We’re officially halfway through the 2023 Formula Drift season and Round 5 in St. Louis did not disappoint! There were so many exciting battles and interesting things to analyze.
Qualification
In the 2023 FD season, Kazuya Taguchi has become the fourth man to secure the top qualifying spot. His score of 94 points is the second-highest result achieved this season thus far.
Nick Noback and Dean Kearney achieved their highest qualification scores this season, earning 89 and 88.66 points, respectively.
Looking across the table, we can observe James Deane’s score of 81.66 and Fredric Aasbo’s score of 84.33.
The average qualification score for this season’s second-lowest score was 78.02.
Tandems battles
For the time since Round 6 in 2019, only European drivers were on the podium. Four years in St. Louis, James Deane, Fredric Aasbo and Piotr Wiecek shared the Top 3 positions.
Aurimas Bakchis has achieved his 10th win in Formula Drift history, putting him in a tie for 3rd place with Chris Forsberg. Additionally, this marks the 20th time a Lithuanian driver has appeared on the podium. It’s worth noting that Odi’s last win was two years ago in Irvindale.
Another European driver, Fredric Aasbo, secured his 43rd podium finish. The current leader in this category is C. Forsberg, with 46 podiums.
Simen Olsen achieved his second podium finish in Formula Drift, both earned during the 2023 season.
S. Olsen defeated Jhonnattan Castro in the Top 8 battle, marking the Dominican’s best-ever performance in Formula D history.
Ryan Tuerck has been eliminated from the Top 8 for the third consecutive time, but this is still the best result of the season so far for the Toyota driver.
James Deane failed to make it past the Top 32 round, marking the lowest result for an Irishman in FD history.
