October 15th 2007 Irwindale CA- It was a perfect finish to a near perfect season for the AEM/Memphis Car Audio drift team at the season finale in the "House of Drift" at Irwindale Speedway culminating in a series championship for the team on the heels of another first place victory from Tanner Foust in the 350Z! Stephan Papadakis continued to improve and make qualifying rounds in the AEM/MCA Honda S2000 while managing the team's stressful run for the championship all season and especially during the finals. The outcome was not without its share of drama...

STEPH/S2000

Steph qualified 12th in the 16-car unseeded field on Friday in the AEM/MCA S2000 with an 84.33 but when Saturday rolled around he wasn't pushing the car the way he was on Friday leading him to bow out after the first elimination round. Like a true team player Steph commented "To be completely honest my concern this weekend was making sure Tanner had everything he needed to take a shot at the championship and on Saturday after the crash in practice it became my only concern. When you have a teammate in position to win it all their goals become yours. It wasn't that I didn't want to advance I just had a lot of other things going on in my mind for obvious reasons." It's little wonder why Stephan is regarded as an icon in our industry.

TANNER/350Z

Preparation for the Saturday's main event began on Thursday for the team. Tanner owned the bank in practice but was inconsistent in the infield due to the added grip of the new Toyo R1-Rs. Noted Tanner "The grip of the new tires was awesome! This was the first time we used them all season and they forced the suspension to work harder so we needed to make adjustments going into practice on Friday."

Friday began with a bang-right into the wall at close to 80 MPH! Tanner made a mistake and initiated too close to the wall. With the temperatures dropping at the track the grip of the course changed leading to the collision and some minor rear suspension damage that the team repaired that night.

On Saturday Tanner hit the wall again in practice. It had rained all morning and although the track was dry the debris along the wall was wet and caused the car to lose grip. Thankfully there was no real damage to the car and he followed this incident with a 1 qualifying pass. "I just had to shake it off going into qualifying" noted Tanner. "I wasn't sure the car's suspension was fully dialed going into qualifying since the crash on Friday cut practice short so in the first qualifier I was a little aggressive but didn't try to risk too much. I had a clean run which gave us the number one qualifier with a 96.83 and course speed of 77.9 MPH. I was still the 1 qualifier after the second round so I lit the tires up for the fans as I spun off the bank!"

Tanner faced Tony Brakohiapa (Mustang) in the Sliding 16. "Tony's lines were clean all week so I was expecting a tough first tandem" noted Tanner. However Tony couldn't match the Z's speed when following and spun giving Tanner the round.

Going into the Great 8 round Tanner was beginning to feel the pressure as both Chris Forsberg and Dai Yoshihara (the 2 and 3 series drivers) advanced in their brackets. Tanner had to advance to take the Series Championship and that made for a pressure cooker situation. It's also when things got interesting. "After all the incidents in practice I erred on the side of caution going into my tandem with Ryuji Miki (Mazda). I was conservative during the round and the 2004 D1GP Champion was tough! We were waiting for the judges to tally the scores to see if we had a One More Time (OMT) and all I could think to myself was that I may have inadvertently given the championship away...I swore if we got the OMT there would be no more conservative driving. We weren't going to go out like that." And he didn't as Tanner got the OMT stuck to Miki like glue and won a very close battle to move on to the Final Four.

If it wasn't stressful enough to overcome Miki in the Great 8 going into the Final Four round Tanner discovered that Chris and Dai advanced in their brackets meaning Tanner had to reach the podium to take the Series. Tanner faced Kenji Yamanaka (Nissan S15) and went as fast as he could when leading and Kenji hit the wall coming off the bank. "The grip of the R1Rs and the suspension tweaks Steph and Shawn (Hillier) performed allowed me to brake later off the bank and that may have contributed to Kenji hitting the wall" noted Tanner. "Unfortunately he could not continue but it was exciting for us because we knew we had sealed the 2007 FD Series Championship."

Tanner faced Chris Forsberg in the finals and in his words "Chris was awesome all week!" Tanner led first and put the hammer down braking later in the bank and besting the course record entry speed by 6 MPH for a new record of 86 MPH! Chris also made a slight mistake on the bank giving Tanner the advantage after the first pass but after narrowly escaping Miki in the Great 8 he stuck to his promise and drove the wheels off the Z sticking to Chris's bumper the whole course for a great final run. At the end the Irwindale results matched the Series Championship results with Tanner Chris and Dai on the podium in first through third respectively.

Exclaimed Tanner "I can't even begin to thank Steph enough for all the hats he wears managing this team. He always gets it done!! I also want to thank Shawn Hillier for having the car ready every round of every race and especially for having it ready given all the carnage this weekend. Our sponsors are the best in the business...I said it last year and I'll say it again AEM has the best engine management out there as noted by the consistent performance of the car under changing conditions and tunes. The hard parts we use from AEM and DC Sports-many of them off the shelf-are so reliable you install them and practically forget them. Memphis Car Audio not only makes heart pounding audio components that I use with pride in my daily driver but you just couldn't ask for a better strategically and group of people to work with. They are a true performance audio company-they even have carbon fiber speakers! The Motegi Touge's gave us what we wanted in a good looking durable wheel and our Toyos never failed. Our Tokico shocks are off the shelf and that says a ton about the quality and durability of their products as are our SPC suspension components Garrett turbos and ACT clutch. And C-West came on this season to give the car a sweet new look. We work with our sponsors not only because they are the best companies in the business but they make the best parts too. I think that is reflected in our Championship."

Tanner Foust is the 2007 FormulaD Series Champion. Stephan finished the season 27th overall in a field of 48 improving his position five spots from 2006. Tanner qualified first in all but one event this season had one win (Irwindale) three seconds (Long Beach Summit Point Wall) a third (Atlanta) and two fifth place finishes (Evergreen and Infineon).

The AEM / Memphis Car Audio Drift S2000 and 350Z are sponsored by Toyo Tires Motegi Racing Tokico Gas Shocks Advanced Clutch Technology (ACT) Specialty Products Company (SPC) ChargeSpeed C-West and DC Sports.