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'Formula D' is the United States' drifting series. It is the American equivalent of drifting's premier championship in Japan, the D1 Grand Prix.
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, and is a division of the Sports Car Club of America.
The 2007 series schedule has seven official rounds, each at a different track. These are the locations Formula D will visit this year:

★ Streets of Long Beach, California (held on April 7)

★ Road Atlanta in Braselton, Georgia (held on May 12)

★ Summit Point Raceway in Summit Point, West Virginia (held on June 2)
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★ Evergreen Speedway near Seattle, Washington (held on July 14)

★ Infineon Raceway in Sonoma, California (held on August 11)

★ Wall Speedway in Wall Township, New Jersey (scheduled for September 8)

★ Irwindale Speedway in Irwindale, California (scheduled for October 13)
The asterisk next to the Summit Point round indicates that it's a new venue.
Formula D has 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, there will be five demonstration events, but they will count for something. 2007 is the first year of the 'Formula Drift Team Drift Championship', meaning that events will count for points in a championship separate from the one used for standalone events. Here are the five events that will make up the inaugural Team Drift Championship:

★ Long Beach Grand Prix (April 15)

★ Portland International Raceway (June 10)

★ Grand Prix of Cleveland (June 24)

★ San Jose Grand Prix (July 29)

★ Grand Prix Arizona (November 30)
There is also a Formula D in Australia, which was announced in June 2005. The three tracks Formula D Australia visited in 2005 are Mallala Motorsport Park in South Australia, Oran Park Raceway in New South Wales, and Winton Raceway in Victoria. The series is held in conjunction with the DRIFT AUSTRALIA Championship.
The American Formula D series has more tire manufacturers than any other motor racing series in the world, with nine manufacturers (Nitto Tires, Toyo Tires, Bridgestone Tires, Maxxiss Tires, Federal Tires, Falken Tires, Cooper Tires, Dunlop Tires, Hankook Tires, and Kumho Tires) and tend to attract Japanese ex-D1GP drivers.

Contents

Formula D television coverage

Regulation differences between D1GP and Formula D

List of competing drivers in Formula D

Formula D Champions

US

Australia

All-time Formula D event winners list

External links

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 will be ESPN2. Airdates have yet to be announced, but indications have airings beginning in November.

Regulation differences between D1GP and Formula D

There are numerous differences between D1 Grand Prix and Formula D in terms of of car and competition regulations

★ D1GP only allow convertible models as long as a supplied hard top roof is used, whereas Formula D permits cars to be driven with its roof down.

★ During the 2004 season, the Dodge Viper#Viper Competition Coupe was permitted to compete, wheras it was ineligible in D1.

List of competing drivers in Formula D

(also includes former drivers)

Yukinobu Okubo (Signal Japan Skyline GTR)

Tony Angelo (Drift Alliance/Bridgestone Mazda RX-8)

Taka Aono (Falken AE86 Corolla)

Tony Brakohiapa

Nathan Brasz

Casper Canul (Cooper Tire Silvia S14.5)

Ryan Clemens

Chris Cook

James Evans Bubba Drift GMC Caballero

Lance Feliciano

Ernie Fixmer

Rob Fleming (XAT Racing/Maxxis Tires Nissan 240SX S13)

Chris Forsberg (Drift Alliance/Maxxis Nissan 350Z Roadster)

Tanner Foust (AEM 350z)

Vaughn Gittin, Jr. (Falken/DA Ford Mustang)

Conrad Grunewald

Ken Gushi 具志健士郎(Toyo Tires Ford Mustang)

Ryan Hampton

Mitsuru Haruguchi

Kazu Hayashida

Todd Ho (FC3S)

Nick Hogan (Mopar Dodge)

Benson Hsu (privateer Nissan Sileighty)

Samuel Hubinette (Mopar Dodge Viper)

Sean Johnson (Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution)

Hiromi Kajikuma

Gary Lang

Aaron Losey Bubba Drift Nissan 350Z twin turbo conversion

Quoc Ly

Joon Maeng

Tyler Mcquarrie (Hankook/JIC porsche 911)

Darren McNamara Toyota AE86 (with Nissan SR20DET engine)

Verena Mei

Christopher Mendoza

Ryuji Miki

Chris Milano

Rod Millen Mazda RX-8br>
Rhys Millen (Rhys Millen Racing Pontiac Solstice)

Kyle Mohan

Robbie Nishida

Bryan Norris

Casey Quillen

David Padron

Stephan Papadakis (AEM Honda S2000)

Justin Pawlak

Dan Pena (Drift Patrol Ford Mustang)

Michael Peters

Ross Petty (Nissan 240sx (Stroked SR20DET))

Daniel Pina

John Russakaoff

Ben Reyes

Jeffary Rodriguez (TOYO Tires/HKS/Brembo Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution VIII)

Derrick Rogers Bubba Drift Chevrolet El Camino

Rich Rutherford

Ben Schwartz Sears/Falken Saturn Sky

Tony Schulz

Makoto Sezaki

Bill Sherman

Gary Simmons

Tommy Suell

Steven Sueppel(AE86)

Hiro Sumida (Falken s15)

Ryan TuerckDrift Alliance/Bridgestone Nissan S13

Robbie Unser

Doug VanDenBrink

Stephan Verdier

Calvin Wan (Falken Infiniti G35)

Seigo Yamamoto (Falken/Garage-S/OS-Giken Toyota Chaser)

Kenji Yamanaka

John Yim (Enjuku Racing Nissan 240SX S13.4)

Daijiro Yoshihara (Rockstar/Nitto Nissan S13)

Hubert Young

Formula D Champions

US

★ 2004 Samuel Hubinette - Mopar Viper Competition Coupe

★ 2005 Rhys Millen - RMR Pontiac GTO

★ 2006 Samuel Hubinette - Mopar Viper SRT-10

Australia

★ 2005 Fernando Wiehrl - Nissan Sileighty

All-time Formula D event winners list

# Samuel Hubinette - 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)
# Rhys Millen - 3 wins (2004 at Irwindale; 2005 at Wall; 2006 at Infineon)
# Chris Forsberg - 3 wins (2005 at Irwindale; 2007 at Road Atlanta and Infineon)
# 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)
# Tanner Foust (2006 at Road Atlanta)
# Yukinobu Okubo (2006 at Seattle)
# Mitsuru Haraguchi (2007 at Long Beach)

External links

★ Formula D's official website

★ G4TV.com's ''Formula D'' page

★ Formula Drift Australia official site

★ DriftLive.com - Unofficial Formula D Coverage

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