Formula DRIFT
Round 7: Judgment Day, October 16-17
Toyota Speedway at Irwindale, Irwindale, California

The Formula DRIFT pro championship awarded Chris Forsberg, pilot of the NOS Energy Drink Maxxis Tire Nissan 350Z, the 2009 series title on Saturday night after he defeated Doug VanDenBrink in the Top-32 round, earning enough points with the early-round win to clinch the crown.

The sold-out House of Drift season ender was ultimately won by Ryan Tuerck and the Gardella Racing Mobil 1 Pontiac Solstice, who bested Tyler McQuarrie in the Falken Tire 350Z after McQuarrie lost his drift entering the final section of track. Moments earlier, 2007 and 2008 series champ Tanner Foust in the Rockstar Energy Drink Hankook Tire Scion Racing tC smoked out privateer Matt Powers in his S14 240SX to claim the final step on the podium.

With the victory, Tuerck takes home a second season first-place trophy (he won the opener in Long Beach) and second place overall in the final championship standings. McQuarrie finished the season overall in third place for the highest finish of his career.

"It feels amazing," said Tuerck afterward. "To be able to relish in this win for the next six months is truly awesome."

Tuerck had a progressively daunting path through the bracket, dispatching Matt Waldin in the Import Intelligence Z and Ken Gushi in the RS*R Scion Racing tC in Top 32 and Top 16, respectively. His battle with Robbie Nishida and the Hankook Tires Dynamic Autosports 350Z in Great 8 went to a One-More-Time pair of tiebreaker laps before Nishida fell. That set up a tandem match with Foust that Tuerck emerged victorious from to face McQuarrie.

For his part McQuarrie tangled with round after round of heavy hitters, starting with Rhys Millen and the Red Bull RMR Hyundai Genesis Coupe in Top 32 and number-one qualifier Justin Pawlak in the Bergenholtz Racing Nitto Mazda RX-8 in Top 16. Sentimental favorite Sam Hubinette, in a re-skinned Dodge Viper commemorating the passing of Nuformz head and tuner icon Shaun Carlson, was McQuarrie's next victim, followed by a surprising Powers, who recorded his deepest run into the elimination ladder.

Heading into the Irwindale finale, Forsberg maintained a healthy lead in the championship standings, but not a guaranteed title. On Saturday he also claimed for a second time in his career the Tires.com Triple Crown bonus prize and was awarded a check for $10,000 and a custom wheel trophy, and also became the first driver to win both in the same season. Forsberg's title also marks the first time that the champion has come from a pure drifting background; all previous champions had other motorsport experience.

"We've been chasing the championship for the past six years since Formula DRIFT first started and everyone is out here to do the same thing. We just run as hard as everyone else and did the best we could," Forsberg explained.

"Coming into this last round I saw that Tuerck was just crushing it in practice and I knew that if we didn't get enough points we would lose the championship and Tuerck would take the event and the title, so I'm proud of him doing that and I'm totally psyched for what my team was able to accomplish to win the championship."

UrbanRacer extends our warmest congratulations to Chris Forsberg and Chris Forsberg Racing on the 2009 championship and to Formula D for another year of peerless motorsports entertainment.

Look for complete coverage from Formula D Round 7: Judgment Day on UrbanRacer.com tomorrow.

Also check back often for news regarding the 2010 Formula DRIFT championship schedule.

Formula D Round 7:
Judgment Day Top 32 Qualifying Order

Round 7: Judgment Day
Toyota Speedway at Irwindale, Irwindale, CA
Top 32 Battle Bracket Top 16 Great 8 Final 4 Final CHAMPION

www.formulad.com

Formula One
Brazilian Grand Prix, October 16-18
Autódromo José Carlos Pace, Sao Paulo, Brazil

Formula One's thrilling 2009 title chases officially came to end on Sunday, as Brawn GP secured the Constructors' Championship at the Brazilian Grand Prix with Jenson Button driving from 14th position on the grid to a fifth-place finish to wrap up the Drivers' Championship with one race of the season to go.

The race was in the end won by Mark Webber, who swept to a dominant victory for Red Bull ahead of BMW Sauber's Robert Kubica and a hard-charging Lewis Hamilton from McLaren. Unfortunately the Red Bull win, along with teammate Sebastian Vettel's fourth-place run, was too little too late for the team in second.

Right from the start Button benefited from carnage to jump up from P14 to ninth at the end of a dramatic first lap.

It began when Kimi Raikkonen's Ferrari brushed wheels with Adrian Sutil's Force India going into the first corner. Then Vettel's Red Bull tagged Heikki Kovalainen's McLaren on the exit, the Finn spinning and forcing Ferrari's Giancarlo Fisichella to run on to the grass in to avoid the scrum.

Further round the lap, Jarno Trulli pulled his Toyota alongside Sutil but lost control as he was squeezed over the outer curb. He tangled with the Force India, each spinning off in different directions. As Sutil speared back on to the track, he bounced right in front of Renault's Fernando Alonso, who had nowhere to go and retired with rear suspension damage. The Safety Car was deployed as debris all over the place was cleared up.

