EVENT DETAILS
Date: Thursday, June 22, 2023
Location: Old Bridge Township Raceway Park, Englishtown, NJ
Event: Formula DRIFT PRO Championship Round 4: TYPE S The Gauntlet presented by AutoZone, and Link ECU PROSPEC Championship Round 2
RESULTS FROM FD PRO QUALIFYING
1. Fredric Aasbo (Norway) – Rockstar Energy Toyota GR Supra
2. Ryan Tuerck (USA) – Rain-X / Nitto Tire / Rockstar Energy GR Corolla
3. Dylan Hughes (USA) – Whip Racing / Royal Purple BMW
RESULTS FROM FD PROSPEC QUALIFYING
1. Ben Hobson (USA) – Pedal Commander / Feal Suspension / Koruworks / Motegi Racing Nissan S14
2. Jayden Martorana (Canada) – Empire Auto C6 Corvette
3. Dmitriy Brutskiy – DriftHQ E46 BMW
NOTES – PRO
- The K&N PRO Qualifying session began at sunset and continued into the evening, resulting in changing track conditions on the cooling surface and requiring Type S under-car lighting for all PRO competitors
- Top qualifier was triple FD PRO Champion and current points leader, Aasbo, who set an impeccable 94-point run. This represents the Norwegian’s best qualifying position of the year and fans will be watching to see if he can convert it into his first 2023 Round win
- Second place Tuerck, Papadakis Racing Toyota teammate to Aasbo, scored 92 points to underline his raw ability. However, the GR Corolla driver sits tenth in the Championship table arriving in New Jersey, despite qualifying first in Long Beach and Orlando. Only time will tell if Tuerck can convert qualifying success into competition victory
- Hughes claimed third place with an 89.6 point score, narrowly beating Matt Field (USA), who took fourth with 89 points in the Borla Performance / GT Radial Corvette. Both drivers are among the top six in the Championship positions and are hoping to challenge for the title again this year
- Chelsea DeNofa (USA), winner of Round 3 in Orlando and currently sitting second in the points race coming into NJ, was unable to complete his first qualifying run in the Pennzoil / BC Racing Ford Mustang RTR Spec 5-FD. DeNofa was demoted to the Knockout Qualifying Format (KQF) where his second, more conservative attempt netted 83 points and qualified him 27th
- The leading Rookie qualifier was again Diego Higa (Brazil). He placed 17th overall after scoring 81.3 points in the JDMSupreme Toyota GT86
- With 32 drivers attempting to qualify for the Top 32 competition places, no drivers were eliminated from KQF after everybody completed a point-scoring run
NOTES – PROSPEC
- The weather was warm and breezy for PROSPEC Qualifying
- Top qualifier Hobson scored 91.3 points, repeating his top qualifying position at Round 1 in Atlanta where he finished second in the competition heats
- Fifteen year-old Martorana shocked everybody by qualifying third at Round 1 and proved it wasn’t beginner’s luck by placing second at Round 2 with an 86-point run. As the top PROSPEC Rookie, it appears Jayden has a successful Formula DRIFT career ahead of him
- Third place Brutskiy received 84.6 points for his qualifying run as the double FD PROSPEC Champion attempts to kickstart his 2023 season
- Winner of Round 1, Rudy Hansen (USA), failed to complete his first qualifying run but got a second chance under KQF. He eventually scored 83.6 points, placing him 26th
- With 39 PROSPEC drivers competing for 32 competition places, 15 had to run a second time under KQF. The seven eliminated drivers included Adam Knapik (USA), Brian Wadman (USA), Rye O’Connor (USA), Daniel Malvasio (USA), Chris Leonard (USA), Matthew Bystrak (USA), Justin Chesnutt (USA)
FD PRO ROUND 4 TOP 16 QUALIFYING
| POSITION | NAME | POINTS |
| 1 | Fredric Aasbo | 3 |
| 2 | Ryan Tuerck | 2 |
| 3 | Dylan Hughes | 1 |
| 4 | Matt Field | |
| 5 | Chris Forsberg | |
| 6 | Dan Stuke | |
| 7 | James Deane | |
| 8 | Kazuya Taguchi | |
| 9 | Taylor Hull | |
| 10 | Travis Reeder | |
| 11 | Adam Lz | |
| 12 | Rome Charpentier | |
| 13 | Jhonnattan Castro | |
| 14 | Joao Barion | |
| 15 | Branden Sorensen | |
| 16 | Aurimas Bakchis |
FD PROSPEC ROUND 2 TOP 16 QUALIFYING
| POSITION | NAME | POINTS |
| 1 | Ben Hobson | 3 |
| 2 | Jayden Martorana | 2 |
| 3 | Dmitriy Brutskiy | 1 |
| 4 | Shawn Illingworth | |
| 5 | Nate Chen | |
| 6 | Austin Matta | |
| 7 | Connor O´Sullivan | |
| 8 | Blake Olsen | |
| 9 | Andy Hateley | |
| 10 | Zach Farrar | |
| 11 | Erick Medici | |
| 12 | Margaritis Katsanidis | |
| 13 | Cole Richards | |
| 14 | Tyler Foley | |
| 15 | Faruk Kugay | |
| 16 | Cory Talaska |
BRACKET FOR ROUND 4 PRO COMPETITION HEATS
BRACKET FOR ROUND 2 PROSPEC COMPETITION HEATS
