The series is sponsored by the popular video game series, Need for Speed. Its official name is Need for Speed Formula Drift presented by Circuit City. It was inaugurated in 2004.
Formula D had somewhat of a partnership with the Champ Car World Series, holding demonstration events at Champ Car race weekends, most prominently, the Long Beach Grand Prix. In 2007, five demonstration events were held as team events, and counted towards a points system separate from the individual championship.
There was also a Formula D in Australia, which was announced in June 2005. The three tracks Formula D Australia visited in 2005 were Mallala Motor Sport Park in South Australia, Oran Park Raceway in New South Wales, and Winton Motor Raceway in Victoria. The series was held in conjunction with the DRIFT AUSTRALIA Championship. After the season, the series' website was no longer updated, and has since been taken down.
The American Formula D series advertises nine tire manufacturers (Nitto Tires, Toyo Tires, Bridgestone Tires, Maxxiss Tires, Federal Tires, Falken Tires, Cooper Tires, Dunlop Tires, Hankook Tires, and Kumho Tires).
Formula D television coverage
Former Fox Soccer USA host Brandon Johnson hosted the Formula D show for G4 in 2006. Rossi Morreale was the show's host in 2005. Johnson was joined by Attack of the Show co-host Olivia Munn who covered the pits and drivers during the events and drifting expert Adam Matthews who provided commentary and insight on the tandem battles. G4 aired each round on a tape-delayed basis. Jarod DeAnda is the public address announcer at each event, earning him the moniker, "The Voice of Formula D." In 2005, G4 used DeAnda's event commentary track, but for 2006, used Johnson and Matthews calling each battle like a typical play-by-play/color commentator combination. Johnson and Matthews were on-site for each event, but it sounded as if they had taped their commentary after the event had already taken place. This practice is not uncommon in the motorsports business; an article in the December 2006 issue of Car and Driver revealed that longtime motorsports announcer Rick Benjamin uses this same method when calling USAR Hooters Pro Cup Series races. Benjamin travels to Atlanta, views a tape of the most recent event, makes notes, then tapes his commentary.
In the 2005 season, there were two people working the pits — driver interviewer Mayleen Ramey, who was a roving reporter for the half-hour episodes, and a second anchor, who patrolled around the car show at each event. In 2005, G4 used three reporters for this job. From the round in Wall to the round in Houston, actor Emeka held the job. At the Infineon round, Attack of the Show! co-host Kevin Pereira took the duties, while Street Fury host Big C finished things out in Chicago and Irwindale. Also, G4 showed half-hour episodes in-between rounds, most of which focused on the network having its own drift car built from scratch, with other segments focusing on the aspects of drifting. One of the first half-hour episodes in 2005 had one Formula D competitor, Chris Forsberg go to Japan, and meet up with another competitor, Daijiro Yoshihara, to explore the country and get more perspective on the birth of drifting. Episodes that featured event coverage lasted an hour-and-a-half, and featured the top 16 tandem rounds, including those that needed to be run again, because the judges deemed them too close to call. These episodes aired the night after the next round in the series had already taken place.
In 2006, however, coverage was dramatically different. The half-hour episodes were gone, and event coverage was reduced to an hour, and their scheduling was quite random. The Long Beach and Atlanta rounds premiered on June 18, with the Chicago round airing on July 2, and the Sonoma round airing a week after it took place. During the Sonoma round, G4 noted that the Seattle round would premiere on September 10, but that date was changed to October 8, with the last two rounds (Wall and Irwindale) airing every other week afterward. These episodes featured more interviews and driver profiles, many of which would've been placed in a half-hour show last year, and many of the tandem battles have been cut out, and any battle that needed to be run again did not have its second run shown. This led to some criticism from those in the drifting community, including fans and some Formula D drivers.
At the 2006 SEMA Show in Las Vegas, Formula D co-founders Jim Liaw and Ryan Sage announced that the series would have a new television partner in 2007. That partner was ESPN2. Each round began airing in a one-hour block on November 15 with the Long Beach round. All subsequent airings were supposed to be every Thursday afterward, but beginning with the Evergreen Speedway round on December 5, the air dates for new rounds switched to Wednesday.
The ESPN deal lasted just one season. SPEED Channel will air all rounds of the 2008 Formula D season, as well as the World Championship, scheduled for after the Irwindale round. Airings will take place on Sundays, beginning with the Long Beach round on October 26. All airings will begin at 4 PM Eastern.
Drivers
Other than domestic drivers, the series also attracts many drivers, Japanese in particular, who have competed in D1 Grand Prix. This is in the interest of sponsors who the United States as the larger share of the tuning market.
Other drivers who crossed over to FD from another series is Darren McNamara who competed domestically in Ireland and the British Isles, his performance in the D1 exhibition event in 2005 attracted attention from Falken Tires who signed him up to compete in the US the latter part of 2006. He was joined in 2009 by fellow compatriot Eric O'Sullivan, who like McNamara did in 2007 (as well as competing in the same series), became the series Rookie of the Year.
To this date, only three drivers have won both FD and D1GP events, they are Mitsuru Haraguchi, Toshiki Yoshioka and Vaughn Gittin, Jr.
