EVENT DETAILS
Date: Friday, April 7, 2023
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 / Rockstar Energy Toyota GR Corolla
- James Deane (Ireland) – AutoZone Ford Mustang RTR Spec 5-FD
- Chelsea DeNofa (USA) – Pennzoil / BC Racing Ford Mustang RTR Spec 5-FD
NOTES
- The weather was warm and sunny for the K&N PRO Qualifying session
- Outside Zone 2 on the Streets of Long Beach course had been tightened slightly to help the course flow better
- Qualifying returned to a reverse order format, with the newest drivers running first and the 2022 PRO Champion saved until last. Future rounds will continue to have the highest ranked drivers run last
- A new scoring procedure saw all three judges assess line, angle and style, allotting up to 90 points each, with an additional 10 points awarded for the “X factor.” The points awarded are an average of all three judges’ scores
- The judges for FD LB included Ryan Lanteigne (Canada), Chris Uhl (USA) and Robbie Nishida (Japan). Four judges will be rotated throughout the season, with Brian Eggert (USA) appearing at future rounds
- Indicator lights in each cars and onboard telemetry will allow the judges to review acceleration and deceleration points to assist their scoring
- Knockout Qualifying Format requires the bottom eight qualifiers to run a second time, which includes anybody who failed to score on their first run. With 32 drivers competing for 32 competition places, nobody would be eliminated from competition if they could successfully complete one run
- Drivers relegated to KQF included Mike Power (USA), Nick Noback (USA), Robert Thorne (USA), Matt Field (USA), Jonathan Hurst (USA), Adam LZ (USA), Kyle Mohan (USA) and Joao Barion (Brazil).
- Barion and Mohan failed to complete a second run, handing bye runs to the top two drivers
- Top qualifier Tuerck repeated his performance from 2022 with an astonishing run that saw him tap the Corolla’s rear bumper against each outside zone, receiving 98.33 points from the judges, including a perfect X-factor score. And thanks to a bye run through the Top 32 heats, Tuerck is in great shape for tomorrow’s competition
- Second-place Deane scored 92.66 points and held the top spot for almost the entire K&N qualifying session. And after receiving his own bye run, the three-time FD PRO Champion confirmed that despite a brand new car and three-year absence, he’s going to be a major threat this season
- Third place DeNofa (and Deane’s RTR teammate) similarly repeated his 2022 qualifying position, scoring 92 points and narrowly losing out to the Irishman
- Reigning and three-time Champion Fredric Aasbo in the Rockstar Energy Toyota GR Supra could only qualify seventh with 85.66 points, making his path to the Final more challenging
- Following a spin on his first run, Matt Field – who finished second in 2022 and led the FD PRO Championship for the majority of the season – participated in KQF where he qualified 27th with 78.66 points. Field’s Top 32 heat in the Borla Performance / GT Radial Corvette will see him matched against three-time FD PRO Champion Chris Forsberg (USA) driving the NOS Energy Drink / GT Radial Nissan Z, which will be an intense start to their day
- Forrest Wang (USA), who returns to the FD PRO Championship after a four-year absence, qualified his Yellowspeed / NRG Nissan S15 in a strong fifth position with a score of 88.33 points. The fan favorite will undoubtedly be hoping to cause an upset in the competition heats
- 2022 Formula DRIFT PROSPEC Champion, Robert Thorne, qualified 28th with 74 points and was happy to survive KQF in his ASM E46 Sedan PRO Edition
ROUND 1 TOP 16 PRO QUALIFYING
| POSITION | NAME |
| 1 | Ryan Tuerck |
| 2 | James Deane |
| 3 | Chelsea DeNofa |
| 4 | Rome Charpentier |
| 5 | Forrest Wang |
| 6 | Chris Forsberg |
| 7 | Fredric Aasbo |
| 8 | Aurimas Bakchis |
| 9 | Branden Sorensen |
| 10 | Travis Reeder |
| 11 | Dylan Hughes |
| 12 | Alec Robbins |
| 13 | Diego Higa |
| 14 | Jeff Jones |
| 15 | Daniel Stuke |
| 16 | Jhonnattan Castro |
FORMULA DRIFT LONG BEACH RECAP
Competition results from Round 1: AutoZone Streets of Long Beach presented by TYPE S will be sent tomorrow, and a recap of all the action from FD LB with event images will be available on Monday.
NEXT ROUND
Drift Atlanta presented by Bud Light at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta will host the Formula DRIFT PRO Championship Round 2: TYPE S Road to the Championship presented by AutoZone on May 11-13. Please visit formulad.com for the competition schedule, ticket information, driver profiles, special content, and the event livestream.
