IMMEDIATE RELEASE - TEAM MOPAR PULLS TOGETHER TO HELP HUBINETTE SCORE GREAT EIGHT FINISH AT SEATTLE

NEWS RELEASE
August 21, 2006


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
TEAM MOPAR CONTACT:
Darren Jacobs
J.R. Thompson Company 
(248) 553-4566
djacobs@jrthompson.com
    

TEAM MOPAR PULLS TOGETHER TO HELP HUBINETTE SCORE GREAT EIGHT FINISH AT SEATTLE

Center Line, Mich. — The outlook wasn’t rosy for Team Mopar’s Samuel Hubinette and his NuFormz Racing crew on the eve of the Round Five 2006 Formula D Drift Series event, held before a packed crowd at Evergreen Speedway in Monroe, Wash., near Seattle. After testing Hubinette’s Mopar Dodge Viper SRT10 last Thursday, the team determined they needed to replace the engine, which had been used in competition for nearly three years, a remarkable feat in itself. With practice rounds set for Friday, it looked as if Hubinette’s championship hopes would be dashed. But then Team Mopar went to work.

The call went out to Mopar, and it ensured the new engine would be sent post haste to Seattle for the effort. Next, NuFormz Racing, led by owner Shaun Carlson, and local Viper shop Maltby Motorsports, owned by Cam and Janet McCracken, got their hands dirty, completing the engine swap in record time—less than ten hours. 

The result? A No. 7 qualifying spot and Great Eight finish for Hubinette, preserving the “Crazy Swede’s” championship run, as he now trails Rhys Millen by just 11 points.

“It’s just amazing that NuFormz Racing and Maltby Motorsports pulled this off, and that Mopar could get the parts out here so quick,” said Hubinette, who defeated Hiro Sumida before losing to event winner and BFGoodrich teammate Yukinobu Okubo in the Great Eight round. “The fact that I qualified No. 7 and made it as far as I did is a great achievement. It was definitely a team effort.

“I’m stoked to move on to Irwindale Speedway (in California, on August 31) and compete in the Mopar D1 All-Star Duel, in a drifting exhibition with Kasey Kahne and the other NASCAR guys. That’s going to be a good practice day for me, with a little more seat time in the drift car. Then we’ll head to New Jersey for Round Six [at Wall Speedway on September 9]. I’m definitely hungry to get a better result there then I did last year [when he had a first-round exit].”

For more info on Formula D or Mopar, log on to www.formulad.com, www.moparspeed.com, or www.mopar.com. For information on the “Mopar D1 All-Star Duel presented by ShiftIntoGear,” which will pit eight NASCAR stars, such as Kasey Kahne, Greg Biffle, Robby Gordon and Bill Elliott, against eight of the best drifters in the world, including Hubinette, Vaughn Gittin Jr., Rhys Millen and Yasuyuki Kazama, log on to www.irwindalespeedway.com or www.kaseykahne.com/drift. All proceeds from the event will go to the Kasey Kahne Foundation. 

Mopar is based in Center Line, Mich., and is the exclusive original equipment supplier of parts and accessories for Chrysler, Dodge and Jeep® vehicles. 


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