2024 Formula Drift season

2024 Formula D

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The 2024 Formula Drift season (officially titled and stylized as the Formula DRIFT PRO Championship) is the twenty-first season of the Formula D series. The season began on April 13 at Long Beach and concluded on October 19 at Irwindale Speedway after eight events.

This is the last Formula Drift season to feature the final event at Irwindale Speedway, after the track's announced permanent closure on October 29, 2024. ^[1] The season finale at Irwindale had been held since Formula D's inception in 2004. ^[2]

James Deane won the Drivers' Championship with four round wins, becoming the first and only four-time Formula D Champion. ^{[3] [4] [5]}

Entries

Team	No.	Car	Tires	Driver	Round(s)
ASM	8	BMW M3 E46	GT Radial	Robert Thorne [6]	All
Asphalt Anarchy	82	Chevrolet Corvette C6	Kenda	Taylor Hull [7]	All
Beechum Racing	999	BMW M3 E46	Nexen	Trenton Beechum [8]	All
Cash Racing	16	Cadillac XLR	Kenda	Jonathan Hurst [9]	All
Diego Higa racing team	169	Toyota GT86	GT Radial	Diego Higa [10]	All
Drift Cave Motorsports	777	Chevrolet Corvette C6	GT Radial	Matt Field [11]	All
DRIFTING DEPARTMENT 17	117	Ferrari 599 GTB Fiorano	Nexen	Federico Sceriffo [12]	All
Extreme SimRacing	357	Chevrolet Corvette C7 Z06	GT Radial	João Barion [13]	All
Feal Suspension Race Team	707	Nissan Silvia "S14.9"	GT Radial	Simen Olsen [14]	All
	723	Nissan Silvia S15	GT Radial	Aurimas Bakchis [15]	All
Forsberg Racing	64	Nissan Z	GT Radial	Chris Forsberg [16]	All
Garagistic	171	BMW 1 Series E82	Vitour	Rome Charpentier [17]	All
Get Nuts Lab.	808	Nissan Silvia S15	Vitour	Forrest Wang [18]	All
Hateley Motorsports	98	BMW M3 E46	Kumho	Andy Hateley [19]  R	All
Jeff Jones Racing	818	Nissan 370Z	Kumho	Jeff Jones [20]	All
Jerry Yang Racing	123	Toyota GT86	GT Radial	Kazuya Taguchi [21]	All
	168	Toyota GT86	GT Radial	Hiroya Minowa [22]  R	All
Jhonnattan Castro Racing	17	Toyota GR86	Kenda	Jhonnattan Castro [23]	All
Kyle Mohan Racing	99	Mazda RX-8	Vitour	Kyle Mohan [24]	All
LZMFG	5	BMW M3 E36	Nitto	Adam LZ [25]	?
MspeK Performance	527	Nissan Silvia "S14.9"	Vitour	Daniel Stuke [26]	All
Noback Racing Co.	54	BMW M3 E46	Kenda	Nick Noback [27]	All
Papadakis Racing	151	Toyota GR Supra	Nitto	Fredric Aasbø [28]	All
	411	Toyota GR Corolla	Nitto	Ryan Tuerck [29]	All
Power Racing	919	Nissan Silvia S15	Nexen	Mike Power [30]	All
RAD Industries	34	Toyota Supra A80	GT Radial	Dan Burkett [31]	All
Robbins Race Co.	35	Nissan 350Z	Kenda	Alec Robbins [32]	All
RTR Vehicles' Drift Team	25	Ford Mustang RTR Spec 5-FD	Nitto	Vaughn Gittin, Jr. [33]	?
	130	Ford Mustang RTR Spec 5-FD	Nitto	James Deane [34]	All
	213	Ford Mustang RTR Spec 5-FD	Nitto	Ben Hobson [35]  R	All
Ryan Litteral Racing	909	Nissan Silvia S15	Kenda	Ryan Litteral [36]	All
Shanahan 79	79	BMW M3 E36	Vitour	Conor Shanahan [37]  R	1, 3–8
Sorensen Motorsports	513	BMW M3 E92	Nitto	Branden Sorensen [38]	All
Team Hansen Drifting	119	Nissan 240SX S13	GT Radial	Rudy Hansen [39]  R	All
Team Infamous	27	Nissan Silvia S14	Kenda	Derek Madison [40]	All
Team Karnage	43	Dodge Viper ZB II	Kumho	Dean Kearney [41]	All
Team Never Settle	85	BMW M3 E46	Vitour	Dmitriy Brutskiy [42]	All
Three's Racing	21	Toyota GR86	Kenda	Ken Gushi [43]	All
Whip Racing	129	BMW M3 E46	GT Radial	Dylan Hughes [44]	All

