What a weekend! I had the privilege of being able to be up close and personal at Formula Drift Atlanta this weekend and what an epic experience it was!
Qualifying kicked off with a bang on Friday. Vaughn Gittin Jr. put down an almost textbook perfect run to achieve the number one position. Fredrick Aasbo and Matt Field both fought to beat out Gittin Jr. for the number one spot but small details in their runs kept them both at bay. Aasbo qualified second and Matt Field fell back to third. “Mad” Mike Whiddett seemed to split the crowd over the judges, taking his first qualifying run with an insane backwards entry and a great run to follow. Typically this would earn you bonus points under the “style” category, but the judges didn’t seem to be impressed and only gave him enough points to qualify in 11th place. Charles Ng was looking great during practice all day, unfortunately when it came time to qualify, he had mechanical issues on both runs, resulting in a no score and giving Vaughn Gittin Jr. a free ride to top 16.
Saturday’s practice was not without drama. Frederick Aasbo blew another engine just before the Top 32 competition started. After being towed back to the pits his crew was able to swap the engine out with only seconds to spare before he was disqualified from the event.
Driver experience appeared to prove a key factor in filling the podium. Vaughn Gittin Jr. faced Chris Forsberg during the Final 4 to determine who would compete against Dai Yoshihara for first place. Forsberg put up an incredible fight against Gittin Jr. but was unable to bring the seemingly unstoppable 2016 RTR mustang down.
When it came to the final battle, Vaughn Gittin Jr. and Dai Yoshihara both threw down. Both drivers had incredible chase and lead runs, and the crowd wanted to see more of it with chants of “one more time!” echoing across the track. The deciding factor came down to a small mistake on part of Dai Yoshihara slightly straightening up on his chase run, leaving Vaughn Gittin Jr. the winner of a “perfect weekend.” Nobody has taken first in both qualifying and competition since 2014 when Darren McNamara won at Seattle.
BMW still leads the manufacturer’s cup thanks to a top 8 placement by Michael Essa, and while no support from BMW itself exists in Formula Drift, the drivers continue to stick with the cars they love. Ford has jumped to second place thanks to Gittin Jr’s win here at Road Atlanta, with Scion taking third and Nissan nipping at Scion’s heels in fourth place. To achieve points in this category a car must retain an OEM engine from the manufacturer. So all those Chevy powered Nissans don’t earn points in this category.
Vaughn Gittin Jr. is now sitting at the top of the drivers in points standings with 155 points. Chelsea Denofa suffered an engine failure that dropped him from competition but still managed to maintain second in points with 119.
Be sure to check the all of our shots of the action in the Formula Drift Photo Gallery. We are still sorting through the hundreds of photos we took, so expect this gallery to grow over the next few days. Be sure to check back often.
The 2016 Formula Drift Pro Championship will continue on June 3rd and 4th at Orlando Speedworld with Round 3: Unchartered Territory.
The complete standings for drivers, manufacturers, and tires can be seen below.
Drivers Standings
| 1 | Vaughn Gittin Jr. | 155 points |
| 2 | Chelsea Denofa | 119 points |
| 3 | Odi Bakchis | 116 points |
| 4 | Fredric Aasbo | 102 points |
| T5 | Chris Forsberg | 100 points |
| T5 | Dai Yoshihara | 100 points |
| T7 | Forrest Wang | 83 points |
| T7 | Michael Essa | 83 points |
| T7 | Tyler McQuarrie | 83 points |
| T10 | Ken Gushi | 82 points |
| T10 | Alec Hohnadell | 82 points |
| 12 | Matt Field | 69 points |
| T13 | Ryan Tuerck | 67 points |
| T13 | “Mad” Mike Whiddett | 67 points |
| 15 | Jeff Jones | 66 points |
| T16 | Dean Kearney | 51 points |
| T16 | Geoff Stoneback | 51 points |
| T18 | Kristaps Bluss | 50 points |
| T18 | Faruk Kugay | 50 points |
| T18 | Kenneth Moen | 50 points |
| T18 | Pat Mordaunt | 50 points |
| T18 | Juha Rintanen | 50 points |
OEM Manufacturers Standings
1. BMW – 202 points
2. Ford – 191 points
3. Scion – 185 points
4. Nissan – 151 points
5. Mazda–101 points
6. Chevy – 83 points
7. Dodge – 51 points
8. Infiniti – 49 points
9. Lexus – 34 points
10. Toyota – 18 points
Tire Manufacturer Standings
1. Nexen Tire – 262 Points
2. Falken Tire – 247 Points
3. Nitto Tire – 212 Points
4. Hankook Tire – 199 Points
5. GT Radial – 153 Points
6. Achilles Radial – 149 Points
