The 2019 Formula D season (officially titled Formula DRIFT Black Magic Pro Championship) was the sixteenth season of the Formula D series. The season began on April 6 at Long Beach and concluded on October 19 at Toyota Speedway at Irwindale after eight events.
Driver Travis Reeder made Formula Drift history by becoming the first driver to compete with an electric vehicle. His team Napoleon Motorsports developed a fully electric Chevrolet Camaro dubbed the Chevrolet Camaro EL1. Reeder was unable to run it during the opening round at Long Beach since the event's fire safety teams had not been given training on electric vehicle fires. He practiced with the car during the second round at Orlando but competed with his regular Nissan 240SX S13. The car made its first competitive appearance in the third round at Road Atlanta, and he campaigned it until the finale at Irwindale when minor issues forced him to revert to his S13.
Two drivers also made history during the season by scoring a perfect 100 on a qualifying run, something that had only been previously achieved by Tanner Foust at Sonoma Raceway in 2006. Justin Pawlak recorded a perfect score during the fourth round at Wall Speedway, and James Deane recorded a perfect score during the seventh round at Texas Motor Speedway.
Two drivers made a one-off appearance at Long Beach: Mitch Larner, renting a Toyota 2JZ powered Nissan 240SX S14 from fellow competitor Forrest Wang, and Manuel Vacca, driving a BMW E46.
Entries Team No. Car Tires Driver Round(s) Asphalt Anarchy 82 Cadillac ATS-V Achilles Taylor Hull All Bakchis Motorsports 723 Nissan Silvia S14 Falken Aurimas Bakchis All Bridges Racing 43 Dodge Viper ZB II Achilles Dean Kearney All Chris Forsberg Racing 64 Nissan 370Z Nexen Chris Forsberg All Coffman Racing 959 Nissan 240SX S13 Achilles Matt Coffman 1–6 Drift Cave Motorsports 46 Nissan 240SX Achilles Patrick Goodin 1–7 777 Chevrolet Corvette C6 Falken Matt Field All Enjuku Racing 352 Nissan Silvia S14 Achilles Kevin Lawrence All Essa Autosport 101 BMW M3 E46 Achilles Michael Essa All FFF Drifting Department 117 Ferrari 599 GTB Fiorano Nexen Federico Sceriffo AllGet Nuts Lab 11 Nissan 240SX S14 Achilles Mitch Larner 1 808 Nissan Silvia S15 Achilles Forrest Wang All Greddy Racing/Ken Gushi motorsports 21 Toyota GT86 Achilles Ken Gushi All Hohnadell Racing 118 Nissan 240SX S14 Nexen Alec Hohnadell 1–3 HP Garage 19 BMW M3 E46 Achilles Manuel Vacca 1 Huddy Racing 129 BMW M3 E46 Achilles Dylan Hughes 1–7 Jeff Jones Racing 818 Nissan 370Z Nexen Jeff Jones All Jhonnattan Castro 717 Subaru BRZ Nexen Jhonnattan Castro All Kazuya Taguchi 123 Nissan GT-RNissan Silvia S15 Achilles Kazuya Taguchi All KORUWORKS 909 Nissan 350Z Nexen Ryan Litteral All Kyle Mohan Racing 99 Mazda RX-8 Nexen Kyle Mohan All Meeks Drift 316 Cadillac ATS-V Nexen Austin Meeks All Nando Drift Team 357 Chevrolet Corvette C7 Z06 Achilles João Barion 1–3, 6–8 Napoleon Motorsports 77 Nissan 240SX S13Chevrolet Camaro EL1 Nitto Travis Reeder All Papadakis Racing 151 