2022 Formula Drift Round 4 at Englishtown Results: Travis Reeder Wins First Ever Event, Chelsea DeNofa Takes Third
The weather was all over the place in northern New Jersey for Formula Drift Round 4 at the famous Englishtown Raceway Park. The venue is unique as they took a former NHRA dragstrip and built a stadium drift track around it with huge grandstands on both sides, so the fans have a great view of the entire figure-eight shaped drift course.
Qualifying
Chelsea DeNofa looked so good in his qualifying run and was rewarded by the judges with a score of 94 out of 100. Michael Essa and Dylan Hughes, both tied him with 94 but DeNofa was given the number one spot and outscored Michael Essa by one style point on his run. Qualifying performances for the day were quite high. with seven drivers who scored more than 90 points to set the Top 32 bracket for Saturday’s event.
A Tricky Top 32
Chelsea DeNofa’s Nitto NT555 G2 tire smoke helped to knock out Alec Robbins in a clean battle that advanced Mr. DeNofa into the Top 16.
Travis Reeder then took out Nick Noback after a One More Time call to also advance into the next round. Fredric Aasbo had a huge scare and was forced to call a competition timeout due to his alternator no longer charging his Toyota GR Supra. The Papadakis team scrambled and managed to fix the issue with just 20 seconds left on his repair clock and got him back out to battle! He then recovered and was able to take out Simen Olsen to move into the next round of competition.
Matt Field took out the local Mike Power, but was slammed into the outer zone wall in the process and was forced to do some major repairs to his Chevy Corvette yet again. Rome Charpentier has a wild battle with Dean Kearney but managed to eliminate the Dodge Viper to advance to the next round.
Top 16
Chelsea DeNofa kicked off the Top 16 with a tight battle against Wataru Masuyama and he pushed into the Great 8. Fredric Aasbo then faced off against Odi Bakchis in an early Championship contender battle! One of the highlights of the night, this battle put the crowd on its feet and the judges called for One More Time to see the drivers do it again. Fredric Aasbo barely got the win on a split decision from the judges to move on in one of the best battles of the race weekend!
Travis Reeder drove into his second OMT battle for the night after his first round with Kazuya Taguchi wasn’t enough for the judges to declare a victory. The second battle proved Travis Reeder had what it took to advance into the Great 8 for the night.
Matt Field and Ryan Litteral had a tough battle as the sun set over the course and the judges all picked One More Time for them as well. The OMT battle took place under the lights and Matt Field stepped it up with his chase run to give him a victory and a place in the Great 8. Rome Charpentier faced off against the Round 3 winner Dylan Hughes in Top 16 in an aggressive E46 vs E36 BMW battle. The judges made a tough split decision, but two judges picked Rome Charpentier to advance over Dylan Hughes on this one.
New Faces in the Great 8
Fredric Aasbo and Chelsea DeNofa were paired off first as they set to warm up their Nitto NT555 G2 tires and battle under the lights! Fredric Aasbo went a little too shallow in his chase battle which gave Chelsea DeNofa the advance into the Final Four on the night.
Travis Reeder finally got a rest after two OMT battles in a row and was given a bye run into the Final Four. This was due to Ryan Tuerck not being able to fix his car in time after a big crash in the Top 16. This sent Travis Reeder to face Chelsea DeNofa in the final four!
Ken Gushi finally had his new chassis in great drift shape, and he put on a great battle against Matt Field in the Great 8. Ken Gushi smacked Matt Field’s door in chase and the door came right off as Matt Field kept going! Gushi did make a couple errors in his follow run that gave Matt Field a ticket into the Final Four over Ken Gushi.
Rome Charpentier really keept up with Justin Pawlak on the chase and put down a fantastic lead run battle that put Justin Pawlak off balance and basically almost spun near the finish line on an over rotation. Rome Charpentier found himself in his first Final Four!
The Fantastic 4
Chelsea DeNofa and Travis Reeder had an insane battle!
His chase run was so consistent and deep and his lead run forced DeNofa to shuffle his Mustang around a lot and he got caught way too shallow in the chase run against Reeder. This gave the judges an easy call to give Travis Reeder the win and his first trip to the finals in his Formula Drift career.
Rome Charpentier held his own against Matt Field in the first battle, but the judges called One More Time to see this battle again. The second battle was even more entertaining, and all three judges gave Rome Charpentier the victory in his first visit to the finals as well. Matt Field moved to first in the Championship Points even with the fourth-place finish!
Two New Faces in the Finals
Rome Charpentier and Travis Reeder are two drivers who have never even seen a podium in their Formula Drift career! Both drivers run independent programs which is something unique to see in the final round of a Formula Drift event. Travis Reeder started off in the chase and smashed into Rome Charpentier as he crossed the finish line. This caused Rome Charpentier to have a series mechanical issue and he had to call a Competition Timeout. The team scrambled to sort out the issue with the car but in the end, they push started it just in time for him to return to the line again to face off with Travis Reeder.
Rome’s BMW held up for the second battle, but it wasn’t enough to take home a victory and Travis Reeder won his very first Formula Drift event! Travis Reeder becomes the 30th driver all time to win a Formula Drift event! He is just the third driver in the last 5 years to take home his first event victory in the sport! The first-place finish lands him in seventh in the Championship Points race.
Matt Field stands in first place with 335 points after four events, but Fredric Aasbo is just four points behind him with 331 points. Chris Forsberg still sits in third place but is much further back at just 301 points to wrap up round 4 of the Championship points race.
