Round 6 of the 2022 Formula Drift Championship has come to an end! Fans coming in from Seattle and several other parts of the USA witnessed a formidable show throughout the two days of competition. There are now six different event winners in six races so far this season, which goes to show how intense the competition is.
Qualifying took place on Friday and saw Kazuya Taguchi topping the leaderboard once again in his GT-R-powered Scion FR-S. He was followed closely by Chelsea Denofa in the RTR Mustang and Chris Forsberg in the NOS Energy Drink Nissan Z.
After we saw the brackets for the tandem battles, we had our predictions going on. We estimated that Taguchi would likely defeat Dan Burkett and end up fighting against Aasbo later on.
Trying to guess who would win between championship leader Matt Field and Aurimas Backchis was not going to be easy for anyone, but we at least thought that the winner would eventually race against Dylan Hughes.
We've said it before, and we'll say it again: professional drifting can be quite unpredictable. You can have the most powerful, expensive car on the grid, and you could still lose against a rookie.
Photo: Kazuya Taguchi
And that's just part of the reason why this sport is so exciting. So let's just jump straight to the action and see how things unfolded during yesterday's race.
The good part about it all is that you can watch the battle replays on official Formula Drift channels, with Jarod DeAnda on live commentary duty and Ryan Lanteigne in the judge's stand. The first official tandem of the weekend was an all-Toyota one with over 2,300 hp on the start line.
The Japanese driver was looking stronger than ever after the first run, and most people thought he would have no problems moving on to the Top 16. On the chase run, Taguchi lost it as it seemed like he was blinded by all the smoke.
Ultimately, the judges decided in favor of Dan Burkett, and that sparked a bit of online controversy. But the Japanese driver himself cleared the aspect by noting: "I misjudged the lead driver's deceleration point and went off the track. That was my mistake, learned new things."
At this point, with two more races to go before the end of the season, there is no chance for him to secure the Championship title anymore.
Next up, fans watched an all-European-driver battle, with Dean Kearney behind the wheel of his Viper going up against Yves Meyer in the Toyota GT86. Irish fans were happy to see that Kearney took the win, advancing to the next level of the race.
For the last two Top32 battles in the upper left bracket, Ken Gushi was successful against Ryan Litteral, while Fredric Aasbo won against Joshua Love.
But everyone was anxious to see the Falken Tire romp between Odi's Nissan vs Matt's Chevrolet. This could just have well been the final battle of the weekend, given the level of the two drivers. The Lithuanian driver made a small mistake on his chase run, and his opponent was all over him the second time around.
Photo: Larry Chen/ Formula Drift
While Ryan Lanteigne voted for Matt Field to move on, both Chris Uhl and Brian Eggert asked for a One More Time. Even so, the series leader would take the win, further strengthening his position on the leaderboard.
In the Top 16, he won against Justin Pawlak and then proceeded to eliminate Dylan Hughes from the competition as well. In a relatively unexpected turn of events, Dan Burkett put on an amazing show all weekend long.
Not only did he defeat Kazuya Taguchi, but he also won against Dean Kearney and then against the Norwegian Hammer, Fredric Aasbo.
This is his most notable Formula Drift performance so far, but meeting Matt Field in the Top 4 wasn't going to be successful for him. The Corvette driver hasn't won any races so far this year, but this time he was moving on to the final battle and completely determined to change that aspect.
Photo: Larry Chen/ Formula Drift
Looking at the right side of the bracket, Chelsea DeNofa drove his RTR Mustang like a madman. He plowed through Mike Power and Travis Reeder before having to go up against Ryan Tuerck in the Top 8.
Even though the Rainox Corolla driver from New Hampshire was higher up on the leaderboard going into this event, he couldn't stop the Mustang driver in his tracks. But DeNofa wasn't going to the final just yet.
Forsberg had a relatively comfortable journey on his side this weekend, winning against Jonathan Hurst and then Jeff Jones.
Taylor Hull has been racing in Formula Drift Pro since 2017, but that didn't stop him from taking out veteran driver Michael Essa in the Top 16. Still, he would be no match for Chris "The Force" Forsberg, which meant that the multiple FD Champion would have to fight DeNofa for a spot in the final.
And what a fight it was. Even though it lasted for a short two runs, both drivers went all out. But a small mistake would cost Forsberg a chance to fight for the top spot on the podium this weekend, leaving him with third place overall. The final battle would be an all-American one, with the 1,111-hp Mustang challenging the 1,050-hp Corvette to a duel.
There was contact between them on the first run, and Field's run was deemed to be incomplete. With DeNofa playing it cool on the second run, the result was obvious: the RTR Mustang scored its first victory for 2022!
With Round 7 coming up in September in Utah, Matt Field is still leading the race. DeNofa is now fifth overall, behind Aasbo, Tuerck and Forsberg. Technically speaking, there are nine drivers on the leaderboard that could still win the championship by the end of the year.
The things Dragos enjoys the most in life are, in no particular order: cars, motorcycles, diecast cars, and drifting. He's seen (and driven) many vehicles since he started his writing career back in 2009, but his garage currently houses a 1991 Mazda RX-7 FC3S Turbo II and a 1999 Suzuki SV650-S. Full profile
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