Teenage sensation Hiroya Minowa claims his first victory in only his second season, setting the record for the youngest winner in series history
Formula DRIFT PRO Championship Round 3: Scorched certainly lived up to its name, trading morning rain for sweltering heat at Orlando Speed World in Florida. However, it was on the track where the temperatures soared as mistakes were made, ego crushed and records set.
The figure-8 oval track is perhaps deceptively simple but its high-speed approach and requirement for total commitment from the drivers meant there was no room for mistakes. And despite the depth of talent among the Formula DRIFT PRO Championship ranks, Round 3 saw two new names enter the record books – one a veteran, the other a schoolboy who was serving humble pie to his peers.
SEEDING BRACKET QUALIFICATION
The Formula DRIFT PRO Championship locks in the first 20 competition places and uses a competitive Seeding Bracket format for driver qualification to fix the remaining 12 places, guaranteeing fans plenty of action all the way through to the Final heat.
Arriving in Orlando, 13 drivers competed for one of the 12 places in the Top 16 Seeding Bracket. The good news was that only one driver would be disappointed. The bad news was that the axe fell on the neck of Connor O’Sullivan (USA) who had the lowest ranking of the Top 16 heat losers. And while the driver of the OSully Racing / US Army BMW would take no further part, we’re confident he shared a Guinness with Jack Shanahan (Ireland), winner of the Type S Seeding Bracket in his Kumho Tires BMW 1 Series.
The Irish Rookie had a relatively easy path to the Final thanks to a couple of bye runs but it wasn’t without drama. A collision with Dan Burkett (USA) in their Top 8 heat, followed by the RAD Industries Mk4 Toyota Supra hitting the wall in Outside Zone 1, gave the judges a difficult decision. In the end, Shanahan was awarded the win thanks to the precision of his lead run.
In the Final, Federico Sceriffo (Italy) executed an impressive lead run in the Pennzoil / FuelTech / VP Racing Fuels Ferrari 599 GTB but Shanahan had him covered and was awarded the win thanks to a great chase.
Third place Daigo Saito (Japan) damaged his Enjuku Racing / BC Racing / Jerry Yang Racing Toyota GR86 in the Top 4 heat against Sceriffo. The team withdrew the car to repair it for Saturday’s competition heats but the 2012 Formula DRIFT Champion, who is making a return to the series after a ten-year absence, gained the podium place thanks to his higher ranking over fourth place Tommy Lemaire (Canada).
In a format change for 2025, Seeding Bracket participants receive three Championship points for each heat win. As a result, Shanahan advanced into the competition heats with 12 points in the bag, Sceriffo had nine, while both Saito and Lemaire scored six each.
PRO COMPETITION
There’s been a buzz and palpable expectation surrounding Hiroya Minowa (Japan) ever since he joined the Formula DRIFT PRO Championship in 2024 as a 14 year-old. Pundits, teams and fans alike knew he was something special, and scoring two podiums in his Rookie season confirmed the speculation.
Born to drifting parents and brought up on a diet of sim racing and competitive seat time, Minowa was a race winner before arriving in Formula DRIFT but few could have predicted his rise would be quite so meteoric.
After placing seventh in Round 2, Minowa automatically qualified for Orlando and was paired against double FD PROSPEC Champion Dmitriy Brutskiy in the Top 32 heats. Unfazed by his more experienced opposition, the driver of the Enjuku Racing / BC Racing / Jerry Yang Racing Toyota GT86 claimed the win, albeit by a narrow margin, and advanced.
Minowa’s Top 16 opponent was the hard-charging Connor Shanahan (Ireland) who used his Shanahan 79 Toyota GT86 as a stick to beat Minowa’s Toyota. Tapping on the door in Outside Zone 1, Inside Clip 2 and Outside Zone 2, the Irishman was clearly signaling his intentions. However, the favor was returned on the second run where Minowa pushed back, unintimidated and receiving rapturous support from the grandstands. Again, Minowa was awarded the win thanks to the precision of his lead run.
Unfortunately, the Top 8 would bring an end to his run. Matched against three-time FD PRO Champion Fredric Aasbo (Norway) in the Rockstar Energy Toyota GR Supra, the result was inevitable. Or was it?
On his lead run, Aasbo executed a signature pass with every zone filled at infeasible speed. The only problem was Minowa was glued to the Supra’s door. On their second run, Minowa was able to replicate the Norwegian’s precision but Aasbo uncharacteristically struggled to duplicate the proximity. It was unimaginable and yet inevitable that the judges awarded the win to the 15 year-old who would surely succumb to Aurimas Bakchis (Lithuania) in the Top 4!
Again, Odi has a fearsome reputation for speed and precision at the wheel of the Feal Suspension / GT Radial Nissan S14.9. And it appeared well deserved at the start of the run until Minowa nestled into Odi’s door through Outside Zone 2. With the roles reversed, a small mistake by Bakchis where the two cars touched saw the veteran drop back and was unable to regain the proximity.
Advancing to the Final, Hiroya faced Jhonnattan Castro (Dominican Republic) in the Metaldom GR86 who was experiencing his own breakthrough moment. In Round 2, Castro finished fourth, which was his best result since joining the FD PRO Championship in 2012. Reaching the Final in Orlando was the next milestone, created his own piece of FD history.
