The 2023 Formula Drift season (officially titled and stylized as the Formula DRIFT PRO Championship) was the twentieth season of the Formula D series. The season began on April 8 at Long Beach and concluded on October 14 at Irwindale Speedway after eight events.
To coincide with its twentieth anniversary celebrations, the series announced a number of additions to be made throughout the year. These include the inauguration of a Formula Drift Hall of Fame, the unveiling of a monument to the series in downtown Long Beach, increased prize money for event winners and the series champion, and the launch of an officially sanctioned podcast.
Entries Team No. Car Tires Driver Round(s) Alec Robbins Racing 35 Nissan 350Z Kenda Alec Robbins All ASM 8 BMW M3 E46 GT Radial Robert Thorne All BARBARIUS USA 357 Chevrolet Corvette C7 Z06 GT Radial João Barion All Beechum Racing 999 BMW M3 E46 Nexen Trenton Beechum All Cash Racing 16 BMW M3 E46 Vitour Jonathan Hurst All Diego Higa Racing Team 169 Toyota GT86 GT Radial Diego Higa All Drift Cave Motorsports 777 Chevrolet Corvette C6 GT Radial Matt Field All The Drift Force 33 Toyota GR86 Nexen Joshua Correa Reynolds All Feal Suspension Race Team 707 Nissan Silvia "S14.9" GT Radial Simen Olsen All 723 Nissan Silvia S15 GT Radial Aurimas Bakchis All FFF DRIFTING DEPARTMENT 117 Ferrari 599 GTB Fiorano Nexen Federico Sceriffo 2–8 Forsberg Racing 64 Nissan Z GT Radial Chris Forsberg All Garagistic Racing 171 BMW M3 E36 Vitour Rome Charpentier All Get Nuts Lab 808 Nissan Silvia S15 Kenda Forrest Wang All The Heart of Racing 26 Aston Martin V12 Vantage GT Radial Darren Kelly All HGK Motorsports 80 BMW M3 E92 GT Radial Kristaps Blušs 2–8 Huragan Racing 738 Toyota GR SupraToyota GT86 GT Radial Oleksii Holovnia All J Castro Racing - JCR 17 Toyota GR86 GT Radial Jhonnattan Castro All Jeff Jones Racing 818 Nissan 370Z GT Radial Jeff Jones All Jerry Yang Racing 123 Toyota GT86 GT Radial Kazuya Taguchi All Kyle Mohan Racing 99 Mazda RX-8 Vitour Kyle Mohan All Mspek Performance 527 Nissan Silvia "S14.9" Vitour Daniel Stuke All Noback Racing with Jerry Yang Racing 54 BMW M3 E46 GT Radial Nick Noback All Outlaw Garage 82 Chevrolet Corvette C6 Kenda Taylor Hull All Papadakis Racing 151 Toyota GR Supra Nitto Fredric Aasbø All 411 Toyota GR Corolla Nitto Ryan Tuerck All Power Racing 919 Nissan Silvia S15 GT Radial Mike Power All RTR Motorsports 5 Ford Mustang RTR Spec 5-FD Nitto Adam LZ 1, 3–5 25 Ford Mustang RTR Spec 5-FD Nitto Vaughn Gittin, Jr. 2, 6–8 88 Ford Mustang RTR Spec 5-FD Nitto Chelsea DeNofa All 130 Ford Mustang RTR Spec 5-FD Nitto James Deane All Ryan Litteral Racing x Colab Garage 909 Nissan Silvia S15 GT Radial Ryan Litteral 2–8 Sorensen Motorsports 513 BMW M3 E92 Nitto Branden Sorensen All Team Japan Auto 153 Toyota Supra A80 Kenda Ola Jæger All Team Karnage 43 Dodge Viper ZB II Nexen Dean Kearney All Three's Racing 21 Toyota GR86 Nexen Ken Gushi All Travis Reeder Motorsports 77 BMW M3 E46 GT Radial Travis Reeder All _Whip._ 129 BMW M3 E46 GT Radial Dylan Hughes All
Driver changes Dan Burkett was unable to raise sponsorship to fund a 2023 campaign, and elected to sit out the season while concentrating on finding a new sponsor for 2024. Three-time champion James Deane will return for the first time since 2019, signing with RTR Motorsports. 2013 champion Michael Essa will not return to the series, having taken a position building cars for Daily Driven Exotics. Joshua Love returned to the PROSPEC series for 2023. will drive a reduced schedule in 2023, participating in four rounds. Two-time champion Vaughn Gittin, Jr. will drive in the remaining four rounds, returning to the series after stepping back at the end of the 2021 season. Justin Pawlak will step back from the series, in order to focus on his son Jaxsen's drifting career.
Other changes For 2023, the limit of 37 full-season entries was removed. Falken Tire ended its partnership with Formula Drift. GT Radial renewed its partnership with the series through 2025. Kenda Tire became a new official supplier on a two-year agreement. Vitour Tires became a new official supplier on a two-year agreement.