R Eligible for Rookie of the Year

Driver changes

• 2023 PRO champion Chelsea DeNofa retired from the series, announcing his intention ahead of the final round in 2023. His seat at RTR Motorsports was taken by 2023 PROSPEC champion Ben Hobson. ^[45]
• 2023 PROSPEC runner-up Andy Hateley made his Formula Drift PRO debut. ^[46]
• Hiroya Minowa joined Jerry Yang Racing with support from GT Radial Tires. At the start of the season, he was just 14 years old. ^[47]
• After 2 seasons driving for RTR Motorsports, Adam LZ entered his own team running a single BMW E36. LZMFG only competed part-time in their debut FD season in order to run a full DMEC programme for 2024.
• Two-time PROSPEC champion Dmitriy Brutskiy moved up to the PRO series.
• Rudy Hansen moved up from the PROSPEC series, where he finished third in 2023.
• 2022 PROSPEC runner-up Derek Madison moved up to the PRO series.
• 2023 Drift Masters European Champion Conor Shanahan joined the series alongside defending his DMEC title. He will miss the second round at Road Atlanta due to a calendar clash with DMEC. ^[48]
• Travis Reeder elected not to compete in the 2024 season.

Other changes

• GT Radial, winners of the Tire Cup in 2023, renewed their partnership with the series for a further three years. ^[47]
• Kumho entered the series as an official tire sponsor for 2024 and beyond. ^[46]

Schedule

Round	Title	Circuit	Location	Date	Winner	Car
1	Streets of Long Beach	Streets of Long Beach	Long Beach, California	April 13	James Deane	Ford Mustang RTR Spec 5-FD
2	Road to the Championship	Road Atlanta	Braselton, Georgia	May 11	Fredric Aasbø	Toyota GR Supra
3	Scorched	Orlando Speed World	Orlando, Florida	June 1	Conor Shanahan	BMW M3 E36
4	The Gauntlet	Englishtown Raceway Park	Englishtown, New Jersey	June 22	James Deane	Ford Mustang RTR Spec 5-FD
5	Crossroads	World Wide Technology Raceway	St. Louis, Missouri	July 20	James Deane	Ford Mustang RTR Spec 5-FD
6	Throwdown	Evergreen Speedway	Monroe, Washington	August 10	Ryan Tuerck	Toyota GR Corolla
7	Elevated	Utah Motorsports Campus	Grantsville, Utah	August 30	Aurimas Bakchis	Nissan Silvia S15
8	Title Fight	Irwindale Speedway	Irwindale, California	October 19	James Deane	Ford Mustang RTR Spec 5-FD
Sources: [49]

Championship standings

Pre-event qualifying was eliminated starting in 2024, so that all results across the weekend are determined by tandem drifting and not by solo runs.

The 24 highest classified drivers in the previous event are guaranteed a starting position at the next event and are seeded with the same results, so that the previous event winner is awarded the number 1 seed (equivalent to the top qualifier in previous seasons).

The remaining 8 seeding positions (25th through 32nd) are contested by up to 24 other drivers, including those who finished 25th or below in the previous round. Seeding within this group is determined by a Seeding Bracket, a knockout-style tandem drift competition of similar format to the main event, with the first-place finisher being awarded the 25th starting position in the main event. ^{[50] [51]} All drivers score championship points; those eliminated during the Seeding Bracket are classified 33rd through 48th and receive 14 points.

In the main event, drivers proceed through a series of competition heats, with those eliminated in the first round (Top 32) receiving 28 points and classifying 17th through 32nd, the second round (Top 16) receiving 42 points and classifying 9th through 16th, the third round (Great 8) receiving 56 points and classifying 5th through 8th, and the fourth round (Final Four) classifying 3rd and 4th, both receiving 70 points. In the Final, the runner-up receives 84 points and the winner 100 points. Final classification within each round is then determined by highest seeding position; for example, of the two drivers eliminated in the Final Four, the driver who was seeded higher entering the event is awarded 3rd position and the final place on the podium.

In the event of a tie on points, the driver who classified higher in the most recent round will be awarded the higher position. ^[52]

For Round 1 at Long Beach, the final classification of the 2023 championship was used, with non-returning drivers Chelsea DeNofa (1st) and Kristaps Blušs (24th) skipped and the ranking reapplied so that Taylor Hull (25th) and Alec Robbins (26th) were seeded 23rd and 24th respectively, and guaranteed starting positions.