Castro had dispatched Ryan Litteral (USA) in the Top 32, Ken Gushi (Japan) in the Top 16, Branden Sorensen (USA) in the Top 8 and claimed a tough One More Time victory over Matt Field (USA) in the Top 4.
Field would finish fourth driving the Borla Performance / GT Radial / Heat Wave Visual / Leen Customs / Drift Cave Motorsports Corvette. It was a personal victory, representing his best result since placing in the Top 4 in the 2024 St Louis Round. The points tally bumped Field from ninth to seventh overall.
In the Final, Castro succumbed to Minowa’s dominance. The Dominican driver’s lead run was impeccable but he couldn’t unglue his Japanese opponent. And with Minowa in the lead, Castro made a small error at Inside Clip 2 and was unable to regain the proximity. At this level of the sport, one mistake will bury you and the judges awarded the victory to Minowa, who became the youngest winner of any Formula DRIFT Round in its 22-year history.
“I’m so happy to get first place in Orlando. I want to thank my team, supporters, family and my spotter. I’m so excited to get to New Jersey. I’ve been pushing super-hard and will try my best at Round 4,” Minowa told us after the podium celebration.
With every driver receiving ten points for a competition heat win (three points in qualifying) under the new Formula DRIFT points format, Minowa’s 50-point haul saw him leap from eighth in the PRO Championship to third overall behind Deane and Aasbo.
Repeating his third place finish from Round 2, Bakchis leaves Florida with the same overall points tally as Minowa and continues to mount a serious assault on the 2025 title, creeping closer to Deane, who was knocked out early in the Top 16, and Assbo who reached the Top 8.
Although Deane was the biggest loser in Orlando – only earning ten points from his Top 32 victory over Austin Matta (USA) – his 100-point total placed him second, ten points behind Aasbo and with Minowa knocking on the door.
The 2025 FD PRO Championship Rookies also fared poorly in Atlanta. As mentioned, Connor O’Sullivan failed to qualify through the Seeding Bracket, while Austin Matta, Jack Shanahan and Tommy Lemaire were all eliminated in their Top 32 heats. However, Shanahan leads the Rookie title race in 19th over Matta in 21st.
In the 2025 Formula DRIFT Auto Cup, Toyota maintained its first place thanks to having two drivers in the Final, while Nissan overtook Ford to claim second. In the Tire Cup, Kenda similarly extended its lead as GT Radial jumped into second.
“We saw a great conclusion to a sold-out weekend here in Orlando Speed World where we witnessed some new faces on the podium and lots of support for the somewhat local driver Jhonnattan Castro,” said Ryan Sage, President of Formula DRIFT. “He was able to revisit his 2016 battle with James Deane but then carry the success throughout the event, only to meet Hiroya Minowa in the Final. But once again, Hiroya proved he’s one of the best new talents in the world despite his young age. We had an awesome crowd that knows how to have a good time; and they stayed until the end to watch an incredible event.”
ROUND 3 FD PRO TOP 16 DRIVER POINTS
| POSITION | DRIVER | POINTS |
| 1 | Hiroya Minowa | 50 |
| 2 | Jhonnattan Castro | 40 |
| 3 | Aurimas Bakchis | 30 |
| 4 | Matt Field | 30 |
| 5 | Fredric Aasbo | 20 |
| 6 | Branden Sorensen | 20 |
| 7 | Chris Forsberg | 20 |
| 8 | Rome Charpentier | 20 |
| 9 | James Deane | 10 |
| 10 | Adam LZ | 10 |
| 11 | Conor Shanahan | 10 |
| 12 | Dylan Hughes | 10 |
| 13 | Ken Gushi | 10 |
| 14 | Simen Olsen | 10 |
| 15 | Dan Stuke | 10 |
| 16 | Derek Madison | 10 + 3 |
2025 FD PRO TOP 16 CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS
| POSITION | DRIVER | POINTS |
| 1 | Fredric Aasbo | 110 |
| 2 | James Deane | 100 |
| 3 | Hiroya Minowa | 80 |
| 4 | Jhonnattan Castro | 80 |
| 5 | Aurimas Bakchis | 80 |
| 6 | Branden Sorensen | 70 |
| 7 | Matt Field | 60 |
| 8 | Chris Forsberg | 50 |
| 9 | Adam LZ | 50 |
| 10 | Conor Shanahan | 40 |
| 11 | Ryan Tuerck | 40 |
| 12 | Dan Stuke | 32 |
| 13 | Rome Charpentier | 30 |
| 14 | Dylan Hughes | 30 |
| 15 | Ken Gushi | 30 |
| 16 | Derek Madison | 22 |
2025 AUTO CUP TOP 5 STANDINGS
| Toyota | 200 |
| Nissan | 172 |
| BMW | 130 |
| Ford | 119 |
| Chevrolet | 66 |
2025 TIRE CUP STANDINGS
| Kenda | 202 |
| GT Radial | 180 |
| Nitto | 170 |
| Kumho | 61 |