Schedule Round Title Circuit Location Date Winner Car 1 Streets of Long Beach Streets of Long Beach Long Beach, California April 8 Matt Field Chevrolet Corvette C6 2 Road to the Championship Road Atlanta Braselton, Georgia May 13 Vaughn Gittin, Jr. Ford Mustang RTR Spec 5-FD 3 Scorched Orlando Speed World Orlando, Florida May 27 Chelsea DeNofa Ford Mustang RTR Spec 5-FD 4 The Gauntlet Englishtown Raceway Park Englishtown, New Jersey June 24 Adam LZ Ford Mustang RTR Spec 5-FD 5 Crossroads World Wide Technology Raceway St. Louis, Missouri July 15 Aurimas Bakchis Nissan Silvia S15 6 Throwdown Evergreen Speedway Monroe, Washington August 12 Chelsea DeNofa Ford Mustang RTR Spec 5-FD 7 Elevated Utah Motorsports Campus Grantsville, Utah September 16 Chelsea DeNofa Ford Mustang RTR Spec 5-FD 8 Title Fight Irwindale Speedway Irwindale, California October 14 Nick Noback BMW E46 M3Sources:
Championship standings Scoring system During qualifying, drivers perform solo runs which are judged on parameters such as line, angle, style and "X-factor", all defined within the sporting regulations, and awarded a numerical score up to 100. These scores are ranked to determine the qualifying classification and populate the brackets for the competition phase. Only 32 spots in the main event are available. In addition, the top three qualifiers earn three, two and one championship points respectively.
The qualifiers proceed through a series of competition heats, with those eliminated in the first round (Top 32) receiving 16 points and classifying 17th through 32nd, the second round (Top 16) receiving 32 points and classifying 9th through 16th, the third round (Great 8) receiving 48 points and classifying 5th through 8th, and the fourth round (Final Four) classifying 3rd and 4th, receiving 76 and 64 points respectively. In the Final, the runner-up receives 88 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.
The scoring system for the competition phase returned to that used in 2020, with a wider spread between the points awarded for each position compared to 2021 and 2022.
In the event of a tie on points, the driver who classified higher in the most recent round will be awarded the higher position.
Qualifying stage Position 1st 2nd 3rd Points321
Competition stage Position 1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th–8th 9th–16th 17th–32nd Points100887664483216
Pro Championship standings PosDriverLBHATLORLENGWWTEVSUTAIRWPts 1 Chelsea DeNofa 73 12 12 15 7 1 13 17 480 2 Aurimas Bakchis 18 33 9 8 1 53 13 22 445 3 Matt Field 1 6 14 3 14 91 2 22 427 4 Simen Olsen 12 25 8 2 3 62 32 11 419 5 James Deane 62 7 7 4 18 3 91 3 413 6 Fredric Aasbø 3 10 2 171 2 10 7 21 399 7 Ryan Tuerck 51 18 51 52 11 4 4 4 392 8 Chris Forsberg 17 2 13 10 4 11 8 6 360 9 Dylan Hughes 21 5 4 93 12 2 18 10 329 10 Kazuya Taguchi 24 19 33 11 81 8 5 13 304 11 Rome Charpentier 2 28 21 6 27 7 25 18 264 12 Nick Noback 29 30 30 28 92 16 31 11 249 13 Jhonnattan Castro 11 23 27 13 5 13 15 14 240 14 Jonathan Hurst 4 15 11 22 6 26 29 DNQ 224 15 Dean Kearney 14 27 32 27 103 15 11 16 209 16 Forrest Wang 8 92 12 30 22 5 194 17 Branden Sorensen 19 22 22 14 30 18 12 7 192 18 Travis Reeder 20 24 6 12 19 17 10 24 192 19 Ken Gushi 13 29 29 16 13 DNQ 28 93 177 20 Robert Thorne 28 32 25 30 16 28 14 12 176 21 Daniel Stuke 10 14 10 18 24 24 21 25 176 22 Trenton Beechum 15 26 26 31 22 19 6 26 176 23 Vaughn Gittin, Jr. 11 23 23 15 167 24 Kristaps Blušs 4 16 26 8 160 25 Taylor Hull 16 16 23 19 25 21 32 20 160 26 Alec Robbins 9 13 18 26 26 27 27 29 160 27 Adam LZ 30 20 1 20 148 28 Diego Higa 22 17 28 20 DNQ 12 16 19 144 29 Jeff Jones 23 11 24 23 23 DNQ 20 23 128 30 João Barion DNQ DNQ DNQ 7 17 20 19 28 112 31 Ryan Litteral DNQ 17 21 15 14 17 DNQ 112 32 Mike Power 27 20 19 25 28 29 30 112 33 Kyle Mohan DNQ 31 DNQ 32 21 22 24 27 96 34 Ola Jæger 26 21 DNQ 29 29 25 DNQ 30 96 35 Darren Kelly DNQ 8 15 80 36 Oleksii Holovnia 25 DNQ 31 24 48 37 Joshua Correa Reynolds DNQ 0In-line notation Superscript number Qualifying position(Top 3 only)BoldTop 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. PosManufacturerLBHATLORLENGWWTEVSUTAIRWPts 1 Ford 62 11 12 1 7 1 13 3 1048 73 7 7 4 18 3 91 15 2 Toyota 3 10 2 52 2 4 4 4 837 51 17 51 16 5 10 7 93 3 Chevrolet 1 6 14 3 14 91 2 20 619 16 16 23 7 17 20 19 22 4 Nissan 17 2 13 10 4 11 8 6 472 17 21 15 14 17 DNQ 5 Dodge 14 27 32 27 103 15 11 16 209 6 Mazda DNQ 31 DNQ 32 21 22 24 27 96 7 Aston Martin DNQ 8 15 80
Tire Cup standings Tire Cup points are awarded each round to the two drivers with the highest classified finish for each tire manufacturer. PosTireLBHATLORLENGWWTEVSUTAIRWPts 1 GT Radial 1 2 33 2 1 2 2 11 1275 11 33 4 3 3 53 32 22 2 Nitto 3 11 12 1 2 1 13 3 1249 51 7 2 4 7 3 4 4 3 Vitour 2 14 10 6 6 7 21 18 536 4 15 11 18 24 22 24 25 4 Nexen 13 26 26 16 103 15 6 93 402 14 27 29 27 13 19 11 26 5 Kenda 8 92 12 19 25 21 22 5 386 9 13 18 26 26 25 27 20
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