2023 Formula Drift season

2023 Formula D

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The 2023 Formula Drift season (officially titled and stylized as the Formula DRIFT PRO Championship) was the twentieth season of the Formula D series. The season began on April 8 at Long Beach and concluded on October 14 at Irwindale Speedway after eight events.

To coincide with its twentieth anniversary celebrations, the series announced a number of additions to be made throughout the year. These include the inauguration of a Formula Drift Hall of Fame, the unveiling of a monument to the series in downtown Long Beach, increased prize money for event winners and the series champion, and the launch of an officially sanctioned podcast. ^[1]

Chelsea DeNofa won the drivers' championship with three round wins; he was the only driver to score multiple victories during the season. Ahead of the Title Fight weekend at Irwindale Speedway, DeNofa make a shock announcement via his Instagram page that he intended to step back from Formula Drift for the foreseeable future. ^[2] He mentioned that he had made the decision earlier in the season and wanted to make the announcement early in order to enjoy his final weekend regardless of the championship outcome. He plans to continue with other drifting projects. Longtime judge Ryan Lanteigne also announced his retirement ahead of the final weekend.

Entries

Team	No.	Car	Tires	Driver	Round(s)
Alec Robbins Racing	35	Nissan 350Z	Kenda	Alec Robbins [3]	All
ASM	8	BMW M3 E46	GT Radial	Robert Thorne [4]  R	All
BARBARIUS USA	357	Chevrolet Corvette C7 Z06	GT Radial	João Barion [5]	All
Beechum Racing	999	BMW M3 E46	Nexen	Trenton Beechum [6]	All
Cash Racing	16	BMW M3 E46	Vitour	Jonathan Hurst [7]	All
Diego Higa Racing Team	169	Toyota GT86	GT Radial	Diego Higa [8]  R	All
Drift Cave Motorsports	777	Chevrolet Corvette C6	GT Radial	Matt Field [9]	All
The Drift Force	33	Toyota GR86	Nexen	Joshua Correa Reynolds [10]	All
Feal Suspension Race Team	707	Nissan Silvia "S14.9"	GT Radial	Simen Olsen [11]	All
	723	Nissan Silvia S15	GT Radial	Aurimas Bakchis [12]	All
FFF DRIFTING DEPARTMENT	117	Ferrari 599 GTB Fiorano	Nexen	Federico Sceriffo [13]	2–8
Forsberg Racing	64	Nissan Z	GT Radial	Chris Forsberg [14]	All
Garagistic Racing	171	BMW M3 E36	Vitour	Rome Charpentier [15]	All
Get Nuts Lab	808	Nissan Silvia S15	Kenda	Forrest Wang [16]	All
The Heart of Racing	26	Aston Martin V12 Vantage	GT Radial	Darren Kelly [17]	All
HGK Motorsports	80	BMW M3 E92	GT Radial	Kristaps Blušs [18]	2–8 [a]
Huragan Racing	738	Toyota GR Supra Toyota GT86 [b]	GT Radial	Oleksii Holovnia [19]  R	All
J Castro Racing - JCR	17	Toyota GR86	GT Radial	Jhonnattan Castro [20]	All
Jeff Jones Racing	818	Nissan 370Z	GT Radial	Jeff Jones [21]	All
Jerry Yang Racing	123	Toyota GT86	GT Radial	Kazuya Taguchi [22]	All
Kyle Mohan Racing	99	Mazda RX-8	Vitour	Kyle Mohan [23]	All
Mspek Performance	527	Nissan Silvia "S14.9"	Vitour	Daniel Stuke [24]	All
Noback Racing with Jerry Yang Racing	54	BMW M3 E46	GT Radial	Nick Noback [25]	All
Outlaw Garage	82	Chevrolet Corvette C6	Kenda	Taylor Hull [26]	All
Papadakis Racing	151	Toyota GR Supra	Nitto	Fredric Aasbø [27]	All
	411	Toyota GR Corolla	Nitto	Ryan Tuerck [28]	All
Power Racing	919	Nissan Silvia S15	GT Radial	Mike Power [29]	All
RTR Motorsports	5	Ford Mustang RTR Spec 5-FD	Nitto	Adam LZ [30]	1, 3–5
	25	Ford Mustang RTR Spec 5-FD	Nitto	Vaughn Gittin, Jr. [31]	2, 6–8
	88	Ford Mustang RTR Spec 5-FD	Nitto	Chelsea DeNofa [32]	All
	130	Ford Mustang RTR Spec 5-FD	Nitto	James Deane [33]	All
Ryan Litteral Racing x Colab Garage	909	Nissan Silvia S15	GT Radial	Ryan Litteral [34]	2–8
Sorensen Motorsports	513	BMW M3 E92	Nitto	Branden Sorensen [35]	All
Team Japan Auto	153	Toyota Supra A80	Kenda	Ola Jæger [36]	All
Team Karnage	43	Dodge Viper ZB II	Nexen	Dean Kearney [37]	All
Three's Racing	21	Toyota GR86	Nexen	Ken Gushi [38]	All
Travis Reeder Motorsports	77	BMW M3 E46	GT Radial	Travis Reeder [39]	All
_Whip._	129	BMW M3 E46	GT Radial	Dylan Hughes [40]	All

