Vaughn and I Dive Into The Reasons I’m Retiring From Formula Drift. 

I know this video is about Chelsea, but my god is Vaughn such an incredibly positive role model, not only as a driver but also as a leader and friend. Chelsea is by far my favorite driver ever, his passion, his hunger to better himself and make the sport progress is inspiring. You can feel his drive, almost like some great artist of stage. Can’t wait to see where his future endeavors will lead him and all of us. Congratulations for winning the championship again !

In any sport there's guys that have the ability to expand things into something all us others can't imagine yet. I can't wait to see what that's gonna be.

was really hoping Chelsea would influence FD to get better as he is the most entertaining driver and drives the way everyone wants to see.

This is one of the big reasons why I love RTR. You guys really appreciate the fans and try and keep them in the loop. Most other teams wouldn’t make a video like this and post it to the world, but you guys recognize that fans would enjoy hearing the reasons straight from the source. I hate that CD is leaving, but I’ll follow what else he does in his career and keep cheering for RTR in FD. Good luck Chelsea, i can’t wait to see what you do next in the drifting world!

Not disappointed in the slightest. You’re crushing and it and chasing your dream, it’s extremely inspiring

Vaughn basically calling Chelsea the “Travis Pastrana of drifting”. Massive respect. Extremely stoked to see what you do with the sport of drifting from here.

Essa's season is the embodiment of consistent he was just their every event and locked in

It is crazy that you brought so many people back to FD and then dip out. Best of luck.

I wanna see Chelsea do Gymkhana so bad

best reason there ever could be for a departure. I think drifting is at a very similar inflection point to the skateboarding world with Rodney, the fmx world with Travis, even trials biking with Danny MacAskill. Can’t wait to see where this goes.

Vaughn is the boss that some of us could only dream of having, what an absolute legend of a dude. Some people wont understand, but i'm all for following whatever you want to do. FD isn't everything, I think LZ and his tour, gridlife etc have clearly shown that, there are other options out there. Keen to see what you have going in the future

The green screen coming off on the hats is tight af 😂 Keep dawgin em Chelsea been a pleasure to watch 🤙🏽

My favorite part is the monster hats showing the video behind them. It is so subtle that it ties them into the background and makes it feel intentional.

Chelsea gymkhana/driftmasters would be sick to see

Caught this vid 15 minutes after launch and watching the view ticker fly up is insane. Love that yall did this and happy to have been a part of media projects during such an iconic era. excited for whats next!

Happy to hear you’re finally stepping in the direction that you’ve been wanting to go towards and hearing Vaughn in your corner makes it so much cooler loved meeting you guys can’t wait to see what you do man!

I’ve been a fan of yours for a very long time and as long as your happy with your decision, im happy for you and will continue to be stoked to see you drive and evolve drifting as a whole!

you’ve undoubtedly shaped a lot of what fd is today and how they judge. you left your mark on the sport for sure and i’m pumped for whatever there is to come

Sad to see you Go but Excited to see whats next for ya... Hopefully Luke Fink Can take ya seat in the mustang ;)

So sick to have this time of connection. Stoked to see what you're doing and hope to work with you again soon!

One of my favorite drivers!! Just a badass dude! Congrats on winning FD and good luck on future endeavors, which I know you will rock it!!

Much love Chelsea. Best of luck for your future plans! Cant wait to see what you get up to

Wish you the best in your future endeavors and congratulations on the win

I'm so excited where you go and what you do next man! Congrats on the championship!

I'm so glad yall put this out for people to get a little more understanding. It was definitely a shock for me. I thought out of the lineup, CD would be the known rock. But I'm glad you were able to get such a good result out of a rough event. Goes to show what an amazing team RTR is. Curious to see where they go in FD and can't wait to see what CD gets into to! #yearofmaxd

Been following you since I first saw you in a drivers meeting for an event I had volunteered, XDC 2009 in Vegas, you were an amazing driver then and your dedication to this thing you love is nothing short of inspirational. Think it’s awesome that you’ve put yourself in a situation that you can continue to live out the maximum of your dreams to a point where even the biggest comp in the world cant contain them. So ready to see where and what you do next bud. Godspeed!

lookin forward to what you do next. i feel like in sports like this, winning competition isnt always the only end goal. its cool to see what people can do when they have the freedom to really show what they can do.

I wish you the best in your next adventure man! I know it'll be AWESOME.

Can't wait to see whats next. I was hoping for one of these vids.

This was the kind of sit down talk we needed. Definitely cannot wait to see what chelsea does next. Hopefully get a chance to drive with em

In the end , we are all behind you man , keep up pushing towards what get YOU hype.

Looking forward to seeing how your plan goes and where it goes, give it your all mate 👍

I love it! Live your life Chelsea, we all need to take a step back at some point and focus on whats important, just do us all a favor and don't do what I did and step so far back that people forget who you are, I miss being at the track. Love you dude!!!

