Samuel Hübinette started off his 2009 Formula Drift® (FD) season with a bang, capturing a runner-up finish last Saturday before a packed crowd at the Round One: Streets of Long Beach event. The outing was the second straight finals appearance at the Long Beach venue for Hübinette, who also captured the inaugural victory at Long Beach in 2006.

Hübinette battled his way through a formidable field to advance to his 13th finals appearance. Starting from the No. 12 position, the "Crazy Swede" dispatched the always-tough Tyler McQuarrie in the Top 32 round of judged tandem runs. He then bested No. 5 qualifier Justin Pawlak in a close "One More Time" fight to move on to the Great Eight and a face-off with Vaughn Gittin Jr. Hübinette survived a "One More Time" battle with Gittin, as the judges awarded Hübinette the round win after Gittin crashed into the veteran drifters, BFGoodrich® equipped NuFormz Dodge® Viper SRT10®.

After taking out tough veteran Robbie Nishida in the semifinals, Hübinette, a two-time Formula Drift champion, squared off with Ryan Tuerck in finals. Hübinette waged two close, neck-and-neck tandem battles with Tuerck. The judges, however, failed to call for another "One More Time" run, awarding Tuerck the win and denying Hübinette the chance to add to his series-high nine career wins.

"Well, second place, first round, 2009 - we're very happy," said Hübinette. "We had a rough day in qualifying yesterday, but we changed the set up on the Mopar Viper and got things turned around. We were making great power with our Mopar V10 engine and the traction on our BFGoodrich tires was excellent. We're going to move on now to Atlanta, second in the point standings and with a lot of momentum as we prepare to debut our new Mopar Drift Dodge Challenger in competition at the New Jersey event in June.

"If you're on the podium today in Formula Drift, you did something right, because it is hard to do with the level of drivers battling it out now. So big thanks to [team owner] Shaun Carlson and the NuFormz Racing Team for all their hard work. I'm very happy."

Next up for Hübinette is the Round Two: "Proving Ground" Formula Drift event at Road Atlanta in Braselton, Ga., May 8Ð9. For more information, visit www.formulad.com.

BFGoodrich Tires Used By NuFormz Racing
BFGoodrich Tires g-Force™ T/A® KDW: a street-legal tire chosen specifically by team owner and director Shaun Carlson for use on the Mopar Dodge Charger SRT8® and Dodge Viper SRT10 for its tremendous cornering force at high speeds, strength and exceptional traction on both wet and dry surfaces.

Using motorsports as a proving ground for almost 40 years, BFGoodrich Tires is involved in every type of racing, including oval, sports car, drifting, drag, desert, dirt, rally and extreme rock crawling. BFGoodrich Tires combines technological expertise with vast motorsports experience, delivering a high performance tire for every type of vehicle.