Photo Credit: RedlineRevz

We caught up with Forrest Wang while he was stuck at Chicago O’Hare Airport trying to get back to Las Vegas.
VD:  Congratulations on your 2nd place finish at D1 Chicago!
Fw:  Thanks Man.
Vd:  What day did you arrive in Chicago?
FW:  We arrived on Thursday at around 3pm, and then went to the track for testing. There was no practice and I had a bit of concern about the motor from Vegas at it spiked past 300 degrees…but it held up strong. The J drivers were like clockwork on the Thursday practice on every clip with super angle. We stayed at the Essex inn less than a mile from the track
FW:  I did receive the CP pistons from the VegasProAm win for the next build.
Vd:  We heard that you ran in to some trouble on Friday, care to elaborate on that?
FW:  Yeah…I broke the tranny 5 runs in on the Friday practice – Simba found and picked up a KA trans from CM works, “a shop 10 min from Solider Field.” He did all the foot work. I would really like to thank Simba. Usually when I pop a tranny I have to do all the work, but with the help from Derrick from Drift Speed and my homie CJ, we were able to get the tranny in less than 60 min. Derrick was meticulous and very thorough in cleaning all of the replacement parts before they were installed.
Vd:  So were you able to get the transmission in to continue practice on Friday?
FW:  No unfortunately we lost all the rest of practice on Friday, the night time practice was canceled as many people were hitting the wall. I assume that D1 needed to have as many cars qualify as possible.
Vd:  Well we heard from the Edrift website that you qualified 2nd, can you tell us a little about it?
FW:  Well my first 2 practice runs I was babying it, didn’t want to break trans, I was definitely holding back. And then I just gave it my best. I ended up 2nd in qualifying behind Daigo Saito. I didn’t have a      spotter, and Keichi was relaying from the Judges Stand to the grid control, letting the drivers know what they could improve on, I just focused on getting really close on initiation and hitting the clips well.

Top 16 vs. Gary Simmons

Lead Run
FW: Gary spun out behind me

Follow Run
FW: I guess he straitened on initiation.

Top 8 vs. Tanaka “Rematch” from Round 1

Lead Run
FW: As I qualified 2nd I was supposed to lead but Tanaka bullied his way into the lead position.
I followed him really well, at times during the run we were within a foot, he got away and then I sucked back up

Follow Run
FW: I gapped him by 2 car lengths. The judging panel I guess agreed that there must have been a starting error, and they called One More Time.
We did the one more time – he followed me well, and then on my follow I was almost rubbing his car. This is where things got strange.

The Starter made us wait at the staging start line for over 5 min and after much anticipation, the judges called a OMT, I was ready to go again and then we received another messaged that they changed their minds and said I won. Tanaka and Team Orange flipped out and would not leave the starting area. The staging guy said the decision was final they threw a fit.  Staging was motioning to Tanaka to back up,  he started revving his motor and starts burning out, the starter that was motioning to him jumps back as Tanaka’s car starts moving forward .It seemed dangerous as there were a lot of spectators and crew members and video crews in that area.  Tanaka did a half donut and turned around to go back to the pits and the flipped us all off with his crew yelling in Japanese. This was seriously a first for me, I have never even heard of anything like this in drifting ever. I was kind of upset from that. I waited at staging to go against Kumokubo for the final 4.

Vd: So what happened with the final 4?
FW: Well Kumokubo came up to me and gave me a hug, he was smiling and said “I don’t know what is going on” “it’s nothing against you, but I’m not going to be able to compete with you.”  I got a bye run and took on Nomuken in the final round.
Vd: So how was it fighting for 1st against Nomuken?
Fw: I was definitely out matched grip wise, he had a ton grip due to his tire compound, and he was able to carry his speed better through the first clipping point. We ended up doing a One More Time but I just     didn’t have the grip.
Vd: Well it was great chatting with you, see you at Vegasdrift013
Fw: Oh for shure man, Peace.