EVENT DETAILS
Date: Thursday, May 11, 2023
Location: Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta, Atlanta, GA
Event: Formula DRIFT PRO Championship Round 2: TYPE S Road to the Championship presented by AutoZone and Link ECU PROSPEC Championship Round 1
RESULTS FROM FD PRO QUALIFYING
1. Vaughn Gittin Jr (USA) – Monster Energy Ford Mustang RTR Spec 5-FD
2. Forrest Wang (USA) – Yellowspeed / NRG Nissan S15
3. Aurimas Bakchis (Lithuania) – Feal Suspension / GT Radial Nissan S15
RESULTS FROM FD PROSPEC QUALIFYING
1. Ben Hobson (USA) – Pedal Commander / Feal Suspension / Koruworks / Motegi Racing Nissan S14
2. Nate Chen (USA) – NCR Toyota 86
3. Jayden Martorana (Canada) – Empire Auto C6 Corvette
NOTES – PRO
- The Atlanta and Utah rounds in 2023 will see Formula DRIFT PRO and PROSPEC Championship qualifying sessions moved to Thursday
- The K&N PRO Qualifying session began at sunset and continued into the evening, resulting in changing track conditions on the cooling surface
- The 2023 scoring procedure requires all three judges to 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 ATL are Ryan Lanteigne (Canada), Chris Uhl (USA) and Brian Eggert (USA), with Robbie Nishida (Japan) taking the role of Driver’s Steward
- Top qualifier was double FD PRO Champion, Gittin Jr, who returns to the series after a one-year sabbatical to complete a partial 2023 series. As the first qualifier, he set an astonish 93.3-point run that nobody could touch
- Second place went to Wang, who is also returning to the FD PRO Championship. He came closest to challenging Gittin Jr with a score of 91 points
- Bakchis placed third by the narrowest of margins with a score of 90.6 points, executing one of the smokiest runs of the evening
- Reigning Champion Fredric Aasbo (Norway) in the Rockstar Energy Toyota GR Supra qualified seventh again, as he did in Long Beach, with 86.3 points
- Round 1 winner, Matt Field (USA), placed ninth in his Borla Performance / GT Radial Corvette, scoring 85.6 points
- Leading Rookie qualifier was Diego Higa (Brazil). He placed fourth overall after scoring 88.3 points in his Toyota GT86
- Knockout Qualifying Format (KQF) sees the top 24 drivers automatically qualify, with the remainder required to run a second time, including anybody who failed to complete their first run. And with 35 driver competing for 32 competition places, three would be eliminated from KQF
- After their second runs, the eliminated drivers were Alex Holovnia (Ukraine), Joao Barion (Brazil) and Ryan Litteral (USA)
NOTES – PROSPEC
- The weather was warm and cloudy for PROSPEC Qualifying but the track remained dry despite the threat of rain
- Top qualifier and Bakchis teammate, Hobson, scored 89 points in his new Pedal Commander / Feal Suspension / Koruworks / Motegi Racing Nissan S14, highlighting the potential of this combination for 2023
- Chen qualified second, scoring 87.3 points with an impressive run that flagged him as another 2023 contender
- Third-placed Martorana shocked his fellow competitors and spectators with an 83.3-point run. The surprise is that he just turned 15 years old and qualified as the top PROSPEC Rookie
- With 39 PROSPEC drivers competing for 32 competition places, 15 had to run a second time under KQF, 14 of which didn’t score on their first run. At least seven would be eliminated from competition, provided they successfully completed one run
- The eliminated drivers included Zandara Kennedy (Canada), Chris Leonard (USA), Rye O’Connor (USA), Alex Lichliter (USA), Richard Advani (USA), Adam Knapik (USA), Trevor Root (USA)
FD PRO ROUND 2 TOP 16 QUALIFYING
| POSITION | NAME | POINTS |
| 1 | Vaughn Gittin Jr | 3 |
| 2 | Forrest Wang | 2 |
| 3 | Aurimas Bakchis | 1 |
| 4 | Diego Higa | |
| 5 | Ryan Tuerck | |
| 6 | Dylan Hughes | |
| 7 | Fredric Aasbo | |
| 8 | Kazuya Taguchi | |
| 9 | Matt Field | |
| 10 | James Deane | |
| 11 | Jeff Jones | |
| 12 | Mike Power | |
| 13 | Ola Jaeger | |
| 14 | Chelsea DeNofa | |
| 15 | Chris Forsberg | |
| 16 | Branden Sorensen |
FD PROSPEC ROUND 1 TOP 16 QUALIFYING
| POSITION | NAME | POINTS |
| 1 | Ben Hobson | 3 |
| 2 | Nate Chen | 2 |
| 3 | Jayden Martorana | 1 |
| 4 | Andy Hateley | |
| 5 | Connor O´Sullivan | |
| 6 | Geoff Donati | |
| 7 | Rudy Hansen | |
| 8 | Faruk Kugay | |
| 9 | Austin Matta | |
| 10 | Kelsey Rowlings | |
| 11 | Alex Jagger | |
| 12 | Cole Richards | |
| 13 | Jack Davis | |
| 14 | Evan Bogovich | |
| 15 | Dmitriy Brutskiy | |
| 16 | Cory Talaska |
BRACKET FOR ROUND 2 PRO COMPETITION HEATS
BRACKET FOR ROUND 1 PROSPEC COMPETITION HEATS