Toyota Corolla (E210) Nexen Fredric Aasbø All Pawlak Racing 13 Ford Mustang Falken Justin Pawlak All RAD Industries 34 Toyota Supra A80 Nexen Dan Burkett All RTR Motorsports 25 Ford Mustang RTR Spec 5-D Nitto Vaughn Gittin, Jr. All 88 Ford Mustang RTR Nitto Chelsea DeNofa All Ryan Tuerck Racing 411 Toyota GT86 Nitto Ryan Tuerck All SSG Motorsport 111 Nissan Silvia S14 Nexen Sebastien Gauthier 1–4, 6–8 Stratton Racing 33 Chevrolet Corvette C6 Achilles Dirk Stratton All Team DAI. 9 Subaru BRZ Falken Daijiro Yoshihara All Team IMR 17 BMW M3 E46 Nitto Alex Heilbrunn 1–4 Worthouse Drift Team 130 Nissan Silvia S15 Falken James Deane All 215 Nissan Silvia S15 Falken Piotr Więcek All
Schedule Round Title Circuit Location Date Winner Car 1 O'Reilly Auto Parts The Streets of Long BeachPresented by Permatex Streets of Long Beach Long Beach, California April 6 Aurimas Bakchis Nissan Silvia S14 2 AutoZone ScorchedPresented by Black Magic Orlando Speed World Orlando, Florida April 27 Aurimas Bakchis Nissan Silvia S14 3 O'Reilly Auto Parts Road to the ChampionshipPresented by Permatex Road Atlanta Braselton, Georgia May 11 Fredric Aasbø Toyota Corolla (E210) 4 The Advance Auto Parts GauntletPresented by Black Magic Wall Stadium Wall Township, New Jersey June 8 Ryan Tuerck Toyota GT86 5 Permatex ThrowdownPresented by AutoZone Evergreen Speedway Monroe, Washington July 20 Piotr Więcek Nissan Silvia S15 6 Pep Boys CrossroadsPresented by Rain-X World Wide Technology Raceway Madison, Illinois August 10 James Deane Nissan Silvia S15 7 Advance Auto Parts ShowdownPresented by Rain-X Texas Motor Speedway Fort Worth, Texas September 14 Chelsea DeNofa Ford Mustang RTR 8 AutoZone Title FightPresented by Rain-X Toyota Speedway at Irwindale Irwindale, California October 19 Ken Gushi Toyota GT86 Sources:
Championship standings Scoring system Points were awarded for qualifying and for the main event. During qualifying, drivers performed solo runs which were judged on parameters such as line, angle, fluidity and commitment and assigned a numerical score up to 100. These scores were then ranked to determine the qualifying classification and hence populate the brackets for the competition phase. Up to 6 points were then awarded for the top 32 qualifiers.
The qualifiers proceed through a series of competition heats, with those eliminated in the first round (Top 32) receiving 16 points, the second round (Sweet 16) receiving 32 points, the third round (Great 8) receiving 48 points, and the fourth round (Final Four) receiving 64 points and classifying 3rd and 4th. Of the two drivers eliminated in the Final Four, the driver who qualified highest is awarded third place and the final step on the podium. In the Final, the runner-up receives 80 points and the winner 100 points. Final classification within each round is then determined by highest qualifying position; for example, of the two drivers eliminated in the Final Four, the driver who qualified higher is awarded 3rd position and the final place on the podium.
