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2026 Formula Drift season

Motorsport season From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The 2026 Formula Drift season (officially titled and stylized as the Formula DRIFT PRO Championship) is the twenty-third season of the Formula D series. The season began on April 10 at Long Beach and will conclude on October 24 at Long Beach.[1]

This is the first year to feature three new tracks added to the schedule, whereas former years have seen largely the same schedule. The new schedule features Stafford Motor Speedway, Indianapolis Raceway Park, and Las Vegas Motor Speedway (Bullring), replacing Englishtown Raceway Park, World Wide Technology Raceway, and Utah Motorsports Campus, respectively.[2]

Schedule

More information Round, Title ...
Round Title Circuit Location Date Winner Car
1 Streets of Long Beach California Long Beach Street Circuit Long Beach, California April 10 Republic of Ireland Conor Shanahan Toyota GT86
2 Road to the Championship Georgia (U.S. state) Road Atlanta Braselton, Georgia May 7 United States Vaughn Gittin Jr. Ford Mustang RTR Spec 5-FD
3 Scorched Florida Orlando Speed World Orlando, Florida May 29 Lithuania Aurimas Bakchis Subaru BRZ
4 Battle at the Springs Connecticut Stafford Motor Speedway Stafford, Connecticut June 18 Republic of Ireland James Deane Ford Mustang RTR Spec 5-FD
5 Midwest Mayhem Indiana Indianapolis Raceway Park Indianapolis, Indiana July 30 Cancelled[3]
6 Throwdown Washington (state) Evergreen Speedway Monroe, Washington August 21
7 High Stakes Nevada Las Vegas Motor Speedway (Bullring) Las Vegas, Nevada September 24
8 Long Beach Shoreline Showdown California Long Beach Street Circuit Long Beach, California October 17
Sources:[1][4][5]
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Teams and drivers

More information Team, No. ...
Team No. Car Tires Driver Round(s)
272 Motorsports 272 Nissan 350Z Kumho United States Cody Buchanan  R  [6] 1–6
59 Racing 59 BMW 1 Series E82 Kumho Republic of Ireland Jack Shanahan[7] 1–6
Beechum Racing 999 BMW M3 E46 Kenda United States Trenton Beechum [8] 1–3, 5–6
Drift Cave Motorsports 777 Corvette C6 GT Radial United States Matt Field [9] 1–6
Dylan Hughes Racing 129 BMW M3 E46 GT Radial United States Dylan Hughes [10] 1–6
Feal Suspension Race Team 723 Subaru BRZ GT Radial Lithuania Aurimas Bakchis [11][12] 1–6
Forsberg Racing 64 Nissan Z Kumho United States Chris Forsberg[13] 1–6
FS17 DRIFTING DEPARTMENT 117 BMW 1 Series E82 Kumho Italy Federico Sceriffo [14] 1–6
Garagistic Racing 171 BMW M3 E36 Kumho United States Rome Charpentier [15] 1–6
Hateley Motorsports 98 BMW M3 E46 Kumho United States Andy Hateley [16] 1–6
Higa Motorsport 169 Toyota GR86 GT Radial Brazil Diego Higa[17] 1–3
Jeff Jones Racing 818 Nissan 370Z Kumho United States Jeff Jones [18] 1–3, 5–6
Jerry Yang Racing 79 Toyota GT86 GT Radial Republic of Ireland Conor Shanahan[19] 1–6
90 GT Radial Japan Shinji Minowa[20] 6
168 GT Radial Japan Hiroya Minowa [21] 1
530 Kenda Japan Wataru Masuyama [22] 1–6
Jhonnathan Castro Racing 17 Toyota GR86 Kenda Dominican Republic Jhonnathan Castro [23] 1–6
KGMS Gazoo Racing 21 Toyota GR86 Kenda Japan Ken Gushi[24] 1–6
LZMFG 5 BMW M3 E36 Tire Streets United States Adam LZ[25] 1–6
Nate Chen Racing 4 Toyota GT86 Kenda United States Nate Chen  R  [26][27] 1–6
OSULLY RACING 107 BMW M3 E46 GT Radial United States Connor O'Sullivan [28] 1–6
Papadakis Racing 151 Toyota GR Supra Kenda Norway Fredric Aasbø[29] 1–6
411 Toyota GR Corolla Kenda United States Ryan Tuerck[30][31] 1–6
RAD Industries 34 Toyota Supra GT Radial United States Dan Burkett [32] 1–6
Richards Racing 11 Toyota GT86 GT Radial United States Cole Richards  R  [33] 1–6
RTR Vehicles Drift Team 25 Ford Mustang RTR Spec 5-FD Nitto United States Vaughn Gittin Jr.[34] 2
130 Republic of Ireland James Deane[35] 1–6
213 United States Ben Hobson [36] 1–6
Ryan Litteral Racing 909 Nissan Silvia S15 Kumho United States Ryan Litteral [37] 1–6
Simen Olsen Drifting 707 Toyota GR Supra Kenda Norway Simen Olsen [38] 1–4, 6
SORENSEN MOTORSPORTS 513 BMW M3 GT Radial United States Branden Sorensen [39] 1–6
Stuke Racing 527 Nissan Silvia S14.9 Kenda United States Daniel Stuke [40] 1–6
Team Hansen 119 Nissan 240SX S13 Kenda United States Rudy Hansen [41] 1–6
Team Infamous 27 Nissan Silvia S14.9 Kenda United States Derek Madison [42] 1–6
TLO Drift Team 233 Corvette C7 Kenda Canada Tommy Lemaire [43] 1–6
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R Eligible for Rookie of the Year

