2019 Formula D season

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.

2019 Formula D

Previous

2018

Next

2020

James Deane won his third consecutive championship with the Worthouse Drifting team, and his teammate Piotr Więcek placed fourth in points. However, the team and both drivers would leave Formula Drift at the end of the season: it was announced in 2020 that Worthouse had withdrawn from the series and that both its drivers were pursuing other opportunities.^[1] Deane would return to the series in 2023.

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.^[2][3] 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.^[4][5]

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.^[6]

Entries

Team	No.	Car	Tires	Driver	Round(s)
Asphalt Anarchy	82	Cadillac ATS-V	Achilles	Taylor Hull[7]	All
Bakchis Motorsports	723	Nissan Silvia S14	Falken	Aurimas Bakchis[8]	All
Bridges Racing	43	Dodge Viper ZB II	Achilles	Dean Kearney[9]	All
Chris Forsberg Racing	64	Nissan 370Z	Nexen	Chris Forsberg[10]	All
Coffman Racing	959	Nissan 240SX S13	Achilles	Matt Coffman[11]	1–6
Drift Cave Motorsports	46	Nissan 240SX	Achilles	Patrick Goodin[12]	1–7
	777	Chevrolet Corvette C6	Falken	Matt Field[13]	All
Enjuku Racing	352	Nissan Silvia S14	Achilles	Kevin Lawrence[14]	All
Essa Autosport	101	BMW M3 E46	Achilles	Michael Essa[15]	All
FFF Drifting Department	117	Ferrari 599 GTB Fiorano	Nexen	Federico Sceriffo[16]	All
Get Nuts Lab	11	Nissan 240SX S14	Achilles	Mitch Larner[17]  R	1
	808	Nissan Silvia S15	Achilles	Forrest Wang[18]	All
Greddy Racing/Ken Gushi motorsports	21	Toyota GT86	Achilles	Ken Gushi[19]	All
Hohnadell Racing	118	Nissan 240SX S14	Nexen	Alec Hohnadell[20]	1–3
HP Garage	19	BMW M3 E46	Achilles	Manuel Vacca[21]  R	1
Huddy Racing	129	BMW M3 E46	Achilles	Dylan Hughes[22]  R	1–7
Jeff Jones Racing	818	Nissan 370Z	Nexen	Jeff Jones[23]	All
Jhonnattan Castro	717	Subaru BRZ	Nexen	Jhonnattan Castro[24]	All
Kazuya Taguchi	123	Nissan GT-R Nissan Silvia S15[a]	Achilles	Kazuya Taguchi[25]	All
KORUWORKS	909	Nissan 350Z	Nexen	Ryan Litteral[26]	All
Kyle Mohan Racing	99	Mazda RX-8	Nexen	Kyle Mohan[27]	All
Meeks Drift	316	Cadillac ATS-V	Nexen	Austin Meeks[28]	All
Nando Drift Team	357	Chevrolet Corvette C7 Z06	Achilles	João Barion[29]  R	1–3, 6–8
Napoleon Motorsports	77	Nissan 240SX S13 Chevrolet Camaro EL1	Nitto	Travis Reeder[30]  R	All
Papadakis Racing	151	Toyota Corolla (E210)	Nexen	Fredric Aasbø[31]	All
Pawlak Racing	13	Ford Mustang	Falken	Justin Pawlak[32]	All
RAD Industries	34	Toyota Supra A80	Nexen	Dan Burkett[33]	All
RTR Motorsports	25	Ford Mustang RTR Spec 5-D	Nitto	Vaughn Gittin, Jr.[34]	All
	88	Ford Mustang RTR	Nitto	Chelsea DeNofa[35]	All
Ryan Tuerck Racing	411	Toyota GT86	Nitto	Ryan Tuerck[36]	All
SSG Motorsport	111	Nissan Silvia S14	Nexen	Sebastien Gauthier[37]  R	1–4, 6–8
Stratton Racing	33	Chevrolet Corvette C6	Achilles	Dirk Stratton[38]	All
Team DAI.	9	Subaru BRZ	Falken	Daijiro Yoshihara[39]	All
Team IMR	17	BMW M3 E46	Nitto	Alex Heilbrunn[40]	1–4
Worthouse Drift Team	130	Nissan Silvia S15	Falken	James Deane[41]	All
	215	Nissan Silvia S15	Falken	Piotr Więcek[42]	All

R Eligible for Rookie of the Year

Schedule

Round	Title	Circuit	Location	Date	Winner	Car
1	O'Reilly Auto Parts The Streets of Long Beach Presented by Permatex	Streets of Long Beach	Long Beach, California	April 6	Aurimas Bakchis	Nissan Silvia S14
2	AutoZone Scorched Presented by Black Magic	Orlando Speed World	Orlando, Florida	April 27	Aurimas Bakchis	Nissan Silvia S14
3	O'Reilly Auto Parts Road to the Championship Presented by Permatex	Road Atlanta	Braselton, Georgia	May 11	Fredric Aasbø	Toyota Corolla (E210)
4	The Advance Auto Parts Gauntlet Presented by Black Magic	Wall Stadium	Wall Township, New Jersey	June 8	Ryan Tuerck	Toyota GT86
5	Permatex Throwdown Presented by AutoZone	Evergreen Speedway	Monroe, Washington	July 20	Piotr Więcek	Nissan Silvia S15
6	Pep Boys Crossroads Presented by Rain-X	World Wide Technology Raceway	Madison, Illinois	August 10	James Deane	Nissan Silvia S15
7	Advance Auto Parts Showdown Presented by Rain-X	Texas Motor Speedway	Fort Worth, Texas	September 14	Chelsea DeNofa	Ford Mustang RTR
8	AutoZone Title Fight Presented by Rain-X	Toyota Speedway at Irwindale	Irwindale, California	October 19	Ken Gushi	Toyota GT86
Sources:[43][44][45][46][47][48][49][5][50]

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
Points	6	5	4	3	2	1

Competition stage

Position	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	5th–8th	9th–16th	17th–32nd
Points	100	80	64	64	48	32	16

Pro Championship standings

Pos Driver LBH ORL ATL WNJ EVS WWT TEX IRW Pts 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  RY  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  R  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  R  DNQ 3030 3030 2626 1620 2929 101 32 Alex Heilbrunn 1814 1413 2423 1815 87 33 Sebastien Gauthier  R  2929 DNQ 2929 DNQ 3232 2119 2121 85 34 Alec Hohnadell 2120 2020 DNQ 34 35 Mitch Larner  R  2221 17 NC Manuel Vacca  R  DNQ 0 Sources:[51][52][53][54][55][56][57][58][59]

In-line notation Superscript number Qualifying position Bold Top qualifier  RY  Rookie of the Year  R  Rookie

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.

Pos	Manufacturer	LBH	ORL	ATL	WNJ	EVS	WWT	TEX	IRW	Pts
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.

Pos	Tire	LBH	ORL	ATL	WNJ	EVS	WWT	TEX	IRW	Pts
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

Footnotes

1. Taguchi competed in a Nissan GT-R at Long Beach but used a Nissan Silvia S15 for the remainder of the season.