R Eligible for Rookie of the Year

Driver changes

• Dan Burkett was unable to raise sponsorship to fund a 2023 campaign, and elected to sit out the season while concentrating on finding a new sponsor for 2024. ^[41]
• Three-time champion James Deane will return for the first time since 2019, signing with RTR Motorsports. ^[42]
• 2013 champion Michael Essa will not return to the series, having taken a position building cars for Daily Driven Exotics.
• Joshua Love returned to the PROSPEC series for 2023. ^[43]
• Adam LZ will drive a reduced schedule in 2023, participating in four rounds. Two-time champion Vaughn Gittin, Jr. will drive in the remaining four rounds, returning to the series after stepping back at the end of the 2021 season. ^[44]
• Justin Pawlak will step back from the series, in order to focus on his son Jaxsen's drifting career.

Other changes

• For 2023, the limit of 37 full-season entries was removed.
• Falken Tire ended its partnership with Formula Drift. ^{[45] [41]}
• GT Radial renewed its partnership with the series through 2025. ^[46]
• Kenda Tire became a new official supplier on a two-year agreement. ^[47]
• Vitour Tires became a new official supplier on a two-year agreement. ^{[48] [49]}

Schedule

Round	Title	Circuit	Location	Date	Winner	Car
1	Streets of Long Beach	Streets of Long Beach	Long Beach, California	April 8	Matt Field	Chevrolet Corvette C6
2	Road to the Championship	Road Atlanta	Braselton, Georgia	May 13	Vaughn Gittin, Jr.	Ford Mustang RTR Spec 5-FD
3	Scorched	Orlando Speed World	Orlando, Florida	May 27	Chelsea DeNofa	Ford Mustang RTR Spec 5-FD
4	The Gauntlet	Englishtown Raceway Park	Englishtown, New Jersey	June 24	Adam LZ	Ford Mustang RTR Spec 5-FD
5	Crossroads	World Wide Technology Raceway	St. Louis, Missouri	July 15	Aurimas Bakchis	Nissan Silvia S15
6	Throwdown	Evergreen Speedway	Monroe, Washington	August 12	Chelsea DeNofa	Ford Mustang RTR Spec 5-FD
7	Elevated	Utah Motorsports Campus	Grantsville, Utah	September 16	Chelsea DeNofa	Ford Mustang RTR Spec 5-FD
8	Title Fight	Irwindale Speedway	Irwindale, California	October 14	Nick Noback	BMW E46 M3
Sources: [50] [1] [51] [52] [53]

Championship standings

Scoring system

During qualifying, drivers perform solo runs which are judged on parameters such as line, angle, style and "X-factor", all defined within the sporting regulations, and awarded a numerical score up to 100. These scores are ranked to determine the qualifying classification and populate the brackets for the competition phase. Only 32 spots in the main event are available. In addition, the top three qualifiers earn three, two and one championship points respectively.

The qualifiers proceed through a series of competition heats, with those eliminated in the first round (Top 32) receiving 16 points and classifying 17th through 32nd, the second round (Top 16) receiving 32 points and classifying 9th through 16th, the third round (Great 8) receiving 48 points and classifying 5th through 8th, and the fourth round (Final Four) classifying 3rd and 4th, receiving 76 and 64 points respectively. In the Final, the runner-up receives 88 points and the winner 100 points. Final classification within each round is then determined by highest qualifying position; for example, of the two drivers eliminated in the Final Four, the driver who qualified higher is awarded 3rd position and the final place on the podium.

The scoring system for the competition phase returned to that used in 2020, with a wider spread between the points awarded for each position compared to 2021 and 2022. ^[54]

In the event of a tie on points, the driver who classified higher in the most recent round will be awarded the higher position. ^[55]

Qualifying stage

Position	1st	2nd	3rd
Points	3	2	1

Competition stage

Position	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	5th–8th	9th–16th	17th–32nd
Points	100	88	76	64	48	32	16

