Hübinette Begins Chase for Third FD Title at Long Beach
Team Mopar® Formula Drift (FD) star Samuel Hübinette is on a mission. The two-time FD champion and all-time series wins leader has his targets locked on bringing home a third FD championship in 2009, beginning this weekend at the Round One: Streets of Long Beach event. The season-opening event is scheduled for April 10–11 on the Long Beach (Calif.) Grand Prix Street Course.
Hübinette, runner-up in the 2008 FD championship battle, has enjoyed a remarkably successful track record at the Long Beach venue. The "Crazy Swede" captured one of his series-high nine career wins at the Long Beach season opener in 2006, launching him to his second FD championship. He then took a Team Drift victory in 2007 and captured the No. 1 qualifying spot and a runner-up finish in his Long Beach visit last year.
Hübinette’s 2006 win and runner-up finish last year came in the Mopar NuFormz Dodge Viper SRT10® he will drift this weekend at Long Beach while he awaits completion of his Mopar NuFormz Drift Dodge Challenger. NuFormz Racing owner Shaun Carlson, recovering from a recent health scare which saw the 34-year-old suffer three heart attacks, is overseeing his crew as they put the finishing touches on the Mopar NuFormz Drift Dodge Challenger. The car will debut in June at the Round Three: The Gauntlet event in New Jersey. Both Mopar-powered drift vehicles will run on BFGoodrich Tires, a long-time associate sponsor of Hübinette and the NuFormz team.
"We’re beginning the first event in a well-proven drift car," said Hübinette of his Mopar-powered Viper. "We were runner-up last year in the same car, so that’s a good feeling. But there are a lot of teams stepping up this year. The stakes are high and the competition just gets tougher and tougher in the premier drifting series in the U.S."
"The Mopar Drift Dodge Challenger will make its competitive debut at New Jersey," said Carlson. "By running the Viper at Long Beach and Road Atlanta, we allow Sam to gain critical seat time in the Challenger and get the car dialed in."
The 2009 campaign will mark the sixth year of the partnership between Mopar and Hübinette.
"We’re heading out into our sixth season with Mopar in Formula Drift competition, and I’m very proud to have Mopar supporting me for another season," said Hübinette. Mopar will introduce a new Formula Drift fan activation program at the Road Atlanta event in May.
"From sponsoring two-time champion Samuel Hübinette and the NuFormz team to debuting three Dodge model cars into competition, Mopar has been on the forefront of participating in and supporting the drift community and the Formula Drift Championship," said Jim Liaw, President and Co-Founder, Formula Drift Holdings, LLC.
"Mopar has enjoyed a long and successful relationship with Sam, Shaun and the Formula Drift Series, and we’re very excited about the 2009 season," said Jim Sassorossi, Director—Mopar Global Parts Sales and Marketing, Chrysler LLC. "Sam has been an amazing brand ambassador and has helped promote Mopar performance parts and accessories to a new generation of motorsports enthusiasts."
The Formula Drift Round One: Streets of Long Beach event is scheduled for April 10–11 on the Long Beach Grand Prix Street Course. For more information on the Formula Drift Series, log on to http://www.formulad.com.