Formula Drift’s season opener in Long Beach, California was exciting for drift fans as it was for us. Fatlace’s Offset Kings, which is the combination of their previous HellaFlush and Slammed Society events was part of the attraction at Formula Drift. Formula Drift / Offset Kings was also our debut and the start of our collaboration with Tjin Edition.

In the past, we collaborated together, but never in a fashion that we are branding ourselves together. Offset Kings was our first event of the year utilizing a footprint of 60’x30’ to house our 24’ trailer, tow vehicle, secondary vehicle, and our displays. Not only are we fortunate enough to collaborate with Tjin Edition but we also partnered up with selected companies such as, Universal Technical Institute, Royal Purple, Glow Shift, LED Glow, Baer Brakes, Falken Tire, Escort Radars, AccuAir, Forgestar, IForged, Magnaflow, Meguiars, Paxton Superchargers, Vortech Superchargers, Guppy House, Daley Visual, and Viair. together we formed Tjin Edition x DaYUUM RoadShow. The roadshow will consists of 18-22 events throughout California and Arizona, from San Diego to San Francisco and Phoenix, Arizona. The RoadShow has taken 11 months for it to materialize since the idea first was tossed around. Since then, it’s been non-stop working behind-the-scenes while we continued to attend events throughout 2013.

We are excited for 2014 and years to come. This year we added a few new contributors to the family, John Quidilla, Gilbert Chen, and Patrick Pugeda. In terms of hunnies, Lori and Emmy has joined us for Formula Drift / Offset Kings and is also new to the family.

The morning was a little hectic because we had boxes and boxes of literature and giveaway items which needed to be displayed. With the help of Justin, Michelle, Jae, and Scottie, we managed to get everything set up by 10AM and was ready to go. By 10:30AM the Offset Kings car show was filling up and patrons started to fill the stands. John was capturing the action with video and stills, Justin was at the booth and snapping a few extra shots, while Gilbert and Jae covered the vendor section in the pits. I stuck around the booth until top 16 when I took homage on the track.

In our booth was our slammed F-150 with custom air suspension controlled by AccuAir, fabricated by Unique Fabrication. We also had Christian Coujin’s FR-S customized by Phantasy Kolors in Washington.

In the Offset Kings section there were some standouts.

Courtney Wingfield’s 328i

Slammed Toyota Sienna van.

A static Scion FR-S

This Fiat was pretty fresh.

Mark and Yogi reppin Fatlace, AirREX and Phase 2.

Fresh Z and Subi

Dig this S2K

Arcenal’s Bus

LS Toy

Here is a video recap by John Quidilla (@dayuumjquilla)

In vendor the section, Jae and Gilbert ran into some of our favorites in the scene.

Erica Nagashima with Hankook

Gina Darling and Eva Skye

Gina Darling, Natalie Paladin, and Eva Skye

Olivia Korte

Kallita Daniel with Motor Mavens

Jessica Weaver repping AutoCon Events.

Brittani Paige with R1 Concepts

Corissa Furr

Maureen Chen

Regina

Before top 16 began, I ran into long time friend Randyl Dawn. 2014 is Randyl’s 6 year with Falken Tire. I’m glad to see her continue with such a great company, you can catch her at selected Falken Tire events throughout the United States.

Top 16 introductions began with the National Anthem, xriver introductions and it was time to rock.

Top 16 began with 2013 Forumla Drift champion Michael Essa vs. Mats Baribeau. Baribeau didn’t match up with Essa consistency and clean lines was elminated.

2013 podium winner, Forrest Wang with his clean 2JZ powered S14 matched up against Dennis Mertzanis. Forrest would take the win in that round.

Mohan vs. Moen. Mohan managed to propel his beat up RX8 into top 16 after smashing into the unforgiving Long Beach barriers, then gained some what control then smashed into the tire barrier. He was a bit luckier than Joon who introduced himself with the same tire barrier. The exposed Mohan let Moen slip by for the W.

Scion Racing, Fredric Aasbo vs. Hankook tire Grunewald would kiss each other on turn 9 of the Long Beach Grand Prix course and put both cars in the pits for repairs. Upon the return of the duo, Aasbo would move to the next round

Ex-teammates Vaughn Gittin Jr. and Darren McNamara would match up with each other in top 16. Falken Tire sponsored Darren McNamara would move to the next round.

Forsberg vs. Gooden’s Enjuku LS powered 240SX would get edged out by the 370z of Forsberg.

The battle between Odi Bakchis vs. McQuarrie moved quickly. The close proximity of Odi’s chase run seemed to seal the deal.

To finish off the top 16, Pawlak and Tuerck would battle, Pawak would advance and move on to the next round.

In the great 8, Wang and Essa would match up. In Wang’s chase run, it seemed he was following a little behind, but Essa would be close on his tail in his chase with Wang. Essa would later advance.

Aasbo and Moen’s run would mirror Wang’s and Essas run. Aasbo trailed a little behind in his chase as Moen advances.

McNamara and Forsberg was a close one, but after many minutes of tallying, Forsberg would advance to top 4.

Bakchis and Pawlak getting close in the top 4

When the smoke cleared, Moen and Forsberg would battle it out to see who would be crowned number 1 at streets of Long Beach.

Essa would pull of a great start from his championship run in 2013 with a 3rd.

Moen’s lead run appeared to have less of an angle in turn 10 and would get 2nd and land his first podium since the start of his professional Formula Drift.

Forsberg would get crowned with a first place at the start of the Formula Drift 2014 season.

A little bro hug and that concludes Formula Drift season opener at Long Beach!

Im outs! @dayuumden