GO DAI YOSHIHARA

his past weekend marked the conclusion of an exhilarating season of Formula Drift for Daijiro Yoshihara. The resilience of Dai's spirit was tested thoroughly as his momentum dipped and soared repeatedly in 2010. The season opener at Long Beach garnered an unfavorable outcome, but Dai was able to turn it around and win two consecutive events, both times defeating the 2010 Formula D Champion, Vaughn Gittin Jr. in the final stage. Entering the final round of Formula D at Irwindale Speedway, Dai sat in 2nd overall points, with a large gap between him and first place. Despite the odds, Dai entered this round confident knowing that he's experienced phenomenal success throughout the 2010 season.

The second qualification run scored him 84.7, enough to put him on the third qualification spot. Paired with Matt Field for Top 32 competition, it would be Nissan S13 versus Nissan S13. Dai leads the first run with overwhelming speed and angle throughout the notoriously fast Irwindale bank. Field catches back up after the transition and as Dai continued with extreme drift angle, Field's aggressive chasing style resulted in clashing of two S13's. In the second to the last turn, Dai's S13 over rotated which inadvertently caused Field to tap Dai. The contact between the two S13's resulted in broken suspension pieces which proved to be detrimental and effectively ended the weekend earlier than planned for the Falken Tire Discount Tire S13.

No sulking was involved even after the abrupt ending of the weekend as Dai gave out t-shirts at the America's Tire booth during the half time to show his appreciation to supporters. When the boxes of t-shirts were emptied, he signed autographs and took pictures with the fans.

There were many that reserved their doubts that an outdated chassis of the early 90's era could compete at the top level, but Daijiro Yoshihara and the team behind him were able to prove that the combination of proper race car engineering and tuning with the right driver behind the wheel could be fatal even against competitors with near-tube frame chassis. Winning two rounds back to back with arguably one of the best looking cars on the field rejuvenated the threat of Daijiro Yoshihara anytime he's on the track. And although some of the goals were not met this year, there is still very much to celebrate for. Dai closes up this season in 4th overall championship points and his peers chose him to win two awards at the Formula D banquet. He was awarded having the best fashion style and best come back of the year.

Dai wants to send great thanks to all his supporters and fans and excitedly tells all that he'll "be back stronger than ever in 2011!" And as always, for more info on Dai, check out his new blog site at www.daiyoshihara.com/blog