Ford Mustang RTR-D Spec 5 Is Dominating Formula Drift With Denofa's Victory in Seattle

Evergreen Speedway hosted Round 6 of FD this season, and drivers worldwide arrived in Seattle, Washington, for the race. Team RTR has been doing a fantastic job so far, despite James Deane not winning any races this year.

Vaughn Gittin JR won in Atlanta, Chelsea Denofa scored another victory in Orlando, and Adam LZ took top honors in Englishtown. So that's three out of five for the Ford Mustang RTR-D Spec 5, which is impressive. But there's a good chance the fight for the title will continue until the last moment of the championship. Until then, let's quickly recap the action in Seattle.

Qualifying

The qualifying results would have rendered a Nissan-exclusive Top3 if it wasn't for Matt Field and his Drift Cave Chevrolet Corvette. He was so close to winning the championship last year, and he took P1 in Long Beach in 2023. Even though he struggled with mechanical issues throughout the first day of the event, he still scored 91.6 points thanks to a solid run.

Both Feal Suspension drivers were next, with Team Boss Aurimas Backchis taking P2 and Simen Olsen down in P3. Despite having a relatively slow season, Travis Reeder was fourth in qualifying, one point ahead of the reigning champion from Norway. James Deane was better in this session than Chris Forsberg and Chelsea Denofa, but he still needs more time to adapt to the Mustang chassis.

James has driven chiefly Japanese cars throughout his career, so things might still be weird for him. Branden Sorensen might need a year or two before he can start fighting for the FD title, but even so, he qualified higher than Ryan Tuerck did. The main event would provide some exciting battles for the fans to enjoy. And the only two drivers to get a BYE run in the Top32 were Matt Field and Aurimas Backchis.

Battles

Of all the Top32 battles, the one between Vaughn Gittin JR and Ryan Tuerck promised to be the most exciting. With almost 2,100 horsepower lining up for the race, most people would have betted on Ford power rather than Toyota power. Team RTR's boss was glued to his opponent for the whole duration of the first run, so Tuerck needed a strong chase lap to turn things around.

But Vaughn overcooked it right toward the end of his lead run, and the decision was unanimous: Ryan Tuerck would move on to the Top16. Matt Field lost his tandem fight against Rome Charpentier, but everyone was eager to see two more titanic battles for this part of the event. The first one had Chris Forsberg going up against Chelsea Denofa. FD cars' power levels are insane, with Forsberg's Nissan rated at 1,300 hp, while Denofa had to do with 1,111 hp on his Ford Mustang.

The first heat was so intense that the judges had to ask for a One More Time. But it was all settled after two more runs, as two out of three judges voted for Denofa to advance to the Top8. The other exciting battle of the Top16 was that between Fredric Aasbo and Ryan Tuerck. The Norwegian Hammer would have been the safest bet in the all-Toyota confrontation.

But one should never underestimate Ryan Tuerck either. After just two runs, the GR Corolla driver emerged victoriously, thus slowing down Aasbo's ambitions of winning another title this year. The 38-year-old from New Hampshire would go on to defeat Kazuya Taguchi too, but meeting Chelsea Denofa in the Top 4 was about to end his adventure in Seattle.

Meanwhile, James Deane had it relatively easy in his half of the bracket, and it looked like he might end up racing Denofa in the finals. But Dylan Hughes had something to say about that, especially after his victory against Simen Olsen. Still, he would have to settle for second place at the end of the day, as Denofa scored his second victory this year.

Conclusion

So, what's the current situation in the 2023 Formula Drift rankings? Denofa, the new series leader, has a 28-point lead against Fredric Aasbo, who is second. Backchis and Field are 12 more points down the road, tied for third. The other two drivers to have scored more than 300 points this year are James Deane and Simen Olsen.

So far this year, Vaughn Gittin JR's team has won four out of six races, scoring five podium finishes. This is shaping to be one of Denofa's most successful seasons in the sport, as he only scored more victories in one year back in 2021 (three in total). Pointswise, 2020 was his best, though, as he was second overall behind Vaughn Gittin JR.

Even though he is leading the championship now, he still has plenty of work left to get to the top of the series. At least five drivers could take over before the year is over, but we'll know more about that by the time Round 7 in Utah is done and dusted. We'll keep you in the loop with all things Formula Drift as we plan on doing more driver interviews soon.