All throughout the Toyota Speedway at Irwindale on October 16 and 17, the dates for Formula DRIFT's season-ending Round 7: Judgment Day, there were reminders of the enormous loss the drifting community suffered recently, the passing of Nuformz Racing owner and motorsports luminary Shaun Carlson.

Whether it was the custom fire suit worn by Nuformz driver Sam Hubinette and new livery on his Dodge Viper, the portrait of Carlson in Hubinette's pit stall, the retrospective video shown during opening ceremonies, or the stickers remembering Shaun on virtually every car competing, it seemed like the entire drifting world took some measure to give the man his due.

But the mood at the event was far from somber; no, this was a celebration - not just of the close of another FD season (its sixth), but of Carlson's life and accomplishments.

Like the past three seasons, the House of Drift round was also loaded with championship implications. Entering the race weekend, Chris Forsberg, driver of the NOS Energy Drink Maxxis Nissan 350Z, looked like a shoo-in for the title, but mathematically there were still a couple of far-fetched scenarios that could play out against him.

Technically the top nine in the points table all had a shot at the title. Forsberg would need 53 points at Irwindale to be uncatchable and clinch the 2009 crown outright, which meant he had to at least advance into the Top 32 and possibly deeper, depending on his qualifying rank.

The formula looked like this: if Forsberg made the cut into tandems, that's 48 points of the 53 he needs. At that point, he must qualify fourth or better to nab the championship. If he qualified fifth or worse, he would have to at least advance into the Top 16 to claim the title. A Top-16 birth clinches the crown, regardless of what anyone else does.

The worst-case scenario for Forsberg would be not qualifying at all and getting a zero for the round. Failing that, Forsberg would still be vulnerable if he got eliminated in the first set of tandems.

With the stage set, 41 drivers took to Irwindale's unique banked short oval and infield course, a roster with some new names and fresh looks for the season finale. Among them were international hot shoes Dean “Karnage” Kearney from Ireland, piloting the Intec Racing Nissan S14 240SX, and Fredric Aasbo from Norway, in the Team Japan Auto Toyota Supra, both veterans of last year's Red Bull Drifting World Championship.

Style updates in addition to Hubinette's Carlson commemorative rewrap included Michihiro Takatori's now bright yellow Bridges Racing Toyo S13 and Matt Powers' new Day-Glo (Ken Gushi-biting) wheels.

It was not a good weekend for Round 6 winner Stephan Verdier. Friday's Group A first practice concluded with Frenchie sliding the Cooper Crawford Performance RMR Subaru WRX STi into the infield wall, and it wouldn't get much better than that. Later that day in qualifying, in his first pass he smacked the big bank wall and in his second lap he spun out. Losing drift on both runs, twin zero scores, he failed to get a Top-32 slot.

Also missing the qualifying cutoff were Kearney, Takatori, who pulled off of his first lap with an engine fire, and Ryuji Miki in the APEXi Hankook Tires Exedy Mazda FD RX-7.

Atop the round of 32 order was Justin Pawlak in the Bergenholtz Racing Nitto RX-8; he laid down a blistering, skillful first pass that was clearly the class of the field. Forsberg collected his 48-point Top-32 entry prize and another three markers for qualifying seventh, a total of 51. He needed just two more points to call the title his, which meant outlasting his opponent, Doug VanDenBrink in the D'Vanz Motorsport Ford Mustang.

The other seven pursuers of the championship were also among the Top 32, waiting for any opportunity to strike. That included Ryan Tuerck in the Gardella Racing Mobil 1 Pontiac Solstice (P2), Tanner Foust in the Rockstar Hankook Scion Racing tC (P3), Hubinette (P9), Robbie Nishida in the Hankook Dynamic Autosports 350Z (P10), Darren McNamara in the Falken Sears Auto Center Saturn Sky (P11), Vaughn Gittin Jr. in the Falken Tire Ford Racing Mustang GT (P12), and Tyler McQuarrie in the Falken 350Z (P16).

Formula D Round 7: Judgment Day Top 32 Qualifying Order

Formula D sold out Irwindale on Saturday night, some 10,000 charged-up fans in the grandstands and adjacent supplemental seating areas. They were in for a show.

Upsets in Top 32 consisted of 21-seed Alex Pfeiffer in the Tanaka Racing Chevy Corvette getting by JR in an all American Iron battle, and Powers' dramatic march through eliminations, which began with the win over 13th qualifier Eric O'Sullivan in the Rockstar Hankook Seibon Gruppe-S STi.

But all eyes were on Mr. Forsberg and his date with destiny. It was simple at this point; beat VanDenBrink, take home a championship.

Remarkably, it was not as one-sided as one might think. The privateer gave the championship contender all he could handle, enough that judges needed a One More Time tiebreaker to determine a winner. When the decision came down, though, the grid area on track was a sea of well wishers and media, all pressed around Forsberg and the NOS Z in their shining moment of glory.

In Top 16, with the championship in hand, Forsberg fell to Nishida, ending his weekend run but collecting the season's biggest trophy. Surprise advancers into the Great 8 included Powers, who dispatched Tommy Suell's Toyo Allegiant Auto R&D AE86 Corolla to get there, and Kyle Mohan in the Cooper MazdaTrix KMR RX-8, who couldn't buy a ticket past the Top 32 in the early part of the season but has been on fire of late. He beat Pfeiffer for the round-of-eight birth.

Powers and Mohan would do battle, with the driver of the green and dumped S14 continuing to impress and pull out a Final-4 bid. Powers would face McQuarrie, who ended sentimental favorite Hubinette's run in Great 8, while on the other side of the bracket Foust outdrove Daijiro Yoshihara in the Falken Discount Tire S13 in a duel of mutant V-8s, and he was up against Tuerck, who went to extra laps with Nishida but would not be denied.

Powers' Cinderella story would end against McQuarrie, who simply outmuscled the anemic KA mill in Powers' car with his Nissan monster. That set up a money-round showdown with Tuerck, who squeaked one out against Foust.

In the fight for third place, Powers again struggled with a power deficit, this time versus Foust. The Scion driver and reigning champ easily racked up the win and his second third-place trophy of 2009, finishing out the year sixth in points. For his part, Powers went deeper into FD eliminations at Irwindale than he's ever gone previously.

The final bout of the night pitted Tuerck against McQuarrie, turbo-four Solstice roadster against a V8 Z roadster. On the duo's second lap, McQuarrie tapped the infield wall and spun out, netting a zero score and handing the event win to his challenger. With first place, Tuerck locked in second place overall in the final championship standings, while McQuarrie finished the season overall in third place, the highest finish of his career.

The spotlight belonged to Forsberg, though, who also claimed for a second time in his career the Tires.com Triple Crown bonus prize, and became the first driver to win both the championship and the Triple Crown in the same season. His total of 527 points came from three podiums, two of those victories, and finishes no worse than Top 16 all season long.

Much has also been made of the fact that Forsberg's title marks the first time that the FD champion has come from a pure drifting background. All prior champions - Hubinette, Millen and Foust - had other motorsport experience.

The 2009 Formula D championship was an incredible journey, not simply for the drama on track but also because the series continues to improve its product. We challenge anyone to find better talent and a slicker live show; you won't find it - not even in Japan.

As we catch our breath and reflect of what we just saw, FD is already gearing up for 2010, with key announcements set for this year's SEMA Show in Las Vegas in a few weeks. Be sure to come on back and see what the best pro drift series on the planet has in store for the future.

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Round 7: Judgment Day
Toyota Speedway at Irwindale, Irwindale, CA
Top 32 Battle Bracket Top 16 Great 8 Final 4 Final CHAMPION

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