Championship standings

2026 saw the return of the classic qualifying format. Each driver therefore performs two solo runs which are judged on parameters such as line, angle and style, all defined within the sporting regulations, and awarded a numerical score up to 100. An AI drift judge system Wally was introduced in 2026 to help with judging the runs. The scores are ranked to determine the qualifying classification and set the brackets for the competition stage for the top 32 scoring drivers. The top three receive 4, 3 and 2 points, with every other driver who sets a score receiving 1 point.

During the competition stage, the drivers proceed through a series of competition heats, with each driver performing a lead run and a chase run. The format features progression through Top 32, Top 16, Top 8, Top 4 and the Final. The two drivers eliminated in Top 4 run an additional heat to determine the final podium position. For the remaining drivers, the final classification within each round is determined by the highest qualifying position.

Qualifying Stage

More information Position, 1st ...
Position 1st 2nd 3rd Others scoring
Points 4 3 2 1
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Competition Stage

More information Battles won, Position ...
Battles won 5 4 3 2 1 0
Position 1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th–8th 9th–16th 17th–32nd 33rd–48th
Points 50 40 30 30 20 10 0 0
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Pro Championship standings

More information Pos, Driver ...
Pos Driver LBH ATL ORL STA IND[a] EVS LVS LBH2 Pts
1 Republic of Ireland James Deane 91 22 2 1 C 91 164
2 Republic of Ireland Conor Shanahan 1 8 25 33 C 12 159
3 United States Branden Sorensen 6 43 3 62 C 33 140
4 Republic of Ireland Jack Shanahan 32 10 6 2 C1 5 131
5 Lithuania Aurimas Bakchis 5 31 1 8 C3 17 130
6 Norway Fredric Aasbø 2 18 43 9 C 2 127
7 United States Dylan Hughes 8 6 7 51 C 18 89
8 United States Matt Field 18 9 8 10 C2 4 78
9 United States Ryan Tuerck 11 7 14 7 C 12 76
10 United States Cole Richards  R  4 11 92 30 C 10 67
11 United States Ben Hobson 13 33 20 4 C 7 65
12 United States Chris Forsberg 103 5 51 17 C 27 60
13 United States Vaughn Gittin Jr. 1 51
14 United States Adam LZ 17 17 10 18 C 6 46
15 United States Cody Buchanan  R  25 31 18 12 C 8 36
16 United States Dan Burkett 19 14 16 13 C 25 36
17 United States Trenton Beechum 23 16 11 29 C 13 35
18 Norway Simen Olsen 14 13 24 15 21 35
19 United States Daniel Stuke 21 20 32 11 C 15 26
20 United States Rudy Hansen 31 15 30 28 C 16 26
21 Japan Ken Gushi 26 28 12 21 C 23 26
22 Japan Wataru Masuyama 29 12 15 22 C 24 26
23 Brazil Diego Higa 7 21 28 23
24 Canada Tommy Lemaire 22 24 19 20 C 11 16
25 United States Ryan Litteral 16 27 27 25 C 22 16
26 United States Derek Madison 32 29 29 14 C 26 16
27 United States Andy Hateley 28 32 31 16 C 28 16
28 Dominican Republic Jhonnathan Castro 30 26 13 24 C 30 16
29 United States Rome Charpentier 33 19 26 26 C 14 15
30 United States Jeff Jones 15 30 17 C 19 14
31 Japan Hiroya Minowa 12 11
32 United States Connor O'Sullivan 24 23 22 19 C 20 6
33 United States Nate Chen  R  20 25 23 23 C 29 6
34 Italy Federico Sceriffo 27 22 21 27 4
35 Japan Shinji Minowa 31 4
Source:[44][45][46][47][48]
In-line notation
 RY  Rookie of the Year
 R  Rookie
Superscript Number Qualifying position
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Notes

  1. [a]
    Round 5 at Indianapolis was cancelled because of rain. Points were only awarded for qualifying with everyone receiving from 4 to 1 point, except for Jeff Jones who didn't qualify.

References

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