Out at Round 6 in Las Vegas of this year’s Formula Drift season, Mike Ryan put on the first ever drift demonstration in a semi-truck with his famous Freightliner Cascadia Pikes Peak Edition. Prior to that event however, Ryan got some testing time out at Irwindale Speedway in Southern California with Samuel Hubinette. The team also gave a very special kid a ride he’ll never forget.

Both Ryan and Hubinette were conducting some last minute testing on their vehicles before Las Vegas, but they also invited out William Klopper, who is battling cancer, for a truly memorable day. Hubinette was granting a wish from the Make-a-Wish Foundation to William’s friend Patrick by inviting them out to the track for ride-alongs.

The nicely executed video does a great job capturing the day’s events, showing off how remarkable it is to watch Ryan drift his Freightliner alongside Hubinette’s Dodge Charger, while throwing in a true feel-good moment with Klopper and his friend.

Watch the video after the jump:

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Currently up on eBay is Hubinette Racing’s / NuFormz Dodge Charger SRT8 originally built for the Formula Drift competition. And while it’s a truly formidable drift machine – it captured first place in Summit Point in 2007 – it’s more about owning a piece of history if you’re a a fan of the sideways sport. The reason? It was the first domestic four-door drift machine ever built, having spent the last couple of years sitting in the NHRA Museum after Sean Carlson’s untimely passing.

The only steel piece left on this car is the roof, while all the other panels have been swapped out for carbon fiber and fiberglass counterparts. It features a fully built 6.1L HEMI engine, naturally aspirated, though the exact specs of the powerplant were not mentioned in the auction. What is mentioned however is the extensive suspension and drivetrain modifications and the car currently sits on 18-inch Intro wheels.

The starting bid is currently at $39,000 and we certainly hope whoever does end up buying it takes it back out to compete.

[Source: eBay via Wrecked Magazine]

In what is a clearly a great marketing stunt, BF Goodrich is teaming up with Olympic Gold Medalist Shaun White to teach him how to drive. And by driving, we mean the typical fashion we expect to see with BF Goodrich – tearing up tires all over the track.

White had the privilege of going to San Bernardino Airport where he met up with three of Team BFG’s members: Samuel Hubinette, Lars Wolfe and James Shearer. Each driver represented a different facet of motorsport, drifting, time attack and King of the Hammers, respectively.

Despite not even knowing how to drive a manual when the day began, White seemed to be a quick learner and was extremely fascinated with drifting – something expected from a persona like White.

Check out several videos after the break of Shaun White and BF Goodrich.

GALLERY: BF Goodrich and Shaun White

[Source: Autoblog]

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The Off Road Championship (TORC); is one of the most gruelling race series going. Each event is a short track natural course where jumps and fender banging are par for the course, much like a four-wheeled motorcross, which makes it very entertaining to watch.

Chrysler’s Mopar and Ram divisions recently announced that they will be official sponsors for the series, providing trucks for drivers as well as an official pace vehicle in the shape of a Ram Runner Pickup. First revealed at the Jeep Easter Safari last year, the Ram Runner is a package designed for 1500 trucks that adopts pre runner style equipment, such as larger wheels and tires, suspension upgrades, including Fox Racing shox and flared fenders.

The five drivers which will be sponsored by Mopar and Ram in the TORC series are Rob MacCachren and two-time drift champ Samuel Hubinette of Traxxas Racing and Bryce Menzies, plus Ricky and Luke Johnson of Menzies Motorsports.

The first race in this year’s TORC series is set to kick off at Redbud MX in Buchanan, Michigan on Memorial Day weekend. Mopar says that fans who attend the events this year will also have a chance at experiencing off-road driving themselves. Now that’s interaction.

The 2011 Formula Drift season is just around the corner, and competing vehicles are out in full testing mode. Samuel Hubinette hasn’t been at the top of the podium for a couple of years now, but it looks like this year his two-car team will be something to look out for. He’ll be behind the wheel of his Dodge Challenger, while Dean Kearney of Ireland will be piloting the infamous Dodge Viper SRT-10.

Both cars are sporting new looks for the 2011 season, welcoming sponsorship from Dodge, V-LEDs, BFGoodrich and Federal Tires. Dodge will be the primary sponsor of Hubinette’s Challenger, while V-LEDs is the primary sponsor of Kearney’s Viper. Interestingly enough, it looks like Hubinette will be driving on his traditional BFGoodrich rubber while Kearney will be burning off Federal Tires.

Kearney captured the 2009 European Pro Drift Championship, and with the experienced Hubinette by his side, it’ll be an interesting year to see how these two battle it out with the rest of the field. We’ll be looking forward to the season opener on April 8-9th at Long Beach, California.

Check out the video of Hubinette testing his Challenger after the break, along with the official press release.

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This weekend’s X-Games 16 is starting to become a star-studded event full of Formula Drift’s best drivers. We already know Tanner Foust and his experience with the X-Games, and now Samuel Hubinette and Andrew Comrie-Picard (Formula Drift driver and teammate) will both be driving NOS Energy Drink Mitsubishi EVOs on BFGoodrich tires.

The NOS Energy Drink EVO is not new to X-Games but it has been rewrapped for this year (as pictured above). Rumor has it that Hubinette’s practice was cut short when he hit a berm and threw the EVO up on two wheels. So it’ll be interesting to see how the competition plays out in the Super Rally with Hubinette, Picard, Verdier and Foust battling it out on the rally course rather than the drift course.

AutoGuide will be sure to update with X-Games news and results, especially if anything flips over!

