Hubinette Happy with Top Eight at Long Beach

California Racing News
Tuesday, April 10, 2007

LONG BEACH, Calif. -- All was well with Samuel Hubinette and his NuFormz Racing Mopar Dodge Charger SRT8 as the Formula Drift Round One event on the Streets of Long Beach, Calif., was set to begin. Hubinette, the "Crazy Swede," qualified his Charger seventh and had just laid down one of his impressive smoke shows during the driver intros when disaster struck: a driveshaft on the Charger broke, putting Hubinette's bid for a second straight Formula Drift championship in jeopardy before it had even begun.

But Shaun Carlson, owner and team director of NuFormz Racing, rallied his crew and saved the season, replacing the driveshaft as the pressure was on and the clock was ticking. Hubinette was able to grid in time for his first round match against Kenji Yamanaka and took the round win, earning valuable championship points before he fell in the Top Eight to Vaughn Gittin Jr. Hubinette is seventh in the Formula Drift standings after the first event, his championship hopes still intact.

"We had a very crazy day," said Hubinette, who competes with BFGoodrich G-Force T/A KDW tires. "We qualified seventh, which is unbelievably well for our first Formula Drift event in our 392 HEMI-powered Mopar Dodge Charger SRT8. I did my show out there, and ended up popping a right rear driveshaft. I saw my championship hopes fading away. But NuFormz Racing pulled off another miracle. We made it to the Top Eight. We'll do some changes now and go to Atlanta, where I've had success."

Hubinette's new teammate, Chris Cook, impressed in his Formula Drift debut driving his Mopar/BFG/ShiftIntoGear Dodge Viper SRT10 at Long Beach. Cook's first foray into Formula Drift was solid, as he qualified in the Top 32 and narrowly missed making the Top 16 in an incredibly tight field that saw star drifter Ken Gushi fail to make the show.

"The whole drifting scene is spectacular," commented Cook, who will debut a new green muscle car paint scheme on his Dodge Viper SRT10 at the next event in Atlanta. "It's very visual. This is the first time I've done this. We got a lot of testing down, and we just wanted to get this first one under our belts and move on. I can't wait for the next event."

Next up for Hubinette and Cook on the Formula Drift circuit is the Round 2 event at Road Atlanta, scheduled for May 11-12 in Braselton, Ga. For more info on the Formula Drift circuit, log on to formuladrift.com.