 is crowned champion. Lexus wins the inaugural\r\nmanufacturer's championship and Hankook Tire wins the tire championship for 2013.\r\n\r\n Round 7: Final Fight at Irwindale Speedway was held in front of a sellout crowd and\r\nwas the largest motorsport event in the venue\u2019s history. The exciting event marked\r\nthe end of the tenth season for the Series and was also the most attended for the\r\nSeries with approximately over 20,000 attendees over the two day event.\r\n\r\n \"formulad2132\"\r\n\u201cWhat a way to complete the tenth season with the biggest crowd and probably the\r\nbiggest motorsport event ever in Irwindale Speedway history,\u201d said Jim Liaw,\r\npresident and co-founder of Formula DRIFT. \u201cWe are extremely grateful for the fans,\r\nsponsors and drivers that have helped grow the series over the ten years and we\r\nlook forward to many more seasons to come.\u201d\r\n\r\n The action unfolded beginning with Michael Essa, who entered the event with the\r\npoint lead, earning the number one qualifying position giving him a good position\r\ninto the Top 32 and advancing into the Top 16 where he was unable to continue in\r\nthe event with a blown motor. This opened the door for Chris Forsberg in the NOS\r\nEnergy \/ Hankook Nissan 370Z, who entered the event in second place in the\r\nstandings. Essa secured the championship when Forsberg lost to the 2012 champion,\r\nDaigo Saito, in the Great 8. This marks the first time a European vehicle has won\r\nthe Formula DRIFT championship.\r\n\r\n \u201cComing into this event I wanted to prove that this season wasn\u2019t a fluke and\r\nsitting on the sideline wasn\u2019t how I wanted the event to go down, but unfortunately\r\nthat is what happened tonight,\u201d said Michael Essa, 2013 Formula DRIFT champion.\r\n\u201cThe Formula DRIFT championship has always been my goal and I am extremely excited.\r\nThere are so many amazing drivers and teams in the Series and being able to just\r\ncompete with them is an honor. We are hoping to carry this momentum into the next\r\nseason and earn more wins.\u201d\r\n\r\n The consolation round saw Robbie Nishida in the Bridges Racing \/ Achilles Tire\r\nLexus SC300 against Forrest Wang in the Get Nuts Lab \/ Achilles Nissan 240SX. Wang\r\ngot the best of Nishida to earn third place for his first ever Formula DRIFT\r\npodium. The final battle pitted Daigo Saito vs Tyler McQuarrie in the Mobil 1 \/\r\nGoPro Chevrolet Camaro. McQuarrie hit the wall on the second battle to give Saito\r\nthe event victory.\r\n\"formuladfgjkluy8034\"<\/a>\r\n \u201cTo tell the truth I was not really feeling it in practice, but when the battles\r\nbegan and the lights turned on I was able to pull it together when it counted and\r\nam happy for the win to end the season,\u201d said Daigo Saito, winner of Round 7: Final\r\nFight. \u201cI had a lot of issues with the car this year and I feel we weren\u2019t able to\r\nget the car to the condition I really needed to be more competitive, but coming in\r\nthird overall is something I am proud and happy about.\u201d\r\n\r\n Two new championships were added to the Series that included the tire and\r\nmanufacturer championship. After seven events for the season, Lexus comes out on\r\ntop for the inaugural manufacturer championship, while Hankook Tire takes the first\r\ntire championship. \r\n\r\n For more information visit: www.formuladrift.com<\/pre>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Daigo Saito Takes the Event Victory and Michael Essa is Crowned Champion Long Beach, Calif. \u2013 October 13, 2013 \u2013 Formula DRIFT presented by GoPro returned to Irwindale Speedway for the final event of the 2013 season. Daigo Saito in the Achilles Tire \/ Bridges Racing Lexus SC430 takes the event victory. Michael Essa in the GSR Autosport \/ Yokohama […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2750","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tcobcur.com\/ver5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2750","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tcobcur.com\/ver5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tcobcur.com\/ver5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tcobcur.com\/ver5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tcobcur.com\/ver5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2750"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tcobcur.com\/ver5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2750\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2755,"href":"https:\/\/tcobcur.com\/ver5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2750\/revisions\/2755"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tcobcur.com\/ver5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2750"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tcobcur.com\/ver5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2750"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tcobcur.com\/ver5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2750"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}