James Deane wins his first qualification of the season! Irishman was best in Utah, with Simen Olsen second and Chelsea DeNofa third!
Formula DRIFT changed the course at Utah Motorsports Campus this year, removing Inside Clip 1 and replacing it with a longer Outside Zone 2, allowing the course to flow better.
The K&N PRO Qualifying session was led by triple FD PRO Champion Deane who scored 91.6 points, putting himself in pole position to perhaps finally win his first round of the season.
Second place Olsen reportedly struggled with set up in practice but nailed a 90-point qualifying run to reinforce his Top 5 PRO Championship position.
Championship leader DeNofa maintained his momentum from Seattle, transforming his Round 6 win into third place Utah qualification as he looks for his first series title.
DeNofa’s Championship rivals fared poorly, with Fredric Aasbo (Norway) qualifying 13th in the Rockstar Energy Toyota GR Supra, and Aurimas Bakchis (Lithuania) in 15th. While Matt Field (USA) was relegated to the Knockout Qualifying Format (KQF) after a flawed first run in the Borla Performance / GT Radial Corvette. His second run resulted in a 92.3 point run, which would’ve been good enough for first place on his first attempt, but the best he could achieve in KQF was 25th.
With only two Rookie drivers in the FD PRO Championship, and one not competing regularly, Diego Higa (Brazil) was again the best Rookie qualifier, placing his JDMSupreme Toyota GT86 in 26th.
33 drivers qualified for the Top 32 competition places, meaning at least one person would be disappointed. Unfortunately, Ola Jaeger (Norway) had the lowest score after KQF and took an early shower.
