Japanese Driver Dominates Formula Drift Round 6 Qualifying, Top 32 Battles Are Up Next

Looking at the outcome of yesterday's session, you would be tempted to say that Formula Drift has just entered a new era: one of Japanese dominance.

After Kazuya Taguchi managed a perfect result in Saint Louis, qualifying first and winning the race, he scored 93 points during the individual runs, taking P1 at the end of the day. Chelsea Denofa is no longer quite the underdog he used to be, but he is still a fan favorite.

As he qualified P2 overall, he's still hoping to secure his first ever FD title by the end of the year. Granted, that won't be easy with drivers like Chris Forsberg and Matt Field breathing down his neck in P3.

With a total of 36 drivers lining up for a chance to compete in the tandem battles today, four of them would be knocked out: Daniel Stuke, Darren Kelly, Ola Jaeger, and Trenton Beechum.

Dylan Hughes continues to put on a good performance, as he was fifth overall in qualifying, just in front of veteran driver Michael Essa.

Fredric Aasbo was second overall going into this event, but he had to settle for P9 with a lower score than Ken Gushi. The Top 32 battles are up in a few hours, but until then, we'll go ahead and make some predictions based on the tandem brackets.

It's not likely that Dan Burkett can put an end to Taguchi's FD assault, so the Japanese driver will probably go at least up to the Top 8. Chances are that at that point, he will have to face Fredric Aasbo.

Defeating the Norwegian Hammer would improve his hopes of maybe winning the championship by the end of the year. The lower left bracket has quite an interesting battle going on in the Top 32.

Matt Field will be racing against Aurimas Backchis early on in the game. If the Lithuanian driver can overcome the mighty Corvette driver, the battle for the championship will be even closer than it was so far.

It's hard to tell who will emerge victoriously from this confrontation, but the winner will likely encounter Dylan Hughes further down the line.

Moving on to the upper right bracket, we expect to see Chelsea Denofa running against Travis Reeder in the Top 16. Travis has improved a lot over the years, but we shouldn't forget that Denofa is one of the most skilled drivers on the grid.

Whoever wins this challenge will probably have to fight against Ryan Tuerck in the Top 8. We can imagine that judges won't have an easy task at designating a winner today, but at least this will be quite exciting for anyone looking at the race. The Top 16 battles start at 5 PM PST and will go on for about three hours before we know the outcome of this event.