Forrest Wang Is Now In The Running For The D1 Grand Prix Championship Title
- Aug 18, 2009
Hawaii native, Forrest Wang, is known as one of the elite drivers in the D1 Grand Prix drifting series. Photo by Wrecked Magazine.
The D1GP season kicked off with Forrest charging hard and landing a solid qualifying position. Photo by Wrecked Magazine.
Forrest installed a K&N high-performance air filter to ensure his high-horsepower engine could breathe. Photo by Wrecked Magazine.
As performance parts became more available on the island, Forrest and his friends started modifying their cars in hopes of gaining extra horsepower. One of their favorite pastimes also became watching Japanese drifting videos. As time went on, Forrest honed his skill set in drifting and looked to compete on a national level.
In order to be a competitive opponent in a national drifting series, Forrest had to first build a durable racecar. His vehicle of choice was a Nissan S13 with a Japanese SR20 powerplant. To increase the power output, Forrest turned to Full-Race Motorsports out of Phoenix, Arizona. Full-Race outfitted the S13 with their SR20DET twinscroll GT30R turbo package upping the horsepower to the 400-whp mark.
To ensure that the high-horsepower engine could breathe and filter the incoming airflow properly, Forrest installed a K&N high-performance air filter. In addition to the air filter, Forrest also opted for a K&N Wrench-Off Oil Filter for high oil flow, durability and filtration. "K&N was the brand of my first intake and I have their filters on all my cars, so naturally I turned to K&N for my racecar as well." says Forrest.
With the support of a few sponsors, Forrest is now involved in many facets of drift. He takes time to instruct amateurs at Vegas Drift, the Las Vegas Drifting Community. He also races in select amateur events as well as on a professional level in the D1 Grand Prix series. For the 2009 season, Forrest focused his efforts to make an impact in the D1GP series.
With three D1 events down and one more to go, Forrest has demonstrated his drifting proficiency and landed himself the fourth overall position in points in a group of seasoned US and Japanese drivers. To further reinforce his status, Forrest has been dubbed "D1's Rising Contender" on the D1GP website.
To recap Forrest's successes in the D1 Grand Prix series, lets take a look at the first three events. The D1GP season kicked off at the Angel Stadium in Anaheim, California. At this event, Forrest charged hard and landed a solid qualifying position. At the end of the race, Forrest was pitted against Nobushige Kumakubo of Team Orange. The race against Kumakubo was extremely close, the crowd and judges called for two OMTs (One More Time). Forrest fought off Kumakubo as best as he could and secured the 3rd place podium finish.
The second round of the D1 series took place at The Gulfstream Park in Hallandale Beach, Florida. Forrest had his eyes set on another podium finish and established his spot in the Top 16 by qualifying in the 5th position. With on-and-off rain at this event, Forrest wished for the best as the first race of eliminations began. Upon the initiation of the drift on his first run, Forrest broke an axle. Unfortunately, Forrest couldn't repair the axle within the allotted time and was given the last place finish, only brining home one point for this event.
At the third round of racing held at the Soldier Field raceway in Chicago, Illinois, Forrest ran into some tough luck on Friday's practice session. A broken transmission seemed to end his weekend of drifting. However, Simba from the Touge Factory came through in a major way, picking up a transmission and helping with the swap. In order to keep the transmission intact for competition, Forrest drove conservatively during qualifying but ended up qualifying 2nd! After a number of match ups, Forrest found himself in the finals against Ken "Nomuken" Nomura (one of D1's top Japanese drifters). In a heated battle, Forrest walked away with a 2nd place podium finish, earning valuable points towards the championship.
Currently, Forrest holds the fourth overall points standing and is in the running for the 2009 D1GP championship. This is a huge feat considering that he only received one point for the second round in Florida. With one more race left in the series to determine the winner, Forrest is gearing up for the Season Finale in Englishtown, New Jersey on September 5th.
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