EVENT DETAILS
Date: Saturday, April 18, 2025
Location: Streets of Long Beach, Long Beach, CAEvent: 2026 Formula DRIFT Super Drift Challenge Day 2 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 E36 BMW*
- Jeff Jones – Big Drift Energy / Kumho Tire / Prisma Lab Nissan 370Z*
- Margaritis Katsanidis – LS Doctor E46 BMW
- Kasey Kohl – Mspek Race to Reef Nissan 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 Championship
RESULTS
- Rome Charpentier (USA) – Garagistic E36 BMW
- Aurimas “Odi” Bakchis (Lithuania) – The Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage V12
- Jeff Jones (USA) – Big Drift Energy / Kumho Tire / Prisma Lab Nissan 370Z
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 AGPLB fans
- Driver match-ups for tandem competition runs were decided by a random draw in the absence of qualifying runs
- Drivers Kasey Kohl (USA) and Trenton Beechum (USA) both experienced car trouble and withdrew from Super Drift Day 2, giving their Top 8 heat pairings a bye run into the Final 4 heats
- The podium finishers were a repeat of Day 1 but in a different order. This time Charpentier took the win in the 2026 Super Drift Day 2, demoting Bakchis to second place
- Charpentier had defeated Connor O’Sullivan (USA) in the Top 8 heats, Jeff Jones in the Final 4 and dominated Bakchis in the Final with superior lead and chase runs
- For Bakchis, it was another strong result in the Aston Martin Vantage V12. Not only did everybody agree it sounded spectacular, but were also astounded at how well Odi performed given Super Drift was his first opportunity to drive it
- Third place Jones had wisely parked his FD PRO Championship car for Super Drift and was using his “practice” Nissan 370Z to avoid damaging the primary vehicle with Round 2 at Road Atlanta only three weeks away
