Formula De drew 63 entrants in 2005, up from 52 the previous year. The first preliminary 2-lap heat, held at 10 am Friday morning, drew an amazing 45 racers despite the early hour and competition from The Stock Car Championship Racing Card Game, which was held at the same time. Seven tracks were used, including France, Japan, Portland, and two copies each of Portugal and Zaandvoort. In a change from previous years, the GM actually managed to compete in one of these races.

Since I had originally expected the second heat to draw more than the first, I was surprised when only 24 racers appeared at 7 pm Saturday. This heat got off to a rough start, as there were only three game sets available and I was forced to send players on a desperate search for one more. Another set was finally located, and players raced on Italia and Brazil while the other two races were on each half of the double-sized Zaandvoort raceway.

This is an easy event to run; all heat winners advance to the final with second-place finishers as alternates rounding out the field to ten cars. In the past, the alternates would come to the final for a "roll off" to see which would play. Last year, this resulted in four people being sent away, not only disappointed but too late to participate in another event in the same time slot. In response, this year I instituted a new tournament format. All players were "ranked" by their performance in both heats. Entrants were also asked to draw a random number upon signup. This "tiebreaker number", along with race performance, was used instead of a die roll so possible alternates could guess at their chances to play before appeaing for the Final.

Formula De draws many dedicated players year after year. Three former champions competed in the preliminary heats.and two tried to become the first repeat champion in the Final. Due to the late Sunday start time for the three-lap final, only four winners and a like number of alternates appeared for the Final, so I didn't need to send anyone away unhappy. No first-place finishers actually played in the other heat, so their start positions in the Final were determined solely by the "tie-breaker number". All but one of the second-place alternates played in both heats, so they were ranked solely by their performance.

The Final start position was as follows: Jason Levine, Jessica Finkeldey, Former GM Jim Castonguay, Bill Beckman, defending champion James Kendrick, Rich Shipley, former Champion Barry Smith, and Lance Fogel. The first lap took a toll on the tires of most of the cars. Only Jim Castonguay skipped the first pit, giving him the lead at the end of the first lap. This strategy backfired when, he burned his tires and brakes on the first turn of lap 2 and did not finish the lap. This gave him a 6th place finish, as both Beckman and Kendrick had blown their engines earlier. When Lance Fogel crashed on turn 2 of lap 3, it began to look as if the last car still running would be declared the winner. Jessica Finkeldey's car lost its last road-holding point on the backstraight on lap 3, earning her a 4-place plaque despite not finishing the race. The race was basically over at that point anyway, as Jason Levine's car was still in good shape and had built an insurmountable lead. Barry Smith and Rich Shipley finished in second and third to pick up the remaining plaques.