Evergreen Speedway saw the return of the Formula Drift Championship series in the small town of Monroe, Washington.
Last year in Seattle, 19 year old Alec Hohnadell was able to take the podium for the first time with a second place finish. After having one of the best battles of the year against Chris Forsberg a few weeks ago in Canada, Alec was ready to go out and show his worth again.
This track doesn’t have a deep unforgivable bank like the Wall Speedway in New Jersey, however there were a handful of cars that fell victim to the bank and required serious maintenance.
The biggest change on the track from last year was removing the final touch and go that brings cars right on the wall leaving the track. In its place an inner clipping point was placed about 20 feet inward, taking away some of the awesome wall taps and carnage that we saw last year at this track.
During Friday’s qualifying, Alec scored a 77 and matched himself up with the kiwi Mad Mike Whiddett in his four rotor twin turbo MX-5.
Forrest scored an 84 and matched himself up with his buddy Geoff Stoneback in the CFR 370Z for their Top 32 battle.
Alec and Forrest are among the last drivers able to breakaway from the autograph signing after Friday qualifying due to their large fan following.
… They have quite the fan following!
For his Top 32 lead run, Forrest kept a high angle on the bank and carried the speed and momentum through the power alley and throughout the rest of the track.
Forrest applied the pressure on his chase run as well and was given the win to advance on to Top 16 and battle Odi Bakchis.
Alec and Mad Mike had a solid battle on both of their lead and chase runs, however Alec rocketed away on the bank on his lead run and created a nice gap that favored him for the win. He advanced on to Top 16 to battle Matt Coffman.
Top 16 Introductions.
Against Coffman, Alec fell behind on the bank and was unable to stay as close on Matt’s door as he would have liked to until the power alley in which Alec was on the door of the S13 for the rest of the run (literally on the door, he made contact with Matt and gave him the advantage on that run).
Alec had a smooth and aggressive lead run against Coffman, but the contact in the first run still favored Coffman among the judges and he was ultimately awarded the win.
Forrest and Odi bing matched up is in no way unfamiliar; these two have driven against each other in competition several times this season already . For Forrest’s chase run, there was some hesitation at the start from his competitor which resulted in Forrest falling behind on the start, initiation, and the bank. He eventually closed the gap between himself and Odi in the power alley middle section of the track and through to the finish. Odi was favored for this run.
A clean, fast and high angle lead run was put out by Forrest, however the gap from the first run subsequently allowed Odi to take the judges favor as well as the win.
Thanks for following along with the Stance blog as we cover this season of the US Formula Drift Championship! Next round is at the Texas Motor Speedway in a month, expect another post after then!
