EVENT DETAILS
Date: Friday, April 17, 2025
Location: Streets of Long Beach, Long Beach, CA
Event: 2026 Formula DRIFT Super Drift Challenge Day 1 at Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach
COMPETITORS
- Aurimas “Odi” Bakchis – The Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage V12*
- Trenton Beechum – Clonex Racing / Katana Wheels / Kenda BMW*
- Rome Charpentier – Garagistic BMW E36*
- Jeff Jones – Big Drift Energy / Kumho Tire / Prisma Lab / Nissan 370Z*
- Margaritis Katsanidis – LS Doctor E46 BMW
- Kasey Kohl – Mspek Race to Reef S14.9
- Sam Maghmoumi – 961 Motorsport E36 BMW
- Connor O’Sullivan – US ARMY / O’Sully Racing BMW*
*denotes Formula DRIFT PRO Championship driver. The remainder compete in FD Link ECU PROSPEC Championsip
RESULTS
- Aurimas “Odi” Bakchis (Lithuania) – The Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage V12
- Jeff Jones (USA) – Big Drift Energy / Kumho Tire / Prisma Lab / Nissan 370Z
- Rome Charpentier (USA) – Garagistic BMW E36
COMPETITION NOTES
- The drivers were split between the Formula DRIFT PRO and PROSPEC Championships. While the PRO teams competed on this course last weekend, the PROSPEC drivers don’t compete on the Streets of Long Beach during their season, giving the PRO drivers an advantage
- Formula DRIFT Rounds feature 32 cars in a knock-out format of competition heats. For Super Drift, eight cars compete in a truncated event to entertain the LBGP fans
- Driver match-ups for tandem competition runs were decided by a random draw in the absence of qualifying runs
- Bakchis was awarded the Super Drift win after beating Kasey Kohl in the Top 8 and Connor O’Sullivan in the Final 4
- Bakchis defeated Jeff Jones in the Final, largely thanks to an error by Jones in the first turn. The major mistake put him on the back foot, while Bakchis remained consistent throughout both runs
- Bakchis was behind the wheel of the spectacular The Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage V12. The car had previously been driven in Formula DRIFT by Darren Kelly and was a fan favorite for its incredible exhaust note. Odi was drafted in to the drive the car in Super Drift, allowing him to save his Feal Suspension / GT Radial / Subimods Subaru BRZ competition car for the next round of the point-scoring FD PRO Championship in Atlanta on May 7-9
- A winner in the 2025 Super Drift, Charpentier took third place after losing in the Top 4 heats to Bakchis. He lost on a split decision from the three judges, so watch out for him tomorrow…
- Tune in to the Formula DRIFT livestream on at formulad.com/ or youtube.com/@formuladrift on Saturday evening to watch all the action from Super Drift Day 2
