Huge Highlight of Formula Drift Irwindale 2021 Title Fight! @formuladrift #FDIRW

Full House, Lightning Actions, and Moving Moments at the Formula Drift Irwindale 2021 Title Fight

★ On-Location Coverage, Photographed and Reported by Py Pai

W&HM / Wheels and Heels Magazine / www.wheelsandheelsmag.com

Formula Drift Irwindale 2021

The weather during the two-day Formula Drift Irwindale 2021 Title Fight was a bit challenging. At the first day it was chilly and cloudy, and then the sun came out to greet everybody. 

Then the second day, it's a full blown overcast and super cloudy hovering over the House of Drifting, with drizzles of rain. This presented a level of difficulty to drivers as the ground condition changed. It's geared toward an exciting fight.

Reeling from pandemic restrictions, Formula Drift asked everybody to mask up whenever inside a room, but the outside is not required. The event is a sold-out event, that you cannot even get a ticket if you did not have it already. 

The parking lot was totally full. People who came in late needed to take shuttles from a remote parking lot that is not quite close to the venue. Obviously the drifting actions are back to a hugely popular support. 

This year's venue layout format is a bit different than the past, and we also saw strong showing of the Formula Drift Prospect racing series. Both the car display and drifting racing generated a lot of interests and increased the fandom of both pro and almost pro teams. 

Formula Drift Irwindale is always a nail biting event, and the Title Fight final racings are the must-watch for all drifting fans. We are super happy to continue our 12th-yeared coverage of this awesome top motorsport!

   

Definitely read more to see many stunning pictures of the event and the models! 

Pro and Prospect Racing Car Showing

One highlight of attending Formula Drift events is to get up close with cars to examine what make these monster-level machines so powerfully awesome yet swiftly handling. Fans also get the opportunities to interact with the drivers and take selfies with them. Nothing could be better than this level of pro and fan interactions!

This year's Prospect Racing cars hung around after their portion of competition ended, and that was a smart move by the Formula Drift Team. Not only it has great use of the venue space, but also provided a much more actions and opportunities for fans to check out these cars and their drivers. This is awesome! This is a great way to build up the community.

                

Formula Drift Vendor Models

First of all, we were so happy to see our cover models and feature models at the Falken vendor places. Our cover models Zari Chacon and Alliyah B were looking so gorgeous together with their team mate Courtney Day. We also met up our feature model Ashley Harrell who just flew in from out of state to support this wonderful event. What a team! 

Even though the vendor model presence was not as much as used to be. Notably several large tire vendors did not show up with their big trailers and their brand models. Nonetheless this event has very bright spots dotting across venues, such as Janet B and Jacyee Hamlin for NOS, Emma and Yurisa for GT Tires, as well as other models. 

It's always great to see both good friends, familiar faces, and new talents! 

 
               

Expo vendors and Cars

After the huge pandemic lockdowns and restrictions, it's highly commendable that many vendors provided their support with their presence and their efforts, products, and services. It shows that the community is strong and thrive even under circumstances. 

During the halftime and several breaks, you can see a sea of people walking across the expo area. If it is not noted, one might think that nothing has happened to the event industry over the last year and this that has the whole outdoor events practically shutdown. 

We super welcome this back-to-normal condition of the car show and motorsports industry! 

One this we encountered is a the not-yet-released new model Toyota GR 86. This is the first time we saw it and it looked sleek! This car model will be showing in many different shows, and will be at the dealers around the end of this year. We anticipate seeing them a lot in future car events and shows. 

                    

Opening Ceremony

It's always an exciting experience at the Formula Drift opening ceremony. The cars lined up, the drivers stood by their highly cared vehicles, umbrella girls flanking the main characters, press and VIP people paid great attention to capture the rare close up moments, and fans roared their support and applauded to show their excitements when their favorite drivers were highlighted. 

This year we saw a super familiar face who is singing the national anthem. Top model and singer Erica Nagashima was doing the honor of holding the mic and let the whole crowd hear her beautiful voice on this important moment. 

                   

      

Pro Drifting Racing

This year the course was slightly modified. It has tighter turns and augmented some visual effects. This made the racing even more fierce and visually entertaining. 

As mentioned at the beginning, the weather condition is a bit tricky. The slight rain drizzle must have casted a bit mental speed bump to drivers. None the less, they were pros. They pressed on. They did not relent. They gave their best and push their boundaries. The races were blood pumping good.

The legend Daijiro Yoshihara has announced his retirement from drifting and this is the final race for him. During the competition he did not advance to the next circle and concluded an almost two decades long drifting career. The crowd sent their respect to him by shouting out "Thank you Dai!" several times. It's a very moving moment. We will miss him in future racing as well.

The competitions worked through the night to late. It's full of actions and suspense for sure.

                                      

Final Results 

At  the end of racing, we had winners for Irwindale race: 

First place: Odis Backis
Second Place: Fredric Aasbo
Theird Place: Vaughn Gittin Jr.

The big 2021 Formula Drift winners: 

First Place: Fredric Aasbo
Second Place: Matt Field
Third Place: Odi Beckis 

For more information, check out Formula Drift web site for detailed ranking, stats, news and video reels.

Overall, this is such a great almost-post-pandemic racing event that is one for the book. It's a heroic comeback, a fully packed house, and top notch competitions. 

We applaud the Formula Drift Team for doing a great job despite the tough circumstances, and this year's event was beautifully executed. 

We look forward to a fully normal 2022 season for more actions and fun! 

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