Pro Championship standings

Pos Driver LBH ATL ORL ENG WWT EVS UTA IRW Pts 1 Chelsea DeNofa 73 12 12 15 7 1 13 17 480 2 Aurimas Bakchis 18 33 9 8 1 53 13 22 445 3 Matt Field 1 6 14 3 14 91 2 22 427 4 Simen Olsen 12 25 8 2 3 62 32 11 419 5 James Deane 62 7 7 4 18 3 91 3 413 6 Fredric Aasbø 3 10 2 171 2 10 7 21 399 7 Ryan Tuerck 51 18 51 52 11 [c] 4 4 4 392 8 Chris Forsberg 17 2 13 10 4 11 8 6 360 9 Dylan Hughes 21 5 4 93 12 2 18 10 329 10 Kazuya Taguchi 24 19 33 11 81 [d] 8 5 13 304 11 Rome Charpentier 2 28 21 6 27 7 25 18 264 12 Nick Noback 29 30 30 28 92 16 31 11 249 13 Jhonnattan Castro 11 23 27 13 5 13 15 14 240 14 Jonathan Hurst 4 15 11 22 6 26 29 DNQ 224 15 Dean Kearney 14 27 32 27 103 15 11 16 209 16 Forrest Wang 8 92 12     30 22 5 194 17 Branden Sorensen 19 22 22 14 30 18 12 7 192 18 Travis Reeder 20 24 6 12 19 17 10 24 192 19 Ken Gushi 13 29 29 16 13 DNQ 28 93 177 20 Robert Thorne  RY  28 32 25 30 16 28 14 12 176 21 Daniel Stuke 10 14 10 18 24 24 21 25 176 22 Trenton Beechum 15 26 26 31 22 19 6 26 176 23 Vaughn Gittin, Jr.   11       23 23 15 167 24 Kristaps Blušs   4 16       26 8 160 25 Taylor Hull 16 16 23 19 25 21 32 20 160 26 Alec Robbins 9 13 18 26 26 27 27 29 160 27 Adam LZ 30   20 1 20       148 28 Diego Higa  R  22 17 28 20 DNQ 12 16 19 144 29 Jeff Jones 23 11 24 23 23 DNQ 20 23 128 30 João Barion DNQ DNQ DNQ 7 17 20 19 28 112 31 Ryan Litteral   DNQ 17 21 15 14 17 DNQ 112 32 Mike Power 27 20 19 25 28 29 30   112 33 Kyle Mohan DNQ 31 DNQ 32 21 22 24 27 96 34 Ola Jæger 26 21 DNQ 29 29 25 DNQ 30 96 35 Darren Kelly DNQ 8 15         80 36 Oleksii Holovnia  R  25 DNQ 31 24       48 37 Joshua Correa Reynolds DNQ             0

In-line notation Superscript number Qualifying position (Top 3 only) Bold Top qualifier  RY  Rookie of the Year  R  Rookie

Auto Cup standings

Auto Cup points are awarded each round to the two drivers with the highest classified finish for each manufacturer. To be eligible, both the chassis and engine must have been constructed by that manufacturer.

Pos	Manufacturer	LBH	ATL	ORL	ENG	WWT	EVS	UTA	IRW	Pts
1	Ford	62	11	12	1	7	1	13	3	1048
		73	7	7	4	18	3	91	15
2	Toyota	3	10	2	52	2	4	4	4	837
		51	17	51	16	5	10	7	93
3	Chevrolet	1	6	14	3	14	91	2	20	619
		16	16	23	7	17	20	19	22
4	Nissan	17	2	13	10	4	11	8	6	472
				17	21	15	14	17	DNQ
5	Dodge	14	27	32	27	103	15	11	16	209
6	Mazda	DNQ	31	DNQ	32	21	22	24	27	96
7	Aston Martin	DNQ	8	15						80

Tire Cup standings

Tire Cup points are awarded each round to the two drivers with the highest classified finish for each tire manufacturer.

Pos	Tire	LBH	ATL	ORL	ENG	WWT	EVS	UTA	IRW	Pts
1	GT Radial	1	2	33	2	1	2	2	11	1275
		11	33	4	3	3	53	32	22
2	Nitto	3	11	12	1	2	1	13	3	1249
		51	7	2	4	7	3	4	4
3	Vitour	2	14	10	6	6	7	21	18	536
		4	15	11	18	24	22	24	25
4	Nexen	13	26	26	16	103	15	6	93	402
		14	27	29	27	13	19	11	26
5	Kenda	8	92	12	19	25	21	22	5	386
		9	13	18	26	26	25	27	20

Footnotes

1. HGK Motorsports were unable to import their equipment to the United States in time for the opening round.
2. HGK Motorsports were unable to import their equipment to the United States in time for the opening round. Holovnia will instead pilot a Toyota GT86 at this round.
3. Tuerck received a bye run during the Top 16 at St. Louis, but he suffered an engine failure and was unable to complete the run. It was deemed that he had not advanced past the bracket, and so he was awarded a Top 16 finish. His position within the bracket was determined by qualifying results, as usual.
4. Taguchi was the highest qualifier of the drivers eliminated in the Top 16 at St. Louis, of which there were nine due to Tuerck's incomplete bye run.

References

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