UPDATE: Ready to match the EVO entry, Subaru has also just released details on it’s three car effort for the X-Games, with Travis Pastrana, Dave Mirra and Sverre Isachsen all piloting 500-hp Subaru WRX STIs.

BFGoodrich Tires, a company well known for its innovative and action-packed TV commercials, has drawn inspiration from the animal kingdom for its latest “Bolt On” ad campaign.  As you’ll see in the video (after the jump), in the first installment it’s the grip of a tree frog that’s used to illustrate BFG’s point about bolting on grip by installing a set of their high-performance street tires, while the Behind The Scenes video (also after the jump) gives us a taste of some of the other animals we’ll see in future “Bolt On” ads.

Although the animal kingdom analogies will be at the heart of this campaign, the ads also feature two stars in the automotive world and members of the TeamBFG program. Two-time Formula Drift champion Samuel Hübinette did the stunt driving for the spots and Rally pro Lars Wolfe provided technical and special counsel.  The vehicle featured in the broadcast ad is a Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X with BFGoodrich g-Force Super Sport A/S tires.

The new campaign features a media plan that includes a variety of television, print and Internet advertising mediums. Kudos to BFGoodrich for thinking outside the box on this campaign and injecting some humor and style into their “Bolt On” ads. We look forward to seeing what animal makes a cameo in the next one.

[Source: BFGoodrich Tires]

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Although Diajiro Yoshihara is hardly a newcomer to the world of drifting, it was something of a surprise to see this series veteran take home the victory at Road Atlanta this past weekend given that he hadn’t won a Formula Drift event since 2007 and was driving a freshly built Discount Tire and Falken sponsored Nissan 240SX.

Making Dai’s win in Hotlanta even more impressive was his performance in the final pairing against current overall points leader Vaughn Gittin Jr. in his insanely powerful Ford Mustang GT.

The 2010 Formula Drift championship is shaping up to be the most competitive season yet, with Gittin and Yoshihara leading the standings, followed closely by three former series champions, Rhys Millen, Tanner Foust, and defending champ Chris Forsberg. The cream already appears to be rising to the top and the challenge ahead for Falken stablemates Gittin Jr. and Yoshihara is clearly a monumental one.

Still, drifting is an inherently unpredictable motorsport and with so many strong contenders among the top 32 drivers, it’s still anybody’s guess who will come out on top at season’s end. Conrad Grunewald finally finds himself in a competitive machine, the Atlanta crowd pleasing Hankook Tire sponsored Chevrolet Camaro, and after a strong weekend in the dirty south we expect to see him continue to rise through the ranks. Former champ Samuel Hubinette is also driving a new machine this year, the “love it or hate it” Dodge Challenger that seems to polarize drift fans just as strongly as his Dodge Viper and Charger did in previous years.

The quality of the drifting this season has been higher than ever too, exemplified by Tanner Foust’s amazing tail-first entry into a high speed lefthand turn at Road Atlanta, a track he’s always been among the fastest and most aggressive drivers at.

Check out the video after the jump.

[Sources: Speedhunters, Formula Drift]

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Breaking into its seventh season, Formula DRIFT took to the Streets of Long Beach for its trademark season opener. This event is always a fan favorite being one of the only, if not the only, drift event that takes place on actual streets rather than a race track, course or parking lot. Many new cars made their debut at this event, some having great success while others clearly have a lot of bugs to figure out. American muscle prevailed however, as Vaughn Gittin Jr.’s new 2011 Falken Tire / Monster Energy Drink Mustang claimed the top podium spot with its debut.

Rhys Millen and his Red Bull Hyundai Genesis has clearly benefited from an off-season of thorough testing and upgrades as he finished up second place. Two-time champion Tanner Foust found himself in third with his Rockstar Energy Drink / AEM Scion tC. The threesome made for a colorful podium with three different brand of energy drinks being represented.

What made this event even more exciting was the debuts of several new drivers from all around the world seeing their first action in competitive American drifting. “With drivers from 13 nations and 12 current and former drifting champions, Formula Drift continues to grow drifting globally with the most diverse field of competitors than any other drifting series in the world,” said Jim Liaw, president and co-founder of Formula Drift.

Samuel Hübinette’s Dodge Challenger looks to have a few more bugs to work out, but his skill and expertise made sure he wasn’t far from a podium finish. Other new muscle cars included Conrad Grunewald in his Hankook Chevy Camaro and Tony Brakohiapa in the Sam’s Autoboy Ford Mustang. Noticeably missing, and without controversy, was Robbie Nishida’s Hankook Nissan GT-R and Eric O’Sullivan’s Subaru. Both were supposed to be big-name competitors and it must have been truly disappointing for both of these drivers flying over 10 hours to not see any competition.

Round Two of Formula Drift is scheduled to invade Road Atlanta on May 7-8th, 2010. We’ll be keeping a close eye on any testing during the break and will be sure to report on the second event of another exciting season of drifting.

GALLERY: Formula DRIFT Long Beach 2010

We broke the news last month that Samuel Hübinette would be campaigning his own two-car drift team for 2010. His new 865-hp Dodge Challenger would be campaigned with his previous championship-winning Dodge Viper, now driven by Canadian rally-star Andrew Comrie-Picard. With Formula Drift Long Beach competition starting today, the new team was out testing at Riverside, California this past week.

We spotted this video on YouTube and figured we’d share. It’s the best we can do to whet our appetite for this weekend’s competition. Things look extremely exciting with all the major teams finally making their official announcements, debuts and testing videos. We’ll be sure to report on all the results from the first event of the 2010 Formula DRIFT season. Check out the video of the Challenger swinging sideways, burning BFG rubber after the break.

GALLERY: Samuel Hubinette Testing Drift Dodge Challenger

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