2020 Formula D season
Motorsport season
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The 2020 Formula D season (officially titled Formula Drift Pro Championship) was the seventeenth season of the Formula D series. The season began on September 5 at World Wide Technology Raceway and concluded on November 22 at Toyota Speedway at Irwindale after eight events.
Entries
2012 Formula D season champion Daigo Saito planned to return to the series after a four-year absence, but this never materialised.[1]
| Team | No. | Car | Tires | Driver | Round(s) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alec Robbins Racing | 35 | Nissan 350Z | Achilles | 1–4, 7–8 | |
| Arclight Racing | 43 | Dodge Viper ZB II | Achilles | All | |
| 357 | Chevrolet Corvette C7 Z06 | Achilles | 1–4 | ||
| Asphalt Anarchy | 82 | Cadillac ATS-V | Achilles | All | |
| Bakchis Motorsports | 723 | Nissan Silvia S15 | Falken | All | |
| BUY NOW JAPAN | 530 | Nissan Silvia S15 | Nexen | All | |
| Drift Cave Motorsports | 777 | Chevrolet Corvette C6 | Falken | All | |
| Drift Force | 91 | BMW F22 | Achilles | 1–4 | |
| Essa Autosport | 101 | BMW M3 E46 | Achilles | All | |
| Garagistic drift team | 171 | BMW M3 E36 | Achilles | All | |
| Huddy Racing | 129 | BMW M3 E46 | Achilles | All | |
| Jeff Jones Racing | 818 | Nissan 370Z | Nexen GT Radial[a] |
All | |
| Jhonnattan Castro | 17 | Toyota GT86 | Nexen | All | |
| KGMS Toyota Racing | 21 | Toyota GR Supra | Achilles | All | |
| KORUWORKS | 909 | Nissan 350Z | GT Radial | All | |
| Kyle Mohan Racing | 99 | Mazda RX-8 | Nexen | 5–8 | |
| LZMFG / Enjuku Racing | 5 | Nissan Silvia S15 | Achilles | All | |
| NOS Energy Drink Drift Team | 64 | Nissan 370Z Nissan Silvia S14[b] |
Nexen | All | |
| Papadakis Racing | 151 | Toyota GR Supra | Nitto | All | |
| 411 | Toyota Corolla (E210) | Nitto | All | ||
| Pawlak Racing | 13 | Ford Mustang | Falken | All | |
| RAD Industries | 34 | Toyota Supra A80 | Nexen | All | |
| RTR Motorsports | 25 | Ford Mustang RTR Spec 5-D | Nitto | All | |
| 88 | Ford Mustang RTR | Nitto | All | ||
| Shelby American Drift Team | 7 | Shelby Super Snake | Nexen | 1–6 | |
| 23 | Shelby Super Snake Nissan 240SX[c] |
Nexen | All | ||
| Team DAI. | 9 | Subaru BRZ | Falken | All | |
| Team Faruk | 53 | Nissan Silvia S14 | Nexen | All | |
| Team UPGARAGE with GT Radial | 123 | Nissan Silvia S15 | GT Radial | All | |
| Travis Reeder Motorsports | 77 | Nissan 240SX | GT Radial | All | |
Schedule
An initial schedule featuring eight championship rounds was released in November 2019, but this was revised in April 2020 to a different schedule still featuring eight rounds. A final calendar was announced in June 2020 featuring four double-header rounds.
| Round | Title | Circuit | Location | Date | Winner | Car |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Crossroads | Madison, Illinois | September 5 | Toyota GR Supra | ||
| 2 | September 6[d] | Ford Mustang RTR | ||||
| 3 | Throwdown | Monroe, Washington | September 26 | Ford Mustang RTR Spec 5-D | ||
| 4 | September 27[e] | Ford Mustang RTR Spec 5-D | ||||
| 5 | Showdown | Fort Worth, Texas | October 31 | Toyota Corolla (E210) | ||
| 6 | November 1[f] | Nissan 370Z | ||||
| 7 | TYPE S Title Fight Weekend | Irwindale, California | November 20 | Toyota GR Supra | ||
| 8 | November 22[g] | Nissan Silvia S15 | ||||
| Sources:[32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39] | ||||||
The following rounds were included on the original calendar, but were cancelled in response to the COVID-19 pandemic:
| Title | Circuit | Location | Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| Streets of Long Beach | Long Beach, California | April 11 | |
| Orlando, Florida | May 30 | ||
| Braselton, Georgia | July 4[h] | ||
| Englishtown, New Jersey | July 25[i] | ||
| Sonoma, California | September 13 | ||
| Sources:[40][41][32] | |||
Championship standings
Scoring system
Formula Drift featured double-header weekends throughout 2020 in order to maintain an eight-event schedule. This compressed the schedule of each event, so traditional qualifying was scrapped and replaced by a seeding process based on, but not limited to, championship standings, similar to the 2020 NASCAR Cup Series.