Qualifying stage Position 1st 2nd 3rd 4th–8th 9th–16th 17th–32nd Points654321
Competition stage Position 1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th–8th 9th–16th 17th–32nd Points100806464483216
Pro Championship standings PosDriverLBHORLATLWNJEVSWWTTEXIRWPts 1 James Deane 62 1110 34 35 22 11 21 36 565 2 Fredric Aasbø 410 91 11 22 1418 22 411 1310 513 3 Aurimas Bakchis 15 15 55 116 1213 57 52 48 497 4 Piotr Więcek 73 63 66 67 11 34 63 67 482 5 Ryan Tuerck 177 1615 23 19 93 46 829 53 443 6 Chris Forsberg 38 27 78 128 411 105 35 104 439 7 Michael Essa 1212 1514 410 1412 78 825 108 212 385 8 Chelsea DeNofa 109 36 92 1310 106 93 17 91 384 9 Daijiro Yoshihara 94 52 107 93 34 1211 79 816 360 10 Vaughn Gittin, Jr. 1111 416 1624 411 1521 612 1813 713 350 11 Ken Gushi 1317 1312 179 714 55 1913 1110 12 343 12 Justin Pawlak 813 74 2118 51 67 1315 174 115 311 13 Forrest Wang 26 88 1112 104 2423 1110 1917 1411 305 14 Matt Field 51 1211 1317 820 1110 714 1516 1717 305 15 Kazuya Taguchi 2322 1919 1811 1618 2017 1520 96 129 204 16 Travis Reeder 1519 1818 3131 3131 1624 2118 1212 1615 202 17 Dean Kearney 1418 1717 1214 2222 2525 189 1415 1919 187 18 Jhonnattan Castro 1915 2121 1522 2525 2119 1624 2018 1514 186 19 Ryan Litteral 1626 2525 2626 2121 179 2016 1314 1818 171 20 Patrick Goodin 2524 109 815 1713 1812 2523 3030 171 21 Jeff Jones 3232 2424 2016 1517 2322 2727 2928 2525 153 22 Dirk Stratton 2625 2626 1420 2424 2220 2422 2221 2222 152 23 Dylan Hughes DNQ 2222 1913 1916 814 178 2726 139 24 Taylor Hull 2727 2727 2525 2727 2626 3131 2423 2323 136 25 Dan Burkett 2423 3131 2321 2323 2727 2321 2827 2626 136 26 Federico Sceriffo 2828 2929 2727 2929 2828 2219 2625 2828 136 27 Matt Coffman 2016 2323 2219 2019 1316 1417 136 28 Kevin Lawrence DNQ 3232 3232 3030 1915 3030 2524 2727 120 29 Kyle Mohan 3131 DNQ 2828 2828 3030 2929 2322 2020 119 30 Austin Meeks 3030 2828 DNQ 2626 2929 2828 3131 2424 119 31 João Barion DNQ 3030 3030 2626 1620 2929 101 32 Alex Heilbrunn 1814 1413 2423 1815 87 33 Sebastien Gauthier 2929 DNQ 2929 DNQ 3232 2119 2121 85 34 Alec Hohnadell 2120 2020 DNQ 34 35 Mitch Larner 2221 17 NC Manuel Vacca DNQ 0Sources:In-line notation Superscript number Qualifying positionBoldTop qualifierRookie of the YearRookie
Auto Cup standings Auto Cup points are awarded each round to the two drivers with the highest classified finish for each manufacturer. To be eligible, both the chassis and engine must have been constructed by that manufacturer.
PosManufacturerLBHORLATLWNJEVSWWTTEXIRWPts 1 Toyota 410 91 11 19 55 22 411 12 1059 1317 1312 23 22 93 46 829 53 2 Ford 813 36 92 411 67 612 17 713 789 109 416 1624 51 106 93 174 91 3 Nissan 38 27 78 128 411 105 35 104 644 2322 1919 1811 1618 1915 1520 96 129 4 Chevrolet 51 1211 1317 820 1110 714 1516 1717 473 2625 2626 1420 2424 2220 2422 1620 2222 5 BMW 1212 1514 410 1412 78 825 108 212 385 6 Cadillac 2727 2727 2525 2626 2626 2828 2423 2323 255 3030 2828 DNQ 2727 2929 3131 3131 2424 7 Dodge 1418 1717 1214 2222 2525 189 1415 1919 187 8 Ferrari 2828 2929 2727 2929 2828 2219 2625 2828 136 9 Mazda 3131 DNQ 2828 2828 3030 2929 2322 2020 119
Tire Cup standings Tire Cup points are awarded each round to the two drivers with the highest classified finish for each tire manufacturer. PosTireLBHORLATLWNJEVSWWTTEXIRWPts 1 Falken 15 15 34 35 11 11 21 36 1189 51 52 55 51 22 34 52 48 2 Nexen 38 27 11 22 411 22 35 104 952 410 91 78 128 1418 105 411 1310 3 Nitto 109 36 23 19 93 46 17 53 932 1111 416 92 411 106 612 829 713 4 Achilles 26 88 410 714 55 825 96 12 845 1212 109 815 104 78 1110 108 212
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