Take your time brooooo dont worry we have vaugh adam and james dean

The mountain drifting video was awesome. The scenery with all the fall season trees, the drone work, and the driving was just the perfect video. Cant wait to see what the future holds for these goats.

Excited to see what the future brings.

After watching your talks with Aaron from lone star drift i knew this was coming. The love you have for actually drifting vs fd drifting is more important. As with all the people we as fans watch isn't about you winning or losing, its the personality we love. You could be digging a hole but because its you doing it in your way, that's what we want. Congratulations on the championship and I can't wait for future videos.

The writing was on the wall with the how to keep top spec drifting more spec and affordable with rad racing. great points made in that video. god speed and looking forward to the future!

Thank You Chelsea. Looking forward to see who’s going to drive your car next season. Looking forward to seeing what your next adventure is.

I started watching FD because of you in 2022. I was like... this guy does something extra that noone else do. And this year I really started liking it. All your wins and battles, they were amazing to watch this year. And also a beautiful looking new car. And then, at the end of the season we find out that all if this is no longer in FD. I was so sad that day. The X-factor of FD is gone. But realized later that nothing ends with this. Just a new chapter starts. Wish you the best of luck on whatever it will be! And please tell to whoever will drive to RTR next year to take those risk cuz it is what makes it exciting to watch! 😉

I love how the monster logos are part of the green screen

Do whatcha gotta do homie! We are here for it !

supernice to put this one2one video on! 4sure i had a 2016 F1 Nico Rosberg moment.. winning the championship an leave on the high. but the 'later nerds' was legendary ! all the best!

Can't wait to see what new things are brought to the sport of drifting from this expansion, congrats on the ballsy move and wish you luck Chelsea!

Looking forward to seeing what Chelsea has planned for the foreseeable future. Keep true to yourself as always and the fans will be along for the ride. Congrats on the championship tidal, glad it happened for you this year!

Chelsea, It's amazing the relationship you have with Vaughn~! the vib is amazing for a PRO situation. As an ex-drag guy and racer burn out I truly wish I had a mentor like him, things may have been different. Can't wait to see you back it in/ do some free style a your next event!

I respect it takes a lot to step outside your comfort zone.. can’t wait to see you in your new journey

This just makes me even more excited for what Chelsea has in the bag for these 3 years! Cheers to a fun 3 years.

What a man Vaughn is! What a true leader and absolute champion of a person! Chelsea you are just the best, love your vibe! I will miss you from FD, you have been my favourite driver for so long and you are such a treat to watch!

Congrats bro🎉 hammer down!!!

Chelsea has been the best to happen to FD and RTR in a long time he brought such a refreshing skill and just such an entertaining person to watch. I want nothing to see the best for him, super stoked for his future and what he will do.

I would love to see maybe Chelsea do his own thing but still under RTR. Maybe it is a different vehicle or still a rtr mustang etc etc or maybe Chelsea gets a piece of RTR but from the outside looking in and listening to these 2 talk for the last hour the relationship business side and development engineer side seems awesome. Then the friendship side seems amazing as well. Best of luck regardless if what you do and we will still support both of you. And let's go champ. I apologize, let's go Champs!!!!!!!!!

I follow you since the "Say Howdy get Rowdy" Recaps on Dailymotion.. (didn't have many Chances to check on some live drifting, sitting here in Germany) Huge Fan since then. I wishg you all the best to fulfill your Dreams! And I am looking forward to see what there is to come!

Definitely excited to see your next ventures and who will come into rtr to keep the 3 car team going!

I love how the front right wheel comes up when ever you are drifting it's probably cause the suspension is so compressed it's got no where to go, hells yeah Denofa!

Love the RTR group, it seems like you guys are just there to literally have fun and enjoy the sport. Such a good relationship

Best of luck for the future Chelsea 😊

Every run I'm like "I hope Chelsea don't Chelsea himself 😂😂😂 I was happy for all his wins man! Congratulations Champ!!

Like I said in other comments on reddit or whatever, gonna miss you in FD, hope there's gonna be a driver that gonna bring that drive 11/10 and have fun

I started watching FD in 2018 and I have liked your style from day one. Can’t wait to see your next phase.

Previous favorite driver was Matt powers and then it was Chelsea. Both left FD 😭 but I think it tells me you were two drivers that had a lot of fun and it showed in your driving. Stoked to see the future projects!

all those "un-chaseable" backwards entries, going stupid on angle and just pushing it as far as it can go with style is the reason I have been a fan of yours man. cant wait to see whats next. the comp vs street bmx analogy made sense man. keep killing it

Congrats on the 1st and retirement Chelsea! Looking forward to seeing whats next.

Awesome dudes. Sounds like Adam has given Chelsea the confidence to chase his dream. That's pretty cool. Vaughn has to be the coolest bloke in Motorsport. What an awesome fella. He's clearly just genuinely stoked to be involved with the likes of James, Chelsea and Adam and watching them grow brings him more joy than anything. Legend.

