2013 Formula Drift Finals at Irwindale Speedway

The final battles of the 2013 Formula Drift Season took place this past weekend at Irwindale Speedway.  The racing was intense and many tires didn't make it through the weekend.

Here is your 2013 Championship winner, Michael Essa, and his BMW M3.

Final drivers meeting for the year.  It looks like Ryan Tuerck and Patrick Mordaunt didn't get the memo about beards only in the front row.

In the top 32, Carl Rydquist in his Nissan 370Z took on Vaughn Gittin Jr. in his RTR Ford Mustang.  Vaughn won this battle to continue on.

Taking off from the start line, Chris Forsberg's 370Z and Daijiro Yoshihara's Nissan 240SX are side by side before they transition for turn 1.

 The 10th year of Formula Drift brought the most amount of fans to the stands.  It sold out before the event even started: so much so that they had to add another set of stands just to accomodate all the drift fans.  It was said that this might be the most amount of fans at Irwindale Speedway, ever.

2013 Formula Drift Finals at Irwindale Speedway

Walking the pits area, there was much to see, but this Rocket Bunny Scion FR-S caught my eye.  The red really popped next to the flat black Scion truck.

It is old vs. new in this tandem practice: Chris Forsberg in his Nissan 370Z and Matt Field in his Nissan 240SX. Both cars putting some power down to fill the air with smoke. 

During the break in the action, Michael Essa (left) and Fredric Aasbo (right) signed some autographs for the fans.

Daijiro Yoshihara and his Nissan 240SX didn't have the best of days.  During practice and qualifying on Friday the team had engine issues and had to swap out to the back up motor.  On race day, Dai was 100HP or so down on power.

Darren McNamara in his 240SX leads Conrad Grunewald in the Hankook Chevy Camero SS past the clipping point in front of the VIP tents at Irwindale Speedway.

Dave Briggs in his Nissan S14 and Aurimas Bakchis is his Nissan 240SX slam the pedal down drifting toward the finish line during the Top 32.  Aurimas ended up taking the win from this battle.