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Among the most celebrated drivers of Formula DRIFT is Samuel Hübinette who holds the record for most series victories. However, as we found out from a press release on Autoblog, Hübinette will not be competing in his Challenger drift car for the 2012 season, but rather pursuing different racing avenues after his main sponsors decided to change their marketing direction.
Hübinette has been the Mopar driver to watch in the Formula DRIFT Series since it started back in 2004. Backed by Viper power, this Swedish-born racer took the first ever Formula DRIFT Championship by storm, placing first in 2004 and then again in 2006.
After creating his own team, Samuel Hübinette Racing (SHR) in 2009, Hübinette went on to drift his 865hp Challenger to a first place qualifying position in the 2011 Formula DRIFT Championship, where he finished in the top 16 slots. Hübinette currently holds the record number of Formula DRIFT victories, with nine race wins and two championship wins.
Although he is a very talented drift car driver, Hübinette is moving on to other racing ventures this year after his two main Formula DRIFT sponsors changed their interests.
As SHR will have the Challenger out at international Formula DRIFT events for demonstrations and may participate in a couple legs of the domestic Formula DRIFT series, the team will be focusing on rally cross and off-road truck racing opportunities for 2012.
While Hübinette won’t be competing in the 2012 Formula DRIFT season full-time, if at all, co-founder and President of Formula DRIFT Jim Liaw expressed his hopes of Hübinette returning to the field in the future.
“We will miss having a competitor like Samuel this season,” Liaw said in a recent press release. “We know that when the funding and sponsorship re-align, Samuel will be able to return to the Series and continue to be a competitive driver.”
Best of luck goes out to Hübinette and the SHR team in their 2012 racing ventures and we hope to see them back competing in the drift Challenger in the near future.
