The 2009 Formula Drift season is in the books and what a wild ride it’s been. At times it even felt out of control, like a Crown Vic careening backwards down a hill with no steering wheel while your hands are tied behind your back (see Wrong for reference). And yet somehow amidst all the chaos and cacophony they created there were the drivers and teams at the center of the storm hanging it all out with reckless abandon. And yet as a hapless spectator I am continually amazed at constant improvement in skill and precision from the entire FD field. Take a jump with me and I’ll show you some of the goings on from Irwindale’s House of Drift.

As you may already know Chris Forsberg had a virtual lock on both the overall FD Championship as well as the Tires.com Triple Crown going into this final event at Irwindale’s Toyota Speedway. All Chris needed to do was advance past Doug VanDenBrink to make it into the sweet 16. Which he did much to the excitement of his Drift Alliance brethren who hoisted him out of his Z upon hearing the news. If you ask me I think they did it because he has quite the firm apple of a hiney and they wanted to grab it. Honestly, you won’t know it from looking at him in his driver’s suit, but Chris Forsberg has a ghettolicious booty.

This championship was a long time coming for Chris. He’s been chasing it for a while against drivers with larger budgets and more intensive car development. Aside from the Titan V-8 powering Forsberg’s Z his car is not wildly modified much like the Z33 that carried Tanner Foust to back-to-back championships (hmm, I’m sensing a pattern here). Aside from the car Chris has a real consistent style and it’s rare to see him make an error. The guy is truly a deserving and rightful champion.

They should start calling this series the Formula Drift Alliance (haha, get it). After DA founding member Forsberg took the championship Ryan Tuerck showed why he was a close second in the points chase by winning the event. It was scary how early Tuerck was initiating his Sky before the main straight clipping point after coming off the high bank.

Tyler McQuarrie took the Second spot after an uncharacteristic spin on the inner bank in the finals against Tuerck. Tanner Foust took the bronze and in my eyes the victory was his to lose. Tanner was making an ungodly amount of tire smoke as a result of massive wheelspin and insane entry angles all night long. He lost in a tight battle with Tuerck in the final four and put down Matt Powers to get on the podium.

That’s right I wrote Matt Powers. I don’t know much about the guy other than some paddock buzz about his recent emergence from the Pro-Am ranks and of course his super down low S14. While is entry speeds aren’t up there with the V-8s (don’t get me started on this topic) everything about Matt is smoother than a Sprinkles red velvet cupcake from his don’t-give-a-damn driving style to his car. Even his groupies rock. Matt made it all the way to the final four and as much as I hate to say it a V-8 seems to be the only thing keeping him from that next level. Excuse me while I kick my own ass for writing that last sentence.

In addition to Matt Powers a few other drivers have been quietly climbing the ranks with breakout performances, not only at Irwindale but all season long. One of those drivers is Kyle Mohan who lost against Powers in the top 8. The other is Joon Woo Maeng. Joon has been having an absolute stellar season and for a guy with virtually no sponsors and more jobs than that West Indian family on In Living Color Joon embodies the love of the game. I only wish I could be half as good as Joon Maeng. Check the picture, that’s our own, Amanda Schwecherl who is quickly becoming Joon’s number one fan (he has that effect on people). Seriously though, we think she’s stalking him. Look out, Joon!

Perhaps the most emotional element of the weekend was the Shaun Carlson memorial livery on Samuel Hubinette’s BFGoodrich Viper. Samuel struggled with the car all weekend but he put it into the great 8 before losing to Tyler McQuarrie. I’m sure I speak for everyone when I say that the 2010 Formula Drift grid won’t be the same without Shaun’s signature mohawk and one of his killer builds.

Our video feature on the event will be up on StreetFire.net soon enough but in the meantime I’ll leave you with this image Yo Parts giveaway GT-R flanked by the lovely Alexia Cortez. Yes, YoParts is giving this car away. And no, I don’t know anything else about it except that I want it. Badly. So bad that I can’t focus on anything else. And now that I’ll the blood has rushed from my head I’m going to sign off before I write something really inappropriate.