Competition stage

Position	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	5th–8th	9th–16th	17th–32nd	33rd–48th
Points	100	84	70	70	56	42	28	14

Pro Championship standings

Pos Driver LBH ATL ORL ENG WWT EVS UTA IRW Pts 1 James Deane 1 3 2 1 1 9 4 1 666 2 Aurimas Bakchis 3 4 5 2 5 5 1 3 562 3 Fredric Aasbø 5 1 17 7 3 10 2 2 520 4 Hiroya Minowa  RY  8 18 4 11 2 2 10 11 448 5 Adam LZ 24 25 8 3 6 3 11 8 406 6 Ryan Tuerck 10 19 12 13 13 1 9 7 394 7 Matt Field 9 6 6 12 4 11 13 12 392 8 Conor Shanahan  R  25   1 9 8 12 14 4 380 9 Dylan Hughes 17 13 11 4 7 17 7 6 378 10 Branden Sorensen 14 12 3 10 12 13 15 13 364 11 Simen Olsen 2 2 9 18 16 22 23 24 364 12 Jeff Jones 30 16 24 15 17 4 5 5 350 13 Chris Forsberg 11 10 10 5 9 18 8 10 350 14 Ken Gushi 4 9 20 8 11 20 21 15 336 15 Jonathan Hurst 13 20 25 16 15 14 6 9 322 16 Trenton Beechum 16 22 13 19 19 6 3 17 322 17 Rome Charpentier 6 5 18 14 14 21 22 23 308 18 Kazuya Taguchi 12 11 21 23 23 7 12 18 294 19 Jhonnattan Castro 18 14 22 24 24 8 17 14 280 20 Taylor Hull 22 24 14 6 10 19 20 22 280 21 Nick Noback 7 17 7 17 18 23 24 25 280 22 Dan Burkett 26 8 19 22 22 15 18 20 266 23 Alec Robbins 23 15 23 25 34 16 19 21 238 24 Daniel Stuke 21 23 27 32 26 29 30 30 224 25 Diego Higa 29 26 16 21 21 25 28 35 224 26 Robert Thorne 15 21 26 36 28 27 34 26 210 27 Ryan Litteral   30 15 20 20 24 25 33 196 28 Federico Sceriffo 27 35 34 28 36 31 32 [a] 16 182 29 Andy Hateley 34 32 29 27 35 35 16 19 182 30 Kyle Mohan 33 28 36 31 32 30 31 28 182 31 Rudy Hansen  R  28 36 31 34 33 33 27 31 168 32 Dmitriy Brutskiy 37 29 28 26 25 34 33 32 [b] 168 33 Derek Madison 36 34 30 33 29 28 29 36 168 34 Forrest Wang 20 7       32 [c]   27 126 35 Ben Hobson  R  35 33 33 35 30 WD 26 34 126 36 Mike Power 32   35 30 27 26     112 37 João Barion 31 27 32 29 31       98 38 Vaughn Gittin, Jr.   31           29 56 39 Dean Kearney 19               28

In-line notation  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.

General Motors initially earned contributions from Chevrolet and Cadillac, but Cadillac were granted their own classification during the season and the points were adjusted.

Pos	Manufacturer	LBH	ATL	ORL	ENG	WWT	EVS	UTA	IRW	Pts
1	Toyota	4	1	12	7	3	1	2		872
		5	9	16	8	11	8	9
2	Ford	1	3	2	1	1	9	4		692
		35	31	33	33	30	WD	26
3	General Motors	9	6	6	6	4	11	13		602
		22	24	14	12	10	19	20
4	Nissan	11	10	10	5	9	18	8		490
			30	15	20	20	24	25
5	BMW	6	5	18	14	14	21	22		434
		37	29	28	26	25	34	33
6	Cadillac	13	20	25	16	15	14	6		280
7	Mazda	33	28	36	31	32	30	31		154
8	Ferrari	27	35	34	28	36	31	32		140
9	Dodge	19								28

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	Nitto	1	1	2	1	1	1	2		1102
		5	3	3	7	3	9	4
2	GT Radial	2	2	4	2	2	2	1		1038
		3	4	5	4	4	5	7
3	Kenda	4	9	7	6	10	8	6		686
		7	14	14	8	11	14	17
4	Vitour	6	5	1	9	8	12	14		646
		20	7	18	14	14	21	22
6	Kumho	19	16	24	15	17	4	5		462
		30	32	29	27	35	35	16
5	Nexen	16	22	13	19	19	6	3		448
		27	35	34	28	27	26	32

Footnotes

1. Only 31 drivers qualified for the main event at Utah. Sceriffo was the highest-qualified driver eliminated during the Seeding 16, earning 32nd place but 14 points.
2. Only 31 drivers qualified for the main event at Irwindale. Brutskiy was the highest-qualified driver eliminated during the Seeding 16, earning 32nd place but 14 points.
3. Forrest Wang received a bye run in the Seeding 16 at Seattle, but hit the wall and was unable to complete the run. He still advanced into the main event but only received 14 points instead of 28.

References

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