As the longest serving track on the Formula DRIFT schedule, Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta is also the fastest thanks to the downhill approach to the first turn. Add a wet track for PROSPEC qualifying with a gravy infield, and fans were treated non-stop frenetic action from Thursday afternoon to Saturday evening.

With the GT Radial-shod 2024 Link ECU PROSPEC Championship joining the PRO teams in Georgia, the three-day festival featured 82 drivers going for gold, gliding some of the most powerful competition cars in the world around the legendary track.

With 64 competition places available, 18 drivers would depart early but not before each had a chance to prove themselves in the new Formula DRIFT Seeding Brackets. The head-to-head format replaces solo qualifying laps, allowing drivers to show their prowess in tandem runs to claim a place in the competition heats.

In the PRO Championship, the first 24 positions were preset, with positions based on their Round 1 result. The remaining 13 drivers competed in the Seeding Bracket to claim one of the eight places in Top 32 competition. The drivers would compete in a full tandem competition, with their finishing rank determining the starting position on Saturday.

The PROSPEC Seeding Bracket followed a different format. This time, only the first 16 positions were preset according their 2023 Championship standings. The remaining 29 drivers competed in a sudden death Seeding Bracket to claim one of the remaining 16 places in Top 32 competition. The loser of each tandem run was eliminated on the spot, but only after testing their skills on the battlefield.

In addition to the new qualifying process, Formula DRIFT introduced a number of competition rule changes, starting with limitations on when the judges can request One More Time, where the drivers repeat their runs. This option is now reserved for close, exciting battles when it was otherwise impossible to choose a winner.

There’s also been a major change to what constitutes an “incomplete” run. In the past, if a driver straightened their front wheels at all, it was ruled incomplete. In 2024, driver’s have more latitude to make a straightening correction, allowing the judges to evaluate the severity of mistakes and assess both runs from both competitors.