Maxxis Tyres Star in UK and US Drifting

Maxxis has chosen to focus on the popular but still emerging motorsport of drifting in its sporting tyre supply. In US and European drifting this season, the brand has successfully supplied winning drivers in four popular series with the MA-Z1 Drift tyres, also sponsoring the competitors: in the UK and Ireland, Steve Biagioni of Team Japspeed has taken the British Drift Championship, Mark “Buff” Luney has claimed the European Drift Championship (EDC) and Dean Kearney has won the Prodrift Super Series. In the US, Chris Forsberg has won the Formula Drift championship.

Biagioni clinched his title at the British Drift season finale, held on 19 September at the Llandow Circuit, located west of Cardiff. Biagioni’s fellow drivers in the Maxxis-sponsored Team Japspeed also did well in the championship standings: Danny Eyles took second place overall, while Shane Lynch finished fifth.

Luney’s October 11 win at Snetterton – a high speed course and one of the toughest circuits of the six rounds contested this season – gave him the European Drift Championship title by a 25-point margin. Other Maxxis drivers making the overall top ten include Pete Barber, who finished third and Declan Hicks, who was eighth.

This year’s Prodrift Super Series went down to the wire, with the championship decided at a rain-soaked Mondello Park. Kearney’s victory, two second places and a Top 16 finish during the season meant that he clinched the title by one point, while Eyles sealed a superb season by finishing fourth. 

Forsberg took the Formula Drift title with a total of 527 points while Maxxis driver Ryan Tuerck, who won Round 7, was runner up.  Judgment Day, the seventh and final round of the 2009 season, was held on October 16-17 in Irwindale, California.   Forsberg also won the prestigious Tires.com Triple Crown, which is based on the results of Formula Drift rounds 2, 5 and 7.

“Chris Forsberg has been at the forefront of US drifting in recent years, having built a reputation for high speed precision driving skills, and we are delighted to see him win this year’s Formula Drift competition,” says Derek McMartin, managing director of Maxxis International UK.

“Chris’s success, along with the achievements of our sponsored drivers in the Need for Speed European Drift Championship, Prodrift Super Series and British Drift Championship, show that the MA-Z1 Drift tyre is a proven performer at the top level of professional drifting in the western world and we look forward to more exciting action in 2010.”