For this reason, points were only awarded for the main event, which features a maximum of 32 competitors. The competitors 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 (Sweet 16) receiving 32 points and classifying 9th through 16th, and the third round (Great 8) receiving 48 points and classifying 5th through 8th. The two drivers eliminated from the fourth round (Final Four) engage in a battle for the final step on the podium, with the fourth-placed driver receiving 64 points and the third-placed driver 76 points and a trophy. In the Final, the runner-up receives 88 points and the winner 100 points.
Final classification within each round was determined by highest seeding position; for example, of the four drivers eliminated in the Great 8, the driver seeded highest going into the event is awarded 5th position.[42]
| Position | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | 4th | 5th–8th | 9th–16th | 17th–32nd |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Points | 100 | 88 | 76 | 64 | 48 | 32 | 16 |
Pro Championship standings
|
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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. For example, the Shelby Super Snakes entered by Tyler Nelson and Jonathan Nerren were not eligible for Ford points because their engines had been developed by Shelby American, the Nissan Silvia S15 entered by Aurimas Bakchis was not eligible because it featured a custom-built V8 engine,[59] and the Nissan Silvia S14 entered by Chris Forsberg in the final round was not eligible for the same reason.
| Pos | Manufacturer | WWT1 | WWT2 | EVS1 | EVS2 | TEX1 | TEX2 | IRW1 | IRW2 | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 6 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 1140 | |
| 10 | 6 | 6 | 2 | 9 | 3 | 4 | 3 | |||
| 2 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 5 | 1 | 8 | 980 | |
| 2 | 8 | 11 | 18 | 7 | 6 | 10 | 9 | |||
| 3 | 4 | 10 | 5 | 5 | 2 | 1 | 6 | 12 | 716 | |
| 5 | 11 | 9 | 13 | 13 | 7 | 9 | ||||
| 4 | 13 | 7 | 3 | 17 | 15 | 15 | 2 | 14 | 356 | |
| 5 | 9 | 4 | 7 | 12 | 12 | 14 | 14 | 20 | 352 | |
| 22 | 22 | 25 | 24 | |||||||
| 6 | 15 | 17 | 8 | 6 | 5 | 9 | 7 | 5 | 320 | |
| 7 | 19 | 19 | 22 | 8 | 10 | 12 | 13 | 19 | 208 | |
| 8 | 27 | 27 | 26 | 26 | 64 | |||||
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 | WWT1 | WWT2 | EVS1 | EVS2 | TEX1 | TEX2 | IRW1 | IRW2 | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 1380 | |
| 2 | 3 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 6 | |||
| 2 | 3 | 2 | 4 | 2 | 11 | 8 | 11 | 1 | 892 | |
| 6 | 4 | 6 | 10 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 3 | |||
| 3 | 7 | 5 | 3 | 6 | 5 | 4 | 2 | 5 | 820 | |
| 13 | 7 | 8 | 8 | 6 | 9 | 5 | 8 | |||
| 4 | 4 | 9 | 9 | 5 | 2 | 1 | 9 | 7 | 732 | |
| 8 | 11 | 15 | 15 | 8 | 11 | 15 | 10 | |||
| 5 | 5 | 10 | 5 | 7 | 4 | 7 | 6 | 4 | 640 | |
| 18 | 16 | 17 | 13 | 13 | 10 | 8 | 11 |
Footnotes
- Jones used Nexen tires for the first events at St Louis but switched to GT Radial for the remainder of the season.
- Forsberg suffered an engine failure with his primary Nissan 370Z in practice for the final weekend at Irwindale. He was able to make rudimentary repairs and, having received a bye run for round 7, took the run before withdrawing from the event for safety reasons. For the finale, Matt Field lent Forsberg his backup car, a Nissan Silvia S14 with an LS engine. This marked the first time Forsberg had competed in Formula Drift without Nissan power.
- Nerren blew an engine in the closing stages of the Washington round, so used a backup Nissan 240SX at Texas Motor Speedway.
- The Missouri round was originally scheduled to take place on August 8, but was revised to a double-header.
- The Seattle round was originally scheduled to take place on July 18, but was rescheduled to September 26 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Ultimately, this was revised to a double-header.
- The Texas round was added to the first revised schedule in April, slated for October 17. This was later revised to a double-header, before being pushed back two weeks when Texas Motor Speedway cleared its calendar leading up to the NASCAR Cup Series race due to uncertainties over the pandemic.
- The traditional Irwindale finale was originally scheduled to take place on October 17, but was rescheduled to November 21 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, with an extra round added for August 22. Ultimately, this was revised to a double-header to close the season.
- The Road Atlanta road was originally scheduled to take place on May 9, but was rescheduled due to the COVID-19 pandemic before ultimately being cancelled.
- The Englishtown round was originally scheduled to take place on June 20, but was rescheduled due to the COVID-19 pandemic before ultimately being cancelled.
- Pawlak suffered an engine failure in practice.
- Jones received a bye run in the Top 32 but crashed in practice. He was unable to complete the bye run, so was scored outside the Sweet 16 and the 16th position was left vacant.