Formula Drift Ready For The World Stage
Formula Drift has indicated before that it plans to spread like the plague and unleash the slideways glory on a worldwide basis. Those aspirations have been realized as the 2015 Formula Drift World Championship is a go. Contested over 10 rounds of competition, the world campaign will consist of seven U.S. Pro Championship rounds and three International rounds hosted by Japan, Canada, and China. The payoff is going up too as a total prize purse of up to $300,000 is up for grabs. These payouts will include championship earnings, per-round earnings, and a new $100,000 Triple Crown bonus. The Triple Crown is awarded to the driver that can win at three select rounds of competition within the World Championship. The three rounds have not been determined yet. "After 11 seasons of Formula Drift, we are excited to launch the World Championship,” said Jim Liaw, president and co-founder of Formula Drift. “There is a ton of anticipation to take on this new challenge and raise the global standard for drifting by continuing to grow the Series domestically and internationally. We are here for the long run and thus laying this foundation for the future growth of drifting.”All current Formula Drift Pro licenses holders are eligible to compete and amass points toward the overall World Championship as long as they attend at least one international round. Additionally, each individual event round winner plus the top eight drivers coming out of the Montreal, Canada event will qualify for vehicle transportation and a subsidy to the final round of 2015 in China, where the World Champion will be crowned.
The Formula Drift Pro Championship will continue with seven rounds of competition with a champion to be crowned at the Irwindale event in October. The Pro 2 development series will also continue in 2015 within four of the seven U.S. rounds of competition.
2015 Formula DRIFT World Championship Schedule
April 10-11 Streets of Long Beach, CA World / Pro
April 17-19 Streets of Long Beach, CA Invitational
May 8-9 Road Atlanta, GA World / Pro
June 5-6 Orlando Speedworld, FL World / Pro / Pro2
June 26-27 Wall Stadium, NJ World / Pro
July 11-12 Fuji Speedway, Japan World
July 24-25 Evergreen Speedway, WA World / Pro / Pro2
August 21-22 Texas Motor Speedway, TX World / Pro / Pro2
September 6-7 Autodrome St. Eustache, Canada World
October 9-10 Irwindale Speedway, CA World / Pro / Pro2
November TBD CHINA TBD World