Nice production here with the green screen etc, but audio was a bit low and weird. Anyways, keep killing it! I hope we will see some insane videos with you behind the wheel, maybe you can work with Hoonigan?

Vaughn had best boss ever energy! Appreciate you guys

Really hope to see you as a wildcard or something in a few different series.. Be cool to see what happens when your under less influence for chamiponship points but at the same level of competition. Whatever your doing though, I'm sure it'll be a lil nuts and lots of fun😁

@23:07 what a beautiful moment. Hats off to you Chelsea.

Man I can’t wait to see what’s next for Chelsea!!

You definitely found that balance this year I could see it in your driving it changed alot and I said he's driving very robotic it made sense why you won. I'm happy you got your chip!!🤝🏼

Good luck in your future plans and projects. Was wondering why the monster badges weren’t green then realised the green screen behind has affected the logo and cars were drifting on your hats 🤣🤣👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻🤙🤙

I would love to see a recap edit of your FD journey from 2012 to now. I‘ve watched your 2012 recap Video like 100 times and it is my motivation to complete my car and think about drifting from another perspektiv.

Can we please get more of this? I love listening to it

Bro Chelsea, you are the driver I watch FD to see and the reason I sport RTR gear.

Chelsea is going to be the next generation Ken Block. I can see the vision of amazing content to be made! Best of luck to you Chelsea, thank you for your years of entertainment in FD. Rooting for you with whatever comes next!

I hope that what ever Chelsea decides to do, RTR continues to back him. Going back to the line that Vaughan had said "in 2017 if you would have asked if Chelsea DeNofa would be influential to rtr i would have said no way. Cut to now" what he should have said is now Chelsea is just as much rtr as Vaughan is.

Luke fink for RTR next

That now makes way for Luke Fink

Volumes a little quiet my guy, great discussion though! Looking forward to the future💯🔥

I probably never would have watched an FD race if it wasn’t for Chelsea. Let alone become a RTR fan. Less than a year later I have a much better appreciation of the style, planning and judging. Also ended up with a bunch of RTR t’s and badge’s even tho I’m don’t own a mustang. My Dad work at ford for over 40 years as a automotive engineer. I came close to working in the big design building myself. I’ll be watching to see what he’s up to next. Whatever it is, I’m sure it will be good. ✌️

excited to see whats next

Respect to you Chelsea one hell of a guy watching from the uk keep at it

got to love the Monster logo on the greenscreen making it see through

I remember watching you rip around hialeah in a miata thinking how good you were, now look at you!!

best of luck D!

I like this format.. you guys should start a podcast...

Chelsea Pulled a Nico Rosberg lol. So excited to see what Chelsea has in store next!

I hope Luke comes in to replace you so we still have that X factor driver

Nooooooo. You not only did you get me into drifting but cars altogether. Your style is just completely different than any one else. And your personality too, it just makes it relatable to me.

Respect for making the hard call. Change is the most difficult thing people never try. Best of luck to you!!!!

Driver mod always wins, if not on paper, in our hearts. You got this brother! Go for the moon, you're the one to do it man. Salute 🤚

I just hope and wish Chelsea continues his RU-vid, uploads more frequently and builds a new car. Not a fox body. Not a E36. Or 46. Just something cool and bad ass and fun. Can’t wait to see you in Houston Chelsea!!

It's absolutly understandable why someone wants to quit or take a break from competing at such a high level. I will miss seeing you in FD, by far one of the most exiting drivers to watch in FD, and i will say, when you had basically nothing to loose, those runs were the best. If you made a huge mistake in the lead, you would always put on the most redicilous chase run after it.

That Pennzoil shirt is awesome.

Freestyle drift comp whould be sick. Backies and 360s would be unreal

I been watching Formula Drift religiously since 2013 when I can. I think you've proved your point of being a badass drifter. I like to see newer rookies make their mark, makes it interesting. The only thing I hate seeing in Formula Drift is seeing drifters like Kyle Mohan running the same setup and never really getting better after years. No hate on Kyle though... I just find the racing sport so much seeing drivers move up.

I feel for Chelsea and wanting to be free from the box of FD. So glad he left as a Champion, well deserved for awhile now!

Is Chelsea going to do gymkhana? Would be so sick to watch some edits showing what he really do, stoked for the future!

Thanks for the extra insight. Personally, i was hoping to see you maybe announce you were going to compete in EDC as like James' teammate in the Uerofighter or something (a fan's pipedream). EDC judges weigh aggressive driving much more positively than FD which seems it would suite your driving style more. Listening to the verbiage that competitive driving puts you in a box really puts it into perspective, though. I'm sure whatever you're doing next is going to be rad and I'm here for it. FD will def be less exciting w/o you.

Thank you both for letting us all hear this, great insights. Having said that is Taylor Ray on the list of possible drivers for next year?