EVENT DETAILS
Date: Friday, April 1, 2022
Location: Streets of Long Beach, Long Beach, CA
Event: Formula DRIFT PRO Championship Round 1: AutoZone Streets of Long Beach presented by TYPE S
RESULTS FROM FD PRO QUALIFYING
- Ryan Tuerck (USA) – Rain-X / Nitto Tire Toyota GR Corolla
- Matt Field (USA) – Drift Cave / Falken Tire C6 Corvette
- Chelsea DeNofa (USA) – Pennzoil / BC Racing Ford Mustang RTR Spec 5-FD
NOTES
- After being scheduled in September last year, Streets of Long Beach returns to its traditional position as season opener for the 2022 FD PRO Championship
- With its unforgiving concrete walls and new season nerves, Streets of Long Beach rewards the bold but punishes mistakes
- Weather was perfect for qualifying, with a sunny high of 72˚
- There were plenty of new cars in the FD paddock. Highlights included Chris Forsberg’s Nissan Z, and Ryan Tuerck ran his GR Corolla Hatchback to celebrate the Long Beach launch of the new Toyota. Adam LZ transferred to an RTR Motorsports Mustang, Taylor Hull switched to a C6 Corvette and Joao Barion ran a C8, Ken Gushi stepped up to a GR Supra, and Jonathan Hurst switched to BMW. However, star of the show was undoubtedly rookie Darren Kelly in an Aston Martin Vantage with supercharged V12
- Formula DRIFT reintroduced championship points for the top three qualifiers to put more emphasis on a consistent performance across the weekend
- 34 drivers attempted to qualify for the Top 32 competition heats. Under the Knockout Qualifying Format, the bottom eight drivers must run a second time to fill the final places. When the smoke cleared, Federico Sceriffo (Italy) and Kazuya Taguchi (Japan) went out with technical problems
- Top qualifier was Ryan Tuerck (USA) in the Rain-X / Nitto Tire Toyota GR Corolla with a qualifying score of 93 points, which earned him 3 Championship points
- Reigning FD PRO Champion and Tuerck’s teammate, Fredric Aasbo (Norway) scored 85 points qualifying his Rockstar Energy Toyota GR Supra, placing him seventh in the competition heats
- Five rookies qualified for FD LB including Darren Kelly (New Zealand) plus four graduates from the FD PROSPEC Championship including Joshua Love (USA), Nick Noback (USA), Mike Power (USA) and Daniel Stuke (USA)
- Top Rookie qualifier was Stuke driving the Stuke Racing / MspeK Performance Nissan S14.9. He scored 81 points and placed 12th
ROUND 1 TOP 16 PRO QUALIFYING
| POSITION | NAME |
| 1 | Ryan Tuerck |
| 2 | Chelsea DeNofa |
| 3 | Matt Field |
| 4 | Aurimas Bakchis |
| 5 | Rome Charpentier |
| 6 | Dylan Hughes |
| 7 | Fredric Aasbo |
| 8 | Chris Forsberg |
| 9 | Michael Essa |
| 10 | Jhonnattan Castro |
| 11 | Adam LZ |
| 12 | Daniel Stuke |
| 13 | Dan Burkett |
| 14 | Ryan Litteral |
| 15 | Kyle Mohan |
| 16 | Ken Gushi |
BRACKET FOR ROUND 1 PRO COMPETITION HEATS
FORMULA DRIFT LONG BEACH RECAP
Competition results from Round 1: Type S Title Fight will be sent tomorrow, and a recap of all the action from FD LB with event images will be available on Monday
NEXT ROUND
Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta will host the Formula DRIFT PRO Championship Round 2: AutoZone Road to the Championship presented by TYPE S on May 6-7. Please visit formulad.com for the competition schedule, ticket information, driver profiles, special content, and the event livestream