In just a few short days, Formula DRIFT will have wrapped up its 2009 pro championship, and with the conclusion of the of the season this weekend at Toyota Speedway at Irwindale, a.k.a. the House of Drift, everyone will also learn which driver will take this year's series title. While for many it may seem like a foregone conclusion who'll emerge atop the heap, we've been working the numbers to see if there's any remote possibility things could shake out differently.

Admittedly, all indications seem to point to Chris Forsberg, driver of the NOS Energy Drink Maxxis Nissan 350Z, as the shoo-in for the championship, but mathematically there are still a few scenarios - albeit totally unlikely ones - that could play out.

Currently in the standings, Forsberg has 470 points with just Round 7 left, 56 ahead of Ryan Tuerck and the Gardella Racing/Mobil 1 Pontiac Solstice in second. Vaughn Gittin Jr. and the Falken Tire Ford Racing 2010 Mustang GT is another 12.5 back (401.5), followed by Sam Hubinette in the NuFormz Dodge Viper (399.25), Tyler McQuarrie in the Falken 350Z (396), Darren McNamara in the Falken Sears Auto Center Saturn Sky (370.5), Tanner Foust in the Rockstar Hankook Scion Racing tC (369.5), Steph Verdier in the Cooper Tire Crawford Performance Subaru STi (364) and Robbie Nishida in the Hankook Tires Dynamic Autosports 350Z (362.25).

Believe it or not, technically all of these drivers - the top nine, basically - have a shot at the title. Forsberg needs 53 points at Irwindale to be uncatchable and clinch the 2009 crown outright, which means he must at least advance into the Top 32 and possibly deeper, depending on how well he qualifies.

Top-32 qualifying awards the one seed with eight points, two with seven, three with six and fourth qualifier with five markers. After that, five and six qualifiers earn four points, and seven and eight earn three; ninth through 12th get a deuce, 13th to 16th get a single point, 17th to 24th a half marker, and finally 25th to 32nd get a quarter point.

For making the round-of-32 tandems, drivers get 48 points at a minimum. Advancing to Top 16 is good for 54 markers, while a Great-8 birth nets 61 points. The fourth-place finisher gets 69, third gets 78, second 88, and the winner of the event takes home 100 for the victory.

If Forsberg gets into tandems, that's 48 points of the 53 he needs. At that point, he will have needed to qualify fourth or better to nab the championship. If he qualifies fifth or worse, he needs to at least advance into the Top 16 to claim the title. A Top-16 birth will give him the crown, regardless of what anyone else does.

This still leaves an outside chance for something to go horribly wrong for Forsberg and go incredibly right for one of the other eight drivers in the top nine. Obviously the worst-case scenario for him would be not qualifying at all and getting a big ol' goose egg for the round. Failing that, Forsberg would still be vulnerable if he qualifies poorly and gets eliminated in the first set of tandems.

Considering Forsberg and his team are the only ones to win two events this year, Round 2 at Road Atlanta and Round 5 Seattle, qualifying no worse than 12th at every race and advancing to every Top 16 this season, we're not sure he can be beat. But if he fumbles, all bets are off.

(It's worth noting that at Round 6 Sonoma, points leaders Forsberg, McQuarrie and Hubinette were all eliminated in the first two rounds of tandems, suggesting perhaps that anything is still possible.)

As far as predicting who will win Round 7, it's pretty much anyone's guess. Of the nine drivers we cited, four of them - JR, Hubinette, McQuarrie and Nishida - have yet to score a win this year and seem due. Furthermore, JR won at the House of Drift closer last season (and has other high-profile Irwindale wins under his belt as well), while Hubinette may have something to prove in the wake of the recent passing of Nuformz team principal Shaun Carlson.

And then there are the X factors, talent coming in just for this event like Norway's Freddie Aasbo in the Japan Auto Toyota Supra, who was in Southern California last year for the landmark Red Bull Drifting World Championship, and Ireland's Dean "Karnage" Kearney, who will pilot the Intec Racing Maxxis Nissan S14 240SX. Neither has any experience on the Irwindale short oval, though we understand Kearney has gotten time on Evergreen Speedway's banks (we also heard that his team has already had to replace the motor in the S14).

That's to say nothing of the dozens of other hard-charging drivers that could potentially take the Round 7 victory. One thing we're fairly certain of, though, is that the series will likely have a new champion after this weekend. If it does go to Forsberg, the odds-on favorite, Formula D will have its first new titleholder in three years, and the first "pure" drifter - that is to say, the first with no other motorsports experience - ever.

It should be a doozy.

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