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 BMW*
- Rome Charpentier – Garagistic / Pedal Commander E82 BMW*
- Jeff Jones – Evol Auto Works / Prisma Labs / BIG Drift Energy / Nissan 370Z*
- Margaritis Katsanidis – LS Doctor E46 BMW
- Kasey Kohl – Mspek Performance / ECU Master Nissan S14
- 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) – Evol Auto Works / Prisma Labs / BIG Drift Energy / Nissan 370Z
- Rome Charpentier (USA) – Garagistic / Pedal Commander E82 BMW
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
ABOUT SUPER DRIFT
- Super Drift Challenge is an invitational event. Competitors are drawn from the Formula DRIFT series but do not score points towards the PRO or PROSPEC Championships
- Formula DRIFT has a long history with the Grand Prix of Long Beach, dating back to 2005 when the series was invited to conduct an annual full-course drift demo for GP fans
- In 2012, Super Drift was introduced, offering a more traditional Formula DRIFT elimination competition format for spectators to enjoy
- In 2006, Formula DRIFT worked with Grand Prix of Long Beach to establish its own standalone Championship round using Turns 9 to 11
- Round 1 and Round 8 of the Formula DRIFT PRO Championship season takes place the weekend before the Grand Prix on the Streets of Long Beach. The course has become a mainstay of the annual eight-round Formula DRIFT calendar
- The series schedule, livestream, driver profiles, Championship standings, tickets info and more can be found at formulad.com
- Drifting is judged on a driver’s line through the course, angle in the turns, and style throughout the run. The chase car’s proximity to the lead car is also a crucial factor in tandem competition runs
