The nineteenth season of the Method Go with the flow Championship unusually ended very similar to the best way it all started… with Matt Box’s Corvette crammed right into a wall and a Toyota/Papadakis Racing Driving force on peak of the field. It began again in April when Toyota debuted the all-new Toyota Corolla GR at Spherical 1: Method Go with the flow Lengthy Seashore. That’s when Ryan Tuerck drove the GR Corolla all of the solution to the finals, and Aasbo crashed Matt Box right into a wall, placing Box into the finals however not able to compete, forcing Tuerck to win. It used to be, on the other hand, the opposite Papadakis motive force that gained in Irwindale, Fredric Aasbo. Tuerck took moment, and for the primary time in his FD Professional occupation, Jeff Jones were given at the podium for 3rd.
As they all appear to be, it used to be a loopy match. This one used to be plagued by way of rain, rain, and extra rain. The highest 32 began out cloudy, were given dreary, and led to a downpour. Fortuitously, there have been a few dry hours for the outlet ceremonies, fireworks, and motive force intros. Sadly, the dry didn’t ultimate, as extra rain got here, making the observe extremely slick. For a lot of the season, Matt Box, the Falken Tires C6 Corvette motive force, used to be main the championship. The entire solution to the Most sensible 16 motive force intros, he used to be forward of Aasbo by way of an insignificant 11 issues. Box got here as much as combat Adam LZ, however the observe had lately gained a misting from the sky, which made the banked access nook slightly slick. Box and LZ each took sight laps to get a footing at the degree of grip. This led to either one of them having over-rotations in checking out it out after which being re-racked at the starting point with Box to guide. He did his run-up and initiated, LZ close-by within the chase; they held the attitude however with a lot much less pace because of the wetness of the observe. Box’s Falken Tires discovered a space missing in grip. He spun and stepped at the fuel to get out of the best way for LZ however ended up slamming his entrance proper nook exhausting into the wall. He used to be not able to make the essential maintenance within the 5 mins allocated, forcing him to concede the combat, giving LZ the win.
As a result of Fredric Aasbo complicated directly to the nice 8, he used to be awarded sufficient issues to win the 2022 Championship. This used to be his 3rd championship and moment in a row after profitable in 2021. Because of this Stephan Papadakis has a complete quantity of 5 wins as a group proprietor. Papadakis racing has led two drivers, Tanner Foust and Fredric Aasbo, to 5 championship-winning seasons. In addition to Aasbo’s 5 seasons of being runner-up. Stephan Papadakis is each an achieved engineer and a drifting strategist. Throughout the many battles every season, Papadakis is the person chatting with Aasbo in the course of the comm machine, at all times giving him comments and steering. Fredric Aasbo has now gained two championships in his high-strung 1,200-horsepower Toyota GR Supra, dressed in the chrome-gold Rockstar Power Drink livery. He additionally has now joined a small membership of extremely proficient drivers to have gained a minimum of 3 championships, a bunch that in the past integrated simplest Chris Forsberg and James Deane.
Around the 2022 season, the rain used to be a important issue. There have been a number of moments on the 8 rounds through which rain bogged down the drivers considerably by way of proscribing their grip, inflicting sluggish and slippery battles. The most productive instance of this, in all probability, used to be the long-lasting combat between Dylan Hughes and Travis Reeder in completely pouring rain. This used to be a couple of mins after a twister caution had handed thru Orlando. As soon as once more, at Spherical 8 in Irwindale, California, the rain wreaked havoc, slowing the development down with sight laps and fewer grip, and at one level, evacuating the grandstands because of lightning within the house. The in-person viewership enjoy on the ultimate spherical of the season ended up being a complicated one as a result of as lovers needed to evacuate the stands, the contest persevered because of a observe curfew.
Toyota had a dominant season within the Producer’s cup, with 4 rounds gained and 8 podiums by way of 3 drivers over the season. In what might be thought to be ideally suited advertising effects, either one of the newly debuted GR fashions secured victories. The GR Corolla, pushed by way of Ryan Tuerck, gained in Lengthy Seashore, and the GR 86, pushed by way of Ken Gushi, gained in Utah. To cap this off, Fredric Aasbo gained two rounds and his moment in-a-row championship in his GR Supra. Toyota Completed the Auto Cup for this 2022 season with 1,326 issues, a couple of hundred greater than second-place Chevrolet, who particularly doesn’t even sponsor any drivers or the collection itself. Nitto, who’s the tire provider for Aasbo and Tuerck, in addition to Chelsea Denofa and LZ, took house the Tire Cup with 1,333 issues, about 100 over second-place GT Radial.
General, the 2022 Method Go with the flow season used to be one for the historical past books, with the primary seven occasions having a unique winner every time. That is the results of some more youthful and less-funded drivers getting their first-ever podiums and match wins, together with Dylan Hughes, Travis Reeder, and Kazuya Taguchi. Rome Charpentier and Jeff Jones additionally had much-deserved podiums, appearing off their exhausting paintings and riding skills, getting long-awaited effects for his or her small however well-built techniques. It used to be a thrilling season for lovers of quite a lot of drivers, stuffed with development and craziness. This used to be refreshing in comparison to the previous few years, that have been ruled by way of only a few top-tier drivers and groups.
It leaves groups, lovers, and sponsors alike taking a look ahead to subsequent yr’s twentieth anniversary season of Method Go with the flow.