Regulation differences between D1GP and Formula D
There are numerous differences between D1GP and Formula D in terms of car and competition regulations
Car eligibility
D1GP only allow convertible models as long as a supplied roll cage is used, whereas Formula D permits cars to be driven with its roof down. During the 2004 season, the Dodge Viper Competition Coupe was permitted to compete, whereas it was ineligible in D1.
Although Formula D do not permit Front-wheel drive cars, it allows them to be converted to rear wheel drive, one example of this is Ken Gushi's Scion tC.
Unlike D1, which the numbering are according to the driver's ranking, drivers in Formula D are allocated to their own numbers.
Scoring and judging
Formula D uses a different scoring system to D1GP. In D1, points are given to drivers who compete in the tsuiso (twin run) round, known as Tandem Battle in Formula D; 20 for the winner going down to 2 for the 10th place finisher as well as 1 point for the rest of the drivers who competed in the tsuiou round.
In D1, drivers are given three runs during a tansou (solo run) round, in Formula D as Qualifying Single Runs and only the best of them will count which at the end of that round, drivers who score the perfect 100 points will be awarded one extra point to add to their championship score. In Formula D, competitors are given two non-consecutive judged runs during the Single Runs segment of the competition which both will be judged. Starting orders will consists of drivers from the lowest rank starting first with those of the highest rank starting last whereas in D1, it is the other way round as it is seen that lower ranked drivers can take advantage of the surface grip when they start last.[2]
Formula D drivers are scored on a points-deduction system where every driver will start their judged run with a perfect score of 100 pts. For every mistakes, points will be deducted. These points will vary between .25 point to the most severe mistakes (-1.75).[2]
When there is a tie in scores during a competition, rather than in D1 which will call for a rerun until the winner can be decided, in Formula D, judges will use the driver’s entry speed of the best run from the Qualifying Round as a tie breaker.[2]
In D1GP, during a tsuiou round, if a driver wins his round but is unable to take his place up, due to breakages, they must forfeit their place to the losing opponent. If neither is able to compete, the winning driver gets his place and as a result, that following round will not take place. In Formula D,in that situation, should the driver be without an opponent, they will be allowed to run on his own.
Judges are Ken Takahashi, Ernie Fixmer, and Andy Yen. Randy Hembrey is the Race Director for the series.
Overtaking
Formula D rules are structured so as not to encourage drivers to overtake their opponents; doing so incurs a penalty. Overtaking is only permitted when the lead car makes a mistake such as coming to a complete stop or going completely off course, whereas in D1, being overtaken is seen as a disadvantage to the driver, incurring a loss.
Formula Drift Champions
US
2004 Samuel Hübinette - Mopar Viper Competition Coupe
2005 Rhys Millen - RMR Pontiac GTO
2006 Samuel Hübinette - Mopar Viper SRT-10
2007 Tanner Foust - AEM/Memphis Audio Nissan 350Z
2008 Tanner Foust - AEM/Rockstar Nissan 350Z
Honors
Triple Crown Champions
(consisting of Road Atlanta-Las Vegas Motor Speedway-Irwindale Speedway)
2006 Rhys Millen - RMR Pontiac GTO
2007 Chris Forsberg - Nissan 350Z
2008 Rhys Millen - Red Bull/RMR Pontiac Solstice GXP
Rookie of the Year
2006 Bill Sherman - Nissan 240SX
2007 Darren McNamara - Toyota Corolla Coupe GT/Nissan SR20
2008 Michihiro Takatori - Nissan Skyline ER34
Most improved driver
2007 Bill Sherman - Nissan 240SX
2008 Stephan Verdier - Subaru Impreza WRX STI
Driver of the Year
2007 Chris Forsberg
2008 Ryan Tuerck
Hardest Charging Driver
2007 Chris Forsberg
2008 Robbie Nishida
Spirit of Drifting
2007 Joon Maeng
2008 Patrick Mordaunt
Superstar of the Year
2008 Tanner Foust
Best Style
2008 Daijiro Yoshihara
All-time Formula Drift event winners list
Samuel Hübinette - 9 wins (2004 at Road Atlanta, Houston, and Infineon; 2005 at Road Atlanta and Chicago; 2006 at Long Beach, Chicago and Wall; 2007 at Summit Point)
Chris Forsberg - 6 wins (2005 at Irwindale; 2007 at Road Atlanta and Infineon; 2008 at Long Beach; 2009 at Road Atlanta and Seattle)
Rhys Millen - 5 wins (2004 at Irwindale; 2005 at Wall; 2006 at Infineon; 2008 at Road Atlanta and Seattle)
Tanner Foust - 5 wins (2006 at Road Atlanta; 2007 at Irwindale; 2008 at Englishtown and Sonoma; 2009 at Las Vegas)
Daijiro Yoshihara - 3 wins (2006 at Irwindale; 2007 at Seattle and Wall)
One win each for:
Ken Gushi (2005 at Houston)
Calvin Wan (2005 at Infineon)
Yukinobu Okubo (2006 at Seattle)
Mitsuru Haraguchi (2007 at Long Beach)
Toshiki Yoshioka (2008 at Las Vegas)
Vaughn Gittin, Jr. (2008 at Irwindale)
Ryan Tuerck (2009 at Long Beach)
Darren McNamara (2009 at Wall)
Stephan Verdier (2009 at Infineon)
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