Today, we made it out to one of our favorite yearly events that comes through our hometown: Formula D Atlanta. This year, it is round 2 of the tour’s stop and we were glad to be a part of the action. I didn’t snap too many shots today, however we have a few other photographers shooting for us this weekend and will most definitely have way more up in the next few days. Until then, here are a few samples from the pits and the seeded driver practice that I did mange to shoot briefly.
First, a couple of shots from the S3 booth in the pit. Our good friend Marcos of southeastdrift.com was cool enough to let us use his amazing S13 coupe in the booth and it managed to grab a ton of attention. LS1 powered, 18×10/18×12 Weds Wheels, and just about everything else makes it pretty insane. I brought my personal SR-powered S14 out as well, although staring at it next to Marcos’ car all day just made me want to abandon my wheels and SR20 for something a bit different. Anyone wanna buy my stuff? 🙂
Next, a few of the memorable cars/drivers from the top 16 seeded practice.
Vaughn Gittin Jr. was tearing it up all day in his Falken sponsored Mustang until a mechanical issue towards the end of the day. Hopefully it will be straightened out by tomorrow, we all predict good things from him this weekend if the car holds up.
Conrad Grunewald’s C5 Corvette was one of my favorites to watch for the day. The sound this car makes is all out evil, and again contributed to my desire to shove a good ol’ American V8 into my 240.
2007’s overall champion Tanner Foust was performing very well as usual and seems to be off to a good start for the year after a 3rd place finish a few weeks back in Long Beach.
Ken Gushi made it out in his new RWD converted Scion tC, although he seemed to be struggling with mechanical issues throughout the day and only made a few passes. We hope these get taken care of tomorrow as this car will surely be interesting to watch in competition.
Current points leader Chris Forsberg seemed to be having no problems with the track or car today and was driving extremely well. After winning Round 1 in Long Beach and the Atlanta round last year, he’ll definitely be a tough competitor.
Darren McNamara’s new RHD V8 powered Saturn Sky was unique and entertaining to watch.
After a few years of driving various S-chassis cars, Dai Yoshihara has moved on to join team RMR and is now piloting Rhys Millen’s old Pontiac GTO. Dai seemed to be taking to the car very well though, and will likely put on a good show during tomorrow’s competition.
Kenji Yamanaka’s new S15 came out sporting an awesome Mazzora color-shifting paint job that I really enjoyed.
Overall, today was a good start to a fun filled weekend up at Road Atlanta. Even though we don’t have any shots up from the unseeded qualifying, the results for it were as follows:
1 Rhys Millen: 95.00
2 Hiro Sumida: 93.33
3 Stephan Verdier: 92.33
4 Tony Brakohiapa: 89.92
5 Robbie Nishida: 89.92
6 Blake Fuller : 89.08
7 Tyler McQuarrie: 87.25
8 Seigo Yamamoto: 86.67
9 Pat Mordaunt : 85.17
10 Tony Angeleo: 85.00
11 Stephan Papadakis: 85.00
12 Dan Willie: 83.92
13 Brian Peter: 81.33
14 Henry Schelley: 81.33
15 Taka Aono: 80.67
16 Ross Petty : 80.67
Be sure to check back soon for more pictures and a run down of how Saturday’s main event goes.