As if all that wasn't dramatic enough, there was excitement in the pits as Kovalainen and Raikkonen both stopped at the end of the lap. The Ferrari driver had damaged his front wing against Webber, who had got away second behind Brawn's Rubens Barrichello at the start. Kovalainen pulled away too soon from refueling, taking his fuel hose with him. Raikkonen, right behind, then ran through a flash fire as fuel spewed from Kovalainen's trailing fuel hose.

When the racing resumed on the sixth lap Button launched an attack on rookie Renault driver Romain Grosjean. They ran side by side and re-passed one another a couple of times in some tense wheel-to-wheel racing before Button took the spot. Next was Williams' Kazuki Nakajima, whom he deposed on the seventh lap. Rookie Kamui Kobayashi proved tougher, but after one failed attempt in Turn One Button made it stick.

Barrichello pitted on Lap 50 from second place. On Lap 55 Button pitted from third. On Lap 56 Vettel pitted from third. When the dust had finally settled on the 59th lap, Webber was leading Kubica by 5.2 seconds, with Barrichello third from Hamilton, Vettel and Button.

As Webber reeled off the final laps and Kubica maintained his surprise second place despite nursing an overheating engine, Hamilton came pushing up behind Barrichello after McLaren cleverly changed its strategy after the first-lap carnage, and overtook him on the 61st lap. The Brazilian, hoping to win on his home ground, was in trouble, and his fate was sealed when a tire had punctured, and he needed to make a third pit stop two laps later. It was the final icing on Button's cake, as he jumped up to fifth place behind Vettel.

After an excellent performance in Saturday's rain-delayed qualifying session to nab P1, and being Button's closest challenger in the Drivers' Championship table, Barrichello saw his title hopes evaporate. Needing to win in Brazil to extend the chase to the final round of the season, he instead finished in a disappointing eighth position.

In what could be the waning days of Japanese OEM involvement in Formula One, both Toyota-powered squads had abysmal Brazilian races. Panasonic Toyota Racing concluded the contest with neither TF109 in the points; in addition to Trulli's DNF, Kobayashi, standing in for the injured Timo Glock, finished in the top 10.

With a heavy fuel load, Kobayashi coped with pressure from the cars behind and lost a position at the beginning of Lap 25 before being briefly overtaken for seventh at the end of the same lap. He immediately reclaimed the spot and ran as high as third due to a long first stint on medium compound Bridgestones. His first pit stop in Formula One went smoothly and he resumed battle, again using medium compound tires, before a shorter final stint on super soft rubber.

Despite the physically tough race on the counter-clockwise track, Kobayashi fought to the very end and earned the top-10 spot by passing Fisichella on Lap 68. With a clear track ahead, Kobayashi took the checkered flag on his Grand Prix debut, finishing with a flourish by setting his fastest lap on the very last lap.

AT&T Williams also went unrewarded as both Nico Rosberg and Nakajima were forced into early retirements. Racing for fourth place, Rosberg suffered his first DNF of the 2009 season when his FW31 was paralyzed by a suspected gearbox failure on Lap 27. Nakajima was ousted from the race after an incident on Lap 31 put him into the tire barrier, but he fortunately suffered no injuries.

Brawn GP secured the Constructors' Championship with 161 points, with Button winning the Drivers' Championship with 89 points. Barrichello drops to third with 72 behind Vettel's 74, with the final race of the season in Abu Dhabi to take place on November 1 (MFL photography provided by Red Bull Racing, Vodafone McLaren Mercedes, BMW Sauber F1, Brawn GP, and Scuderia Toro Rosso).

Brazilian Grand Prix
Autódromo José Carlos Pace, Sao Paulo, Brazil

Kovalainen originally finished ninth, but had 25s added to his race time due to an unsafe pit stop release.

Coming up:

National Guard American Drag Racing League
LenMar Motorsports ADRL World Finals V, October 23-24
Texas Motorplex, Ennis, TX
www.adrl.us

World Rally Championship
Wales Rally GB, October 23-25
Cardiff, Wales, UK
www.wrc.com

NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series
NHRA Las Vegas Nationals, October 29 - November 1
The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Las Vegas, NV
www.nhra.com

Formula One
Etihad Airways Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, October 30-November 1
Yas Marina Circuit, Yas Island, Abu Dhabi, UAE
www.formula1.com

Super Lap Battle Time Attack
Finals, November 11
Buttonwillow Raceway Park, Buttonwillow, CA
superlapbattle.com

Redline: Time Attack! Series
Round 8, November 14-15
Auto Club Speedway, Fontana, CA
www.redlinetimeattack.com

Battle of the Imports
Round 6: BOTI Southern California, November 22
Auto Club Dragway, Fontana, CA
www.battleoftheimports.com

Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series
Rolex 24 at Daytona, January 30-31, 2010
Daytona International Speedway, Daytona Beach, FL
www.grand-am.com