Deane leads Formula DRIFT Long Beach qualifying

A dramatic qualifying session for the opening round of the Formula DRIFT PRO Championship on the streets of Long Beach featured 33 drivers attempting to qualify for the Top 32 Competition places. One would be eliminated, and the axe fell on Rome Charpentier in the Garagistic/Pedal Commander/Coco Love/Kumho Tire/E36 BMW. He was unable to complete his first run and only scored after he only scored 48.3 points on his second.

The 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.

Second place went to fellow Irishman Shanahan in a BMW he built in 16 days and wasn’t sure it would even be ready in time. However, he scored 88.46 points on his second run to secure the position.

Third place went to Forsberg who showed the skills of a three-time Champion, possibly inspired by his new livery on his Nissan Z.

In fourth was Ryan Tuerck in the Rain-X Toyota GR Corolla. Not only was he celebrating his birthday, but Ryan also announced he’d be leaving the series at the end of the year and promised to push to the end.

Throughout the first run session, the lead was held by Deane’s teammate at RTR Motorsports, Ben Hobson who scored a dominant 86.26 points on his first run. However, a spin on his second outing meant he couldn’t improve and placed seventh overall.

The leading rookie was Cole Richards 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 and Nate Chen.

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. The PROSPEC Championship drivers voted to retain tandem Seeding Bracket qualification runs this season.

The 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.

To 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.

As a result, approximately 80% of a PRO driver’s qualifying score will be automated. The drivers’ drift line and car angle will be quantified and scored entirely by the UDSM system, helping to speed up the judging process. Driving style – the remaining 20% of the overall score – 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.

The 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.

UDSM will also provide a reliable deceleration pattern, which will build on the existing Formula DRIFT “Decel Lights” 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.

The 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.

During 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.

The top qualifier receives three championship points, while second place receives two, and third gets one point.

Watch all rounds of Formula DRIFT live on RACER Network, starting with Long Beach on Saturday, April 11 at 12:30pm ET.

FD PRO ROUND 1 TOP 16 QUALIFYING RESULTS