EVENT DETAILS
Date: Friday, October 14, 2022
Location: Irwindale Speedway, Irwindale, CA
Event: Formula DRIFT PRO Championship Round 8: Title Fight
RESULTS FROM FD PRO QUALIFYING
- Fredric Aasbo (Norway) – Rockstar Energy Toyota GR Supra
- Wataru Masuyama (Japan) – Buy Now Japan Nissan Silvia S15
- Branden Sorensen (USA) – US Air Force / Sorensen Motorsports BMW
NOTES
- The track at Irwindale Speedway reverted to the 2019 layout, giving drivers a new challenge and allowing each run to end facing the main grandstand and the event judges
- The weather was cool and cloudy for the FD PRO K&N Knockout Qualifying session
- For yet another season, Formula DRIFT Irwindale sold out on both Friday and Saturday as fans came out to see the Championship decided
- Qualifying first with a 91-point run, Aasbo gained three valuable Championship points, narrowing the gap to title leader Field from 14 to 11 points as they go into the competition heats on Saturday
- Masuyama on 88 points and 18 year-old Sorensen on 87 both achieved their best qualifying results to date with very respectable runs
- Qualifying fourth, Matt Field (USA) scored no points in K&N Knockout Qualifying driving his Drift Cave / Falken Tire C6 Corvette. He scored the same 87 points as Sorensen but lost out with an inferior style score
- Top Rookie qualifier was Nick Noback (USA) who qualified 20th in the KoruWorks E46 BMW. He sits third in the Rookie title chase behind Mike Power (USA) and Daniel Stuke (USA). All three scored 78 points in K&N Knockout Qualifying but Noback had the superior style points
- 35 drivers attempted to qualify for the Top 32 competition heats, which meant three would be eliminated. After the Knockout Qualifying Format (KQF), Kazuya Taguchi (Japan), Taylor Hull (USA) and Trenton Beechum (USA) took an early bath
- Even before the competition began, Toyota had amassed enough points to claim the 2022 Formula DRIFT Auto Cup title thanks in particular to powerful performances from Aasbo, Ryan Tuerck (USA), Ken Gushi (Japan) and Kazuya Taguchi (Japan)
ROUND 8 TOP 16 FD PRO QUALIFYING
| POSITION | NAME | POINTS |
| 1 | Fredric Aasbo | 3 |
| 2 | Wataru Masuyama | 2 |
| 3 | Branden Sorensen | 1 |
| 4 | Matt Field | |
| 5 | Travis Reeder | |
| 6 | Alec Robbins | |
| 7 | Rome Charpentier | |
| 8 | Aurimas Bakchis | |
| 9 | Dylan Hughes | |
| 10 | Jeff Jones | |
| 11 | Ryan Tuerck | |
| 12 | Chelsea DeNofa | |
| 13 | Adam LZ | |
| 14 | Yves Meyer | |
| 15 | Justin Pawlak | |
| 16 | Jhonnattan Castro |
BRACKET FOR ROUND 8 FD PRO COMPETITION HEATS
FORMULA DRIFT IRWINDALE RECAP
Competition results from the FD PRO Championship Round 8: Title Fight will be available on Saturday. A recap of all the action from FD IRW with event images will be available on Monday
NEXT ROUND
The 2023 Formula DRIFT PRO and PROSPEC Championship schedules will be released next month
