An uncharacteristically cold and rainy Saturday in May produced a hotly contested and gritty finish between four-time champion James Deane and three-time champion Fredric Aasbo in round 2 of Formula Drift racing at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta.
The finish was a reverse of the opening bracket, where Aasbo held the number one seed in the main competition. Fourteen of the sixteen higher-seeded drivers advanced to the round of 16. Twentieth-seeded Rome Charpentier and eighteenth-seeded Jeff Jones were the only lower seeds to advance. Charpentier defeated the thirteenth-seeded Trenton Beechum, the 2019 Formula Drift Pro2 Champion. Jones, driving the Evol Auto Works / Prisma Labs / BIG Drift Energy / Nissan 370Z, bested the fifteenth-seeded Daniel Stuke in his MspeK Performance Nissan Silvia.
Rain returned just in time for the start of the Top 16 races. Fourteenth-seed Jhonnattan Castro threw down the gauntlet and rolled to wins over Adam LZ and Ryan Tuerck to reach the Final 4 for the first time in his career.
Odi Bakchis reached the Final 4 with wins over Ken Gushi and the teen sensation Branden Sorensen. Always the groomsman, never the groom, Bakchis has finished in the Top 5 in Formula Drift, including second overall in 2024 and 2023.
The droplets from the sky eased up a bit as the Final 4 competitors took center stage. Watch it on Formula Drift
Deane and Castro made mistakes in their first runs. Deane overshot the first zone while Castro chewed a bit of the grass in the keyhole. Castro’s second run was much smoother than Deane’s. The Irishman clipped a gate in the keyhole, caught some of Castro’s rear tire, and dinged the door of the Metaldom Toyota GR86.
Bakhis’ back end came around a bit too much, tapping Aasbo’s gold and black Rockstar Energy Toyota GR Supra drifting through the first zone.
Deane and Castro were called back to the top of the hill for a One More Time (OMT) race. In the first run, Castro caught the rumble strips approaching the second zone and spun out failing to finish the first OMT run against Deane. The second run was smoother, but it was not enough as the judges gave the nod to Deane.
The track was drier for the second run of the Bakchis-Aasbo matchup. Both drivers ran a good race, but the contact in the first run resulted in Aasbo getting the nod from all three judges and a spot in the finals against Deane.
Aasbo and Deane raced six times because the judges were unable to choose a clear winner. The judges’ decision was not unanimous. One judge opted for another OMT while the others chose Deane and the AutoZone Mustang RTR Spec 5-FD.
Round 3 will be held in Orlando, FL.