Formula Drift Road To The Championship [2016]

The US drift season is in full swing and this month Formula Drift held their second round at Road Atlanta in Braselton, GA. With rain dampening round one in Long Beach the drivers had their work cut out for them with this being the first event with fair weather this year. This was also the first Pro 2 event of the season where drivers that earned their FD license could first take their turn in the spotlight.

As we made it to the track the forecast for the entire weekend looked amazing. Not even super hot for “Hotlanta” in our books. We made our way down to the pits to check out all the craziness that was going on as well as to meet up with a few of our friend’s from the Midwest.

As the morning exited and the afternoon slid in it was ready for go time! We made our way to the track for practice and made the trek up the hill to the grid. Practice for Pro without any big issues. Just a lot of smoke and awesome runs!

As practice wound down close to dinner time they jumped right into Pro 1 qualifying which is always a treat to watch. With two days of practice under their belts the top drifters in the United States threw down their best runs in order to secure their spot on the qualifying list for Saturday’s competition. Pro 1 qualifying results were as follows:

Vaughn Gittin Jr.
Fredric Aasbo
Matt Field
Chris Forsberg
Odi Backhis
Dai Yoshihara
Tanner Foust
Justin Pawlak
Tyler McQuarrie
Chelsea DeNofa
Mad Mike Whiddett
Forrest Wang
Dean Kearney
Michael Essa
Ryan Tuerck
Geoff Stoneback
Matt Coffman
Alec Hohnadell
Ken Gushi
Pat Mordaunt
Jonathan Castro
Alex Heilbrunn
Kenneth Moen
Kristaps Bluss
Juha Rintanen
Kyle Mohan
Pat Goodin
Cameron Moore
Andy Gray
Faruk Kugay
Jeff Jones

Pro 2 qualifying happened when we were on our way down to the track so sadly we didn’t get any photos, but the results were as follows:

Marc Landreville
Ryan Litteral
Jeff Jones
Dan Burkett
Andrew Lewis
Josh McGuire
Doug VanDenBrink
Trent Beechum
Taylor Hull
Kevin Lawrence
Ethan Hunter
Aaron Day
Sheng Ng Nian
Austin Meeks
Matt Madrigali
Dirk Stratton

In the past at this time there would have been more top 32 practice, but with Pro 2 in the mix it was time for a little break and we were thrown right into the Pro 2 competition! Road Atlanta probably has the trickiest entry out of all the tracks in the FD arsenal and it showed during Pro 2 Practice and competition. The gravel pit claimed a lot of casualties as cars overshot the entry during practice and competition, but it led to some interesting tandems! Most of the drivers stuck to their guns and held their own continuing the run on. (To the dismay of the track sweeper guy who ended up doing more runs that night than I had ever seen) I have to give the Pro 2 drivers mad props for diving into that entry though! They earned their stripes in pro-am and this was their time to bite the bullet and push on.

Pro 2 Winners:

1^st place: Jeff Jones

2^nd place: Marc Landerville

3^rd place: Ryan Litteral

Sadly this was the end of Friday. No midnight practice session for Pro 1 which was always a favorite of mine in the past!

As Saturday rolled in we spent our morning checking out the preparations Pro 1 teams were working on for their competition later on in the day. It was supposed to be hotter than Friday so we loaded up on water and headed up for Pro 1 top 32 practice a little after lunch time.

The fans were given quite the show full of close calls and of course some upsets as well as the field was narrowed to 16 drivers.

As the sun started to set the opening ceremonies began and the parade lap of the top 16 cars made their way down the hill. The crowd was full of energy and we were all ready for some killer driving into the night!