{"id":262401,"date":"2026-04-11T08:05:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-11T08:05:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/262401\/"},"modified":"2026-04-11T08:05:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-11T08:05:09","slug":"formula-drift-pro-championship-qualifying-results-from-round-1-in-long-beach","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/262401\/","title":{"rendered":"FORMULA DRIFT PRO CHAMPIONSHIP QUALIFYING RESULTS FROM ROUND 1 IN LONG BEACH"},"content":{"rendered":"

EVENT DETAILS<\/p>\n

Date: Friday, April 10, 2026
Location: Streets of Long Beach, Long Beach, CA
Event: Qualification for Formula DRIFT PRO Championship Round 1<\/p>\n

RESULTS FROM\u00a0FD PRO\u00a0QUALIFYING<\/p>\n

James Deane (Ireland) \u2013 O\u2019Reilly \/ Pennzoil Ford Mustang RTR Spec 5-FD
\nJack Shanahan (Ireland) \u2013 Pulsar Turbos E82 BMW
\nChris Forsberg (USA) \u2013 Destined Industries Nissan Z<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

PRO NOTES<\/p>\n

For the 2026 season, the Formula DRIFT PRO Championship is returning to solo qualifying runs following a vote by the drivers. Each driver gets two runs to set their best score
\nIt\u2019s worth noting that the PROSPEC Championship drivers voted to retain tandem Seeding Bracket qualification runs this season
\nThe running order for Qualifying is decided by the reverse of the Championship ranking. For Round One, the Rookie drivers went first with the 2025 Champion running last. For subsequent rounds, the order will be the reverse of the 2026 Championship standings
\nTo avoid solo qualifying runs creating any scheduling issues if they ran long on combined Championship weekends, Formula DRIFT decided to collaborate with Race Data Labs on its UDSM (Universal Drift Scoring Method) system. The telemetry and data system is able to automate the objective aspects of scoring individual qualifying runs to help control the scheduling
\nAs a result, approximately 80% of a PRO driver\u2019s Qualifying score will be automated. The drivers\u2019 drift Line and car Angle will be quantified and scored entirely by the UDSM system, helping to speed up the judging process. Driving Style \u2013 the remaining 20% of the overall score \u2013 is subject to nuance and requires human reasoning to apply categories not measured by UDSM, such as transition snap and stability, use of e-brake and left-foot braking, degree of difficulty and the aggregate effect. Subsequently, Style continues to be assessed and awarded by the existing panel of three Formula DRIFT judges
\nThe RDL systems will be incorporated into all competition cars for the entire weekend and will provide the same physical data to the judges to reference during competition. It will be able to objectively measure the proximity between vehicles, comparative angle between drivers, and comparative speed
\nUDSM will also provide a reliable deceleration pattern, which will build on the existing Formula DRIFT \u201cDecel Lights\u201d to detect deceleration and identify when deceleration has met a visual threshold. And in the case of collisions, it can provide data to help reveal which driver was at fault
\nThe system will also detect whether a driver puts one, two, three or even four tires off the prescribed course, making the scrutiny required to assess precise position far simpler
\nDuring Qualification, USDM is able to transmit data to the FD production truck, which then applies graphics both live and in replay. This makes the data accessible to new and veteran fans alike, helping them gain a better insight
\nWith 33 drivers attempting to qualify for the Top 32 Competition places, one would be eliminated, and unfortunately the axe fell on Rome Charpentier (USA) in the Garagistic \/ Pedal Commander \/\u00a0\u00a0Coco Love \/ Kumho Tire \/\u00a0\u00a0E36 BMW. He was unable to complete his first run and only scored\u00a0\u00a0after he only scored 48.3 points on his second
\nThe top qualifier was the reigning and five-time FD PRO Champion James Deane with a score of 89 points. As the top ranked driver from 2025, he ran last and claimed the lead on the final run of the session, bringing proceeding to a dramatic climax
\nSecond place went to fellow Irishman Shanahan in a BMW he built in 16 days and wasn\u2019t sure it would even be ready in time. However, he scored 88.46 points on his second run to secure the position
\nThird place went to Forsberg who showed the skills of a three-time Champion, possibly inspired by his new livery on his Nissan Z
\nIn fourth was Ryan Tuerck (USA) in the Rain-X Toyota GR Corolla. Not only was he celebrating his birthday, but Ryan also announced he\u2019d be leaving the series at the end of the year and promised to push to the end
\nThroughout the first run session, the lead was held by Deane\u2019s teammate at RTR Motorsports, Ben Hobson (USA) who scored a dominant 86.26 points on his first run. However, a spin on his second outing meant he couldn\u2019t improve and placed seventh overall
\nThe leading Rookie was Cole Richards (USA) driving the Richards Racing Toyota GT86. He scored 83.46 points, placing him seventh overall. He was one of the three leading PROSPEC drivers to graduate into the PRO Championship and is expected to battle hard for the 2026 Rookie of the Year award with the 2025 PROSPEC Champion Cody Buchanan (USA) and Nate Chen (USA)
\nThe top qualifier receives three Championship point, while second place receives two, and third gets one point<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

FD PRO ROUND 1 TOP 16 QUALIFYING RESULTS*<\/p>\n

POSITION
\nNAME
\nPOINTS<\/p>\n

1
\nJames Deane
\n3<\/p>\n

2
\nJack Shanahan
\n2<\/p>\n

3
\nChris Forsberg
\n1<\/p>\n

4
\nRyan Tuerck
\n0<\/p>\n

5
\nAdam LZ
\n0<\/p>\n

6
\nHiroya Minowa
\n0<\/p>\n

7
\nBen Hobson
\n0<\/p>\n

8
\nConor Shanahan
\n0<\/p>\n

9
\nSimen Olsen
\n0<\/p>\n

10
\nAurimas Bakchis
\n0<\/p>\n

11
\nFredric Aasbo
\n0<\/p>\n

12
\nCole Richards
\n0<\/p>\n

13
\nBranden Sorensen
\n0<\/p>\n

14
\nMatt Field
\n0<\/p>\n

15
\nJeff Jones
\n0<\/p>\n

16
\nDan Burkett
\n0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

TOP 32 COMPETITION BRACKET FOR ROUND 1<\/p>\n

*\u00a0Preliminary standings. Final results pending official confirmation<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"EVENT DETAILS Date: Friday, April 10, 2026Location: Streets of Long Beach, Long Beach, CAEvent: Qualification for Formula DRIFT…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":262402,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[131,133,132],"class_list":{"0":"post-262401","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-long-beach","8":"tag-long-beach","9":"tag-long-beach-headlines","10":"tag-long-beach-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/262401","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=262401"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/262401\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/262402"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=262401"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=262401"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=262401"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}